Catching up (September & the beginning of October)

Not sure if I should work from the most recent event back or the other way around! I did not mean to not blog this long.

Saturday, September 18
It was a “me” day since Dan was working. I went to my friend’s (MW) house for a Tupperware party and an afternoon of scrapbooking. MW lives 1 ½ hour away, so made it worth it. It was a great drive – I enjoyed the small town about one mile from MW’s house. I would like to go check that place out.

MW is BIG into Tupperware and her parties are the only one’s I’ve gone too – AND they are FUN! The flow of the party hasn’t changed since I’ve last gone. You play a “pick it’ game – that you may have to have a party or maybe not and then an auction with play money. I decided to do the “pick it” game – since I probably would have ended up booking a party anyway. Sure enough, I picked the card where I’m supposed to have a party (I did get a scoop out of it too). So this week is the party (October 9). I did win at the auction though – since I booked a party, I got extra “money” so I won the item I wanted. (see What I got at the Tupperware party today ). MW and I had a little bidding war against the towel set since she wanted the dishrag (and I wanted the towel), so she “won” the set and then ended up giving me the towel.

After the party, I worked on organizing my digital photos on the computer. I felt like I got some things accomplished.

Monday, September 20
Usually we miss the community Doggy Dip Day, since they have it on the day after Labor Day. But this year, the community decided to extend the pool two extra weekends and on the 20th had the Doggy Dip Day.

I knew Esa would have a great time, but wasn’t sure how Zed would react. Zed basically stayed by my side the majority of the time or if he saw Dan he would run over to him and follow him. When he did get a few feet away, I couldn’t tell if he was “lost” or having fun. So I would call his name and he would come over to me.

Let me just say – he is a little ladies man. ALL of the under 7 girls were all over him. I had to watch to make sure they didn’t pick him up or he didn’t mind the attention. It was cute.

He also had a flashback to the cottage and jumped up on the lounges (onto one that someone was sitting on), so then I sat down on one and he sat on it with me. He also started jumping one to another.

Monday, September 27
It bothers both of us with Zed being territorial and skittish at the same time. I was pretty sure we were on the right path with getting him out of the territorial habit (almost acting aggressive when seeing something he does not know). I don’t like the way that looks to another dog owner.

He is so food oriented that as soon as I pull out a treat (when he starts being territorial) and say “leave it”, he does. Or if I pull out the spray bottle, he’ll stop. I wanted to make sure, so I had LN, our trainer from Petsmart who trained us with Esa, come over to visit. She said we were on the right path! So we will continue with the treat/leave it command and hopefully he will improve.

Thursday, September 30
So after about a week of my big toe on my left foot hurting me (and kinding of turning colors), I decided to get to the podiatrist. First thing he did was take x-rays. The verdict –arthritis. I told him about the bruising that happened at the beginning of the year, but he said it was probably that. So I’ll be getting some new shoes out of this. Even my dressy Crocs bother my foot – no more heels. I tried wearing my flat boots the other day and they hurt my foot too! I think with them it’s not enough cushioning in the toe area. This (getting old) just sucks. Oh well – new shoes, here I come.

Saturday, October 2
We both debated whether or not to get tickets to the 2nd annual Caps Convention. But then, I thought we might regret it. So we went. I think we’ll skip next year. Once again, it was a LOT of standing around in line and not getting to go to any of the discussions. However, there was a LOT more room and it didn’t feel as crowded as last time. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed it, but it’s tiring just standing in line waiting.

We got autographs of Matt Hendricks, John Erskine, Tomas Fleishmann & DJ King. To both Matt & DJ I said welcome to the team. Dan was able to get a couple of pics of me waiting for the signatures.

After that, we went to check out the alumni line and I just had it. I could not stand in line any more. It wasn’t worth it. So we left.

The best part of the day was walking from the car to the convention center. We crossed the street and walked into the building right behind Peter Bondra (his son and some guy in a suit)! No one noticed him.

Monday, October 4
So igoogle is always up on the computer when I’m at work. I saw that Cesar Millan posted he was in DC. Then someone else posted about winning tickets through Fishbowldc.com. I started following them and when they posted the contest, I entered. Within the hour, I got a response “can you come tonight?”. WOOHOO! I immediately called Dan and said – “Call in sick”.

He grabbed the camera and all of my Cesar books for the event (not sure what to expect). We had a little issue getting to the place just because his GPS was dead and we were a little lost and stuck in traffic. We finally made it to the parking garage and went to the lobby area. We asked about ‘checking in” since we “won” (free) tickets and they just handed them to us. We bought the new book (which wasn’t released until the next day), got in line and then after a few minutes got to go in the auditorium. There weren’t that many there – maybe 75 people. A lot less than I expected. They showed the Season 7 premiere that isn’t airing until Friday (October 8) and then Cesar came out to answer questions.

It was really cool to see him in person. When Cesar first came out, you could tell he was very humbled and out of his realm. Some people had good questions – how they picked what clients to show, how many clients his takes care of each day, two actual “what do I do” questions. One “what do I do” questions ended with “please take our dog”. They were a couple, sitting right down front and the guy was an amputee soldier. He asked the question about how to handle their pitbull who is afraid of other dogs (and he said he knows she was not socialized by them). Then his wife said “I prayed for you to come to the East Coast so I could meet you and that you would take our dog” Then someone in the audience said “you need to help the Cesar, do a show with them” This was after the wife said that they really don’t have time for it. SUCH A SET UP! At least that’s what it looked like. Yet, they mentioned that they have another pitbull – I don’t get it. Cesar handled it well and pulled his producer in since they are the ones who pick the clients for the show.

After the questions, we all got in line for the booksigning. They announced that it was no personalizing of books and no posed pictures (per request of the publisher). They needed the line to move quickly as Cesar needed to drive to NY after the event.

When we got up to Cesar, we were able to get all the books signed and Dan got a couple of pictures. I pulled out a picture of Esa & Zed and showed him and Cesar asked “How old is the red one?” I said “Esa is 3 and we think Zed is 6 years old. We just got him about 5 months ago.”

That was it. Go Esa – she always gets the attention. She’s such a cutie.