HoundBlog

Last day of the month and I’m working from home. Changed the header on the blog — it was past time for the fall leaves to go. Hope you like the pretty purple flower.

Trying to get the last of the laundry done so I can get clean sheets and towels in the camper for this weekend. I had already cleaned the bathroom and vacuumed. Need to mop the kitchen floor, though. Not much going on at work.

Charlotte called last night and told me that a friend of hers (and an acquaintance of ours) passed away yesterday. He was only 54 years old. He and his wife both smoke like crazy and he had a stroke. Roger was a nice guy, though and I’m sorry for Lynne that he died.

That’s about all there is new in my world.

Love to all,

Margaret

Saturday was a very icky day. It rained all day long.

Ken and I stayed in and basically did not very much at all. I worked on laundry and read mostly.

Checked the system to make sure it was running smoothly and avoided email :-/

I logged into school late in the afternoon to discover that final grades were posted. I made a 96.24 in the class. Probably not the best grade in there, but I’m satisfied with it.

My next class doesn’t start until April 6th, so I have this week to get my book and get organized for that. They’ve asked me to be on a student advisory board. I’m thinking about that. It says 3 hours a month, but we all know how those things have a way of expanding.

The next class is IT related, but I think it’s actually a pretty generic class. I don’t expect to have much trouble with it.

Actually, looking at what is left for me to get my degree, nothing seems on the description level to be anything out of the ordinary.

My friend, Lee’s daughter has something to do with getting financial aid and scholarships, etc for people. She sent me some places to check out for grants and scholarships. So far I haven’t qualified for any of them as Ken and I made too much money last year. She also told me that the school I’m enrolled in is one of the most expensive although from the 3 or 4 I checked into, it was in line with their fees tuition-wise. I’m finding their books are way overpriced but so far have been really lucky to find them on Amazon.com as used and at a much cheaper price. One of them I got for $1.75 — that was a nice find!

Well, let’s see if I can make it through the day without screwing up 😛

Love to all,

Margaret

UGH! What an awful day! Not only is it yukky weather for the 4th day in a row, but I did something incredibly STUPID and am now having to fix it and of course it’s taking a thousand times longer to fix than it did to screw up in the first place.

Nothing special on tap for this weekend. Just clean up the camper in readiness for next weekend when we go to Charlotte and trim toenails on every dog we own. That alone will take hours!

Hope you are having a better day than I am. Stay dry!

Love to all,

Margaret

Rainy day today. Gloomy, chilly just yuk. Good day for sleeping or reading in bed. Wish I was there 😛

I just read an interesting article on cholesterol and dogs. You might be interested in it too.

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/03/24/dog-tail-chasing.html. My doctor says I have high cholesterol, but thank goodness, I don’t want to chase my tail despite the fact I feel sometimes like I am 🙂 I love how the AKC rep pooh-poohed the findings. Like she’s a vet and knows something — NOT.

Well, work is calling.

Love to all,

Margaret

Happy Monday! It was a beautiful weekend and looks like a beautiful week of spring weather coming up! YEAH! I don’t want to work 🙂

Ken cut some more on the tree in the back yard. It’s about half gone now with all the small branches taken off and only a half dozen or so large branches left.

Ken’s doing extremely well with his new exercise program at the gym. He’s walking a mile and a half at a 12 degree incline! I’m still barely managing 1/2-3/4 of a mile and flat (no incline). I have to get going again!

I went to Simpsonville Saturday to cheer Janet, Tara and Star on to their legs in Rally Advanced obedience. Miss Star pulled off an 84 with a 4th place and Tara qualified with a 75. Both girls did VERY well and if Janet will let me, I’ll post a video of Tara’s performance on YouTube. If things work out the way she’s planned, Tara will get her 3rd leg and title at the Nationals next month while Star will get her 2nd leg. No matter what, I’m so proud of Janet and all that she’s done with those two girls!

I continue to do poorly on the basketball thing. On the one I’m in third place right now, but that may change quickly. On the other one, I’m so far out it’s not funny. Oh well….it’s just to be expected I guess.

My last week of my first class ends this week. I’ve turned everything in, but the professor hasn’t graded the last few assignments yet. So far I have a 95.28 in this class. Not the best grade in the world, but it’s still an A, so guess I could be doing a lot worse. Next class is Intermediate Algebra. I decided I wanted to get the math out of the way early on so I could enjoy the languages later on. I only hope I do as well in Algebra as I did in this one which was psychology.

I didn’t talk to Eddie this weekend. I need to be a better mother and call him periodically or something.

That’s all there is to tell you about. Have a great day!

Love to all,

Margaret

!

HI! Loving this weather! Rained last night but clear yesterday and today although it’s supposed to be a bit cooler over the weekend.

We went to the Chinese Buffet for dinner Wednesday to celebrate our anniversary. Other than that, it was a normal day. I did take off work an hour early so we could get the chores done and clean up before going to the restaurant. We went to bed early and had a good night’s sleep.

I’m in two basketball pool things (neither for any money) and am not doing great but doing a lot better than someone who has zero interest in basketball SHOULD do. I think Ken is in at least one for a payout, but don’t know how well he did.  I know Clemson and Chattanooga let me down big time. Oh well, it’s only a game 🙂

My friend Janet is showing tomorrow in a Rally Obedience trial in Greenville. I plan to run over there to video her run and give moral support. She has both Star and Tara entered. Keep your fingers crossed for her and ” the girls”. She will hopefully complete their Rally Advanced titles at the Whippet Nationals next month in Atlanta.

