Request For Help and Random Thoughts

I swear that my mind has been all over the place today! Following in this vein will be today's post. I've got a couple of questions to put forth to those reading the blog (and hopefully able to comment!) and then a bunch of random thoughts. Most of these random thoughts surround the upcoming national specialty, which is only a MONTH AWAY!!!

Firstly, if you'll notice off to the right hand side of the posts, I've added a poll. I've got both dogs entered in the Parade of Performance Title Holders. I've got my outfit figured out (though only 50% completed), their collar maker figured out, what they're going to do figured out, and what song Heffner will be in the ring to. I'm stuck on Bess though. ARG! My theme is Backstreet Boys because I love them so! Heffner's song is going to be "I Want It That Way" for a multitude of reasons. But I'm having difficulty coming up with a song of theirs that's well known and suits Bess enough. I've got three options right now, but if you have another idea, PLEASE leave me a comment!

Secondly, I need ideas for their collars!! Kennedy is going to be making their collars and I said that I would come up with some ideas for her and I'm struggling! She put out some questions to get my thinking going and I'm just dead in the water. I tried finding some iron on BSB paraphernalia and came up with zilch. I really need to get my order in with her soon so that she has enough time to make them. So if you've got ideas, by all means, fire away!!

I worked the dogs this morning on bits and pieces of things that we're working on for obedience and they were all across the board awesome!! I was a little paranoid because our Monday morning practice wasn't all that stellar, but that's probably what I should expect after they had almost a week of nothing with me being gone at the conference and then sporadic other activities that impinged on my training time. They were so on this morning though! I was really proud! Bess especially has made leaps and bounds and I hope that it continues.

Heffner had a chiropractor appointment today. Bess really laid him out a couple of times at the beach last week. That and I'm shooting for getting him in at least every six months to keep up on things. His right pelvis was a little out again, but she got things more aligned. I'll take him back to see her again in two weeks and possibly one more time right before we leave for the national specialty. I want him feeling his best!

We leave for the Litchfield Park, AZ on Oct. 26 and I'm starting to get all of the my check lists in order to make sure that I take care of everything I need to and make all the arrangements necessary. All of our entries are in. I've ordered all the souvenirs that I wanted. I've signed up for the agility workshop with both danes. I've bought tickets for the dinners that I plan on attending. I've ordered the catalogs that I wanted. I've signed both danes up for the echocardiogram clinic. I've already double checked my reservation with the host hotel!! And I think that covers the biggies. I'm getting really excited, but also a wee bit stressed because we're going to be away at a CPE agility trial the weekend before we leave. E-gads! Therefore all my advanced prepping needs to get done the week prior so that I can do the immediate stuff on Mon. and Tue. night. Oh yeah, I do still need to verify the route that I'm taking and who all are going to be in the caravan! That is definitely important!!

An email started circulating on one of the lists with more details about the Halloween dinner! I'm super stoked!! They're really putting a lot of effort into the dinner with a magician, DJ, costume contest, and now they're trying to get people to do a line dance to Thriller!! How cool is that?! Naturally, I'm totally game for it. Now I just need to learn the moves.;0)

And speaking yet more about the national specialty, towards the end of August I decided to create a page for the trip itself. Things are going to be busier this year since I'm bringing dogs and I don't know exactly how much time I'll have to update the blog or be on my computer much at all. I'm going to finally enter the world of smart phone users once the latest iPhone comes out, and I thought it would be entertaining to create a Facebook page to sort of document the trip itself and everything that goes on. I still plan on using my regular camera, but the iPhone will make it a ton easier to upload random shots and of course status updates.:0) I'm already a bit of a Facebook whore, and this will only further that. The side bonus is that you don't have to be an actual friend of mine in order to view the page! Sometimes the whole friending thing can get weird and not everyone wants to friend someone they don't know in person. Therefore, the page that will allow everyone who already has a Facebook account to keep up on what's going on if I sort of drop off the face of the planet.;0) I haven't done much on it, but just little random updates to keep me in the habit of at least periodically checking in. As the departure date approaches, more stuff will crop up. So if you're interested, just click here. I believe that my friend Chris may also be posting some of her trip on there as well!! She's got a really cute theme for their trip to the national since they're stopping at a few dog shows on the way. Any how, I'm hoping to have a lot of fun with it!

So yeah, most of my random thoughts surround the national. Probably because activity on various email lists regarding this has picked up as the date approaches. I'm really excited!! But it's going to be a lot of work to get there, a lot of work while we're there, and a lot of work getting back home. But definitely going to be worth it!!