(Bet we made you smile)
Tag Archives: fun stuff
Katie has a play date!
Not getting her feet wet.
By prearrangement I took Katie to a state park a few miles up the road to meet a friend and her dog Peep. Peep was in the same obedience class with Katie a long time ago, and we’ve been following her trials via facebook for the last couple of years.
When I got home from work tonight I asked Katie if she wanted to go to the park! And of course she did, spinning her excitement as I chopped up some cheese for treats. Her Dad brought up the fact that she was getting to go for a walk at the park and a ride in the car AND she was getting treats! Katie spun faster. I had to put her in the car before I was ready to leave, she was so excited.
Anyway, we made it to the park, one I’ve never visited before, and met up with Peep and her Mom. It’s a beautiful park and the dogs enjoyed exploring, both along the lakefront and on a trail into the woods.
Peep and Katie
I wondered how Katie would be with another dog, and it turns out neither of them cared particularly that the other one was there.
Noses busy.
In fact it was just about impossible to get a photo of the two of them together, how those of you with two dogs ever get them to sit still at the same time, in the same place is beyond me!
Regardless of the photo quality we all had a great time!
This was as close as we could get them…
Katie and I are looking forward to our next visit to the park with her new doggie friend!
…unless treats were involved.
Windows of DC
I could not resist capturing photos of windows (click on any of them for more detail) I saw while in DC.
Geometric
I wasn’t looking for windows in particular, but as the days went on I began to think maybe I should start a archive file just for them.
Reflective
They are fascinating…
Multiples
…in their shapes….
One opens
and their colors…
Home
…and the worlds that are just beyond the glass…
Endurance
…that we can only imagine.
Patient love
And here’s a door. Just because.
Welcome
I’m baa-ck!
Katie here.
Well. As most of you know my MAMA (who maybe should rethink her title) sent me off to doggie camp for ten days. TEN WHOLE DAYS! She just picked me up and boy am I letting her have it! WHINE WHINE WHINE…BARK BARK BARK.
I want to go OUT and then I want to come IN.
What’s out there Mama?
I even conned them into playing ball with me, then I took the ball and put it in the other room. Just to make them feel bad. I think it worked.
Mama keeps asking me if I want to take a nap. Huh. Like that’s going to happen.
Nope. I’m back and I’m doing my best to make sure she never thinks about taking me to camp again!
Hey Mama! Hey Mama!
PS: It wasn’t so bad there, but don’t tell them. Cause I want them to feel bad.
Really, really bad.
Me and my Mama.
Just a few more places to share with you.
Here’s just a few more photos to show you from our trip to DC. Click on any of them for more detail.
The Jefferson Monument.
I thought you might like to see some of the iconic sights…
Vietnam Wall reflections.
…and some you might not have seen before.
Korean Memorial.
And of course I knew you’d want to see the dog.
FDR’s Memorial is a lovely place along the river.
…plus just a couple cool things I saw along the way.
Georgetown during the ‘blue hour.’
Some things just begged to be photographed…
We were followed everywhere by the ‘kids in blue.’
…and others were hidden away.
Almost modern art.
Tomorrow…or sometime soon… I’m going to show you windows. But Katie-girl is coming home tomorrow so it might be awhile.
You know how she is.
Mr. Lincoln
Would you like to see the National Cathedral?
We spent today at several monuments and I’ll probably show you some of those, but for tonight, how about I show you the National Cathedral? (click on any photo to see more detail.) It sits high on a hill and is massive.
Front facade.
Inside it is all angles and arches…
Arches repeated.
…stained glass windows…
Warmth flows through the windows.
…and muted colors.
Columns bathed in light.
The light is amazing.
Light and arches.
And you could get lost in it’s massive naive.
Lit corridor.
I’ve never visited the Cathedral before, I’d go again. It’s photogenic, peaceful and best of all quiet which is hard to find in Washington DC.
More later…I have so much to show you.
Trio of pretty.
On the Mall
Dome through the visitor center ceiling.
