Live from Valparaiso!

Our hotel has "business center," so I am using it. For business. Obviously.

Here's how Mal Nationals are going to far. Hard to believe we'll be coming home tomorrow already.

Day 1: Cold and cloudy. I met Mom and Karene at the West Branch McDonald's to pick up Karene. I'd made it very clear we were meeting at West BRANCH. They were late. They'd gone to West LIBERTY, just a few miles down the road. Obviously I share this DNA. That goes a long way to explaining why Tammy and I ended up in Effingham a number of years ago. Karene and I made the rest of the 4 1/2 hour drive without getting lost once.

Day 2: Cold and sunny. Agility at Soccerville. Phoenix had an INCREDIBLE JWW run, it was amazingly awesome . . . but he dropped a bar. Got a Q in Std. on a very wild and reckless course. Still, only .5 second off 4th place in a big class so was very proud of the wild child.

Shopping is okay, not a lot of vendors but some fun stuff. Took both dogs for a long walk and worked a little obedience in the hotel parking lot.

Day 3: Cold and pouring rain. Agility at Soccerville. Again, Nix had an absolutely GORGEOUS JWW run with one bar down. Sigh. Who cares. It was still lovely and I ran it exactly as I planned and he was totally connected and responsive. Std. was . . . um . . . let's just say the wheels fell off early . . . and often . . . how many off-course tunnels can one dog take?!?!?!

I was crated next to a gal with labs - all 3 flavors. She had her hand in a cast so of course I had to ask what happened. OMG, this is even better than Michele and Jeff's dual trip to the ER. She was throwing a stick (I think it was a big bumper) and when the dog brought it back, it tried to run between her legs. The stick/bumper was too long and the dog was holding it crossways, so obviously this wasn't going to work. She reached down and tried to grab it but the dog kept on going and long story short, when she tried to grab the stick, the dog's forward momentum stripped all the ligaments off her thumb. If the immobilizer doesn't help it heal, she'll have surgery to reattach the ligaments.

Those doggone labs are dangerous critters. Makes my malinois-inflicted bumps and bruises look pretty tame.

We packed up from the agility trial this afternoon and drove to the site where all the remaining nationals juding will be held, including tomorrow's obedience, to set up crate and chairs. It's at a very nice county fairgrounds. I THINK the building is heated but not holding my breath. Did I mention I can SEE my breath outdoors? April is truly masquerading as November.

We'll do Utility tomorrow morning and Versatility in the afternoon and hopefully be on the road for home by 3 or 4 p.m.

My "business" session is about to time out so that's all for now.