Fourteen!!!

Happy 14th Birthday Robin!!!!

Still looking handsome!!

Apparently ear size increases with age:

Or maybe not? How could you resist this face?!?!?
(four months old)

Robin enjoying his birthday cupcake (minus the frosting!) this afternoon:

This weekend I attended a Nose Work seminar in Chicago (Melrose Park to be precise). I learned a LOT in the thirty hours I was away from home and not all of it Nose Work:

1. There is a reason that I hate rush hour traffic in large cities. Note to self – it is waaaaay less expensive to take I-80 than I-88! I’ll bet I spent almost $20 on tolls!! A really nice lady at the seminar gave me great directions on how to get to 80 to get back home.
   

2. Don’t judge a book by it’s cover! The Super 8 that Vinnie and I were staying at was near the O’Hare airport and the neighborhood didn’t look promising. First appearance of the motel didn’t look good for us either. However, our room was awesome!! It was huge, had a really nice leather recliner, marble (?) sink and shower surround (although a slight slip in the tub could end up with you taking a bath in the sink!) and a really cool leather and wood headboard. There was a restaurant in the building that had me drooling by smell alone!
   

3. I need a new mattress!! How do you know when you need a new mattress? When you go to a cheap motel and their bed is MUCH nicer than your own!
   

4. Here’s that “don’t judge a book by it’s cover” thing again: Saturday morning, there was a man leaning up against the motel entrance as I was going back and forth loading up the van. “You going to the Nose Work seminar?” he asked. I had to ask him repeat himself as I didn’t understand him at first. Turns out he lives in Alaska (where they don’t have hardly any dog seminars of any sort) and he has flown to 4-5 seminars here in the states just so he can help teach up in Alaska. He was originally from Texas so he was an Alaskan with a Texas drawl.
   

5. For Your K9 is an interesting place. They offer tons of activities for dogs including daycare, dock diving, obedience, Nose Work, agility, rally, etc… Their building is an old warehouse in an industrial area that has been divided up into different sections for their activities. It was pretty neat to see their dock diving area. The most interesting part of their building was the bathroom. The women’s room was a large (10 x 10) room with two toilets and two sinks – no stalls. Hmmm… I was really tempted to get you all a picture, but I thought it would look a little odd if I went in there with my camera.
   

6. I learned a LOT at the Nose Work seminar. I have quite a few things I want to try with the boys.
   

7. My new IPad is great for taking notes. There were four or five other people there using them for note taking. A couple of them had the keyboards. Might have to look into one of those. I am getting pretty fast at typing on the built in keyboard though.
   

8. On the way home, I ran into quite the storm. I learned that I get a perverse pleasure from driving in a thunderstorm and watching the fantastic light show and listening to the Arnold Schwarzenegger-esque voice warn me about the dangerous conditions in which I am currently driving. (Cow… Another cow… Nope, same cow – name that movie!!)
   

9. Penny is good under pressure (and in water!). And, she is incredibly clean right now from mother nature’s car wash.
   

10. Dean Koontz is warped, but I still love listening to his books in the van.
    

11. You can’t hear a Dean Koontz book over pounding rain and wind.
    

12. Driving in a severe storm works best with loud rock music!!