For all my hours and days of tromping around the hill I’ve never visited the Capitol building. Yesterday was the day. Senator Stabenow’s (D-MI) transportation expert gave us passes to visit the Senate and the House galleries. And we lucked out; when we visited the House Sander Levin (D-MI) was debating Dave Camp (R-MI) on the Full Faith and Credit Act. Each Representative gave their opening statements, then called in other House Members including Representative Rangle (D-NY) and Representative Lewis (D-GA), to support their sides of the issue. Sometimes it got quite heated. The only thing they agreed on was that the United States would not default on our bills. The argument seemed to be who got paid first, the Chinese bond holders or the Social Security and disabled veterans. After about an hour of this I was so confused I’m not sure even reading the bill would help me sort it out.
Upper windows are in hallway from the House Gallery.
Then we moved over to the Senate gallery, just as a long discussion about Syria was started. Senator McCain (R-AZ), Senator Levin (D-MI), Senator Menendez (R-NJ), and Senator Graham(R-SC) all asked the President to put additional military pressure on Syria in an effort to stop their use of chemical weapons and begin the end of that government’s reign. That was interesting, if not a little frightening. Then Senator Boxer (D-CA) who is Chairwoman of the Senate Committee of Environment and Public Works, began speaking about a water bill, complete with charts. That was interesting too.
The dome is so large I couldn’t get it all!
After a couple of hours of watching people talk we needed to get up and move around, so we went on a tour of the Capitol, moving fro the visitor center up to the Rotunda, and into what was the first House of Representatives meeting room, then down through the crypt and back to the visitor center. I’m glad we did that, as it’s a truly magnificent building and everyone should see it at least once. I’m sure if I went again next time we are in DC I’ll see even ore interesting details that I missed on this tour.
Rosa Parks
We ate lunch in the visitor center and then headed out for a walk on the National Mall. We couldn’t have asked for better weather, bits of sunshine in between the clouds and a breeze to keep us cool. We walked and walked and walked…visiting a sculpture garden along the way…
Remember the typewriter eraser?
…and then finally sat down at the World War II memorial.
A corner of the WWII Memorial.
Our feet were tired, but we wanted to see everything.
Sounds of war.
When we finally got back to the hotel we rested for an hour or so, then walked the mile over Key Bridge to Georgetown for dinner. A little Advil keeps the feet going. Dinner at Clydes was wonderful…and the walk back across the Potomac for a good nights sleep in the warm night air felt nice too.
It was a good day.
Georgetown.
Wordless Wednesday
Treasury Building
Capital Building.
Library of Congress
Metro station.
Obedience? Did someone say obedience?
Is it my turn yet?
Katie here. Mom said I should tell you all about her first try at obedience. She says maybe I can learn something if I tell you the story. Huh. Don’t know what, because I’m the smartest one in our family. Whatever.
So anyway, I got my Mama up at 5:45 this morning just like I do most weekend mornings. I figure the more time she’s up the more time we have to play. Anyway, for some reason she didn’t seem to be upset and got right up. I amble out to the living room and am doing my daily morning stuff when my Dad gets up! Now I know there’s something up. And I don’t like it. Not one bit. Whenever my Dad gets up early I end up at the kennel or worse, the groomer!
They keep telling me we’re going to school but I’m not fooled. My Dad doesn’t go to school with me. So I pant a lot in the car but other than that I stay really quiet, hoping they forget I’m back there.
We drove for about an hour and I knew it wasn’t school as soon as they opened the car door. There were dogs and cars and motor homes everywhere! I led the way inside a big building and oh my goodness, all these poor dogs were up on tables getting brushed and washed and they all looked miserable. I got my Mama out of that room right away! Didn’t want her getting any ideas that’s for sure.
Our room was way far away from all the commotion; it was really small, hardly bigger than the ring and only a few dogs and their people were there. Mama and Dad and I watched 3 dogs try to do Utility (the highest level of obedience) and 2 dogs tried to do Open (the level ahead of me) and not one single dog qualified! Oh man, my Mama was getting nervous!
In our class, Novice A, there were supposed to be two dogs, me and someone else, but no one else ever showed up so I had the place all to myself. Just about everyone else had left, so it was me and my Mama and my Dad and the judge and the stewards. It was real quiet.
