Elyan Cardigans

We have three storms making their way here for a Christmas visit, and desert flower that I am, I planned to whine about them — you know, we could have three inches of snow and the temperatures could fall to 24 degrees.  But I can’t do it — with Holly and Joanna in the northeast with ice and deep snow and power outages; with Le’o and Emily and Kristin in the northwest being buried in the cold, white stuff, I just can’t do it.  I know we won’t have enough snow to prevent the Element from traveling across town for Christmas Eve festivities at my son’s home, and there won’t be enough to keep us from tracking on Christmas morning (I kind’a like snow tracking).  So, I’ll save my whining for something else later.

I’m getting a Nikon D40x with two VR lenses for Christmas.  I hate to say good bye to the little Olympus, but I miss having an SLR.  Well, I have an old Minolta, but it uses film and you have to wait while it’s developed.  I’ve become part of the instant gratification gang — so a digital SLR it is.  Thanks eBay (and thanks to Tom the Dogfather who helped guide me as I bid).  I also bought the Nikon D40/D40x for Dummies book — that’s how I function AND I got Enya’s new CD “Winter Came”.  It has some splendid cuts on it.

Chase has a lot he wants to talk about, so he’s getting his own web site.  Grandma Carolyn is building it for him.  I know he’ll keep it interesting with his antics.  I think he’s counting on my new camera for populating the Photo Album.

Kip is entered in a TD test on January 11th.  It’s at our tracking site about 45 minutes north of my home.  Many of the judges who’ve come for our tests claim what we label a “T” would be an “X” anywhere else.  Desert tracking is just different.  In March we’ll be hosting our VST “A” Match so that we’ll be permitted by AKC to offer an annual VST test.  Kip, Chase and I have been training VST for the past year, so hope to be ready.

Inca-dink starts Intermediate Agility in January.  I’ve made a public plea for one of those long-legged young kids to work with her and then take her to trials — partly because I’m not fast enough to keep up with Inca (and soon Chase), and partly because I have so many other things going on with tracking, polishing Kip for his CDX and getting his third RA leg, getting Inca ready for her CD, taking Chase through Agility Prep (again!), and after Nationals laying some serious obedience training on the little man.  Then there’s the day job — shoot — that really cuts into my training time.  Maybe that’s what I’ll whine about . . .