I mentioned a while ago in one of my first posts about some sports I was / we are playing this summer, but never posted about them throughout the summer.
We both played Ultimate Frisbee on Sunday nights which we both really enjoy. Again this year the finals were held on our wedding weekend/anniversary so we weren't able to play in the final game. A bit disappointing because we've been the best team for 2 summers now and haven't been able to play in the finals either year. This year we won! Last year we lost in the final game (but had the best record in the league as well).
I played 2-on-2 Beach Volleyball at Chicopee on Monday nights with a friend I met through indoor volleyball. We didn't do so well, although we somehow managed to finish 4th in the league. Throughout the playoffs we won 1 lost 3. Two of those losses were with Marnie who had to sub for my partner because he was on vacation. We usually play pretty good together, but had a bad night. Plus, Marn had only played twice all summer - a hard thing to just step into and adjust for. Anyway, Beach is a lot of fun, but in order to do well, you need to be in better shape than I am right now. Plus I'm getting these injuries that just don't go away anymore (I refuse to say because of age!!)
And the last summer sport that I played this year has yet to wrap up; slow-pitch softball. This is the first time that I've ever played this sport (slow-pitch or softball) and it's pretty fun. My team is not great, but it's fun. I wouldn't mind playing this a little more competitively, though. It's a 35+ league, but the team needed players and I used to work with a guy on the team so he asked me this year. Most teams just want to get out and play, so they don't mind if there a few younger players out. It's harder than I thought it would be to hit that lob ball! last night I almost hit our team's first home run as I hit the fence about a foot or two below the top. That was kind of exciting, but I only got to 1st base because the guy who was on first stayed there until he was sure it wasn't caught. I was standing beside him when it hit the fence. Frustrating!
Anyway, playoff's start next week with the season wrapping up on September 16th. Our team is about 5 wins, 7 losses. Probably about 4th place in a league that has only 6 teams! Anyway, it's fun and I probably will play next year again.
Just a few weeks away, Indoor volleyball starts which I'll be playing on Monday and Friday nights. I think Marnie is going to play as well, but she's not sure yet. I'd like to have a few months off and rehab my injuries, but let's be real here... I won't rehab my injuries, I'll sit on the couch. So it's probably a good thing that the sports start up fairly soon.
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Friday, August 25, 2006
Echo Update
We just went to the Vet's yesterday evening before Puppy class (last one before "graduation") to get Echo's 1st rabies, some other booster, and also decided to get a kennel cough dose as well, just in case we put him in doggy day-care once a week (some require it and it's cheap). We started the visit with a weigh-in, as usual. Marnie and I both guessed that he'd come in at around 45 lbs... we were wrong. He jumped up in the last couple weeks to 55 lbs! We knew he was getting big, but that's crazy! I guess the increase to 6 cups of food per day also contributed.
We are just about to start him on his new dog food for the next 8 months, Medi-cal - the expensive stuff that you can only get at the Vet. So, starting this weekend, we'll be slowly integrating the new food into the old. Hopefully he won't get the runs like he did when he got into Marnier's food!
ps: I often wondered why you could only get Medi-Cal at the animal hospital. Well I paid a visit to their website and found out that the brand was founded by a group of Vet's! It's also a Canadian company (Guelph I believe), so at least it's made in Canada, but does it have to $60/15kg bag?
We are just about to start him on his new dog food for the next 8 months, Medi-cal - the expensive stuff that you can only get at the Vet. So, starting this weekend, we'll be slowly integrating the new food into the old. Hopefully he won't get the runs like he did when he got into Marnier's food!
ps: I often wondered why you could only get Medi-Cal at the animal hospital. Well I paid a visit to their website and found out that the brand was founded by a group of Vet's! It's also a Canadian company (Guelph I believe), so at least it's made in Canada, but does it have to $60/15kg bag?
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Fence nearing completion
We spent all evening yesterday working on the rest of the fence along the right side of the backyard, and amazingly we completed it! (Sans the lattice or whatever we're doing on the top). Pictures to come.
The only thing that I don't like about it is the alignment of the posts. I dug them manually and they don't exactly line up 100%. But oh well -- you can't really tell from our side, and the other side runs along the length of the neighbours house, so they don't care (I talked to him last night). The next step is putting in a gate and fence on the other side of our house between us and our other neighbour. Those posts are done already, so it's just a matter of constructing the gate and doing a bit of fence to close it off.
We are hoping to do the remaining sections of deck soon that still need to be started (railings and bench). That might be something for the long weekend... or next year the way we are going!
