HoundBlog

Well, I’ve been terribly remiss in posting this week, so will undoubtedly hear about it from Ma. Sorry Ma!

We took Butterfly to Commerce, GA last Sunday to meet with the owner of the dog she will be mated with. I had the report last night that a successful mating was achieved and we will pick her up either tomorrow or Saturday to await the arrival of the babies. We’re so excited over this breeding! It’s the first litter in nearly 5 years (believe it or not!). Puppies are due 9/2/2009.

We also took in a rescue Whippet last Sunday. She’s a cute little thing who has some separation anxiety which we are working on giving her the tools to overcome. She’s coming along as she’s a pretty smart little cookie. I don’t think she’ll be very hard to place. I have to get her spayed, so she’ll be with us for awhile.

There’s a new photo up over at the Travelin’ Show — caught some Green Anoles in the act! Very steamy photo even if I do say so myself. Finally had a Blue Grosbeak show up at the feeders this week — it’s really late for them to show up I think. They’ve usually already hatched out at least one clutch of eggs and should be working on another clutch as the books say they have 2 or 3 clutches per breeding season. They are such pretty birds!

No shows until the week of the 24th, so nothing to report on that front.

We don’t have much planned for the weekend. The weatherman is calling for thunderstorms, so we will probably stay close to home.

Whatever you do this weekend, take care!

Love to all,

Margaret

Hello everyone! I sure hope you are staying cool and dry. We on the other hand are melting in the heat! UGH!

Ken’s been home all week on vacation. He’s been a good househusband running all kinds of errands for me and doing general chores around the house. He took Sabrina and Star to the vet earlier — Sabrina for her spay surgery and Star for her puppy shots, then picked Sabrina up the next day. He’s taking Butterfly this afternoon for her shots.

Eddie and Chrystalyn arrive today sometime. They’ll spend tomorrow with us then head out Friday morning for Orlando. Eddie will spend a day or so there, then go to Louisiana for a few days, then back home alone until August when Randy and Yvonne come back (hopefully). They are already in Louisiana helping out her mother while her dad is in the hospital.

I’m looking forward to seeing Eddie and Chrystalyn. It seems like it’s been so long since I last saw them! Ken and I are going to have to make the trip to Maryland sometime to visit.

Well, I need to get back to work. Trying to get my head around a max() function this morning — it’s not going too well and I need another cup of coffee to deal with it.

Love to all,

Margaret

Happy Father’s Day to all you Dads out there! I hope you all have a wonderful day!

The Dad living here is currently sleeping in — it’s 8:30 am. He’s off all week next week, so has an extended Father’s Day celebration.

We went to Charleston Friday after work to spend a bit of time with John, Pam, Patrick and Bebe. Patrick and Bebe had a dance recital on Saturday which we wanted to see. Only got to see part of it as it went on so long and we needed to get back, but it was great visiting with them and seeing everyone.

We got to talking about Facebook and John and Patrick both have Facebook pages, so I listed them as friends today. Decided to search for some of the other family members and found Colin fairly easily as well as Chris. I *think* I found Frances, although it lists Knoxville as her city — we’ll know if she accepts LOL. There were pages and pages of Colin Wrights — many in the UK as you might expect. But Colin had included a photo and listed his city. I looked for Becky, but the one in St. Louis that I found I didn’t recognize that photo at all, so elected to not try to friend her.

** Update — it WAS my sister, Frances, so now we are Facebook friends LOL. **

My current list of friends consists of mostly Whippet breeders that I’ve encountered at shows over the years. I’m a very infrequent poster to FB, using it to mostly keep up with the many friends who are scattered far and wide.

Have a happy Sunday whether you are a Father or not and if you have a facebook page, do friend me .

Good morning everyone! I hope you are all well.
Didn’t you love Becky’s photos of her huge harvest?? I can’t say a word as I have nothing to show. I need to find out from Janet how her garden is going. She says she’s going to give me tomatos as she won’t eat them and Ken and I love them.

Eddie called the other night to tell us that Yvonne and Randy have already gone to Louisiana as her dad has been hospitalized and her mother can only get around with a walker, so Yvonne needs to be there to help her out. I hate that we won’t see them next week. Eddie and Chrystalyn will still be coming though.

I’ve been playing a game called Farm Town on Facebook lately. Chrystalyn has a farm, too, so we’ve been giving each other gifts and harvesting crops. I hope to show her some tricks while she’s here next week so she can advance faster.

