Falon’s World

I usually only work Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. Saturday and Sunday Eric is normally here so my mornings are slightly different. On Tuesday and Friday though it’s just me and the boys in the morning. Usually Mason wakes me up by howling in the basement 10-15 minutes before I am ready to get up. I hurry him outside and then let Midas out. They come back in, Mason drinks like he’s never had water and they each eat a little bit of food. That’s when the rough-and-tumble starts. Mason gets bored in the laundry room and starts to snack on Midas’s legs, they start running, and chasing, and sliding, and banging into stuff…you get the picture. This morning Mason decided to start everything in the bedroom.

Step 1: Mason gets closer and closer to Midas.

Step 2: He starts to nip Midas while keeping one eye out for me (because he KNOWS he’s not supposed to do this in the house…but put them outside and they both cry to get back in….). Midas is also keeping an eye out, to make sure Mason gets in trouble and not him.

Step 3: Mason gets up and starts to bite Midas.

Step 4: Mason starts snarling, trying to get Midas to really get into the play-fight.

Step 5: Midas moves closer to me and starts to retaliate half-heartedly in hopes I will stop the crazy puppy.

Step 6: Midas starts to really get into it. Mason is even more enthusiastically snorting and snarling.

Step 7: Midas pins Mason to the floor and lets him squirm and grunt trying to get loose.

Step 8: They begin the racing through the house, come barreling back into the bedroom, crash into my desk and slosh my coffee all over. Now I’m mad. I yell, they freeze…sweet flip flop tan-lines on my feet though eh?

Step 9: Now each is sleeping in his own space…appearing innocent.

Ahhh Peace and Quiet

Other things: I have to get ready to head up North for Branded Band Camp today. I have not started packing, showering, cleaning for the pet sitter or gone to the store for the ingredients for our dish-to-pass. I’m procrastinating. In fact, I am considering taking a nap right now….oh what to do?

After work today I rode the bus home and was SO THRILLED to find that Mason had not messed in his kennel . After I let the boys out to go to the bathroom I put Midas back in the house and played with Mason for a little while. We worked on his “chase” technique for his some day dock jumping career . He did really well, he’s a great little retriever. Then I put him in the house and played with Midas some. We worked on his chase, catch it and vertical bumper grab. Packed them into the truck and headed to the river. There were a bunch of people fishing all around the dock, and they didn’t look like they’d be leaving too soon I was very sad. I got some very encouraging answers to my posts on my DockDog forum and was excited to give it another go. I drove around for awhile but nothing came to me so I headed back home. Mason had to go through the whole routine where he leaps around, barking and backing up like an idiot because he doesn’t want to jump out of the truck. This is fine, but he also doesn’t want to be picked up and taken out of the truck. Once again he peed all over in his over-excited state :-\ No fun for me. BUT, he did finally jump out all on his own…then he peed on the driveway – dang it! Oh well, I work with him out in the yard for a few on his sit/stay (which are pretty horrible). Head back inside. Forgot about dinner again until about 8:30 and fix the last can of soup. Meeko has succeeded in stuffing all of his favorite nuts back into his birdhouse and in jamming all of the new cotton balls into his hat. He was a busy little squirrel last night. Mom suggested I check and see if Mason weighs more now than Midas did at the same age (the women she works with think Mason will be a lot bigger than Midas when he’s grown). Mason weighs roughly 5 lbs more than Midas did at the exact same age. I don’t know if that’s significant or not. I was so bummed out about not being able to take them swimming today, until I read one of the other forums I frequent. It is about Blue Green Algae Toxicity. This man had a horrible experience with his dog, this is his story. I would be devastated. I’m not sure if it effects rivers the same as ponds/lakes because rivers are constantly in motion. But, better safe than sorry. I’m going to have to look into this some more before I take the boys swimming again. Which kind of sucks because that means no dock practice before our next event. Oh well, we’ll make do. Today Mason has started squeaking when he yawns, just like Midas.

