Well, I blew it. I said I wouldn't, and I held out for a while, but the siren's call just took me in.

Saturday night I painted a miniature, and worked on another. I know I said I wouldn't, and I hadn't really planned on it, but when silentrequiem arranged a craft and movie night… what was I to do? I don't have any pictures to show you, but I painted Khamul the Easterling (a ring-wraith), and the base colors on Suladan the Serpent Lord. Pictures forthcoming.

Mostly we watched The Simpsons, and I played some Lego Star Wars on Elspeth's Wii with Jay.

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Today Lucy did really well at both her dog school classes. Go monster!

Happy Birthday ywingempress!!

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What a weekend! First off there was Ground Zero Games East Coast Convention up in Lancaster, just about 10 minutes from where my aunt lives. One of the big things that I was most interested in was a Full Thrust (starship combat) tournament.

At the same time there was the Dungeons and Dragons Experience (where D&D4e is being previewed) down in Richmond. D&D 4th Edition!! And from the little I've managed to read about it (Wizards has been keeping it really under wraps) I'm actually getting excited about it. It seems to address a number of core issues that D&D has always suffered from. When the Players Handbook is released I may just have to pick it up.

It would have been nice to go to either. My cousin Cory and I are making plans to go to GZG ECC next year though!

Friday night after work was an agility practice at the building. We've been working on jumps and weave poles. We're working on jumps because Lucy jumps kind of flat, and tends to knock the bar with her back legs. This is due to a combination of factors. She's a little lazy and doesn't care if she knocks down the bars (more noise & action!), and she isn't as aware of her hind end as she should be. And she should be very aware, given the amount of farting she does.

Saturday morning was tracking for Tigs and Lucy, while I wrapped up all the stuff I sold on e-bay and went to the post office, and then went to work to pull some overtime. Then once we regrouped at the townhouse we headed off to Frederick for the first time in months. First stop was Brainstorm Comics. I picked up our box, flipped through the last 4 or 5 issues of White Dwarf (of which I only decided to buy one) checked out some of the preview D&D4e stuff. Then we headed down to Two Paws Up where we picked up a 6' leash for rally along with more poop bags and some more dog food. From there we walked over to Ten Thousand Joys where we picked up some incense and a candle designed to cleanse and renew, which we plan to burn in the new house. Something about a nasty divorce that kinda needs to be burned away.

We then continued on to The Trail House. Tigs got another pair of the socks that she has fallen in love with. Out front of the store was a troop of Girl Scouts selling cookies. $7 for 2 boxes of cookies was enough to get by them unscathed. We then headed back up Market street passing by the pizza shop that has some of the best pizza I've ever had. They're a pizza and pretzel shop, which may seem like an odd combination, but let me tell you that when pretzel dough is used for pizzas it's wonderful! Delicious! And it was impossible not to get a small pizza to share. Lucy didn't get any. We then walked back toward 2 Paws Up (because that's where we were parked) and stopped back in. I've mentioned before that Frederick does a first Saturday event every month. This month was "around the world in 15 blocks." 2 Paws Up was celebrating Italy, and so had wine, cheese & crackers, grapes, and puff pastry. We sampled and then headed home.

Sunday there was a rally show n' go down in Beltsville, which started around 10, and went for several hours. Novice dogs were last, so we got to hang out till around 2. Luckily a number of our friends from our dog club were also there, and I got some reading in during all that waiting. On the other side, the judge for the show n' go was rude to just about everyone from our club. The judge said that Lucy was too slow.
...
What?!?!

Monday morning… I was about 7 or 8 minutes away from work when I got a call on my cell phone from Tigs. Her check engine light had started flashing, and the car started running extremely rough. She pulled over and shut off the car. I arrived about 30 minutes later, and we called AAA for a tow to the (new) local Kia dealership. We then walked next door to Enterprise to secure some transportation for Tigs. They gave her a Ford Edge. For those unfamiliar with this model, it is a massive SUV designed to carry a couple head of cattle from the field to the vets a single rich person short distances on paved roads with no concern about gas mileage. That evening she swapped it out for a Jetta.