I still didn’t think we were at school. So when Mama and I lined up at the start and the judge asked Mama if we were ready I wasn’t really interested. And the whole leash pattern I had my nose on the ground and wouldn’t look at mom and was about 3 feet away from her sniffing sniffing sniffing. I sort of kept up with her but I left her alone to walk a lot too. If I had looked at her I’m pretty sure she’d have been staring daggers at me, because she can’t, like she does at school, talk to me and remind me I was there to work!
Then just before the last about turn I suddenly realized I was supposed to be paying attention! Well! Why didn’t you SAY SO Mama! By the figure 8 exercise I knew the game plan and I worked it. Hardly any lagging and I was looking at my Mama most of the time. She said she was relieved. Me too, though I was wondering where my treats were!
And you know the stand for exam? Where my Mama tells me to stand and stay and then she walks away from me and a STRANGE PERSON comes and TOUCHES me? No sweat. I already liked the lady that was following us around anyway, she seemed nice. So I didn’t move a hair on my pretty head and my Mama was grinning like a crazy lady. Which she is a crazy lady, but that’s another story.
Then we got to my favorite – the recall, where she makes me sit straight (I don’t like the straight part) and then she walks a real long way away and I get to come when she calls. I like that because it shows off my beautiful furs and because I love to run. Especially to my Mama because she gives me treats. But this time no treats again! If I had known that I wouldn’t have done it so perfect and come in so straight and sat so pretty! But it was too late, I didn’t know the no treat thing until after I showed off.
Then we got to do that heel pattern thingy again. I guess because I had messed it up so much the first time. But this time there was no bothersome leash involved. Mom wasn’t worried because I had made it clear I knew what was going on by then. And you know what? I nailed it! My Mama was so happy!
I don’t even need to tell you that my long sits and long downs were awesome! Mama says she nearly had a heart attack near the end of the long (3 min) down when I shifted to my other hip. She knows that lots of time when I do that I’m about fed up with staying and am contemplating getting up to see what the heck is going on somewhere else. But I stayed right there because she was staring daggers into me again.
So the long story short is Mama got her first leg (she has to get a total of 3) of Novice Obedience! She is very excited. I was excited about the toy they gave me.
My Mama got a ribbon, but I got the real prize! A toy!!
At home Mama tried to get a nice picture of me and my toy.
This is MINE!
But I figured I had been good long enough. I wanted to play with it!
So I did.
A girl can’t have too many toys!
Mahler 6
If you like your symphonies full bodied you should have been in Ann Arbor last night when the Ann Arbor Symphony did Mahler’s Symphony No. 6. With just under 100 musicians the stage was packed. And every one of those musicians played their hearts out.
The 6th is relentless…full…lush spellbinding. It could be…should be…the score for a movie. That would be something wouldn’t it…to make a movie…perhaps a silent movie (the better to enjoy the music).. to fit the drama of Mahler’s 6th. It has everything an epic movie should have; marching armies, intimate battles, galloping horses, angst, star crossed lovers, mothers tenderly watching their children who grow up to march in armies heading off to battle, gentle love scenes, peaceful pastoral settings…more marching armies. Life. Death.
The musicians played 80 minutes and there were very few of those minutes that allowed any of them to rest. Those of us in the audience sat still for 80 minutes, only letting our breaths out for the few seconds between each of the four movements.
We enjoyed fantastic woodwinds, royal trumpets and stunning horns. The strings played as one, the harps were ethereal, the percussion added a sense of drama alternating with humor. The music swelled and lifted us in ever tighter revolutions, higher and higher into rarefied air and then let us down gently onto a moss strewn forest floor where we luxuriated in sunshine and harmony until the music swept us up on the next wave of emotion again. Over and over we raced high above earth and then floated back.
Mahler wrote about this piece as he was composing it. He said it was going to be like nothing the world had heard before. Last night it often seemed bigger than the world, as if it could touch every corner of our planet. The sound was bigger, brighter, more luminous than words can describe. You had to be there. You should have been there.
Finally the whole piece came down to the last measures, measures as soft and delicate as a final breath. They gave me goose bumps. And as the musicians let that last note go, as the conductor stood still with his hands in the air as if to hold on for one more moment, as the audience held it’s breath, my eyes filled with tears.
Profound.
Change Is Hard 