It feels really weird to be in such a big house by myself with just the boys there. I never realized how LOUD Eric is until the house is deathly silent around me. Last night I could not stay awake any more and crashed at about 11 pm. That means that Mason went to bed far earlier than usual (as Eric is the one that stays up and lets him out the last time). At 3 am I wake up to go to the bathroom and decide that letting Mason out now and then sleeping until 6:30 is far more attractive than waking up at 6 am and cleaning the pee out of the kennel. He did not want to go back in. The alarm wakes me up (instead of Eric) and I actually have to get up and let the dogs out, feed them, make my own breakfast and then shower (I am EXTREMELY spoiled I just realized again). Eric has left little notes throughout the house for me to find: under my pillow, in my towel, under my brush . I rush around like a crazy girl this morning trying to get everything done, leave and realize that I’m 15 minutes early for the bus. That never happens….what to do? Stop at Speedway and get some coffee and then rearrange the contents of my backpack. By the time the bus comes it is raining . Now I’m at work – which doesn’t feel a lot different from when Eric is here. I have to take an hour lunch today, which is different, so that I can rush home and let Mason out. Tonight’s activities are very dependent on the weather. If it rains we will stay in and do nothing all evening. If it doesn’t then we will play out in the backyard (practice for the event next Wednesday) and then perhaps take a trip to the river. Maybe we’ll do that even if it’s raining. Eric said the water level has really dropped and the dock won’t be usable for the boys I am VERY sad about that. That’s all for now.

I did SO MUCH today! I feel very accomplished….and tired. This morning I did a little cleaning around the house and then drove Dan and Eric to the airport. Short trip to Old Navy for some shorts. Short because then I had to drive back to the airport to get my driver’s license which Eric had. The security person didn’t want to give it to me – stupid. Then back home. Then I did a TON of household chores. I emptied the rest of Mason’s food out and Midas’s. Then I dumped 60 lbs of Canidae into the container. Hauled the other 60 lbs downstairs for storage. That opened up a lot of space. Then I took all of the laundry detergent (4 different jugs of it), the fabric softener sheets (2 boxes), the juice (2 jugs) and the pop (4 cases) and put them in the laundry room pantry thing. That completely cleared off the counter. I vacuumed the room and all the nooks and crannies. It’s clean I did three loads of laundry, folded it and took care of it. Changed the sheets in the spare room for the pet sitter. Vacuumed the rest of the house, swept and mopped the kitchen. Cleaned the oops from Mason and bathed him after he sat in the oops. Picked up the poo in the yard and cleaned the boys’ water dish (which the wicked birds from the garage have been bathing in). Went to Meijer and copied the house key, bought a mop, mixer, pizza cutter and Grand Rapids City trash bags. 1/2 way to Meijer I realize I’m an idiot and have forgotten Eric’s stupid garage key. Home. Back out to Bayberry to drop it off to the bitchy woman at the front desk. At about 3:30 I realize I’ve forgotten to eat lunch – mmm leftover pizza from group dinner (thanks Dan!). Clean and replace the paper on the bottom of Meeko’s cage. Take all the nuts he’s stashed in his birdhouse and dump them back into the bin. Clean out his food and water dishes thoroughly and put in fresh. Give him some baby food for a treat (squash). Take out the camo fleece hat that he sleeps in and empty it out. 8 empty nut shells, 12 nuts and dirty, torn to shreds pieces of fleece and cotton balls. Put that back in and toss in 1/2 a bag of fresh, clean cotton balls. This causes a temper tantrum in which Meeko races around the top of his cage muttering at me and jumping in anger. He throws all the cotton balls on the floor of the cage. Then he throws a handful of seeds out of the cage. Brat! He spends the rest of the afternoon racing to and from the bin to the birdhouse, restashing his precious nuts. Muttering at me the whole time. Sweep out the basement and the kennels (Mason is now shedding a decent amount as there was big fluffs of grey hair with the yellow). Cleaned out the dishwasher and put the dirty dishes in there. Windex the coffee and end tables (they’re glass) and fluff the couches and pillows. Empty the vacuum cleaner and take the trash out. Done It is now 5:50. I have 3o minutes and then the pet sitter shows up. Two women and they were great. They stay for an hour, the woman that owns the business and the woman who is watching the boys for us. She has brought a pad and pen and takes notes the whole time. She also gets down on the floor and rough houses with them. Many compliments on their shape, personality and manners. *Shock* After they leave I play on the Internet for awhile…until I realize I’ve forgotten dinner – crap! Change into my pajamas and fix up some popcorn and watch a movie in bed for awhile before settling everyone in for the night. Looooonnnngggg day!

