What I love about the South

We are in Concord, NC at a cardi supported show this weekend. Cheryl
and I stopped at a roadside market yesterday for provisions. Peach
bread and peach preserves for breakfast, and a quart of boiled peanuts
for snacking.

In defense of my profession

OK - I have figured out the mystery of how my co-workers misjudged my birth year.

One of the women in the department knew that she and I had both graduated from high school in 1978.  Figuring that if I was six when I started the first grade, with a birthday in November, they deduced that I must have been born in 1959.

Math was fine - but they didn't have all the facts.  They didn't know that I was the last kid at home and Mom was ready to have all her kids in school.  So, since I could already read and count and was unusually tall for my age when classes started in September of 1966, she took me to school registration and talked the school into letting me start at 5.  Thus started my school career of always being the youngest and the tallest in my class. (And in a roundabout way set me on the path for criminal activity in the great pumpkin heist of 1978 when I was a 17 year old college freshman - but that's a story for another day.)

Adding insult to injury

Today is my birthday. I came in this morning to find my cube all decorated with "50" balloons and a big party scheduled this afternoon for my "milestone" birthday. Only problem? I was born in 1960. And I work with a bunch of accountants - you would think they could do math!

One more week . . . . .

To sign up for the Cardi Blogger Holiday Exchange!  We've already got a great group of folks signed up to participate, but if anyone else wants to play, you have until next Sunday to sign up!  Click on the Ornament Exchange logo to the right to get more info.

Have I used up my yearly allotment of good luck?

After yet another 10+ hour work day, I stopped at Sonic for a BLT and big diet coke for dinner.  I was chatting with Laura, so I pulled up to a carhop slot and parked instead of going through the drive thru.

After dinner was delivered, I turned the key to crank up the Element - and nothing happens.  Dead as a doornail.  I told Laura I had to get off the phone and deal with this.  I sat for a minute trying to figure who I could bother on a Friday night to bail me out.

Then I remembered - I had the good luck to have my car die right next door to an auto parts store.  I hotfooted it over to the store, they came over and jumped it off for me, then put a new battery in and I was on the way home before the ice started to melt in my coke.

Skywatch Friday

Caught on the phone camera while driving home from Knoxville last Saturday. (I know, but at least I didn't email it while driving!)

I also posted video from Knoxville.  The showsite had grooming upstairs and showrings downstairs (a real pain for the dogs and handlers) but it gave the opportunity to view judging from above for a change.

Earth Fare Giveaway!

I had a very interesting email yesterday.  Earth Fare, a healthy supermarket, known for selling "foods that are as close to the ground as it gets" is opening a store Chattanooga in December.  Their "Social Media Manager" found my simple little blog and contacted me, and Earth Fare wants to give away a $50 gift card to one of you lucky readers!

Earth Fare stores are located in Georgia, Tennessee and the Carolinas, so unfortunately, unless you live or visit in these areas, you might not be interested, but maybe you know someone there who would be happy to get a gift card for Christmas!  So - here's the post they want you to read:

Budgets always get really tight around the holidays. We all know that. And, Earth Fare, the healthy supermarket, seems to know that too. Have you been to their stores? If so, you would know that they are always trying to make healthy eating affordable, easy and delicious! Seriously - have you tried their homemade, all-natural chocolate chip cookies - if not, it is .99 cents of deliciousness! Well, in celebration of the opening of their new Chattanooga store on December 9th, Earth Fare gave me a $50.00 gift card to give away! Yeah, very cool. They just said, hey Janet - give this away for us.

So, now, we want you to tell us why you deserve or just plain want this gift card. We've all got stories. You may be hosting your family's holiday dinner on an extremely tight budget. You may have lost your job recently and just need some extra help to make it through this already tough season. You may be a cookie lover or organic food nut! Or, perhaps for whatever reason, you've never tried a healthy food store and just want to see what it's like! Give us your best reason, and we'll consider it for the prize.

The best story gets the card. So, ready, set, and get writing. Post your reason in the comments below today! You only have until Friday, December 4 to get your entry in. And, we're waiting..

Yet again . . .

They did me proud. Two QQs, two BOBs.

Too much Halloween madness

This is what a bobbing for hotdogs hangover looks like.

Happy Birthday, Red Dogs!