The car itself broke because one of the coil packs (the thing that makes the spark plugs fire in the proper pattern) failed. Thankfully the car is still completely covered under warranty, and this is a relatively simple replacement. So they ordered the part with overnight delivery. Unfortunately it turns out that the part is on back order. It would have been nice if when the order was placed that the warehouse let the dealership know that!! So now the Kia regional manager is involved, and it's going to be at least 1 more day before it gets fixed.

Monday night brought rally class, which Lucy felt was not nearly interesting or fast enough. Then agility class in which she did very well, though she still needs to work on jumps. There was even a minimum of herding activity (nipping)!

Tonight… well, we were going to go get the car, but clearly that isn't happening.

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Gary Gygax, the father of role playing games has ended his adventure on this plane of existence. A sad day for geeks everywhere. Next time you roll a d20, think of him.

I tossed a very simple chili into the crock pot this morning. It's just beans, tomato and seasoning. I turned it on low, and left for work. It should make a filling, long lasting series of meals. Tonight for dinner I had a bowl, and it was yummy. Not as good as it is with all the other stuff in it, but still warm and filling. Goal accomplished!

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I've been meaning to write about agility, but I keep getting sidetracked. Mostly I've been the one working in class with Lucy for agility, while Tigs has been focusing on the obedience/rally & tracking side of things.

Lucy is a very driven dog and not the most patient either. Start line stays (when you sit or down the dog prior to beginning your run) are a struggle, and she isn't the most forgiving of any mistakes or breakdowns in communication on my part. If I am not giving her the direction she's looking for she tends to react in one of two ways: she either nips at my pants, or she runs off to do her own thing. Mind you, this is entirely my fault as the handler, and simple little mistakes can turn into big misunderstandings in the ring. Body position is a big deal. For instance, I have a tendency to stoop slightly when giving Lucy commands, (I'm not entirely sure why) but Lucy responds better to me when I stand (or run) with my back straight. Slight changes to how I hold out my arms can change the direction Lucy will go in, and I have to keep talking to her and directing her (not exactly easy when running at the speeds Lucy goes) otherwise we run into the nipping issue.

The thing about all that, is that I'm learning. I can actually see progress! On my end!

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I managed to see the eclipse last night. I didn't think I would, because it had been snowing up until I went into class at 6. But when I got out at a little after 9, the sky had completely cleared. It was great!

Of course its supposed to snow again tonight, and then turn into sleet and freezing rain tomorrow. Ah well, I guess it still is winter.

T'was the night before Halloween, and all through the house, all the creatures were stirring, though we don't have a mouse. The dog is crying under the guinea pig cage, while cackles of glee from the hamster tank ring.

I must admit, it's only just beginning to feel like fall. Halloween should still be a month away, not that it matters too much. I have both work and school, so won't be participating in any real way. I feel kinda bad about that. Halloween has always been my favorite holiday, and aside from a bunch of candy that has suddenly appeared in the house, nothing else worth noting.

Agility tonight was a mixed bag. At the beginning Lucy just wasn't interested in anything I said to her, and we had to repeat her start line stays a couple of time. By the end of it though she started to really pay attention, and I got my timing mostly right, so it was actually pretty good.

I'm going to leave off with this link to a radio broadcast from 69 years ago.

Current (realistic) hobby project list (listed in priority order by category):

To Paint:
Imperial Battleship – In progress
Ork capital ships - Primed
Planetary defense stations - Primed

To Model:
Removable bases for various ships – supplies needed!
Chaos planetary defenses – Need plasticard
Chaos Battleship – Need plasticard
Starfort – Need plasticard
Magnetize weapon slots on Imperial Battleship – I think I have everything I need for this

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I’m going to a preliminary “Meet and Greet” style interview tomorrow after work up in White Marsh. I don’t yet qualify for any of the positions I’m interested in, but I will in May. The most awesome thing would be for them to say “That’s ok, keep going to school, we’ll hire you anyway!” I’m not sure how realistic that is, but really, how fantastic would that be? My resume is all updated, and I can't wait 'til tomorrow!!

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Also, Lucy was v. embarrassing tonight in class. Sigh.

I gave you a picture of a puppy. I gave you food porn. I even gave you painted miniatures. What does it take to get comments out of you people?!? Sheesh!