I’ve found it very interesting to watch as Mason gets older both to compare his size and to see what habits of Midas’s he is picking up.

Midas Puppy

Mason Puppy

Midas sleep position

Mason sleep position (photo by Eric)

Here you can see Mason copying Midas exactly, he even has his back right leg out.

Both looking outside.

Now we’ll see how much Mason has grown. Looks to me like he’s gotten huge, and his head finally looks more mature and almost fits his body haha.

These photos were taken roughly 1.5 months apart. He’s getting so big!

Mason is 4 months old roughly and is a dilute chocolate (or silver) Labrador Retriever. He is also laid back even as a puppy.

Eric took this last photo of Mason retrieving.

That’s all of Mason for now…

I decided to introduce the dogs separately before I do comparisons. Midas is a little over 2 years old. He is a fox red Labrador Retriever and is very laid back.

Ok that’s all for Midas right now…

This weekend was Bash. Wow. I am exhausted. There were a TON of people there. And many of them were wearing minimum amounts of clothing….most a lot less than should’ve been allowed. I definitely saw some strange sights….Both days were sweltering but on Sunday the cloud cover helped A LOT. I was smart this year and slathered on a ton of sunscreen, SPF 30 and the only thing that burned was my scalp I also have some sweet flip flop and short tan-lines that I will hopefully be getting rid of this week. There were a couple of acts not listed (beyond the Special Guest) that I don’t remember their names….sorry.

DAY 1

The openers on Saturday were the Bronk Bros and Headin’ South. I’ve seen them before and they are definitely an entertaining band to watch. Lots of energy and I have to say that the harmonica is an uncommon but neat instrument. They have a single on the radio now, “Beauty is in the Eye of the Beerholder” which is amusing, fast and fun.

Halfway to Hazard, a band that is traveling with Tim and Faith (I think), was pretty good. Their song on the radio right now is “Daisy” and is pretty good. I like the word play (Hazard and Daisy…Dukes of Hazzard etc).

I was impressed with Jason Michael Carroll’s voice. It was very deep and sounded a lot older than he looked. I liked many of his songs and would be interested in getting his CD. When “Alyssa Lies” first came out on the radio it made me tear up. I didn’t really care for him taking his pony holder out and flipping his long, blonde (high lighted) hair around (kind of girly). It seemed like he was imitating Trace Adkins (with the voice and the hair) but he wasn’t quite….macho enough to pull it off. Liked the voice/music, didn’t care for the act.

Bucky Covington was pretty good. He was on American Idol at some point (I don’t watch that show). I heard/saw a lot of young girls giggling and very excited. I also heard that his merchandise was gone midway through the day which was pretty incredible. I really like his single “A Different World”. His twin brother (Rocky) plays the drums too. I like it when family is in a band together, I think it’s neat. He also has a lot of hair but kept it neatly tied back the whole time.

The Wreckers were great as far as singing/songs went. I really like their music and enjoyed listening to it live. But, their stage presence was lacking. They pretty much stayed in one place and sang and played. Not a whole lot of interaction with the crowd. They are pretty girls but I got bored watching them.

Dierks Bentley was the headliner for Saturday and he was AWESOME! His music is great, he is active and running around on stage. He engages the crowd, he has a sense of humor. And, lets face it, he’s hot! I was extremely impressed with his performance and would definitely go see him again I also bought one of his shirts.

Bronk Bros and Headin’ South played in The Pleasure Lounge in between acts during the afternoon. We stood in a long ass line to get in there. They sounded pretty good but there were a TON of people jammed in their waiting to get their “free” cigarettes (with a scanning of your driver’s license). I kind of wish they would separate these two things. Or combine the music with the beer tent or something.

DAY 2

We were lazy and came a little bit late on Sunday…Therefore we missed Whiskey Falls. We heard them on the radio and then when we got there we could hear them but not see them. They sounded pretty great and their songs were fun, I would be interested in hearing some more of their stuff.

Then we hung around The Pleasure Lounge again because Branded was playing in there. That was a lot of fun. I liked getting to see everyone and I’ve been craving a Branded CD, which since it’s not done yet is pretty impossible for me so listening to them live was great. It was SWELTERING in that tent though. I was dripping and Eric was soaked.

