Frankie! in action

Frankie! competed in a weekend long flyball tournament. While Saturday was a bit of a disaster, she came back strong with a new team on Sunday.

Watch her in action--Frankie! is the fourth dog.

Moab has hobbies too

Frankie! may have flyball, but Moab has pulling rocks out of a river and making a pile of them. This pile is all Moab's.

Frankie!: FDX

Frankie! competed in her first flyball competition this weekend and she did a great job, although she would only race in the right-hand lane for some reason. In flyball, four dogs make a team and run in a relay over four jumps to a spring loaded box that shoots out a ball when the dogs hit a platform with their feet. Two teams race each other in separate lanes and the team that finished four dogs first, without any missed jumps, wins the heat. About 75% of the dogs are border collies and as crazy as Frankie! In fact, Frankie! is a pretty calm dog compared to many of the others.

Frankie waiting for her big race:


Other dogs going fast:


Our team finished in 4th place out of 5 teams, but nobody seemed to care much because the dogs ran well and scored points for running fast. The points dogs earn go twoards titles. Frankie! earned two titles: Flydog and Flydog Excellent. We compete again in a week and then will take some time off until the fall.

Mike.

lakehouse fun

Another lovely visit to the lakehouse. Mike caught 2 fish, I got stuck in the mud up to my knees, Rose & Madison claimed they didn't try to match their outfits, but we're not sure we believe them, my folks got a chance to chill out, Jeff & Madison took a nap, Madison introduced us to "the look", and the light-up palm tree was a lovely as ever.

removing popcorn

Starts out fun... ends not so fun.

fun:




not fun:

bye bye popcorn

It's been an exciting weekend on Eliot St. Other than a trip to flyball class form Mike & Frankie, we worked from Friday nite thru Sunday nite, long, long days. Mikey wins the prize for "longest time spent working with arms held overhead" while Beth wins the "most trips to Home Depot award".

The popcorn is coming down!!! The asbestos results came back clear Friday night, which meant we were safe to pull it down. Mike took on this task as his own, starting with the downstairs bedroom.

Out with the old

OK, we're crossing 'remove knockdown texture from walls' from the list. Too much wall.

But we get to add "fix leaky disposal" to the list! Hooray!

The List

OK, off the top of my head, here's the rough list of what we're planning, so far:

Outside/Front:
- fix front sprinkler head
- paint door/new door
- replace lock (done!!)
- fill front step gaps

Outside/Back:
- plants herbs & veggies (underway)
- remove chain link fenc (dog run), create smaller dog run w/ nicer fence
- add a shed (or garage??)
- make a nice sitting area in the back corner
- more plants
- get trees trimmed

Entry/Stairs:
- strip paint off stairs (underway)
- paint
- refinish floors
- furniture? big space w/ nothing in it!

Living/Dining:
- refinish floors
- mantle or something for fireplace
- paint
- art!
- repair bad trim installation or get new trim altogether
- add more trim around the "modern" doorways
- strip paint off air grates (the cool old ones)
- furniture (couch, strip coffee table or get a new one, comfy chair?)
- better lught fixture over dinig room table
- repair table corner
- remove popcorn

Nook:
- paint
- remove popcorn
- built in bookshelves
- refinish floors
- a door or something over that weird shelf area

Guest Bedroom:
- paint
- remove popcorn
- art & different window treatments

Downstairs Bath:
- paint
- get rid of terrible shelf

Kitchen:
- fix trim
- add pantry

Laundry:
- fix stupid light switch

Upstairs 2nd Bedroom:
- paint (strip wallpaper?)
- wood floors instead of carpet
- put closet door back on
- something more functional inside closet

Upstairs 2nd Bath:
- paint

Master Bedroom:
- paint
- hardwoord floors
- fix too high shelves
- build a bed/bookshelf thingy
- create some sort of sitting area/furniture

Master bath:
- paint
- hmmmm...weird room, don't know what to do with it.

Office:
- set up & ignore!

Yikes.