Anyway, I’m skipping my Business Management class tonight in order to take Lucy to her Rally class, and then pick Tigs up from BWI. You can see where my priorities fall. Oh, and there’s a test tonight that I’m skipping too. I actually went on Saturday morning to take it at the testing center on campus before taking Lucy out on a hike, but the professor hadn’t gotten it to the testing center, so I couldn’t. Maybe on Wednesday before my accounting class?

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I survived rally. I had to ask a bunch of questions, and Lucymonster paid me little attention. And now I'm off to pick up tigergladys from BWI...

I feel bad though. You know how I was sick last week? Well, it seems I shared the germs just in time for her to get sick this weekend.

Timing is everything.

Now, I need to get moving so that I'm actually at BWI for her arrival!

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A chocolate chip cookie whoever can correctly and completely identify the quote that is the subject line!

1. Have you ever been pulled over? How many times? I’ve been pulled over a couple of time for speeding, and driving with an expired registration.

2. What are you most likely to be pulled over for? (Speeding? Reckless driving? Expired tags/inspection? Bad signal/headlight?) In the future? Probably something stupid like a bad signal.

3. You're driving along on your merry way when you see a police car. What is your first thought? I check the speed I’m going.

4. When you see a cop car, do you hit your brakes or keep your foot on the gas? I keep my foot on the gas. Maybe let up on it a bit, depending on how fast I’m going.

5. What's your personal speed limit? How do you determine what it is for any given road? Usually around 5mph over the listed speed limit. This of course depends on how much over the limit everyone else is going.

6. What’s something you suspect you regularly overpay for? Car insurance.

7. What’s something you suspect you regularly underpay for?

8. What’s taking up more of your time than it should? The leasing office

9. What’s causing you stress only because you let it? Life.

10. If all your karma were based on your positive and negative attitudes, would it be in good shape, in bad shape, or perfectly in balance? It would be in good shape, but it would need a little work.

11. If you were a full course meal what would you be?
soup: French Onion
salad: Caesar
meat: Roast Pork
dessert: Pumpkin Pie with Vanilla Ica Cream!
beverage: Spiced Apple Cider

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Over the weekend tigergladys and I spend a couple of hours each day painting agility equipment at the club. Each day we went early and met up with the owners of another puppy named Tonks, and we gave the puppies the chance to play with each other. It went really well, they really liked each other, and they tired themselves out with greater ease and pleasure then we could do. The best part was that they offered to take Lucy during the day over the next couple of weeks, rather then us putting her into doggie daycare at Petco or the vets office.

Tuesday was Lucy’s first time spending the day not at home and not with us since we got her. She loved it, and now seems to love us less. She also came home completely exhausted. We needed to make a quick trip to Trader Joe's, and because she didn’t even get off the couch as we were leaving we decided to not lock her in the kitchen. When we got home, she had moved to the floor, but that was it. She was so exhausted I had to carry her upstairs at bedtime. She was ready to sleep on the couch rather then move!

As most of you know Friday we got a letter from the leasing office letting us know that they would be doing inspections of the property between the 4th and the 14th. With the arrival of the letter I contacted the bank where we got our car loan about getting pre-approved for a mortgage, and Tuesday we heard back. We’re pre-approved for $190,000, which depending on where we look can get us a fair house. That is of course, more then we can currently afford, though by the time Spring rolls around I should be making significantly more. So now it’s time to contact a realtor, and get ourselves into our own house!

In addition to painting, finding some place for Lucy to go for the next 2 weeks, and calling the bank, we spent a whole lot of time cleaning. It’s probably one of the top 3 cleanest the house has been since we moved in. It’s kind of nice having it all clean, but having to keep it clean for the inspections is a pain.

I finished the game of Galactic Civilizations that I was playing before. I won through cultural domination of the galaxy. It happened rather quickly too. I think I’m going to go for a variety of game styles as I go along, including an alliance/diplomatic victory, a military victory, and a technological victory, just to see how the game plays differently while attempting those styles. I have however discovered that trying to ally with some of the minor civilizations isn’t all that great an idea. It doesn’t work all that well.

