Booms & Babies

 A day late and a dollar short, but Happy 4th of July.  One of my least favorite holidays (probably right behind Christmas) due to all of the pyromaniacs in my neighborhood who like to shoot off fireworks for a solid month surrounding the actual day.

This year has been better, I will admit, largely in part to the burn ban in place due to our extraordinarily hot and dry summer.  There are always idiots who ignore this, however, and while they may have had to cut back on their big backyard shows, they do still set off the occasional M80 and other big boomers.

Secret has been doing okay.  I haven't bothered to even put on her Thundershirt since it really hasn't been that bad.  Last night, being the actual holiday and all, was obviously the worst night yet and she coped okay pretty much until about 9:45 when things started getting more active outside.  I let her just ride it out in the bathroom.  She came out around 10:40 or so, just in time for the idiots in my neighborhood to arrive home from the public show and start up their own pyrotechnics.  Secret retreated back to the bathroom for an undetermined amount of time -- I fell asleep on the couch (knowing I couldn't exactly let the dogs out and go to bed) and she was there with us when I woke up later.

The babies portion of this post refers to our new neighbors!  Mama Robin moved in a couple of weeks ago and I've been keeping an eye on her nest.  It's right behind the porch light on the back deck.  It's up high enough that I can't see into the nest (even standing on a chair), but I've discovered it works well to hold up my cell phone and snap photos to check the progress.  The eggs showed up some time ago and I counted three.  Yesterday there were two babies!!  In my photo yesterday I saw two babies and two eggs, which surprised me.  Today the best I can see is two babies and one egg, so who knows what is in that nest.  Maybe eventually I'll get a good head count.  They sure are ugly little babies.

Mom is surprisingly tolerant and unafraid of us.  She has been letting me get very close and doesn't seem to be flying away every time the door is opened any longer.  I try not to disturb her too much.  I set out a plate of fruit (grapes, strawberries and blueberries -- I bought what I would eat, too -- lol) and unfortunately it doesn't look like anyone is eating it.  With as dry as it's been I thought it would be nice to provide something for her, but oh well.  The original plate is still out baking in the sun.  I might try changing it out one more time and see how it goes.  I just have it sitting on a tall stool in the yard -- it's hard to find a spot that the dogs won't get to it and I don't have any bird feeders.

 There have been a million recipes and photos going around Facebook recently regarding homemade recipes for "Pupcicles."  In other words, frozen treats for dogs.  I finally jumped on the bandwagon and just slopped together random stuff that I figured they would enjoy.  This particular batch was made using half a small can of pumpkin, several large spoonfuls of yogurt, a jar of banana baby food and two good sized glops of peanut butter.  I didn't measure anything, but the amount turned out pretty perfect for 12 dixie cups, which then all went into the freezer.  The dogs LOVED licking out the bowl, so I figure they're a hit.

Once again it's a million gazillion degrees outside (yesterday was 103, today is supposed to go over 100 again with a heat index around 115).  We played frisbee around 9:00 while it was still a measly 90 degrees and then everyone got hosed off to help them cool down.  We've been hanging inside the air conditioned house since then, but we did just go outside to test out our now frozen Pupcicles.  They went over well -- Although I was only able to get a picture of Kaiser enjoying his because the other two had them gone too quickly.

I don't know that I'll ever get a chance to Frontline the dogs again, as we've been making daily trips to the river in this awful heat.  Maybe next week we'll get a break.

I decided against going to the dock diving event tomorrow.  Turns out it's not in Janesville, it's actually south of Milwaukee on Janesville Road (hence the event title: Jammin' on Janesville).  That adds a significant amount of mileage and I decided it's just not worth it.  Between gas and entry fees, I can put that $100 to much better use.

Like driving down to the Chicago USDAA Regionals the first weekend in August.  We have very few trial choices in August, so it's either that or a day of NADAC in Iowa.  The Regional event is running Starters/Advanced classes in one ring on Sunday morning.  It's just Standard, Gamblers & Jumpers, but with Kaiser in P1 and Secret in P2 I'd be running everything.  It would require a hotel stay the night before (since it's a four hour drive and starts at 8:00 a.m.), but I should be able to leave at a good time -- I don't think the Starters/Advanced classes are going to be too large at a Regional event.  I tossed around the idea of going down early on Saturday and entering Secret & Kaiser in the Regional Performance Speed Jumping class since they are both qualified, but I can't really justify it.  Maybe next year.  It's a bummer they aren't offering Snooker, since Kaiser needs one each of Standard, Gamblers & Snooker to move up.

We do still have our NADAC trial coming up here in La Crosse in a couple of weeks.  We'll see if we actually get in any training time before then -- hopefully the heat lets up one of these days!  If we get the opportunity, I suppose we should consider working on some Chances skills one of these days.