A few friends of mine who's blogs I read regularly have been posting their typical daily schedule --- and I thought it was a fun idea and decided to do it myself.
5:15am: 1st alarm goes off - I hit snooze.
5:22am: 2nd alarm goes off - I hit snooze.
5:30am: 3rd alarm goes off; Loki wakes up and starts barking; get out of bed and let Odin and Loki out to potty
5:45am: make Ben's breakfast and pack Ben's lunch; play with the dogs
6am:. Head into the shower
6:10am: Kiss hubby bye; blow dry my hair and get ready for the day
6:50am: make breakfast (oatmeal and yogurt) and play with the dogs
7am: pack lunch; put dogs in their kennel with treats
7:30am: leave for work
8:30am: arrive at work (Sr. Project Manager at GLG); drink coffee
8:45am - 12:30pm: write / answer emails, attend various meetings, update project trackers / documents
12:30pm: eat lunch while continuing to work
1pm: continue emails, meetings, etc
5:15/5:30pm: head for home
6:30pm: arrive at home; change into comfy clothes
6:45pm: take Odin and Loki for a walk with Ben
7:30pm: make/heat-up dinner; feed the dogs
8:30pm: relax on the couch while catching up on TV, Facebook, blogs, email or play/snuggle with the dogs
10:30/11pm: lights out and asleep before head hits the pillow
Monday, September 19, 2011
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Pool Time
Sunday we had Ben's dad over with his dog Lacey for a play date since Loki was still on the road with our trainer at field trials and he was was getting bored of being home by himself . Since it was sunny and warm we thought the dogs might enjoy cooling off in the pool. Lacey wasn't sure of the pool at first but once she saw Odin playing in the water she was all for it.
Jam Time
We are reaping the benefits of having TONS of blackberry bushes lining our property these past couple of weeks with bucket fulls of ripe delicious berries. I spent about 1/2 hour on Sunday picking just the ones in front and on one side of the house and came back with almost 10 pounds worth. With this many berries and more riping everyday I got a little creative on what to use them for and attempted to make jam for the first time ever.
After scouring the Internet for a good recipe for strawberry blackberry jam with no added sugar I found one that sounded good and decided to give it a try. After washing, mashing and chopping blackberries and strawberries it was time to attempt the jam process. I decided to use the hot water boil method since I didn't have a caner. After the jam cooked and jars were filled with the sweet purple liquid into the hot water bath for 10 minutes. According to the recipe if the lids "popped" when they came out of the water bath after 10 minutes the jars were sealed properly.
While I haven't tried it yet, the jars "popped" when they came out of the water bath and after cooling it looks like jam. Hopefully it will be yummy and I may even try to make some more for Christmas presents this year since I have enough berries to make a couple more batches of jam.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Dogs, Horses and Lots of Sun
This weekend we packed up and hit the road for Madras, Oregon to the Boyce Corral Crooked River National Grasslands for the Oregon Brittany Club fall field trial. The drive to Madras from our house is about 6 hours and takes you through the Mt. Hood pass over to We got lucky and didn't have any road closures due to the wildfires in the area but did have a lot of smoke to contend with at times. Upon arrival in Madras we were greeted by upper 90 degree weather, sunshine, good friends including our trainer and his wife and our boys who we hadn't seen in two weeks. Odin of course was super excited to see Ben and didn't stop "talking" all weekend even though it drove us all crazy.
Friday night we headed back into town for Mexican food and the OBC awards dinner. It was great to spend an evening celebrating the achievements of fellow club members and their dogs. A handful of awards were given out including a couple of thank you awards for members that have given endless hours of support to the club and events. After dinner we headed back to Sonny's motel where it seemed like everyone without a horse trailer or camper who was attend the trial was also staying there and best part, they had a pool.
Saturday morning we headed back to the grasslands for the start of the trial which was being run on horseback and had 8 different stakes that would be run over the three days. Loki would be running in Open Derby again and Odin would run in Open Gun Dog. Both boys would be handled by Chris since this trial was going to be run on horseback and neither Ben or I are skilled in the art form of riding a horse, carrying a starter pistol and controlling a dog all at the same time. Ben did get the opportunity to ride Chris's horse Kip so that he could go out on Loki's brace which ended up being at 2pm in the afternoon and in 95 degree weather. He had a good run overall even with it being really hot but went bird less which meant he was out of contention for placements since no bird = no placement in this game. After all 6 braces ran it turned out that only one of the 12 dogs found a bird so we didn't feel too bad. That evening we had a wonderful potluck with deep fried turkey, salads, lots of goodies for dessert and Reggie's special margaritas.
Sunday we were back around 10 to see the boys and to hang out with everyone since Chris was judging the Amateur All Age Stake and running Odin in the afternoon. We got to hang out with Tina and their new puppy Patch in the camper which was nice since it was even hotter and the smoke was blowing in. We didn't have great hopes for Odin's run since it was so hot, he is carrying some extra weight for show and is still in show coat but Chis and Ben mounted up and headed out with him for his brace and were back in less than the 30 minutes since Odin wasn't wanting to be a gun dog and Chris pulled him since even if he finished he wouldn't have placed.
After a round of goodbyes to Loki who would be staying with Chris and Tina for another few weeks for more events we packed up Odin and said our goodbyes to everyone and hit the road to make the trek home. We definitely had a good time this weekend and are looking forward to learning to handle the dogs both on and off horses when we start prepping for next season in January and coming to more events next year as we pursue field championships for both Odin and Loki.
Friday night we headed back into town for Mexican food and the OBC awards dinner. It was great to spend an evening celebrating the achievements of fellow club members and their dogs. A handful of awards were given out including a couple of thank you awards for members that have given endless hours of support to the club and events. After dinner we headed back to Sonny's motel where it seemed like everyone without a horse trailer or camper who was attend the trial was also staying there and best part, they had a pool.
Saturday morning we headed back to the grasslands for the start of the trial which was being run on horseback and had 8 different stakes that would be run over the three days. Loki would be running in Open Derby again and Odin would run in Open Gun Dog. Both boys would be handled by Chris since this trial was going to be run on horseback and neither Ben or I are skilled in the art form of riding a horse, carrying a starter pistol and controlling a dog all at the same time. Ben did get the opportunity to ride Chris's horse Kip so that he could go out on Loki's brace which ended up being at 2pm in the afternoon and in 95 degree weather. He had a good run overall even with it being really hot but went bird less which meant he was out of contention for placements since no bird = no placement in this game. After all 6 braces ran it turned out that only one of the 12 dogs found a bird so we didn't feel too bad. That evening we had a wonderful potluck with deep fried turkey, salads, lots of goodies for dessert and Reggie's special margaritas.
Sunday we were back around 10 to see the boys and to hang out with everyone since Chris was judging the Amateur All Age Stake and running Odin in the afternoon. We got to hang out with Tina and their new puppy Patch in the camper which was nice since it was even hotter and the smoke was blowing in. We didn't have great hopes for Odin's run since it was so hot, he is carrying some extra weight for show and is still in show coat but Chis and Ben mounted up and headed out with him for his brace and were back in less than the 30 minutes since Odin wasn't wanting to be a gun dog and Chris pulled him since even if he finished he wouldn't have placed.
After a round of goodbyes to Loki who would be staying with Chris and Tina for another few weeks for more events we packed up Odin and said our goodbyes to everyone and hit the road to make the trek home. We definitely had a good time this weekend and are looking forward to learning to handle the dogs both on and off horses when we start prepping for next season in January and coming to more events next year as we pursue field championships for both Odin and Loki.
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