We go to Charleston Friday to spend some time with John and his family. Bebe has a dance recital Saturday and we’ll stay through the matinee performance before coming home. It will be good seeing them again!

We’ve had some humdinger storms the past few days – -tornado warnings and scary thunder and lightning. Lots of tree branches down in many places so driving has been a bit of a challenge.

Speaking of driving, some lady ran into the rear end of my car Monday afternoon. She just kind of tucked the bumper under the rear a little — I didn’t even notice it at first. Her insurance company has already sent an adjuster out to look at it and appraise it. The adjuster said I should have a check to repair it in a few days. We’ll see how long it takes. I think Ken’s going to take it around next week for me to get repair estimates. He’s such a sweetheart to offer to do that!

Well, I suppose I should get back to the job at hand.

Take care! Stay cool and dry!

Love to all,

Margaret

Ma reminded me that I haven’t updated you in several days.

We went to Waynesville Saturday for the Chihuahua Club meeting and got to have a nice day chatting with friends. Ken got roped into showing a Viszla despite the fact that he was dressed in a Whippet Whiners T-shirt and shorts.  He got to watch our friend Angie show her puppy to Best of Breed over specials and she went on to get a Group 2 in the Hound group. A very nice win for her.

Sunday we went back to Waynesville and Ken showed Oscar to a Best of Winners win for another point. We also picked up a Toy Fox Terrier puppy to replace Mini who grew out of standard. We’ve named her Star and her registered name will be Wesann’s Lap Dancer as she loves to be in your lap.

I bought new memory for my laptop — doubled what it had and now it works  SO much better!

This coming weekend we go to Charleston for Bebe’s dance recital. She is becoming such a great little dancer!

Then next week, Ken is off the entire week. Eddie comes on Wednesday night and we do something Thursday, then they leave Friday for Orlando.

So now you’re caught up with our doings. Hope you all are doing well and managing this heat better than I am.

Love to all,

Margaret

Sorry about no post yesterday — it was a busy day.

Sunday we drove to Asheville for one day of the dog shows there. The Saturday judge for both Whippets and Cresteds (same woman) was one we don’t especially care for, so we didn’t waste any money. This coming weekend we go to Waynesville. I have a Chihuahua Club meeting on Saturday so will go up for that. I think Chi’s show early so I’ll get the meeting done and head back for home then we’ll show dogs on Sunday. Ken is debating whether he will go with me or not and I’m sure he’s got in the back of his mind running up to Cherokee for a bit while I have my meeting.

Then on the 20th we go to Charleston to see Bebe in her dance recital and then later that  week Eddie and crew come to visit for a day. Ken’s off that entire week and I’ve taken a day of vacation that Thursday to spend with them.

I need to fill up my feeders and put fresh nectar out for the hummingbirds. I watched a wasp take a bug to it’s nest a little while ago. I don’t know why but I didn’t know they did that.

Haven’t seen the Summer Tanager back again. I wish he would come — I’m not a big fan of wasps.

I am thinking of Becky and Colin right now. I know she’s hurting and wish I could make it go away.

I caught my teacher out today. Yesterday I uploaded a paper for one of my assignments and it was the wrong paper — it was one from an earlier assignment that I had already turned in. I need to name them more clearly to prevent that in the future. Anyway, she responed this big long paragraph to me saying I had done an excellent job, etc etc. One of the other students pointed out my mistake and I’ve uploaded the correct paper.

I thought she did that on another student last week, but I didn’t say anything.She’s the teacher after all, right?

That makes my 100% in this class a bit suspect 🙁

I did accomplish a huge something at work yesterday. I won’t bore you with details, just suffice to say I reduced the time a job takes from 4 minutes to 14 SECONDS.  Now if my boss will just recognize that if I don’t know my stuff, I at least know where to find out about it.

Hope you aren’t too hot. I think we were supposed to be in the high 80’s today. It’s sunny, so no rain for now.

I have a meeting to go to tonight — it’s the one that’s usually the first Tuesday of the month moved to tonight to accomodate a speaker. I think it will be a very interesting talk and can’t wait to hear this man.

Got my hair cut Saturday and it  sure feels better! She must have cut 4″ off the length. It’s just at my chin now, so you have an  idea of how long it had gotten.

Well, I guess I’ve rambled on enough. Take care, stay cool and dry.

Love to all,

Margaret

Ahh June 1st! Hurricane season officially starts! With the up and down temps so far, I can imagine that we’re in for a stormy one.

Ken and I are both still coughing and sneezing but at least we FEEL better. Hopefully the rest of this plague is on the way out as well. I’m more than ready to be over this. I don’t do sick. At least not very well.

