Roxy training diary month 56
January 2008

Rasslin'

Oh Boy!  Jolly Ball!

Uhm...Let Me Help You With That, Kid

Roxy & Sky Playing: Movies

Jan 26. I flew out to Oakland yesterday to pick up our new Honda Pilot, which I bought from eBay.  It was a new experience for me, all the way around.

If anyone is looking for a car and willing to travel to California to get it (or have it shipped to them), then I can definitely recommend Mike and Katerina Salido from DriveBid.  They were fantastic from start to finish.  The whole thing went smooth as glass.

Not so the drive back; there was a major storm and the roads were slick with rain up to above Sacramento on I-80.  Then, over the Sierras, the rain turned to snow and the chain law was in effect.  It was a scary drive.

After many fits and starts, I finally got an iPod-compatible radio installed in the car (it required stopping in at least five different places, long story) and so from Reno on, I had my iPod for company.

News of the Weird: You can't make this stuff up.  Consider the juxtaposition of this story and this one.

Annie Gets the Spatula

Sky Takes Over

Yogurt Ear

Jan 24.  Thursday was "yogurt day" at our house.

About three or four times a week, I have a smoothie for breakfast: 1 c skim milk, 1/2 c fat-free yogurt, whatever fruit I can find, all in a blender.

That means that every week to 10 days, I have an empty yogurt container.  I get what I can with the spatula.

As longtime readers of the RoxyLog will remember, Dylan's job was to lick out the container after it was as clean as I could get it.  No one else could do it; Dylan defended his right to clean the yogurt with threats and intimidation.

Now that Dylan is gone, Sky has been given the awesome responsibility of Yogurt Boy.  Sky likes his new job.

Jan 21.  In the face of another foot or so of snow, I ventured out this morning to pick up the girls at Ruffledale.  We had told them they were in for a surprise when we got back, but Roxy and Annie both seemed unimpressed with baby Sky.  Roxy was more mystified, and Annie wanted nothing to do with this puppy.

In time, everyone came around.  Roxy found that Sky made a pretty decent playmate, if a bit fragile.  He likes rasslin' with Roxy.  Annie is sure they're not doing it right. 

WTF?

WTF?

I Want Nothing to Do with This.

Annie Pulling

Roxy Boxing

Practicing His "Cute Look"

Jan 20.  Back home again with new puppy Sky.  You knew Sky pictures were coming; here's the first batch.

Sky is the Dog Formerly Known As Cain, or Slash. 

This morning, since I needed to get some miles in, I signed up for a race in Reading, Pennsylvania called the "Chilly Cheeks".  I'm no trail running virgin, so I figured, "how much worse can it be than (say) running a trail run at a ski resort?"  Well, much worse. 

I emailed the organizer to see if he had a map with elevation profile and got this response:

Eve and Puppies, Reunited Briefly

Sky Rampant

Sky Squirrel

There is no course map; some of these trails are actually just cut for the day of the race and show up on NO map.  The hills are at approx: .25 Miles-medium hill, steep at times, but bushwacking across uncut trail   3/4 Mile-small hill, 1.3M-small incline but constant for about 3/4 of a mile,  2 mile: medium uphill for about 300 yrds,   3.15M-medium hill for about 1/4 mile,  3.65M- TUFF hill for about 1/2mile at least,
4.3M-small hill that is gradual but long, 5.9M- short but mean little climb, 6M-OH MY GOD, welcome to Mt WhatDaFug. WORST hill in any of my 6 trail runs. 7.1M: Mt Mud, short but very steep; you WILL use your hands here.

I thought he was joking.  He was not. There were actually two places where one crawled on one's hands and knees to make it up the hill, and plenty more places where I considered it.  I only fell twice.  It was maybe 15 degrees with a 20 mph wind on top of it, and the footing wasn't great.

I was much later finishing than I planned, finishing 290th out of 422.  I "ran" 7.25 miles in 1:33, if you can call crawling on your hands and knees or slipping on your butt "running".   It was a unique experience, and those people are crazy.

I got back to Monica and David's just in time to take Rosemary and Sky to the airport.  Mother Eve was there for a visit — she had gone back home but came to see her puppies off just this once.  That's Sky on the left in the top picture. 

