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.

Who loves L&O?

I am a long time "Law and Order" fan.  I love to watch the old episodes on Saturday and Sunday mornings, and sometimes catch a repeat with dinner during the week.  I hardly ever watched any first run episodes on NBC - I watched the reruns on cable.

Several years ago I read an article in the weekend section of the Wall Street Journal that watching reruns of L&O was the secret vice of a huge percent of 35 - 50 year old women.  The author suggested to the reader to bring it up at any gathering of baby boomers (back then 35 year olds were baby boomers) - he bet that at least half the women there would fess up to being L&O addicts.  I tried it out a few times, and I was surprised at how right he was.

Anyhow, I just read that beginning this Sunday night, BBC America will start running the first season of "Law and Order - UK."  The scripts were adapted from original US episodes.  This Sunday's episode is from the Ben Stone era.  I have set the DVR, because I will be watching Mad Men when it comes on, but I look forward to seeing the crown prosecutor and the defense counsel talking trash in the changing room while donning and doffing their barristers' wigs.

All of a sudden - it's Fall, Yall!

Who gets excited enough about a cloudy, rainy day to run out and make a picture?  I guess I do.

Concrete dream dashed

We pulled up the carpet in the basement today - I had hoped there would be pristine concrete underneath.

Not!  Something has been glued down in the past - it's black, and sticky, and yuck.  Very handsome floor man says he can clean it - of course it will take three days and all sorts of evil, toxic substances to melt the goo before he can scrape it away.

So - what shall plan B be?  Not hardwood - it's a basement - generally dry, but still, things could get damp.  Laminate?  I don't think so - it's just pretending to be wood or tile or cork or whatever.  I'm thinking tile might be my best choice.  Any opinions out there?

The Once and Future Woman Cave

Most of you who have been to my house have never seen my basement - because for the last several years it has just been a junk room.  When I first moved in, the basement was my den and I spent a lot of time there.  Actually, I think I can blame Spencer for moving out of this den - the timing coincides with when he came to live here - I didn't want to tote puppy up and down, so I just moved up!

After getting rid of a ton of stuff in the MOAYS (mother of all yard sales) Labor Day weekend, I am moving quickly on reclaiming the den. Tomorrow the carpet guy is coming to pull out the old stinky berber carpet.  I am hoping the concrete underneath will be in good enough shape just to use with maybe some rugs, or maybe I will look at staining it.    The stairs will be recarpeted in a dark pewter close napped carpet - I just think carpet will make for safer stairs.

Ok - here are the before pictures - first - the bar is gone.  The bar came with the house, and the reason that it is outside is because I tried to get rid of it at the MOAYS, to no avail.  So, last Friday I posted this pic on Craigslist under the heading FREE BAR, and an hour later, it was gone.

Here are some interiors.  The paint is the has not been touched since I moved in 14 years ago.  I slapped up the chair rail border over the trout-fishing border that was there before. 

The overhead bar lights are coming out and a big screen is going where the bar ware currently sits.  A 55 inch set will fit in there - do I follow my nephew Eric's advice - "buy the biggest tv that fits in the space."????

The furniture goes too.  The paint and the furniture are going to be very neutral grays and whites, then I can punch up the color with accessories - here are some things I have found that I really want:

I am also moving the pub dining table and monster lamp (pictures here from an old post)  from my sewing room down to the den, and revert the sewing room back to a guest room.  I can stash all my sewing in the adjacent storage room, and the table can do double duty.

Stay tuned for progress, and as soon as it all done, everyone is invited to the new woman cave!

Labor Days

Yes - three Labor Days.  This was the weekend of the big yard sale.  I had a pod full of the stuff we took out of my mom's house, along with some some of my junk accumulation.  The best friend in the world, Laura P, came over and brought a van full of stuff from her house.  We spread out all the way up my driveway and into my neighbor's yard, who by the way, also gets the award for best neighbor evah.  He did all the heavy lifting for us and was right there until the end boxing and organizing the left overs to go to charities.

We held the sale from 8:00 to 4:00 for three days, and cleared out a lot of the stuff, made a little money, and believe it or not, had one whale of a good time doing it. We met some of the nicest people, cutest kids, and some folks I fully expect to be featured on "Hoarders" at some time in the future. Even the weather was absolutely pleasant and dry.

I am also looking forward to the massage that is owed me - I bartered an old chair with a massage therapist! 

Chase is in the house!

I had the honor of escorting Penni's Chase to ringside today in Atlanta, after getting my face washed for the second time.

Ain't she Grand?

Grand Champion, that is.

Scout came out of semi-retirement on August 1 to do a few warmup shows before we went to the Western Reserve. Twenty days later, she is Grand Champion Cardiridge Jean Louise Finch HT RN. Proud of my girl and ready to get her back home!

Can we please get to work?

Judge is taking a one hour lunch break between classes and BOB.

Scout BOS!