Rottweilers Ate My Laptop

As I get older, I get wussier about long drives, especially after dark. Five and a half hours home from Lake St. Louis has just about wiped me out.

Axel ended a very successful January with Julia by qualifying in Rally both days this weekend. That gives him the three legs needed for the Rally Novice title, so he is now CH Precious Gems Axel vom Viersen, RN, CGC. I am beyond happy with his accomplishments over the past month, and beyond grateful to Julia for making them happen.

And I’m ending a successful January NaBloPoMo with this very short post!

(NaBloPoMo | January ’10: 31 of 31)

While there have been no major disasters today, things haven’t gone quite as smoothly as I had hoped.

Freya is accompanying me on this trip to pick up Axel. She is a fairly good traveler and settles down pretty quickly in the van. She’s also pretty quick to settle down when crated at training or trials. I’ve never taken her to any out-of-town trials or seminars, though, so this is her first time staying in a motel with me. So far it has been kind of a pain.

Neither of us is very happy about the fact that pets-allowed rooms are also smoking rooms. Freya didn’t stop sniffing for so long I was afraid she was going to hyperventilate. I haven’t smoked in almost 20 years so I find the smell to be hugely noticeable. It kind of put both of us off our food.

Neither of us is very happy about the fact that we did not arrive in time to get a first-floor room. To make matters worse, both staircases to the second floor have open steps. Freya is not particularly fond of stairs and open steps are like a special kind of stair hell to her. And to me, since I practically had to drag her upstairs.

She has finally calmed down enough to watch TV and chew on a bone and allow me to type this. In about an hour, the stair portion of the bedtime potty break trip will be expedited with the most enticing food I have with me. Then we will both get a good night’s sleep. I hope!

(NaBloPoMo | January ’10: 30 of 31)

This has been an extremely long week. One of my business partners was out sick all week, and another was out for a day and a half. It wasn’t the swine flu, although it might be a plain vanilla flu. It does not seem that any of the rest of us are infected… yet. To add to the fun, our proofreader left for vacation on Wednesday (one of those vacations that are for a special occasion and can’t really be moved).

I’m sure I could write about this long week, but it would just be complaints about how a hundred minor things always go wrong, and projects that were put on hold always show up during the week that you are short staffed. And since most of you have lived that, you probably don’t want to live my version too.

So… have a great weekend, everyone! Freya and I are headed to Lake St. Louis tomorrow after her class to pick up Axel. I’m expecting a very exciting reunion!

(NaBloPoMo | January ’10: 29 of 31)

I don’t have enough for a really good post on any one topic today. So…

• Thanks to Allan Ross for featuring Freya on his blog today!
• I have not yet gotten tired of MadTV’s years-ahead-of-its-time iPad “commercial.” MadTV had its ups and downs, but overall I liked it better than most of the last decade of SNL.
• I’ve now seen the videos from Freya’s trial this past weekend, and I’ll do a full post sometime in the next few days. OMG, can you say crooked sits!! I love having video to help work out training issues. Thanks to Cathi for filming us!
• I still get a fair number of visits to the blog from people searching for information on Mary Wild and Lora Hunt. I have very mixed feelings on the fact that I get blog traffic because of people who have caused wrongful deaths.
• As for other search engine news, I am glad my Rottweilers did not eat a couch, Furminators definitely work on Rottweilers (on mine anyway), and yes, Rottweilers are brilliant!
• Just a few more days and Axel will be home!

(NaBloPoMo | January ’10: 28 of 31)

Why is it so hard to find good (emphasis on good) information on the ‘net unless you already sort of know the answer? Case in point: I just had a physical and my bloodwork says my cholesterol is okay but my triglycerides are a little high. For every page containing useful and (probably) true information about diet and lifestyle changes to help lower triglycerides, there are a dozen trying to sell me their special fish oil with Omega 3s that are better than that other guy’s Omega 3s, and a dozen more with old wives’ tales or non-information. I really don’t know that much about nutrition, but I do know when someone is trying to sell me fish oil! This is going to be bad, by the way. I live for carbohydrates, especially white rice (I am Japanese so I will say it is genetic), and I am supposed to be cutting back on those.

As for today’s events of the generally regarded as noteworthy variety, I really don’t have that much to say about either one.

I’m running out of feminine hygiene jokes about Apple’s iPad (I had completely forgotten about that ahead-of-its-time MadTV sendup; link may or may not work by the time you click it). Like most Apple products, it’s eye-catching and has that cool gadget cachet. Like most Apple products, it’s also somewhat overpriced. And unfortunately, like one other Apple product, you’re stuck with AT&T if you want 3G service. Still a deal breaker in my world. Also, the manic rah-rah Apple fanboys/fangirls are getting on my nerves, as they always do. Folks, it’s hardware, not a religion.

I haven’t watched any video from the State of the Union address yet. I’ll look for some highlights and bullet points before I go to bed. Prez, just a reminder that your new-guy free pass is just about expired. Obama fanboys/fangirls get on my nerves even more than the Apple fanboys/fangirls.

