HoundBlog

Last day of the month and it’s FREEZING right now. I hate having to put the dogs out when it’s this cold, but I have to go to work and leaving them crated all day when it’s supposed to get up into the 60’s just seems too restrictive. I must console myself with the knowledge that it will get warmer once the sun comes up.

I’m ready for spring, but know we have 6 more weeks of winter no matter what the groundhog says.

I did not have lunch with Lee yesterday. Sandra’s daughter chose yesterday to have her baby, so Sandra was out with her and Lee and I decided to wait for her to get back to work to meet so we could all enjoy a celebratory lunch.  Sandra has been so excited about this baby! I can’t wait to hear all about it.

I’m still working out the script in my head of the golf commercial we are to film this weekend. I’m trying to find knickers and a tam :p — after all, the costuming should be appropriate, don’t you think?

Have a great day! I’m off to send dogs out into the cold.

Love to all,

Margaret

Good morning! Hope everyone is doing well this morning! Ma – I hope you are all rested up from defrosting the freezer!

Oh — and thanks for letting us know about Nancye. I’m glad she’s doing well and am keeping her in my prayers. Do tell her that, OK?

Ken got his golf club Monday and boy is he ever impressed with it! It’s got this HUGE head on it (I don’t think I’ve ever seen a club head that large!) and a really long shaft. According to the website, this is supposed to give you long, low drives. We are planning on creating the first commercial Sunday as the weather is supposed to be in the 60’s and cloudy which should be good for taping. I’ve got the beginnings of a scenario rolling around in my head and need to get it down on paper and get some blocking (that’s theater talk for moving the actors around on the stage) down. I’ve even been toying with production company names 😆 — the first I though of was Howling Hound Productions, but then I also thought of Laughing Parrot Productions. Which one do you think is best? Or do you have another suggestion?

I looked over to the side over there and realized that I haven’t written a poem in a really long time. I really need to take some time out from all the other pies I have fingers in and wet a finger in that one.

Going to have lunch with Lee today and I think Sandra is coming along, too. Don’t know yet where we’ll be eating, but have to make up my mind pretty soon so I can let Lee know.

Well, I suppose I’ve rambled on enough. I sure hope you have a good day!

Love to all,

Margaret

Good morning! It’s Tuesday and I’m here in Greenville instead of working from home. They’re having a blood drive here today and I thought it was important for me to participate, so here I am.

I’m having some trouble using my laptop as my work station as there are still some issues with how it’s configured. I’m not able to run my IIS reports nor am I able to run Reporting Services, so will have to have Carlos work on those issues today. It’s very frustrating for me to not be able to come in and get those things done that need to be taken care of first thing in the morning.

Well, I hear Carlos, so I had best grab him before he gets off on other tasks this morning.

Love to all,

Margaret

Sorry for no post yesterday. It was a busy day between showing, packing to leave and driving home, then the normal stuff once you get home.

This photo is of Tigger and Butterfly as they ride in the back seat of Ken’s truck. They are PC’s as the other dogs have to ride in crates in the camper.

Once we get to a show site, we have to set up both the outside and inside of the camper. The wire pens are for the dogs to potty in. Butterfly is such an “old hand” at showing, she will jump out of the camper and let herself in a pen, then jump back into the camper when she’s done.

Inside the camper, we’ve given over the dining area to house crates for the dogs. When we want to eat, we bring in a table and set it up between the two chairs and the couch. If we have company, there’s enough room to bring in folding chairs for company to sit on, but we don’t often have company. The dogs seem to like this arrangement. Tigger gets the taj mahal crate which he needs and Butterfly gets the more cozy crate on the bottom next to it.

We had a really big day yesterday, too! Ken and Tigger brought home the big win by going Best of Opposite sex to pull off a 3 point major  — the first of the two Tigger needs to finish his championship. Along with the 3 singles he already had, he now has 6 of the required 15 points, so is technically half way there. Ken floated home 😆

Well, I need to start getting ready for work. Have a great day everyone!

Love to all,

Margaret

Good evening everyone! It’s really late for me to be posting, but I did promise to post during the weekend and this has been my first opportunity today.

We did fairly well today at the show. Tigger was Reserve Winners Dog, Butterfly was third in a pretty large class and Payne was Reserve Winners Bitch. Not a bad showing all together.

I was asked to steward when I finished showing Payne, so spent the next couple of hours stewarding for a very nice lady who seemed to know her stuff (at least she picked the same dogs I did 😆 ). Too bad she doesn’t judge Whippets or Cresteds 🙁

When I finished, Ken and I went to find some lunch and do a bit of shopping. We had some so-so Chinese for lunch, ran into Wal-Mart for the items we needed, took those back to the camper, let dogs out to potty, then went over to John & Pams for a few hours. When we left there, we stopped by to say hello to Patrick who was at work. Boy! He sure has grown!

We came home, fed the dogs then went to find us something to eat. Had to wait nearly 40 minutes for a table, but the food was really good, so I guess it was worth the wait. Came back home and I had to bathe Payne for tomorrow. Remind me to not get another long coated dog to show! There’s too much grooming! 😉

Well, it’s nearly 11:00 pm and I need to get in bed. We have an 8:00 ring time in the morning and Ken will want breakfast before we show, so we’ll have to be up by 6:00.

Talk to you later!