Have a dog show next Sunday in Asheville. We don’t care much for the Saturday judge, so elected to save our $$ and give her a pass. We also have one the following Sunday in Waynesville. I’ll go on Saturday because there is a Chihuahua Club meeting and since I’m President this year, I guess I should be there.

Have you checked out my photo blog? I have a picture of a Broad-wing hawk up. Neat looking bird even if I do say so myself.

And there will be a guest post Wednesday on the book review blog from an internet friend of mine. I am going to have to get that series of books he talks about. They sound really cute and right up my alley.

Of course I want to get more Demille books to read. I have grown rather fond of John Carey and his wife, Kate.

On a sad note, we had a bad storm here last Thursday and Tiger got out of the fence and was hit by a car and killed. He would have been 12 in September. What a sad ending for that sweet guy. I feel terrible as I knew how terrified of storms he was, but I never dreamed he would leave the safety of his bed.

Well, that’s all our news.

Love to all,
Margaret

If the date looks familiar it may be because today is my birthday and I’m 58 just in case you didn’t know.

I’ve received several really nice gifts:

1. A husband who although ill, isn’t going to croak on me any second despite what it seemed like at 2:30 yesterday morning.
2. An air conditioner that’s actually working
3. A pretty card from my mother
4. A bunch of friends who are wishing me well today
5. A 100% on this week’s assignments in school

Ken has a whopper of a sinus infection that has caused his throat to swell up. He woke me up yesterday morning unable to breathe and making the most awful wheezing sounds I’ve ever heard. Fortunately, sitting up for a few minutes took care of the immediate problem which was his throat was so swollen that sinus drainage had pooled and blocked his airway. We went to the doctor yesterday and she gave him predisone, antibiotics and cough syrup and today he’s much better.

The air conditioner decided to stop working sometime Monday and although they came out Tuesday to fix it, they didn’t get it quite all right, so a return trip yesterday was required. $325 later, it seems to be working properly now, but we had a miserable couple of days. I am glad that the weather wasn’t too terribly hot although it was too hot for me. I know now that if I move anywhere it needs to be to the Arctic rather than to the Amazon.

Now I just need to catch up on some sleep and I’ll be in great shape.

Gotta run. Work is calling.

Love to all,

Margaret

Happy Memorial Day! I hope you’ve all enjoyed the long weekend.

Ken and I have spent most of it doing stuff around the house. Although the rain has kept us from mowing , there’s a chance that will get done today if the sun stays out long enough to dry off the grass.

We’ve eaten well this weekend. Saturday was the semi annual shrimp fry at the church in Honea Path, so we gorged ourselves on shrimp, cole slaw, french fries and hush puppies. Last night we grilled boneless ribs on the grill with some Sticky Fingers barbecue sauce and corn on the cob. Tonight, we’ll grill steaks and have more corn on the cob. I found an apple pie at the grocery store that looked pretty good — Ken’s been wanting apple pie for awhile now — and this one turned out to be EXCELLENT! Usually store bought pies have a tough crust, but this one is so flaky and light! Just like home made! Coupled with ice cream and we are in hog heaven.

I’m watching a green anole shed its’ skin. It has most of it off, just has some on it’s back legs which it’s reaching back and pulling off and alternately scraping the legs against the wood of the porch rail. There’s a male on the deck showing it’s dewlap, so I guess the one shedding is a female.

The phoebes on the back porch have either fallen out of the nest or fledged as the nest is empty. It sure seemed to take longer for the eggs to hatch than it did for the babies to leave the nest if that’s the case.  I took photos of the babies about 5 days after they hatched and it seemed like they were gone a couple of days after that.

Well, Ken’s off to see if the race is finally being run today — it got canceled last night due to rain.

Love to all,

Margaret

Well, it’s been a busy week for me at work. Have had several rush projects to finish. Thankfullly all are complete and everyone is happy.

Just in time for a long weekend! We have plenty of stuff around the homestead to keep us busy, so will work on our respective honey-do lists although I hope we can find some time to go to a movie or something.

Ken has had a class these  past two days, so went in late and got off early. That was nice for him, but tomorrow it’s back to the same old grind. Next week is his last week on 8 hour shifs as they move to 4-10 hour shifts. Since there’s still no overtime, that means he’ll have Fridays off which may be nice but then again, we’ll have to see how tired he is after the long days.

Gotta run — need to feed these birds and fix supper.

Love to all,

Margaret