After Branded was done playing we hung around and visited for awhile and so we missed 3/4 of the next act which was Luke Bryan. We did get to hear his song “All My Friends Say” which is a song that I really like. I thought he was very cute with his casual wear and his backwards hat.

Bomshel was up next. I don’t really care for the singer or their music all that much. I feel like they are trying too hard or something. I really like the fiddler though. She is entertaining to watch. I pretty much loathe the Bomshel Stomp. After their set though they went outside the grand stand to sign autographs and get their photos taken and there was an ABSOLUTELY HUGE line of people out there. Even after several more acts when we would go out there the line was still big. I have no idea how long they ended up staying.

Emerson Drive was awesome! I have never seen them but Eric predicted I would like them and he was right, they were a good time. I REALLY liked their music and there was a lot of action and movement during their set. Sometimes the always smiling fiddler threw me off but he was cute so I got over it. Their current single “Moments” is good, but overplayed, I really like “A Good Man”. I can’t wait to see them again. I talked myself out of one of their shirts but figure there’ll be a chance to get one soon.

Next was the slot for the Special Guest. Which we were under the impression was going to be Tracy Lawrence. I was very pleasantly surprised when it was actually Clint Black. He sings some of my favorite songs. It was just him out there with his guitar and he was great. Apparently he flew in on a red eye to get there and hadn’t even been to bed yet. His set was extremely short and did not contain my absolute favorite “Like the Rain” but did include “Killin’ Time”. He was GREAT and pretty humorous as well.

Josh Turner is sexy as hell with a great voice. He did my favorite song of his “Loretta Lynn’s Lincoln” so I was really excited. His wife played the piano (she’s beautiful), and sang and he did a pretty funny intro for each of his band members. I know and like a lot of his music so I was pretty pleased with the show.

The headliner for Sunday was Sara Evans and she was terrific. I went into it not expecting a whole lot and ended up surprised and very happy. I knew almost every single one of the songs that she sang and liked every one. She was active and very funny on stage. I loved her red stilettos and that we could see one of her daughters running around backstage. She was terrific. I would want to see her again and I don’t really say that for very many female singers.

The weekend was terrific, we didn’t spend as much money as I had expected (thank god) and I’m going to be very tired at work tomorrow. Hopefully I can post some of Eric’s photos for each act later….

Today I had to run up North to bring Midas to the vet’s office for his Bordatella vaccine. I have enrolled him into an obedience class that starts July 11th and he had to have kennel cough vaccine to participate. After the vet’s we went to Hart Lake to practice with the bumper. This turned out to be not a whole lot of fun. He was a complete jerk the entire time we were there. It made me start doubting his skills in this sport. I tried to change tactics and just get him to play for a little while so that we would end on a high note and even that proved to be impossible. Finally I settled for sitting on the tailgate and reading while he lay on the ground underneath. Mom called and we headed out to check out her new cabinets which I think are going to turn out beautiful. Lunch at La Fiesta was DELICIOUS – I hadn’t been there in soooo long and it was so good. We stopped at a yard sale to check out a dining room table set. Which I am very disappointed that the woman wouldn’t give us. Oh well, maybe later. I drove back home and was sooo tired so I took a nap with the boys (me on the bed, them on the floor). Eric woke me up when he came home but he was just leaving again. Then when he actually came home for the night we relaxed and did nothing to prepare for the sure to be exhausting weekend.

We went to see Branded last night at the Intersection along with Sorryville. I had an absolute blast!!! I got a wee bit tipsy and drank with the band and the band members’ significant others. So much fun!! Kristen is quite possibly my favorite person to drink with Can’t wait for band camp weekend – it’s going to be the greatest. There were some instances of drama, which I easily removed myself from. Once I got over that the whole evening was amazing. Then a late night trip to Steak-n-Shake (delicious) and we were headed home. Today is a beautiful day. I’m looking forward to a relaxing night at home with the boys. I’m hoping Eric won’t be gone too late tonight – but the way things were last night I kind of doubt he will. My dad stopped by this afternoon to see me, which is always very nice. Too bad I looked like crapola. I haven’t showered yet, but I did get the laundry done, the floors swept or vacuumed and the kitchen mopped. I also got everything ordered that I needed/wanted to today. Heading up north to Shelby tomorrow, I’ve got a vet appointment and I’m meeting for lunch with my mom Yay!