We head out to the show in Knoxville show in the wee hours tomorrow, so I'm posting a wee bit early.  Happy Halloween Birthday to Honey and Brodie's kids:  Grace, Fanny, River, Moira and my special little pumpkin, Scout. 

Thanks to Taryn for catching and sharing a sweet picture! Click on the picture to enlarge and get a good look at that tongue!!

What I'll be doing while the rest of you are having fun at the Specialty - or How to break into an Element

I couldn't decide what to title this post, so I used both thoughts which are about as disjointed as I am right now.

Did you know that this is the last week of the first month of a quarter?  Why would you?  I do because it is the busiest week of the quarter for me.  I won't go into the gory details as I don't want to be dooced, but suffice it to say that these are the times that make the rest of the year seem like a walk in the park.  (On the other hand, Dooce makes a living by posting silly pictures of her dog on the internet . . . . . . , but as usual, I digress.)  Anyhow - six months from now many of you will be having fun at the Specialty and I'll be doing this again.

The last two weeks have been a string of 10 - 12 hour workdays.  Scout's in season, so no doggie daycare, and the two of them have had a lot home alone time.  We're showing in Knoxville this weekend, so I decided to go ahead and take Scout to Cheryl's - she can take care of the bath and nails, and I can let Spencer go to day care and not feel so guilty about being gone from home so much.

So last night I left work about 7:00, went home and loaded up the dogs and headed to Cheryl's, about an hour and a half away.  Laura lives in the same town, so I stopped by and picked her to before going to Cheryl's.  We got to her house and went inside to visit, leaving the dogs in the car.  Usually, I will open the hatch door for the dogs, but it was a cool evening so I wasn't concerned.  After we chatted a bit, I said that I needed to get going because I had another long day ahead. 

We went out to get Scout, and when I tried to open the hatch, it was locked - so were the other doors.  Ok - guess where the keys were - yep - in the console. Now I have been driving that car 3 years, and I had come to believe that Hondas were idiot-proof as far the door locks went.  I have no idea how the doors locked. 

There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth on my part.  I asked Laura for the name of a parolee who knew how to break in a car, but she couldn't come up with one - but she did save the day with a coat hanger, two bamboo sticks and a roll of duct tape.  An hour later we got away and I got the chance to play with Laura's puppies for a few minutes before heading back over the mountain to home.

Breakfast cleanup

Scout helps out.  Notice how she pins her ears back to make it easier to get her entire head into the cup.

How about some Cardi Blogger Holiday Fun?

It's a chilly Saturday morning and I am looking out at the autumn color out my front window - and that made me think about how the year is coming to an end.  Next week is Halloween, Thanksgiving will be here before we know it, and then we will be rushing right into Christmas and New Years.

I have really enjoyed our little Cardi blogging community that has sprung up.  It was so much fun meeting up with several of our fellow bloggers at the Specialty this year.  So - it got me to thinking - is anyone interested in having a virtual holiday party?  How about a Cardi Blogger Holiday Ornament Exchange?  Anyone who cardi blogs, or just likes reading cardi blogs, is welcome to participate.

Ornaments are fun, inexpensive, lightweight (low shipping cost!) and something you get to enjoy year after year.  Of course, if you want to include other goodies in your exchange, that's entirely up to you.  (Spencer sez "ornaments, schmornaments - I want cookies!")

I set up a new address - cardibloggerholidayxchange@gmail.com.  If you would like to partipate, send your name and address by November 15.  Include any other information that might be interesting to your partner who might not know you.  I'll play matchmaker and send you your partner's information by November 18.  Let's try to have packages delivered by December 1st for maximum holiday enjoyment!

I hope you will also consider sharing the word via your blog as well - the more the merrier!  Feel free to grab the little logo I made and put it on your blog, or design your own.

I doubt she found what she was looking for . . .

I was just looking at the feedjit gadget on my blog.  I like to see where folks are visiting from, and sometimes I will check to see what they were searching for when I see that they got to my little blog from google.

I've had several hits from folks googling "butterfly tattoos" from the post I wrote about Avery's birthday party.  I also got several hits after I wrote about an email thread between me and Dina about what if Scout and her sisters had been high school girls.  The post was titled "Honey's High School Girls" (Honey is the girls' dam) and you can imagine how disappointed the boys were when they googled and landed here.