That’s about it for us. I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Love to all,

Margaret

Hope you had a drier weekend than we did. It rained, albeit not hard, all weekend long. It’s still raining today and looks like it will continue to rain on into the week. Not fun!

Other than the rain, we had a fairly lazy weekend. Ran up to Greenville on Saturday to do a bit of shopping and had dinner at our favorite fish restaurant then came home and fed the dogs and zonked out the rest of the evening. Sunday I finished up laundry and we piddled around some more. I read the chapters for class and cooked spaghetti for supper. Those were the sum total of the constructive things I did.

I’ve agreed to judge a match on April 18th in Aiken, SC. Going to judge Sporting breeds. Not my favorite assignment, but I’m filling in for someone else who had to back out. It will be fun!

Today at work it’s pretty quiet. I have a conference call at 4:00 so will be late leaving work (and calling Ma). Tomorrow is the kennel club meeting so will be working from home and going to that later. Charlotte is going with me. I guess she’s here for the next week or so and then will go back to Florida.

I didn’t talk to Eddie over the weekend although Chris called and talked to his dad for awhile. I don’t think there’s anything new on that front. He and Gina are still divorcing and he’s still trying to get custody of the kids. I think she’s now living with a friend. It’s a shame for the kids to be so unsettled.

Well, I reckon I should do something constructive.

I think that has you all caught up with us.

Love to all,

Margaret

Happy Friday the thirteenth to you all! I do hope your day is going well!

Here it’s overcast and rather chilly. I already miss the nearly 80 degree temps of the past few days. I can manage without sun for a day or two, but it looks like we’re in for about 4 days in a row of cold, rainy and dreary weather. Not the best weather in the world.

No huge plans for the weekend. Direct TV is coming out tomorrow afternoon to work on his dish as his HD isn’t working properly, but that’s about all we have planned at this moment. We talked about going to the gym together and may do that as well either Saturday or Sunday.

No plans for St Patrick’s day either — we are such fuddy duddies.

Work has been quiet these past few days. I can handle that for awhile longer. It’s nice to not be living high drama for a change.

Well, need to run. Y’all have a nice weekend!

Love to all,

Margaret

Got things ready to enter Charlotte and Columbia yesterday. Ken’s showing Nikki both days in Charlotte and Tigger on Saturday and I’m showing Payne both days in Charlotte. He’s showing Nikki both days of Columbia and I’m showing Payne both days and Max on Sunday only. That will be his first show since he broke his leg.

The leg itself is straight and he moves fine, but you can feel where it was broken when you run your hands down it. Maybe with time it will smooth out some, but it’s on the “off side”, so isn’t obvious as he’s gaiting.

I’m pretty sure we’ll be going to Waccamaw. We just really like that show site and I did find out that a friend of ours is going as well, so we won’t be the only one with Whippets entered.

The weatherman says it’s going to turn off cold for the weekend. Not good. I have enjoyed this week of sun and mild temperatures.

Ken joined the gym yesterday. He also stopped this morning on his way to work to walk in the treadmill for a bit. I’ll stop on my way home.

Sabrina got a clean bill of health from the vet. She also got a shot and dewormed. She did really well with the new people, sights and sounds. She’s so smart!

That’s about all there is from our house.

Love to all,

Margaret

Good morning everyone! I hope you had a great weekend!

We spent a lot of it cutting down the tree that fell in the back yard from the snow. It’s about a 35′ tree that snapped off about 15′ above the ground and the crown fell into the backyard. It’s squished the fence some, but hasn’t brought it all the way down. Ken’s done most of the work in cutting it down. I helped some on Saturday by taking off some of the smaller branches with a set of loppers while he used the chain saw to cut up the larger branches. He did more on it Sunday, but I’ve tried to make him limit himself to an hour at a time. He’s stubborn about that, though.

We bought a German Shepherd Saturday afternoon. She’s 12 weeks old and smart as a whip! I know — you’re saying why. Well, because we felt like we should have a more imposing-looking dog in the house to deter anyone coming in without our permission. Eddie said something about having dogs to sound the alarm and yes, the Cresteds do that admirably, but aren’t much of a deterrent to someone coming in the house. She’s not imposing right now, but she’ll grow! We named her Sabrina and she’s already coming to her name, using the dog door and will sit and shake hands.

Ken’s decided to join the gym. I think that’s great! I’m excited about his wanting to join and go. He’s proposed we go on alternate days, but don’t know why we can’t both go together. But, whatever he wants to do is fine with me. I’m going to sign him up this afternoon when I go.

I worked on revamping the website this weekend. If you’ll take a peek, you’ll find some changes at www.kemar-k9s.com. Please let me know what you think! Check out the new picture gallery. I went back through photos for the past 3 years to put the ones I selected on the Gallery page.

I think I need to revise the graphic that’s on the sidebar as it doesn’t reflect the Cresteds in it. The tablet Ken bought me for Christmas came in very handy to create that image and I’m sure I can alter it to make the one I envision.

Well, I need to get back to work.

Have a great day!

Love to all,

Margaret