I don’t know if it’s because of playing Galactic Civ that I’m also in the mood to work on my Battlefleet Gothic stuff, or I’ve been playing Galactic Civ because I’m in a sci-fi mood. And I don’t just want to paint them, but I want to do some converting and even some scratch building! Of course all this desire will come to very little. There is too much else going on that needs to be taken care of right now, and many other projects that have a significantly higher priority. Besides, I need more storage for my painted minis. I can keep the unpainted ones in ziplock bags, but ones that I’ve actually finished (and want to keep) need someplace safe to go.

Speaking of higher priority, Wednesday night was accounting. 201 seems to be more about theory and a deeper understanding of why we did all of the things we did in 101 and 102. The professor has stated a couple of times now that it’s not a bookkeeping course, it’s about understanding why you do bookkeeping the way you do. This is, as far as I’m concerned, a great thing. I love theory. Everything works and makes sense, in theory. We’ll see if theory matches reality in this case.

Thursday was payday, so we went to the bank, then came home and watched some TV.

Friday I took off to take Lucy to the vet. She was about due for her rabies vaccination. Her appointment was at 8:30, so up early we headed off. Lucy, thinking we were going to see her friend Tonks again was thrilled to get in the car, but when we hadn’t arrived after about 20 minutes she started to get a little upset with me. She eventually settled down, and just watched out the windows as we drove along. Things went fine at the vets, and he complimented Lucy on how beautiful she was. I agreed, saying she was a pretty girl. He then said that, yes, she is pretty, but he was talking about her personality.

Once we finished up at the vets I took Lucy off on a house hunt. I had found an online listing for a house from 1850 with over an acre of land for a mere $119,000. Ok, it is out in the middle of nowhere, but I’m willing to do the long commute thing for a house at that price. Anyway, we eventually found it (I forgot to print directions, and only had the printable flyer from the web) and it was awful. It was built in the 1850s, maybe updated once in the 1950s, and apparently by midgets who hate windows. Standing on the porch I could hit my head on the ceiling by standing on my toes. The sides of the house each had only one window. The front had 5. The sheds and barn on the land were kinda cool, though also needed some structural work. All in all it was a little disappointing, but not really surprising. Also it is right next to a quarry. That’s what that big white thing is on the map. It’s in a great little town though. Shame.

We then rode back to Frederick , swung by Two Paws Up and Brainstorm Comics, and then onto the park to relax, enjoy lunch, and get some homework done. We succeeded in the first two, and then Lucy started to feel the vaccines. On top of that the day was getting rather hot by this point, so we packed up and headed to the dog club building to get out of the sun. In spite of not feeling all that great Lucy really wanted to play, so again, not a lot of homework got done. Around 4 we headed home, and spent the rest of the night vegging out.

That was all last week. Tomorrow (maybe) I'll post about this past week.

We visited a new park this weekend, Oregon Ridge State Park . I’m not entirely clear on how we missed this one in the book, considering how often we’ve referenced it, but it is a beautiful hike. At a little over 4 miles, mostly in shade, and of moderate difficulty (aka not really flat, but the inclines aren’t too bad) it was a good workout. Plus at the end is a beach! Now the neat thing about that is the beach has an entry fee, but if you hike your way into the park along the trails, you can get to the it without having to go through the gate. Maybe they figure that if you are willing to hike a couple of miles you deserve to swim free? The only downside to the beach is that they don’t allow puppy swimming.

After our hike we headed over to Gaer's for the Craft and Movie Night. None of us were in the mood for anything too angsty, so we watched I.Q., 9 to 5, and a couple of episodes of Dougie Howser MD. Tigs and I sewed up some dog toys that Lucy had unstuffed to various degrees. Tigs also worked on her latest cross stitch project. Gaer knitted, and changed outfits a couple of times, and I painted the elementals. Pictures to be taken tonight (maybe). Commentary on them when I post the pictures.

Sunday we headed out to Ikea for breakfast, and to look for a new TV stand. The one we bought last year just isn’t holding up to the weight of our hefty TV. It was (we discovered after we bought it) designed for a flat panel TV, rather then our big ol’ CRT, and now it is bowing. Plus the open bottom allowed the Monster to chew on the AV cords and a controller for the N64. We were successful both in obtaining breakfast and the TV stand.