(NaBloPoMo | January ’10: 27 of 31)

I grew up in Hawaii. Spam is a legitimate food item. Don’t go ewww’ing at me. Hey, it’s not like you never eat things I wouldn’t put on my table, let alone in my mouth, so don’t judge me.

You might notice something contradictory in this photo of my lunch just before I wrapped it. I’ve mentioned before that you don’t really need a musubi press to make these. Well, you don’t, and I still wouldn’t buy an overpriced one online. Picking one up at the drugstore in Honolulu for a reasonable price is another matter indeed. As you can see, I did use it this morning. It made things go slightly faster so maybe I will come over to the dark side on this.

I have to say I am amazed at the number of spam musubi how-to pages that exist online, including those with photo or video step-by-steps. Some of them make it sound so complicated that you’d think it takes longer to make than a gourmet meal. But all you really need to say is what Chris Pirillo said.

What? Despite all that, you still want to know how I make mine? I’ll try not to make it sound too complicated:

Rice. I personally don’t care if it’s hot, warm or cold. Maybe you do, and that’s fine. It has to be short-grain calrose rice, cooked so it sticks together. See the overpriced Zojirushi rice cooker in the background? Absolutely the best way to go. Some things are worth their overly high prices.

Spam. This morning I used one of those single serving packages. I usually fry it in soy sauce with a dash of sugar, but I was short on time so I just nuked it with same for half a minute on each side. The single serving slice yields two pieces that fit the musubi mold, and there is a little strip left over for the dogs. Dogs love spam or hot dogs cooked in soy sauce. Trust me on this. I guess you could eat the little strip yourself if you don’t have a dog to help.

Sushi nori. I like mine to cover about one-third to one-half of the musubi, not the whole thing. So that is the width of the strip I tear off.

Put sushi nori on a plate, or if you are packing a lunch, a piece of plastic wrap. Put the musubi mold on top of the nori, towards one end of the strip. Put some rice in and pack it down tight. Lift off the mold, put the spam on top of the rice, and wrap the nori around. Enjoy, or wrap and pack.

You say I am doing that wrong? No, I am just not making it the way you like best. Go make your own!

I am a long-time satisfied user of Hormel’s Spam and Zojirushi’s rice cookers, and I have no connection to either company. Rice cooker and Spam were purchased by my husband and me.

(NaBloPoMo | January ’10: 26 of 31)

Note to self: If you do “Save Draft” and not “Publish,” then no one gets to see what you write. Not that it would always be a bad thing, but, yeah.

I was deciding whether to post Freya’s Saturday class video and commentary, or write a little more about Sunday’s trial. But for some reason I am thinking about Jake, mostly because APDT Rally Obedience encourages disabled dogs and handlers to participate and goes as far as allowing certain exercise modifications so that they may do so safely and successfully. I think this is absolutely wonderful.

Jake has been gone for over seven years now, but he was one of my heart dogs so he is never far from my thoughts. He was an amputee due to accident, which is what took my post in this direction. Only a few of you who visit me here probably remember him in real life, but you can read what I wrote about him about a year ago.

Although the APDT and rally obedience were both in existence during Jake’s lifetime, I didn’t know much about either one until later. After he had recovered fully from the amputation surgery, my challenge was to keep this active dog busy and happy, or at least out of trouble. Since Schutzhund competition involves a 1-meter jump and an A-frame, it was not something we could easily return to. So I just started to look around for things we could do, and titles we could achieve.

All AKC titles were then, and still are now, off the table for disabled dogs. The Canine Good Citizen test was a possibility. In 1998, the CGC guidelines which encouraged participation for disabled handlers were already in existence. The guidelines that now exist, welcoming disabled dogs to participate, did not exist at that time. There were more than a few clubs that chose to defer to the AKC show rules which referred to disqualification of dogs who appeared lame. It took way more phone calls and emails than I ever imagined to get a club to allow Jake to test. And then he failed his first attempt. He did pass on a later attempt, even though at heart he was more outlaw than good citizen.

I don’t even have to look up the names of the people who helped me in my quest: Mary Burch from the AKC, and Tammy Dean from Glenbard All Breed Obedience Club. I like to think we are all part of the reason that the CGC evaluator guidelines now specifically state:

Dogs with disabilities such as the loss of a leg, deafness, or blindness in one eye are welcome in the Canine Good Citizen Test. Dogs must perform all of the 10 items to pass the test, however, handlers may use hand signals, gestures, or other cues to which the dog has been trained to respond.

Anyway. He also got a doctor’s note to be allowed to take ATTS’s Temperament Test, which he passed with flying colors despite his outlaw leanings. I was not even their volunteer webmaster yet at the time.

Back then, UKC specifically allowed disabled dogs to participate in obedience competitions. I went so far as to register him with UKC, but since their CD, unlike the AKC CD, involved a jump, I decided not to put him through it. For the rest of his life, we got out to club and as much obedience and protection training as he could handle.

Titles aren’t important… yet, they are. I would have so loved to do Rally with him. He was truly my best working partner and we would have had a lot of fun with it. Miss you, Jakey. I hope you are proud of me and Freya.

(NaBloPoMo | January ’10: 25 of 31)