I laughed out loud when I saw that today someone ended up here because they wanted to find "simple things to cheer up a man."  Nothing to see here - move along!  (I think Carlton would agree with that!)

She's driving him crazy!

Hormones are raging at my house

Of the canine variety, that is.  Scout is, ummm, how to say this delicately.  In college, we just shortened it to "h".  That's it - Scout is h.  Actually she is capital H.  She wants a boyfriend soooo badly. 

And poor Spencer, who was neutered at 6 months, has absolutely no idea why his adopted sister will not leave him alone. 

I just whispered to her - "baby girl - just get through this one.  Next time this rolls around, we will find you a boyfriend."

Back in the saddle again

This was one of those Mondays when you look forward to getting back to work so you can recover from the weekend.

Not that I am complaining!  (Except for the normally 50 minute trip to Mom's which took 3 hours yesterday.  Why?  Because TDOT shut the interstate down to one lane in an area that has been under construction FOREVER for no apparent reason.  No workers working, just a bunch of orange barrels blocking a lane that had been perfectly fine for travel earlier in the week.  It looked like by the time I came back through last night they had reopened the lane.  But as usual, I digress.)

I would have liked to have been able to be in two places at once this weekend.  Spencer and I had fun at our club's obedience trials.  It did my heart good to be around performance people.  Conformation shows by their nature have a way to bring you down sometimes.  I just so enjoyed the camaraderie - folks cheering and supporting one another.  This was especially true around the rally ring - say what you will about rally - no, it's not as hard as regular obedience, yes - an experienced handler can lead a green dog to a title in a couple of weekends - but folks just have so much fun with it!

And then 120 miles away, Miss Scout and Cheryl were pulling off back to back Group Ones.    I was just pleased as punch for both of them - happy that we had judges who appreciated Scout and happy Cheryl got to take her in the BIS ring before her hometown crowd.  It was really a thrill getting to be there Saturday to see it.

Thanks to everyone who have sent along congratulations.

G1 again!!!

Can't go to Nashville today - headed the other direction to see Mom.
Been sitting on I75 for nearly two hours.

Sent from my iPhone

Spencer happier with today's handler

Handler happy with red rosette. Also just heard Scout went BOB again.

Showing in BIS wears a girl out!!! UPDATED with the rest of the story . . .

Scout won Group 1 today in Nashville. More later - but video of her in Best in Show ring is on CardiTube - click at right.

UPDATE: Ok - I can type more now. That keyboard on the iPhone wears me out. As I posted earlier, I was working at our club's obedience trial this weekend, so I couldn't go to the Nashville show with Scout. About 3:00 this afternoon, Cheryl's friend Geri calls me and says, "Scout won the group." My immediate response was to laugh and say, "You're lying. How did she really do?" She said that she wasn't kidding, she really won. I was shocked, because the group judge had dumped her in breed just a few weeks ago.

So, the Obedience trial was winding down - we were just waiting for Open B to finish so that we could award HIT. I was sitting there with my jaw hanging open when my friend Nancy walked up. I must have looked up at her with a strange look on my face, because she suddenly looked concerned and asked what was wrong. I told her the news and she started squealing.

Suddenly it hit me that the herding group was the first group in. If I jumped in my car and headed out, I might just make it to Nashville (2 hours away) before BIS. Nancy said, "What are you waiting for? GO!!"

Well, I left, but I really didn't think I would go. I had told my mom I would come see her this afternoon. But then I called Laura to tell her the news and she said, "Let's go! I'll meet you at the interstate." So I called Mom and begged off until tomorrow and hit the road.

Reality set in, and as I started counting the minutes, I knew that chances were slim that we would make it. I was just about to call Geri to see what group they were on when she texted me and said there was a long delay because one of the group judges was still judging breeds. That gave me some hope.

We made it - the last group was almost finished when we got there but we got to see her in the BIS ring. She showed so pretty today - it was worth every minute of the drive.

As a bonus, Laura and I treated ourselves to a wonderful Greek dinner at a really cool little place near the showsite that we had found a few years ago. Usually we eat breakfast there - the best Eggs Bene evuh - which I thought I would get tonight but I went for the stuffed cabbage and zucchini and greek meatballs instead.