While we were in White Marsh we also decided to swing across the street and hit Games Workshop. I wanted to take a look at the new terrain pieces they’ve come up with. The one I was most interested in was a new forest piece, but I was disappointed by. In person I felt it looked too plastic, and that it was something I could do myself to far better effect.

Next we popped over to AC Moors and I got some new t-shirts for work. I love it when they go on sale. Plain colored t-shirts for $2 each! Can’t beat that. Then we went home, and I got to work on my take home test for accounting.

The test itself wasn’t that bad. It had only 25 multiple choice questions, so it went quickly. There was only one problem that gave me any real pause. it was written in such a way that it required you to make a whole bunch of assumptions in order to be able to solve it. After getting it wrong, then thinking that there wasn’t a right answer, then getting an idea of how to solve it, I finally figured out the correct answer, and the correct way to solve for it. Once I finished with the test I moved onto the homework, and did about 3 hours more work.

Monday was work, then class. After the class had been dismissed, I stayed after to talk with the professor both about the test and about the homework. It seems in spite of the stress I’ve been feeling that I’m actually getting this. It’s always nice to have someone tell you that you are on the right track!

Yesterday was a long day. After work we had puppy classes. That’s right, plural. It was the last night of our agility class, and then immediately after it was the first class of her advanced basic obedience class. For those of you not keeping track at home, that’s 2 and a half hours of class, for a 1 year old puppy. We decided to split the duties:I would handle her for the agility class, and Tigs would take her for obedience.

In agility we started off by reviewing all the basic skills we learned in the first couple of weeks, and then moved on to a new skill, teaching her to go out ahead of us. Lucy did pretty well at that, though when I yelled at her (as we were running) to “GO!!” she did look back at me questioning what it was I was saying. We did that a couple of times, which Lucy absolutely loved. After that we set up a course of 8 obstacles (tire, A frame, jump, tunnel, 3 more jumps, and shoot) and we were timed and scored while going through. I admit the addition of the time certainly made it a little more exciting, but mostly I just wanted to make sure would Lucy actually run the course and not just run around like a crazy puppy. So before we ran I made sure to put her target at the base of the A frame (to make sure she paused at the bottom of it) and adjusted the tire height down to her jump level. Then we ran. It was a great run, in spite of her knocking a bar off the first jump. She hit the target perfectly, listened to my commands, and was fast!! This is the first time we’ve ever done that many obstacles in a row! At the end, because of the placement of the 3 jumps and the shoot, and her running ahead I wasn’t at the end of the shoot to catch her, and being all excited as she was I could see the “WHATS NEXT?!?!” look in her eye. Knowing that if I didn’t give her something to do THAT INSTANT she would probably take off, I told her to run with me to go get the target back at the base of the A frame. We got there at the same time, I praised her, caught her, and gave her treats.

After that we headed next door to where the obedience class was going to be held. The teacher for obedience is the same one we had for the puppy obedience class we took, and Lucy absolutely LOVES her! There was some serious full body wiggling going on. I think that Lucy will really enjoy working obedience again. As much as she has fun doing agility, she seems to like obedience a little bit more. Probably because she gets to be more active, as she doesn’t have to wait for the other dogs to use the equipment.

Once class was finished we headed home, and made ourselves dinner. Lucy was really tired and got very annoyed with us for switching rooms. We kept going back and forth from the living room to the kitchen, and she would always come with us.

Today I actually don’t have class. The professor has an event tonight that she has to go to, and she didn’t think she’d be back in time for class. So I’ll take an hour or two tonight to do some more work on my project and do some more reading. We’ll probably also head to one of the pet stores, as it’s time for another water test for the fish tank. This week we lost Oscar the algae eater, 1 of only 2 fish that we’ve actually named. The neons are more of a hive group then individuals, and I’ve been thinking of the guppies as a matched pair, kind of like the Bynars. We think he may have been trying to clean the intake of the filter and gotten stuck, but we’re not sure. On top of that I also changed some of the water in the tank, so it’s time to test again. The snail we got (labeled “mysterious black snail”) is a whole lot of fun to watch. In addition to hitting Petco we’ll probably also hit the Target that’s in the same plaza, as there are a number of little things we need from there.

Lastly, tigergladys made me this icon a while back, and I wanted to share it with you!