Love to all,

Margaret

Getting a late start writing today as we slept in this morning, then went to get breakfast, then loaded up the truck, settled the animals that were staying behind and got on the road to Charleston. We’re driving through Columbia now, and will stop to get lunch before too long. We’re listening to the Lone Ranger on the radio (Ken just loves the radio classics) and I’m using my new laptop and satellite connection to connect to the internet. We feel pretty techhy today :p

Tigger and Butterfly are in the seat behind me being good travellers. We’ll see how well they do with the temptation of food in the cab. It’s trips like this that have us missing Skinny Marie — she was always our travel mate and shared everything — including lunch! 😆

Ken’s new golf club won’t be here until Monday, so our plans of playing golf this weekend are put off for now. He’s pretty excited about getting it — it’s a Taylor “Burner” club and the research he’s done on it has gotten him all fired up. We’ll at least have some time to think up exactly how we want the two videos to go. Suggestions from the peanut gallery are appreciated 😉

I’m finding out that it’s a bit of a challenge to type while riding in a car. The truck bounces and jumps and I hit the wrong keys or hit the same one too many times. It’s kind of fun, though.

Still, I suppose I should close this out and do other stuff. I’ll post more as the weekend goes along and hopefully will have some pictures as well since I brought my camera and usb cord.

Take care, have a great weekend.

Love to all,

Margaret

Thursday and it’s the last day of the week for Ken and I as we take tomorrow off to head to Charleston and the first dog show of the year. I think we’re both excited about the trip!

I had some great news last night. Our video entry into the contest to win a memory foam mattress set was chosen as a winner! If you didn’t get to see the video, you can watch it HERE. While Ken was hesitant at first to have anyone he knew watch it, he’s become more comfortable with the idea as time’s gone by. It is pretty funny.

I’ll be taking my laptop with me and work is providing an air card for the weekend, so will have internet access. I’ll try to post here on the blog during the weekend.

I know Ken wants to try to get in some golf this weekend. He hasn’t played in a long time and our ring times are early in the morning, so he figures he could get in a solid afternoon of golf. The weather for Charleston is supposed to be really nice.

Well, I suppose I should see about getting some work done today.

Love to all,

Margaret

What a foggy morning it is this morning! I can hardly see anything out my window this morning. Yesterday, the fog rolled in and stayed all day. If anything, it’s thicker this morning than it was yesterday. We might as well be in London or San Francisco. The drive in was pretty busy, too — not like yesterday at all where the roads seemed pretty clear of traffic until I hit downtown where there’s always traffic no matter what time of day it is. At least I didn’t get behind any school busses. 🙂

Ken and I gave a home to a rescue dog about 8 years ago. His name is Sebastian and from the get-go he has these cute ways about him. When he first came to live with us, we had regular bed dogs of Wendy, Taco Belle and sometimes Bridget. Then, Skinny Marie came and she attained the “bed dog” title right away. Wendy passed and although Reba, Butterfly and Maggie WANT to be bed dogs, they just haven’t figured out the rules yet, so aren’t allowed very often. Sebastian never asked to be bed dog, he’s a very humble fellow who was content to sleep on the pile of comforters and pillows in the corner. Now that Skinny Marie has passed, he’s been asking to sleep with us and, beginning Monday night, we’ve let him. He’s been a perfect bed dog. He scootches under the covers and goes to the foot of the bed where he warms your feet nicely and doesn’t get in the way. He stays there the entire night without moving around. You can just see the happiness on his face when bed time rolls around even though it’s only been two nights now since he’s had the crown. He’s not a young dog. I think he’s probably 14 or 15 years old now and he’s showing the weight of his years. It makes me happy to give him this little pleasure in his sunset years.

 Guess I should actually do something constructive this morning. Have a great day and stay warm!

Love to all,

Margaret

Happy Tuesday! It’s already warmer than the high was yesterday, so that’s a good thing.

Working at work today since I’m taking Friday off to go to Charleston to the dog show. It’s a big two points in both dogs and bitches, so we have the possiblity of finishing Butterfly in one day. I have fingers crossed, but don’t have any expectations since the judges are inconsistent and I almost passed this show up.

Nothing huge going on here at work — just the same old stuff. Carlos has been out sick the past couple of days. He sounded pretty bad Friday, so I hope he’s on the mend. I’ve not read any more in my book — it’s never going to get done!

On an up note, Ken won a Taylor driver in a contest this week. We’re hoping it comes before we leave on Friday so he can get together with John and give it a test swing or two. I’m supposed to make 2 videos and write two blog entries about it (that was one of the conditions of the contest), so you’ll soon be treated to Ken starring in another video produced by Howling Dog Productions.

Well, that’s all there is to report today!

Love to all,

Margaret

Brrrrr and a good morning to you, too! I know you all are probably colder, but there’s a point at which colder is just a relative term. Cold is COLD. It’s 17º here this morning and I know Judy said it was 4º at her place yesterday, so technically I’m warmer, but I defy you to tell me you feel any difference between 4 and 17! Be honest! You’re just COLD!

Well, the new scent is a winner — not only do I like it, but Ken does too and it doesn’t trigger the reaction he has to many scents.

Nothing much going on today at work as far as I know. Just SOS and status quo. Ken has a short day today since it’s supposed to be a holiday for him. I don’t get MLK day here. I’m probably lucky to get Good Friday 🙂

Guess I should get on with my usual Monday tasks.

Love to all,

Margaret