The flight back was great.  When Odene, the lead flight attendant, saw that Rosemary had taken Sky up to first class (the way we had planned, I bought it with my SkyMiles — get it?) she found me a seat up there as well.  So, the whole family got to fly first class.  If you're ever on Delta and see Odene, tell her "hello" and maybe buy her some flowers or something.

Sky is home now, and playing with a squirrel he brought from his former home.

The other crazy thing we did this week was to buy a new car.

We have been talking for some time about getting rid of the 2001 Ford Econoline van, which is bigger than what we need with our pared-down family.  We used to travel to agility trials every other weekend, when we lived in Jackson; now we don't so much anymore.  It won't fit in the garage and takes up space in the driveway. 

So, we were thinking of some sort of SUV that would get better gas mileage and still have considerable cargo room for the dogs, but would be something we could take to the store if need be. 

We finally narrowed it down to three Honda models: the Element, the CR-V, and the Pilot.

I had done some homework, and had a pretty good idea what was available online through eBay and Craigslist.  I have friends who purchased cars on eBay and were happy, but it just seems so ... dangerous.

So, we went to a local dealer of a cold, blustery Friday and test drove the three cars we were interested in.  Rosemary really fell in love with the Pilot on our test drive.  The dealership wanted $26K for it, and that was more than we wanted to spend, and much more than the car was worth.  I told the dealer to come closer to $20K.  Finally, after much theatre, the out-of-town sales guy suggested that $17K might be a good price.  I said "sure" and he started hemming and hawing, and then came back with a real offer of $20K, with our van in trade .  That tore it.  We left.

At home, I went back to eBay and started pulling up possibles with Carfax reports on each so we could evaluate what was out there.  We tossed anything that wasn't a one-private-owner vehicle with no accident record.  That left us with four possibles. We finally decided to make an offer on a 2005 Honda Pilot, silver, with only about half of the mileage of the one we test drove — 37K.  The final negotiated price was about what the salesman had given us as a fake number, half the miles, no trade-in.  The company selling it is called DriveBid and they seem to sell a lot online.  It's owned by a husband and wife, Michael and Katerina Salido. I am flying out to California Friday to pick up the car and then will drive it back.  It all seems crazy to me, and I hope it works out.

Now we have to sell off the van. 

Sky Bundled for Shipping

Cain gnawing on a toy squirrel tail.

Abel - whose ears are thinking about standing up.

Apple - included because she is so darn cute!

Jan 12.  We have discovered all kinds of problems with a lot of snow.

On Thursday, we received a notice from the post office complaining about our mailbox being blocked by a four-foot-high berm of snow the city snowplow had made.  It's a lot of work shoveling out a four-foot-high berm of snow.  Our neighbor appeared with his snow blower and together, we did a pretty good job, then we did some of the neighbors' mailboxes as well.

Sky's breeder has sent us a new video of seven week old puppies.  One more week to SkyDay!

Jan 9. Snow. More snow.  Even more snow.  Did I say we had a lot of snow?  The most snow in 4 years and more due tomorrow.   Roxy decided to leap onto the snow and found herself in snow up to her ears.  Annie goes out only on a Flexi so we don't have to rescue her.  We'd shovel more but there's nowhere to put it!

Happy, Mom.

The 14 Year Old Puppy

Gerard, 9 days old

Jan 3.  We returned from a relaxing and too-short vacation to see the family in Colorado.

I would say Roxy and Annie were happy to see us, as shown in these pictures.  It's hard to believe Annie will be 15 in March, because she still has her "puppy moments".  This picture captures one of them.

Now it's time to concentrate on returning to the classroom.  Online classes start Saturday, Jan 5; face-to-face classes start Monday, Jan 7.  I will be spending the next few days getting those classes prepped and ready to go.

I haven't been keeping true to my running calendar.  The upcoming Catalina Marathon, frankly, scares me.  I just don't know if I can do that.

Jan 1.  We received New Year photos of both boys.  They are incredibly cute! 

Their breeder is calling them Slash and Comma, based on the shape of their eye markings, but we know they are really Cain and Abel.

Cain aka Slash.

Abel aka Comma.