The only thing that I don't like about it is the alignment of the posts. I dug them manually and they don't exactly line up 100%. But oh well -- you can't really tell from our side, and the other side runs along the length of the neighbours house, so they don't care (I talked to him last night). The next step is putting in a gate and fence on the other side of our house between us and our other neighbour. Those posts are done already, so it's just a matter of constructing the gate and doing a bit of fence to close it off.
We are hoping to do the remaining sections of deck soon that still need to be started (railings and bench). That might be something for the long weekend... or next year the way we are going!
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
1 YEAR!
Wow! Can you believe that Marnie and I have been married one whole year already? We can't!
We wanted to do something cheap, yet still kind of special for the occasion and had a few idea's tossing around like staying in Stratford and seeing a play, or staying in the Niagara region and going on wine tours, etc. But my friend Sarah has some pull at Langdon Hall and was able to get us a room for Sunday night at a greatly discounted rate of $125. We couldn't pass that up considering that it would have been around the same price for a bed and breakfast at either Stratford or Niagara on the Lake, plus considering the travel time and other expenses... It was a steal. The coolest part was we were allowed to bring Echo along! He did great in the new environment when left alone in the room (we brought his crate) and we were both thankful for that.
To our surprise when we got into our room Sunday afternoon, Sarah must have arranged a little something special for us. There was a bottle of sparkling wine and a tray of fruits and dips (chocolate and 2 kinds of honey). Yum! It was SO nice and REALLY good!
We decided to eat and drink the "champagne" after a walk through the many forested trails around the Langdon property with Echo before going out for dinner. He was really good staying with us the whole way - it was actually really cute because he would either walk right in front, behind or right between us as we walked holding hands. I wish we could have got a photo from behind with that scene. I don't think he would have been so good if there were other dogs or people around. We took the 2.5 km trail to tire him out before we left him for dinner. A tired dog is a good dog and he had no trouble going into his crate to lay down after that!
We decided to eat at the blackshop restaurant in Cambridge instead of at the Hotel (one look at the $menu decided that!) - it was really good food, reasonable prices and great atmosphere as there was a live 3-piece jazz band playing. We took a taxi so that we could enjoy a bottle of wine with dinner (on top of the already-consumed champagne at the hotel) -- talk about a rip off! I admit, I don't take the taxi very often so I may be out of touch with this, but it cost us $12.50 there and $13.70 back. The exact same route. For a less than 10 minute ride each way. $30, just like that! That's $90/hour. Granted driving a taxi must suck, but that's highway robbery! Are we living in NYC here?
Anyway, other than the slight annoyance with the taxi company, the night was beautiful and really enjoyable. We were really looking forward to our massages on Monday morning and spending the day dreaming that we actually belonged at that hotel ;)
To our surprise when we got back to our room, the nightly turn-down service had been there. We were told to inform the front desk when we might be there with the dog, or to tell them when Echo WON'T be there so that room service could go in and tidy up... opps, we forgot. The room was tidied up and the bed was re-made all with Echo in his crate. I can imagine the cleaner's surprise to find him there! Ah well, he would have just layed there and maybe whimpered to be let out. Possibly a little bark here and there.
Unfortunately neither of us slept very well - we're not really sure why. The bed was comfortable, the temp in the room was nice, we were both really tired... I guess we missed the Baden train blasting through at all hours of the night. lol Actually, I think it was Echo. We put his crate in one of the bathrooms with a tile floor and had a skinny blanket in there with him. Every time he moved around it clanged around and echoed loudly. I think a towel underneath the crate would have solved that, but didn't think of it at the time. I must have woken up 5 times through the night, easily, before being frustrated and getting up permanently just before 7am.
Marn also got up and we took Echo for another walk through the trails before breakfast.
After breaky we both had massages, and one last walk through the trails before leaving the dream and heading to Dad's for a visit and to check out his new place.
It was a great mini-vacation, but I wish we could have stayed one more day. I never did feel like I started to relax a little, even after the massage. I tried to get us there for the Saturday night as well, but Sarah just couldn't do it. When you consider that rooms start FROM $259-629/night, one night at $125 is hard enough to do, especially considering Saturday night is their busiest night. Thank you for a great stay, Sarah!!
