More...

You might notice that I've added a couple of columns to the right side. Music and books. The lists are a bit short right now as I haven't had time to sit down and compile the books I've read in the past couple of years. Music will be a bit more current, keeping up with what I listen to day to day. I'm a firm believer that social networking is the best way to expand musical tastes and experience different genres of music. So, if you have any recommendations, please let me know!

Updating the dogs. Sweeney is just about ready to get running again. His toe looks really good and he's finally not showing any lameness. He's been free running the backyard for a couple of weeks now with very good results. Not sure what's up with Lobo. Talked to one of our friends and she thinks it might be a slight tendon rupture. He's not very lame, even when he is. Right now I think we'll just let him rest a bit. No reason to push too much! Everett is doing well after his collision with Zydeco last Saturday at the Regional. That was one nasty wreck! Everett got thrown into the air ass over tea-kettle! He had the wind knocked out of him, but luckily that was the extent of his injuries. He finished 4th in the Regional.

Everett continues to amaze me. In St Louis, he finished his LCM 8 on Saturday, got first Sunday and took first on Friday before the Regional. So, he has 2 firsts and 100+ points for his LCM 9. I'd like to get that finished this year, just depends on how much we do. I know we'll have the end of year, but beyond that, maybe just ACC. We'll see.

Happy Thanksgiving!

What are you thankful for? I'm thankful for my wonderful family and great friends. We're blessed to share our lives with some pretty cool dogs too.

Try not to take anything for granted. Be Happy.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Yeah, Right!

If you ever go back and look at my grades in high school, you know this is a lie:

You paid attention during 91% of high school!

85-100% You must be an autodidact, because American high schools don't get scores that high! Good show, old chap!

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Tip of the hat to Tam.

SLASH

Last weekend Ruthanna and I made the trip to St. Louis for the SLASH field trials. Thanks to Karen Frederick and all the folks from SLASH for having me up to judge. It was a great time!

The boys did really well! Everett went BoB both days over 20 Whippets. Lobo took 4th both days. The run of the weekend for me was Lobo's final run on Saturday. After having a not so great prelims run, Lobo went out and nailed the course in finals, getting the highest score for any course for the day. Way to go Little Buddy!

The field at Purina is really nice with a lot of terrain, making it challenging for the dogs. They really had to pay attention in order to do well.

I really enjoy getting to go to other parts of the country to see how our dogs compare with dogs we don't see all the time. Region 7 is usually a hotbed of Whippets, but there are still plenty of really good dogs in other parts of the country and it's good to see what else is out there. I think Everett really earned the BoB's he got this weekend and defeated some really nice running dogs.

RIP

Rest In Peace Atlanta radio. It was announced today that 96 Rock will be changing format tomorrow to Active Rock (whatever the hell that is). I think it's what my kids listen to, basically screaming laid over a constant bass riff.

When 96 Rock started in 1974, I was 7 years old, not quite up to listening to Rock music (Mom and Dad were more of the easy listening types). But when I started to form my own taste in music 96 Rock was THE station to listen to. Through High School, that's all there really was (with a bit of punk and some new wave thrown in). Bruce Springsteen, REM, Rush, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin were all standard fare and, cheesy as it sounds, the soundtrack to my teen years.

More recently 96 Rock had morphed to sort of a Classic Rock format. Not bad, mostly stuff that was already classic when I was in High School. My taste in music has matured quite a bit since those days, but every once in a while 96 Rock was a good fallback. In addition, they had the best morning show on radio in Atlanta, The Regular Guys. TRG show was, for the lack of a better term, shock radio. Nothing really terrible, just inventive, funny stuff that was original and entertaining. TRG got suspended a couple of years ago because of a backwards porn stunt they were recording to poke fun at FCC rules in the wake of boob-gate. They were off the air for about a year but came back and were better, and smarter, than ever. Their latest incarnation lasted until last month when Clear Channel fired TRG.

I haven't listened to 96 Rock since that happened and probably wouldn't without some major development. It is sad to see though that the station that I grew up with is going away.

Coursing

It was a good coursing weekend, even if the weather was less than desirable. Decent weather on Saturday, highs in the upper 60's until the rain swept through around 2:30 and the temperature started dropping and the wind picked up. Miserable 30+* mph winds all night Saturday night prevented us from getting much sleep and then the wind pounded us almost all day on Sunday.

We had our friend Karen with us for the weekend and had a blast! She's so wonderful, wish she and Mike would just pick up and move down here! :)

The dogs did well. Not a huge entry, but top ranked dogs. Lobo went BOB on Saturday and took 1st on Sunday. Everett finished 2nd both days. Quite the turnout by the boys!!

Sweeney had his stitches out on Friday and the toe is looking good.

St Louis this weekend. See ya there! :)

*Estimated. Your mileage may vary

A distraction...

I've found something interesting that might have fulfill my wish from a few days ago. I'm playing with it now and finding it quite fun! I'm not going to say much more about it, but rest assured, it's pretty cool!

Sweeney and Ruthanna

I love this picture of Ruthanna and Sweeney from way back. Another great photo from Dan Gauss.

It's cruel to be kind

What's up with people these days? I see blogs of people bitching about the rudeness of others all over the web. This is just another one of those...with a twist. What I notice and hate is when someone does something nice for someone else and isn't acknowledged. The most obvious example of this is in traffic. I make it a point to try to let people in to traffic when we're not moving very much (and believe me, in McDonough, GA, that's a lot). Well, why don't people at least give you a little wave as just to say 'thanks'? I was raised in the South and taught from a very young age to be courteous to others whenever possible. I'm not perfect, but I sure try as often as I can. I just don't know why people just can say a little thanks for the kindness.

Are you worthy?

Are you worthy of US citizenship? I am! :)

You Passed the US Citizenship Test

Congratulations - you got 10 out of 10 correct!

Could You Pass the US Citizenship Test?

P...P...F

That's Sweeney and Dresda.
I'm looking to make a move. Don't go getting all freaked out, there's just something else I need to do in my life (in addition to the other stuff, not instead). Maybe I just need to decide once and for all what I want to be when I grow up! :)

Sweeney's doing well. We're 12 days post-op (or 7 days post-post-op) and did the second bandage change last night. The toe looks good, but looks kinda like a naked mole rat foot.

Happenings

Last week was the week from hell. Thank God this week has slowed down a bit. We had a small complication with Sweeney's surgery on Thursday so he had to go back in and have the to re-sutured. Probably more traumatic for Ruthanna than for anyone else. Unfortunately, when it came time to change his bandage for the first time, I was out of town at a conference and wasn't able to help. Not that I could have done anything to avoid the problem...

Anyway, Sweeney is doing much better. We did a bandage change a couple of days ago and everything looked great.

Last night being Halloween, we took Emily trick-or-treating. We all had a great time visiting a neighborhood near us. Man, I've never seen anything like that! I'd say at least 90% of the houses were decorated and lit. I bet that there were 1000+ kids roaming the streets. What a trip! I mean, this was a regular street party atmosphere! Kudos to Joyner Estates for putting on such a great show. They should charge admission!