Ahhhhh Finally A Dog Show :-)

After months and months of no dogs shows, we FINALLY got to go to a specialty and an all-breed dog show.

The Willamette Valley Saluki Club held their annual Specialty show on June 19, 2009. As we helped with the show, the weekend really began on Thursday evening with a drive out to Canby to help set up the specialty rings.

We only had Katie entered at the specialty as I was involved in to many of the show activities. Katie showed really well and at the end of the day, she was Best in Specialty Show. Katie is Bill's first champion, and now she is his first Specialty winner. The win was under a breeder judge which makes it even more special.

We took Saturday off for a few non-doggy items and we were back at the show bright and early Sunday Morning. This time we had Kayla entered too and brought Lacey along for the ride so that she wouldn't be lonely at home by her self.

Since Kayla never wants to let Katie have the last word, she marched out and won Best of Breed also under a breeder judge.

It has been 10 months since our last shows, we were only entered for two of the days and walked home with two very nice wins....

I think I have my dog show fix for a bit....but I'm sure it won't last for long!

The Mosaic

Last summer I took a mosaic class and loved it and came up with the great idea of putting a mosaic on the porch. I haunted the Rebuilding Center and the Restore (Habitat for Humanity) looking for just the right tiles to use for the mosaic. A friend even gave me some left over tiles. After all of my searches and purchasing I had everything I needed to begin the project. Well by then the flowers in that bed were too tall and I couldn't do the mosaic.

I was sure first thing this spring that I would start my project, but I had other excuses and didn't get around to it. So yesterday I decided that this was the time. I got out the glue gun and the tiles I selected for the base layer and began the project. As you can see I waited just a bit long and now have to deal with the dahlia's that are already starting to grow.

This is going to be a learning experience so I decided to the heck with straight lines, let's just jump in and get going. I have begun the project and can't wait to get going on it.

Of course today it's raining so the project is on hold.

Bicycle Donation Program

About a month or so ago Bill came up with a community service idea of helping to provide bicycle to some needy kids. He is working with an organization called "Rita's Place". Rita's Place assists families in need and Bill has been gathering used bicycles and working to clean them up and in some cases combining parts from several of them to make a single bicycle. We spent part of yesterday washing, drying, waxing and putting together bikes. We bought the little blue frame in this picture for $1.00 at a garage sale, took the wheels off of another bike that was beyond repair and went out and purchased new tires for the rims.

This has been quite a project gathering the bikes, some have been nice and some not so nice. There are bikes in the shed, on the patio, and in the living room.

All of the recipients of the bikes need to have a helmet and he is working with the Sandy Fire Department as they have people who can fit the helmets. Also everyone will be provided with a lock for their new bikes.

Looking forward to the day when the bikes will be given to their new owners.

Portland Fit Half Marathon Goal

Bill brought home a nasty bug and was sick in bed for 5 days a couple of days after that I ended up with the same thing. Whatever it was, it was nasty and really put us off our run schedule Bill ended up missing 5 scheduled runs and I missed 6, which totally fouled up the planned Helvatia Half Marathon. So being the creative people that we are, we found another half marathon to shoot for and have adjusted the run schedule back a couple of weeks so that we can continue to train. Yesterday we ran 7 miles and actually used the new roads by our house rather than getting in the car and driving to our start spot. It worked out quite nicely other than trying to dodge the construction trucks that were on 172nd. We are back on target and looking forward to our scheduled half marathon.