We wanted to do something cheap, yet still kind of special for the occasion and had a few idea's tossing around like staying in Stratford and seeing a play, or staying in the Niagara region and going on wine tours, etc. But my friend Sarah has some pull at Langdon Hall and was able to get us a room for Sunday night at a greatly discounted rate of $125. We couldn't pass that up considering that it would have been around the same price for a bed and breakfast at either Stratford or Niagara on the Lake, plus considering the travel time and other expenses... It was a steal. The coolest part was we were allowed to bring Echo along! He did great in the new environment when left alone in the room (we brought his crate) and we were both thankful for that.
To our surprise when we got into our room Sunday afternoon, Sarah must have arranged a little something special for us. There was a bottle of sparkling wine and a tray of fruits and dips (chocolate and 2 kinds of honey). Yum! It was SO nice and REALLY good!
We decided to eat and drink the "champagne" after a walk through the many forested trails around the Langdon property with Echo before going out for dinner. He was really good staying with us the whole way - it was actually really cute because he would either walk right in front, behind or right between us as we walked holding hands. I wish we could have got a photo from behind with that scene. I don't think he would have been so good if there were other dogs or people around. We took the 2.5 km trail to tire him out before we left him for dinner. A tired dog is a good dog and he had no trouble going into his crate to lay down after that!
We decided to eat at the blackshop restaurant in Cambridge instead of at the Hotel (one look at the $menu decided that!) - it was really good food, reasonable prices and great atmosphere as there was a live 3-piece jazz band playing. We took a taxi so that we could enjoy a bottle of wine with dinner (on top of the already-consumed champagne at the hotel) -- talk about a rip off! I admit, I don't take the taxi very often so I may be out of touch with this, but it cost us $12.50 there and $13.70 back. The exact same route. For a less than 10 minute ride each way. $30, just like that! That's $90/hour. Granted driving a taxi must suck, but that's highway robbery! Are we living in NYC here?
Anyway, other than the slight annoyance with the taxi company, the night was beautiful and really enjoyable. We were really looking forward to our massages on Monday morning and spending the day dreaming that we actually belonged at that hotel ;)
To our surprise when we got back to our room, the nightly turn-down service had been there. We were told to inform the front desk when we might be there with the dog, or to tell them when Echo WON'T be there so that room service could go in and tidy up... opps, we forgot. The room was tidied up and the bed was re-made all with Echo in his crate. I can imagine the cleaner's surprise to find him there! Ah well, he would have just layed there and maybe whimpered to be let out. Possibly a little bark here and there.
Unfortunately neither of us slept very well - we're not really sure why. The bed was comfortable, the temp in the room was nice, we were both really tired... I guess we missed the Baden train blasting through at all hours of the night. lol Actually, I think it was Echo. We put his crate in one of the bathrooms with a tile floor and had a skinny blanket in there with him. Every time he moved around it clanged around and echoed loudly. I think a towel underneath the crate would have solved that, but didn't think of it at the time. I must have woken up 5 times through the night, easily, before being frustrated and getting up permanently just before 7am.
Marn also got up and we took Echo for another walk through the trails before breakfast.
After breaky we both had massages, and one last walk through the trails before leaving the dream and heading to Dad's for a visit and to check out his new place.
It was a great mini-vacation, but I wish we could have stayed one more day. I never did feel like I started to relax a little, even after the massage. I tried to get us there for the Saturday night as well, but Sarah just couldn't do it. When you consider that rooms start FROM $259-629/night, one night at $125 is hard enough to do, especially considering Saturday night is their busiest night. Thank you for a great stay, Sarah!!
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
All Better (for) Now & The Asbury Visit!
Echo's Coccidiosis cleared up before the weekend and pretty much one day after starving and giving him the first dose of the med's. So we're pretty sure that's what he had, but we still don't know how he got it?
Anyway, after Thursday and Friday went without the runs we were pretty confident that he was getting better, so we took advantage of the offer from Carey and Chris to go up to their cottage for the weekend! Ahh, to have a cottage.... I would LOVE that! They have it good. Right on the water near Grand Bend and only 1.5 hours away and best of all, OPPOSITE from Toronto! It's a small little thing, but it's a cottage and has the cottage feel, unlike some of their neighbours who ripped down the old places and built year-round monsters. The only thing I don't like about the area, if I lived there, is that most of the places are being bought up by American's. Why are they so loud and obnoxious? Well I suppose that if the opportunity came along, I would love it anyway, American's and all...
I had plans this weekend to get Echo in the water to see if he would sink or swim. A few weeks ago we asked Danielle if Dane's swim and she explained that her dog's LOVE to swim which kind of shocked us both because they're so big - you'd think they would just sink?
