2 weeks worth of a post

I'm going to attempt to work backwards, as that is how the content would appear had I actually kept up with blogging the last few weeks. :) 


Yesterday, I rented an agility field where an AKC trial was held over the weekend, I got to run the Ex STD course several times, several ways, which was lots of fun. I worked on Kate's full contacts (which I never do at home) and was pleased to see some speed that she has not exhibited before. She had some trouble with jumping too big (shocking) and missing the weave entry. Surprised me though, as usually she can correct for a weave entry from any angle. Then I realized twice this has happened in a trial and I've blamed the missed entry on something else. Aha. 





The weather was lovely while training though, if not a bit too warm at 75, I know, I'm such an ass to even say that. In the jumpers ring I worked tight jumping grid type stuff and a couple bendy/slicey exercises I got at the seminar. What seminar? Oh yeah...


So last week Gary and I spent in Aruba. Gosh it's pretty there. See? 





and




Aruba was... windy! And warm. It was nice to get away, dig my toes into the sand, get salt water up my nose. Absorb massive amounts of Vitamin D through my skin and sleep it off all afternoon. Stay up all night engrossed in a thrilling novel and then watch the sun rise while drinking coffee and breathing in the salty air, listening to the palm breezes and song birds waking up. 





The food was delicious! Speculoos - wow! Our company was fantastic, I'm really lucky to have such cool (and hilarious) friends. Gary obliged me in morning beach walks and we saw lots of interesting people and lizards. Aruba has tons of lizards! We were drunk and disorderly, I have plenty of fond memories to cherish and a killer tan. AND I'm 4 books closer to my goal of reading 25 books this year - woo hoo!  





Before we left for Aruba, I took a day off of work and did two days of International Coursework with Linda Mecklenburg. Linda was great to work with, she sees things differently than most. Enlightening. Kate and I were not at the level for the seminar, but we hung in there, while swinging wildly from skilled to unskilled, but I'm so glad I got the opportunity to work on those courses with Linda. 


It's the course work for me, I know agility can be more straightforward, but the complicated dance these European courses have become is baffling, mind numbing, bewildering. I love it. I spent the entire two days immersed in handling theory, threadles, back sides, push throughs, pulling through gaps, crazy weave entries. I love it all. Ridiculous! 


We spent a lot of time working on Kate's jumping, or I should say I got some great homework exercises (aforementioned). Kate was perfectly herself and it was great to get opinions and thoughts from Linda on what we should be doing. I asked Linda to watch Kate's spreads, since we seem to struggle there, and I got some great ideas for that as well. 

I feel like there's more I should say about the seminar, but really I'm grateful for the opportunity, it was an awesome couple of days for me. Very inspiring. Almost, (almost) makes me want to do more seminars... I think the weather is just making me want to be outside. I might put a video together of Kate at the seminar, hopefully....