Five on Friday – Tuesday Edition
If you're out shopping and hear a baby cry, what's your first thought? It’s not mine!

Are the passengers in your car required to buckle their seat belts regardless of age? Required? No, strongly encouraged.

Do you ever feel the need to clean/straighten your loved ones? With your own spit? No. Tigs does this to Lucy though.

Some people are described as having "a face only a mother could love." What people or things in your life do you love unconditionally? I love Lucy and Priya unconditionally, the same way I’ve loved all my pets. You have to love them unconditionally, because you are responsible for them completely.

In what ways are you like your mother? What habits, catch phrases, and tricks have you picked up from her? I’ve picked up a whole lot from my mother, and am still discovering tidbits that I didn’t even know I knew.

We’re buying you a lifetime subscription to any magazine or periodical journal you want! What’ll it be? Maybe Wargames Illustrated? I don’t really know, as I don’t get any magazines currently that I would want a lifetime subscription.

We’re buying you any existing non-chain, one-location-only store and giving you an expert lifetime manager, so that all you have to do is make decisions and watch them succeed or fail! What will be the store, and what will be your first change? Maybe the Book Barn, and I’d put hazelnut coffee back in the haunted house.

We’re buying you any house within a one-mile radius of your own! Which one do you want, and why? Probably one of the ones down Dogwood road, as they are almost rural, have some actual space around them, and are bigger then the one we are currently in.

We’re hiring someone to take care of any ONE specific household chore (except cooking) for the rest of your life! Which chore will he or she attend to? Dishes.

We’re providing the start-up capital for any crazy idea for a business, service, or product you can dream up, giving you total creative control while we finance your dream for five years, after which it must fail or succeed on its own merit! What will it be? A hobby/craft/gaming store that is a cross between The Whiz and That’s Entertainment. Or The Book Barn: Mid-Atlantic branch.

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This past weekend as a blast! Saturday I headed up to the Central PA Hirst Arts Gathering. It was a smallish group (5 total) but I got to meet some fellow Hirst Arts fans, play test a game for the first time, discuss plaster and casting techniques, and even got to cast some of the sci-fi molds! It’s the first time I’ve put plaster to mold for over a year now, and I enjoyed it more then I should have. I must admit I felt like a bit of a noob, which is weird for me. All of these guys have carved their own bricks, made their own molds, and have done successfully more with the hobby then I’ve even attempted. I’m feeling very inspired by it all, and with some luck I’ll be able to channel the inspiration into miniature painting, as that’s my primary hobby outlet at the moment.

Sunday we ended up skipping the BWI trail and going back to the Robert E Lee park again. Tigs and Lucy were still rather tuckered out from their excursion to Frederick the previous day. Once again Lucy went swimming, and this time I filmed some videos of her doing it. They should be up on the hamster journal later tonight.

Tonight we are going to visit the Petsmart dog daycare to see about bringing Lucy during Balticon. I can’t believe Balticon is 10 days away. I hope they get their schedule up soon.

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Edited to Add

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Yesterday was a little frustrating. Tigs and I finally found a day camp that was open Memorial Day weekend to bring Lucy to, and rather then tell us on the phone that they were already booked up; we had to drive all the way down to Columbia to find out! On the other hand at least we now have all their info, including pricing.

Today has been so slow. I’ve gotten a lot of work done, but it just hasn’t helped. My mind keeps wandering, and when it comes back I find that only a minute or two has gone by, and yet it feels like an hour should have gone by.

Tonight is Lucy’s agility class, and last night her school finally posted their summer schedule. What we take will greatly depend on whether we are actually members yet or not. If we are, then there are two classes we want to sign up for, and if not, then we’ll just stick with advanced basic obedience with the canine good citizen test at the end. (The other class is focus & attention for obedience.)

Speaking of classes, mine start in 3 weeks! I’m really excited about it, even though it’s going to be a major distraction to the rest of my life. I mean it’s 2 nights a week in class, plus homework… Mostly I hope they don’t have too much that is assigned on Monday that’ll be due on Wednesday. I just need to keep reminding myself that this is all a series of stupid hoops that I need to jump through in order to advance my pay scale. Cause really, this is all about the money.

