Happy Birthday, Pumpkin!

My girl Scout is 5 years old today.  She is spending the day doing all the things she loves best - rolling in the leaves, chasing squirrels, and barking.  And ignoring me everytime I ask, "Scout, do you have puppies in there?"

Happy Birthday to the other members of the trio of terror, Grace and Moira!

Spencer, GN

Actually - it's Caduceus Spencer Batrille CD HT RAE3 OAP NJP GN.  Finally.

Spence has come up with so many ways to make life interesting on this GN journey.  Who could forget the Stop Drop and Roll at the Specialty?  And then his Golden Retreiver impersonation the next day?   The Death March in the hot summer sun in Newnan?   Diarrhea in the ring in Louisville (Spencer, not me). DO NOT DRINK THE WATER IN LOUISVILLE). The lovely run the next day, until he decided to walk across the broad jump. And recently, anticipating the recalls and forgetting about the fronts and going straight to the finishes.

Today we did a little drill work before going into the ring to remind him what "wait" and "front" means, and it paid off well on his drop on recall.  When I put the dumbbell in his mouth on the next exercise and walked across the ring for the recall, I was high-fiving myself in my head - the rest of the exercises were a piece of cake.  I get to the other side of the ring and turn around, and . . .

THE DUMBBELL IS ON THE FLOOR IN FRONT OF THE LITTLE STINKER - HE HAD SPIT IT OUT.

The judge told me to come back and give it to him again - I assumed that we had NQ'd at that point.  He did the rest of the exercises just fine, and after the long down, I started collecting my stuff to head back to my setup.  Then I hear the judge say, "Hey look, #183 got 183 points."  I look down at my armband - I am #183.  I turn to the judge and said, "Are you sure?  After he spit out the dumbbell??"  He said yes - we lost points, but it was not an NQ. 

We'll take it.

That Miracle-Gro is something!

The other day I reported that we were watering and fertilizing this:

And look what is in the cave now:

Obviously, I have not made much progress this week on the ceiling, and time is catching up with me.  Handsome floor man will be here Monday to do his thing, and I have to spend the weekend playing Trophy Chair at my club's obedience trial. 

The Lady is a Tramp

You hope you raise them right, and then they do things like this.  With a guy whose last girlfriend is 3000 miles away, about to give birth at any moment.

Scout and Chase (Am/Can CH C-Myste Baledwr Pursuit of Happiness, CD HT RN CGC TT) have been making whoopie for the last week.  And if we're lucky, we'll be having Christmas puppies at our house, or as Penni calls them, Scouchas.

Here is the pedigree for the potential puppies.  This combination should generate herding maniacs and in-your-face goofballs - lawd help us if there are any red bitches in this litter.  But - we're not going to count our puppies before we know things took!  Stay tuned!

Spencer's Portrait

Love it!

Cave Update

Things have been going on in the cave, and the end is in sight.  In the last post I moaned over the color of the countertop - I had hoped for a dark charcoal gray, but ended up with brownish-greenish mud.  Kathy M came to my rescue (Thanks again Kathy!), and taught me all about the difficulties in selecting neutrals and about lighting and color bases.  I spent a good bit of time last week trying out new shades, not getting happy, and finally realizing what I wanted was not so much dark gray, but really not-quite-black. 

The fiber optics guys got me all set up with by big screen tv - ok not that big, but we are fertilizing and watering and hoping it will grow.

I also finally settled on flooring - that has been an interesting experience.  I'll save the reveal on what I decided on until it's in.  Handsome floor man says he may be able to get me installed later this week, but more likely first of next week.  That's fine - I want to paint the drop ceiling supports and get the new ceiling tiles in before the floor comes in.

Love it when Management Steps Up

As I mentioned before, Spencer sees his role as command and control.  However, while Scout is away for a few days visiting "a friend," he doesn't mind taking a frontline position.

Scout Art

Claudia Hammer is an artist from Louisville KY, who I met at the Louisville shows this spring.  She shot some pics of Spencer and Scout, and this is a painting she did for me of Scout - haven't seen the Spencer painting yet.  Love that tongue!

Cave Transformation - Paint

Today was paint day. And the thought of the day: Grey is frustrating. I'll get to that later.  Here is the before picture, looking toward the end of the room which will the big tv area. Try to ignore the pile of furniture and the couch-load of stuff recently collected to go to Goodwill.

And here is the after - and the grey frustration.  See how brown the countertop looks?  Sherwin Williams call this "Thunder Gray,"  and the paint chip looks gray, but in this room it looks brownish gray.  Tomorrow I am going to pick up a sample of the flooring and how it looks in this room.  It looked just like the paint chip in the store.  If they look ok together, I'll probably keep this color - otherwise, I may be re-painting the counter top.

Also, right now this room is lit with awful florescent lighting.  Lamps will provide lighting down here later, which I hope will improve the color balance.

New furniture will be a black leather sofa with chaise and a side chair of some kind.  Something modern and fun.

Here is before looking to the back of the room, which will be sewing/dining area.  Note that the wallpaper border is gone - both layers of it.  That was a job.

I went with a contrast on the brick, same taupe as under the countertops. The new ceiling tiles are also going to be a taupe-y color.  The shelving unit in the back is going to be painted - stay tuned to see how that turns out.  The antique sewing machine is not staying down here - it will move up to the new guest room upstairs.

Hopefully next week will bring new floors and I can start moving into this room.  Fiber optics guys come next Friday to hook up the new big tv.

The Front Yardigans

Dogs and hoomans are thoroughly enjoying our new fenced front yard and the lovely fall weather. We have fallen into a habit of ending the day with time together out there. Everyone has their role.

We call this one -"the tip of the spear." Always at the top of the yard, always on watch for whoever comes our way.

Meanwhile, this one hangs back in the comfy seat. He sees his role as "command and control."

And this is our ever-watchful sentry, with his seasonal decor.

I always wondered if they would eat until they exploded

Apparently not.  There were about 4 cookies left in this 4 lb bag of Canidae treats and crumbs all over the floor in two rooms.

Somehow Spencer (I'm sure - I can't imagine Scout doing this) opened this wood cube box enough to pull the bag of treats out.  I think he must have used the powers of his mind to do it, because I can't figure out how a short guy with no thumbs could do it otherwise.

I wish he would use those powers for good and at least dust and sweep up the dog hair before he does these things.  He knows I am going to make a picture of it and share it with you all.