So I took him down to the water and started to walk in and Echo followed no problem. The water has a really gradual slope down - You could walk 100 yards and still be only hip deep. I thought to myself, there's no way he's going to go in right away no problem, but he kept on following me - until he got to about his shoulders/belly, then he was like, What the...! and started jumping backwards tugging on his leash and pulling me back. It was too funny. So I got out with him and then tried again. He'd follow but stop and want to go back, but if I kept low with him and encouraged him along he went out a long way... before he even knew it he was swimming. A natural! But it didn't last long. He started to whimper and shake and he wanted to go back even though I was right beside him. It was a good start to what I hope he'll be more comfortable with as he gets older.
The next day we headed to a nearby beach to see if he'd go in again - he did no problem, but I think he only did because all 6 of us were going in. This time the water got deeper a little quicker and as we kept walking out you could see the point at which his walking turned into swimming. It was pretty cool - he's a total natural! He swam around for a long time, but I don't think he really liked it. After a while he'd whimper and shake a little so marn took him back to shallower parts and just sat with him in there.
I also wanted to take him out in the canoe with me to see how he'd react. For the most part he just sat there and looked around until we got closer to shore again. I'm not sure what he was thinking but it seemed like he thought he could just step out at one point because that's exactly what he did! His front legs stepped out and he kind of freaked out and was hanging there with his front in the water thrashing around and back end in the boat trying to get back in. He finally gave in or I pushed him, I can't remember, and he went for a nose dive into the lake, came up and "bolted" for the shore. That was some quick doggy paddling!
So Marn's like "get in there and get him!" (he was doing fine, but who knows?) So I jump in to get Echo and toss Marnie out in the process, who in turn looses one flip flop in the muck below, freaks out because of the muck between the toes and jumps back in the canoe! I guided Echo back to shore and as soon as he could touch the bottom started running as fast as he could to get out. That picture Carey took from the shore is him running back out... too funny. Marn's mad because we lost one of her favourite flip flop's during the whole escapade...
Adrienne, Dennis and the kids came over Friday afternoon for the night for a nice visit before they left for their 'northern tour'. It was a really nice visit but, as it often is, was too short! Even though they were in the area for a week, we only saw them a few times. I guess that's what you get when your family is spread out as ours is. Marnier and Echo played a lot and even rested together! I think Adrienne got some pics of that and it wasn't even set up by their owners at all! ;) 
We may try and see them again once more before they leave for Montreal, then home when they come back this way to stay with Teresa and Branko this weekend.
We may try and see them again once more before they leave for Montreal, then home when they come back this way to stay with Teresa and Branko this weekend.
Anyway, after Thursday and Friday went without the runs we were pretty confident that he was getting better, so we took advantage of the offer from Carey and Chris to go up to their cottage for the weekend! Ahh, to have a cottage.... I would LOVE that! They have it good. Right on the water near Grand Bend and only 1.5 hours away and best of all, OPPOSITE from Toronto! It's a small little thing, but it's a cottage and has the cottage feel, unlike some of their neighbours who ripped down the old places and built year-round monsters. The only thing I don't like about the area, if I lived there, is that most of the places are being bought up by American's. Why are they so loud and obnoxious? Well I suppose that if the opportunity came along, I would love it anyway, American's and all...
I had plans this weekend to get Echo in the water to see if he would sink or swim. A few weeks ago we asked Danielle if Dane's swim and she explained that her dog's LOVE to swim which kind of shocked us both because they're so big - you'd think they would just sink?
So I took him down to the water and started to walk in and Echo followed no problem. The water has a really gradual slope down - You could walk 100 yards and still be only hip deep. I thought to myself, there's no way he's going to go in right away no problem, but he kept on following me - until he got to about his shoulders/belly, then he was like, What the...! and started jumping backwards tugging on his leash and pulling me back. It was too funny. So I got out with him and then tried again. He'd follow but stop and want to go back, but if I kept low with him and encouraged him along he went out a long way... before he even knew it he was swimming. A natural! But it didn't last long. He started to whimper and shake and he wanted to go back even though I was right beside him. It was a good start to what I hope he'll be more comfortable with as he gets older.
The next day we headed to a nearby beach to see if he'd go in again - he did no problem, but I think he only did because all 6 of us were going in. This time the water got deeper a little quicker and as we kept walking out you could see the point at which his walking turned into swimming. It was pretty cool - he's a total natural! He swam around for a long time, but I don't think he really liked it. After a while he'd whimper and shake a little so marn took him back to shallower parts and just sat with him in there.