The other night (Tuesday night) I was playing “Rain, rain, go away” which is a simple little tune, and I can play it without screwing up too often. However the duet part that the teacher would play along with the student was shown. I figured out how to play that too, but then when I tried to play them together… well, it didn’t work out so well. I can’t seem to get my hands to do different things at the same time. I can’t even get started without screwing up. The main song starts out; half note, half note, quarter, quarter, half. The duet part is all quarter notes. All in 4/4 time. It shouldn’t be that hard, but it is. *sigh* Maybe if I try just getting my hands to get the timing down, without worrying about playing a song. Worth a try anyway.

Puppy class went well. Lucy wasn’t too embarrassing, except for the time she got away from me and decided to run a lap around the instructor before I could snag her again. That incident was quickly forgotten when Lucy and Hiker were playing with each other and got their collars stuck together. That incident was also quickly forgotten when during an exercise where we exchanged dogs one of the women there got bashed in the face by the dog she was holding (not Lucy) and got a little bloody nose! It was purely an accident, the dog just jumped up when she bent down, but I felt how embarrassed the dogs owner was. She just put her face in her hands and looked horrified. The woman who got the bloody nose was totally fine about it, and gave the impression that her puppy had done that (or something similar) to her before.

Next week is the last class. We are working on “paw” and “touch” as the tricks to show off. She has “touch” down pat, but “paw” still requires a bit of hopping. Last night for instance when I asked her for her paw she looked confused at me, lifted both front paws up, waved them, and then stuck one of them into my hand, all while looking at me with an expression of “How do I do this?!?” on her face.

On schedule for tonight is calling the car insurance company and the credit card company and seeing if they would be so kind as to lower the rates for us. Aside from that, no big plans.

According to weather.com Saturday is supposed to hit almost 70 degrees. This is very reminiscent of last year about this time when Tigs and I traveled down from New England looking for a place to live, and the weather was unseasonably warm. The same thing happened in March when we again came down. I wonder if it will again be an warmer then usual winter. Over the next 10 days it isn’t even supposed to get below freezing, and most nights it wont even get down into the 30’s!! The average temperature this time of year is a high in the low 40’s and a low in the low 20’s.

There is one thing that global warming is doing for us. It’s keeping our heating bills down!

Oh, I know what I’ve been meaning to write about, a gift I got from Eric. I had to wait a while for this one, as the post office… well, lets just say the post office has been a real pain in the ass this holiday season. Their hours are exactly wrong to be able to go there any day of the week other then Saturday. Anyway, the Saturday after Christmas I went and picked up this long skinny package. I got it home, opened it up, and… well… ( see for yourself! )

( And because I’ve been talking about it )

And can I just say how depressing it is seeing people post their first 10 books of '07 in 50bookchallenge already. *Sigh* I've only finished one, and it was one I started last year!

And while I'm posting pictures...( my painting desk! )

Taking some time out of my busy workday to write a little bit for good old El-Jay. First off, Happy New Year! So far it’s looking like it’ll continue the trend started last year and be a good one, though that’s really hard to judge from just a couple of days. Anyway, here’s hoping that it’s a good one.

On New Years Eve Tigs and I spent between 10 and 2 working up in the craft room. It had quickly become less of a “craft” room and far more of a “stick stuff in there that we aren’t currently using” room. We sorted through our comic collection, which freed up about a short box worth of space. As we put the books back into their boxes we also labeled the boxes, and put the ones with the inactive titles (all my crossgen titles) at the bottom of the pile.

We also did some other general cleaning and organizing. My craft table actually began to have some space where I could sit at it! In looking at what little actual surface space is available on it, we discussed getting a paint rack to put on it. Something that rotates, and holds all the different colors, or at least all the ones I use regularly. Then I can just take some time, even if it’s just 15 minutes to sit down and do some painting, rather then having to take the time to pull out all my paints and set up a place to work. It’ll already be set up so I can just sit and paint!

Even better then getting all the cleaning and sorting done was the fact that Lucy was so freaked out by the whole thing! You should have seen her when we had the comics all spread out and in piles. She had such worried ears.

