4th of July Weekend Happenings

Well, I've stuck to my veggie and fruit diet quite well. I haven't cheated once and I'm feeling pretty good still. Tomorrow I stop taking 30 pills a day and cut down to just 15! Like the 4th of July should be, it's hot out. The wind is picking up though and I'm wondering if NOAA is going to be right and tomorrow will be cold and dreery.

Jerill is grilling some pork chops for himself and some eggplant, asparagus and portabello mushroom for me. I've gone to the grocery store a few times, with my most recent trip today. Here is a sample of my cornucopia of goodness...

Okay, this particular pic below was taken BEFORE I started my detox. Back in September 2001 (yes, on 9/11 in fact) Jerill and I were on a road trip to California to see Redwoods and the wine country. We did manage to get to one of our favorite wine's birthplaces, the Ravenswood Winery. We purchased some moderately priced wine they had and have kept it on hand for a long time. We have a few other bottles of similar ages as well sitting around. Anyway, we opened this one up for no good reason at all other than we felt it was time to drink it up. A 1997 Pentimento Vineyard bordeaux-type wine. It was aged and it was delicious. So earthy, I don't think I've had wine like it before! I'm looking forward to my "re-tox" diet when we can drink the next bottle!

On Saturday I had entered Scott into an ASCA (Australian Shepherd Club of America) stockdog trial in Graham, WA. You enter these things weeks in advance. As it turns out, the conditioning we've been doing with Scott - bike riding with him - ended up scraping up his paws really bad this week and thus, on Friday afternoon, he started limping real bad. He was still limping from rubbed-paw on Saturday morning and knowing I can't run a dog that's limping, I withdrew from the trial. Jerill and I still drove down there with Scott. I was able to get my entry-fee back and we watched a couple hours of the trial. In ASCA trials, it's typical that sheep, cattle and ducks are offered for herding. Scott, if I haven't mentioned before, it's totally OBSESSED with herding ducks. It is his passion.

Poor Scott. He is lame but because he loves the ducks so much, I took him over to watch some duck runs. Here he is, looking longily over to the duck pen... he really perked up when we got to these ducks!

This dog sorta-looks like Scotty from a distance, but it's not him. You know how I know? Well, let's just say this dog didn't do so well with the cattle. Scott, who lived on a HUGE cattle ranch his first 6 years of life would have had these cows wrapped around his paw.

My 4th of July weekend splurge... a new pair of black Lucchese boots to wear in non-muddy situations. And, I got the boot-jack that makes it easy to take them off after a long day.