I also wanted to take him out in the canoe with me to see how he'd react. For the most part he just sat there and looked around until we got closer to shore again. I'm not sure what he was thinking but it seemed like he thought he could just step out at one point because that's exactly what he did! His front legs stepped out and he kind of freaked out and was hanging there with his front in the water thrashing around and back end in the boat trying to get back in. He finally gave in or I pushed him, I can't remember, and he went for a nose dive into the lake, came up and "bolted" for the shore. That was some quick doggy paddling!
So Marn's like "get in there and get him!" (he was doing fine, but who knows?) So I jump in to get Echo and toss Marnie out in the process, who in turn looses one flip flop in the muck below, freaks out because of the muck between the toes and jumps back in the canoe! I guided Echo back to shore and as soon as he could touch the bottom started running as fast as he could to get out. That picture Carey took from the shore is him running back out... too funny. Marn's mad because we lost one of her favourite flip flop's during the whole escapade...
Thursday, August 03, 2006
Coccidia
Well, after about a week of Echo slowly getting better with the diarrhea, he's gone right back to "explosive". We have an unconfirmed diagnosis of Coccidiosis. "Unconfirmed" because this diagnosis was based on 3 things without a fecal test:
1) He was getting better and then got really bad again (yesterday afternoon he had accidents in his crate again - almost a week after it happened the first time)
2) He STILL has diarrhea or very soft poops and it never really firmed up again
3) One of his litter-mates had been diagnosed with it
After last night's episode we called Danielle to ask her what we should be doing about this because it's been a week with no real improvement. She basically cut Marnie off and said she suspects one of two things; either a food allergy or coccidiosis - cocka-what? She went on to tell us to call the vet right away and to tell them we suspect that. So Marnie called the vet on my cell as I continued with Danielle, and the vet wanted to talk to Danielle. So we hung up and our vet called Danielle who worked out that yeah, treat for this organism right away without another test. If it's not markedly better in 3 days, come back in for more tests.
"Great!" I'm thinking... 1 month old and the vet bills are already rolling in! Well turns out that treating this is pretty simple AND cheap (about $15 and no consult fee), and thankfully there are no long-term side effects (not so with severe cases). I found a good read about the organism here if you want to read up on it.
The hardest part of all of this is we have to starve the poor beast for 24 hours and then slowly re-introduce his food. It started last night with 4 pills. (I fed him while Marn picked up the pills - I probably shouldn't have, but I didn't know at the time) He then gets 2 pills per day for the next 3 or 4 days until they are gone.
Echo is staying with his "poppy" today which is great and I'm off tomorrow so we shouldn't have anymore accidents until this clears up.
The nice thing about this is that older dogs (6 months+) build up an immunity against coccidia and have the ability to expel them on their own. They may even be carriers of it and not know it. Also, it's not infectious to humans.
So, hopefully in 3 days he'll be back to normal and I won't have to use the garden hose to clean up the yard!!
1) He was getting better and then got really bad again (yesterday afternoon he had accidents in his crate again - almost a week after it happened the first time)
2) He STILL has diarrhea or very soft poops and it never really firmed up again
3) One of his litter-mates had been diagnosed with it
After last night's episode we called Danielle to ask her what we should be doing about this because it's been a week with no real improvement. She basically cut Marnie off and said she suspects one of two things; either a food allergy or coccidiosis - cocka-what? She went on to tell us to call the vet right away and to tell them we suspect that. So Marnie called the vet on my cell as I continued with Danielle, and the vet wanted to talk to Danielle. So we hung up and our vet called Danielle who worked out that yeah, treat for this organism right away without another test. If it's not markedly better in 3 days, come back in for more tests.
"Great!" I'm thinking... 1 month old and the vet bills are already rolling in! Well turns out that treating this is pretty simple AND cheap (about $15 and no consult fee), and thankfully there are no long-term side effects (not so with severe cases). I found a good read about the organism here if you want to read up on it.
The hardest part of all of this is we have to starve the poor beast for 24 hours and then slowly re-introduce his food. It started last night with 4 pills. (I fed him while Marn picked up the pills - I probably shouldn't have, but I didn't know at the time) He then gets 2 pills per day for the next 3 or 4 days until they are gone.
Echo is staying with his "poppy" today which is great and I'm off tomorrow so we shouldn't have anymore accidents until this clears up.
The nice thing about this is that older dogs (6 months+) build up an immunity against coccidia and have the ability to expel them on their own. They may even be carriers of it and not know it. Also, it's not infectious to humans.
So, hopefully in 3 days he'll be back to normal and I won't have to use the garden hose to clean up the yard!!
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