Later we were invited to Elspeth’s for a party. It always amazes me how closely rural and urban areas can be to one another. Elspeth’s house definitely falls into the rural category, and was a little hard to find. We eventually made it, and then immediately left to go grab some food at a Mexican restaurant. It was good, if somewhat pricey. Utilizing our mad-powerful money skillz we shared a plate of chicken quesadillas, rice, and beans. Have to say it was really good! After that we returned to Elspeth’s house ate some more yummy food including some of Gaer’s famous apple bread, and then went and played Scene It and Karaoke Revolution. We flipped on Dick Clark at about 3 minutes before the ball dropped, and counted down the last 10 seconds, cheered, toasted I kissed Tigs, and then the game was back on! I sang a decent version of Red Red Wine, and sang backup on a number of other songs. We left around 1, and went straight to bed.

New Years Day itself was spent mostly relaxing on the couch, watching the first disk of Scrubs season 3 and the 4th & 5th disk of season 5 of The West Wing. I (while watching) sorted miniatures. Mostly this was unboxing the minis, bagging them in ziplock bags and putting them all in a box. It’s amazing how much space packaging takes up! This freed up even more space and gave me a good idea of what minis I actually have. Now if only I had somewhere to display the ones I finish! Next house… I found a book an Amazon about sculpting that I want to get. I feel like I need some more direction, I need projects, examples, step by step instructions. I need practice doing simpler things then 28mm Space Marines.

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End of the day. So close to being done with the files it hurts. I ran out of the colored files with the labels that I made. I’m short by 4 sets. I’ll be able to whip those up first thing in the morning though. I already have the labels, and the files, I just need to put them all together.

Tonight is puppy class. Actually tonight is the second to last puppy class. I think we find out what the final exam is. Doesn’t matter too much, she can do just about all of it, she just needs more practice doing it in front of the other puppies. On top of that, we start the basic class on the 16th so there isn’t even a week break between classes!

Hi everyone! Long time no update. Sorry about that. I haven’t been spending much (if any) time on the computer at home, and work has been actually busy. I feel a little bad about it, but then I also haven’t gotten any frantic comments or calls asking if I’m ok. So I guess it’s update time!

Work
I am still working at the help desk though Kelly. I actually worked Sunday which was incredibly slow (I think I took 8 calls the whole day) to make up for missing time on Monday and Thursday. I’ll also be working this Saturday in order to get a little overtime. There are some upsides to how slow working the weekend is, all the extra reading time! There wasn’t anything else to do, so I finished one book, and made it half way through another.

Future Work?
So far this month I’ve interviewed at a marketing company (joke interview), Good Samaritan Hospital, Games Workshop, and I have another interview with the city tourism organization Monday morning. Now I love these interviews, they’re great, and it’s all very exciting. The downside to them is that I have to miss work to go to them, and then I have to wait to hear anything. I’ve heard from Games Workshop, and they just can’t offer me the money I’d need, (they offered me less than I am currently making as a temp...how sad is that?) however I’ve put in another application for an accounting position, so we’ll see how that goes.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed, as there are a number of jobs that are out there that offer what I’m looking for. Now I just need one to come through for me…

Home
Have any of you heard about this?!? This is the reason both Tigs and I want an old farmhouse on a couple of acres where no one can come and tell us “No grills on your back porch” or “Your blinds must be white” or “No satanic peace signs.” Seriously why would anyone agree be part of a “community” where they can tell you what to do with the home you OWN!! If you want people to tell you what you can and can not do to your own home, why not just rent?!?

Six Feet Under
Just like writergrl, tigergladys and I finished watching the series finale last night. I thought that Sex and the City was the perfect series finale, but SFU nudged the bar just that much higher. I wish there was a Star Trek series... or even just a solid sci-fi series that HBO would take on. Given the freedom, I think there would be some really strong tales that could be told.

Puppy
We've got Sit solidly understood. Down and Stand are still very iffy. The puppy class is fun, and I think it's helping her with socialization more than learning commands. That's ok, the commands will come with time. tigergladys has been extremely diligent working with Lucy, and it shows.

Thanksgiving
The holiday was spent at my Aunt Kim's house. Lots of cooking, lots of playing with the puppy, and generally a good time (except for Tigs almost choking to death)... now if only we hadn't needed to work on Friday...