Completed staircase makeover

Yesterday I completed my staircase project. Here are some photos of the process. First I primed the stairs, and let it dry for 24 hours. Then I put masking tape over the stained trim to save it from splatters of...

"Chocolate pudding" color paint.

Here is the finished paint-job, you can see the woodgrain showing through. It looks kind of nice that way, but there isn't much traction.

So I wanted to add some traction. At the hardware store I looked at adhesive sand-type strips, and rubber stair covers (treads? protectors?). I decided to go with the rubber covers, mainly because I could attach them with a couple of small carpet tacks instead of having them permanently attached, as adhesive strips would be.

I had briefly considered little individual carpet rectangles that are made specifically for stairs. Rather cute, they are like mini-rugs. However, it seemed that they would be very difficult to keep clean, and I wasn't sure how I could cut them to fit on the angled stairs (without them looking awful), so I decided against them.

Ta-da, all done!

Finally, an update from Tasha's agility trial which occurred the weekend before the stair-painting. Although she did not "qualify" in her first class, she qualified AND got first place in her other three. I suspect the reason for the trouble in the first class was the very unusual-looking jumps which somewhat confused both of us (and it was a Jumps class, of course). The end result is that she can now enter Standard classes at the "excellent" level - but she needs to complete one more Jumps class at the open level.

I don't know if you can tell, Mom, but the "new title" ribbon at the top is mainly MINT GREEN in color.

...

Okay, okay, it's aqua.

Staircase Makeover

This weekend I am painting my stairs. Previously they were carpeted, which was okay, but the carpet was from 1978 so it looked a bit old. So, my housemate/landlady and I decided to remove it. I am doing it while she is out of town, since I will have to live downstairs until it is all dry. I pulled off the carpet and scraped off the remaining horrid, shriveled foam carpet backing. Here are the before images where I am just starting to apply the primer coat.



After I painted I wanted to avoid any fumes, so I left the windows open and took Tasha out to a park for a walk and ran some errands. There was a football game going on, so the park was totally deserted. Here is a video of Tasha, I threw her ball into the tall weeds for her to find.

Giant Spider, Dog Report

Alas, I have not posted anything in some time! I suspected that no one was reading this blog, but apparently I was incorrect.

In the past few weeks, myself and a technician from Arkansas were finishing up some fieldwork around the MO-AR border. Several times we thought we saw giant spiders on the road, but that seemed insane, so we discounted the idea at first. But then:

A giant spider on the road!


We rescued it from the road and then took some time to photograph it and watch it walk around. It seemed quite interested in walking...onto us.


I think maybe it was attracted to the moisture on my wet wading boots, since it was quite dry there recently.


The technician's waders were pretty dry, so I don't know why it was so excited to walk up his leg! The smartphone is provided for scale.

While we were looking at it, a landowner came over to see what we were doing. He said that he had been seeing them on the roads during the autumn down there. He asked if we wanted a box to take it with us, but we could not think of a reason we would want to do that! We left the tarantula by the side of the road instead. The tarantulas that live in that part of the US are not significantly toxic to humans, or other large mammals. The bite can become infected, as can any puncture wound, so we were still glad not to have been nibbled.


In other news, Tasha and I have been going to dog agility trials recently. We've been training at it for some time now, and she seems to have loads of fun. We finally went to three trials, and cleaned up. She had only two classes (one of each type) at each of the first two, and she "qualified" in all of them. In a class, you are judged on time and number of faults (knocking over jump bars, making mistakes, etc). If your time and number of faults is low enough, you "qualify". Once you qualify in three of each type of class, you move up to the next level of difficulty (Novice, Open, Excellent). This weekend we went to another trial that was held locally. On Saturday she had one class in each of the two types and she qualified in both of them, so on Sunday she advanced to the next level (Open). In fact, she has gotten perfect scores (no faults) in all of her eight classes to date. I think we almost got one today, for leaving the "pause table" early, but we were just in the nick of time.

Some more explanation of classes:
There are two main types of class - 'Jumps With Weaves' or 'Standard'
Within each type there are 3 levels - Novice, Open, Excellent
Within each level there are many jump height classes - 24", 20", 16", 12", 8 "
Within each jump height it is divided into "regular" or "preferred"

Tasha always runs 20" preferred. That means the dog "should" be in the 24" category, but the owner has chosen to run the dog one height class lower (usually based on conformation and/or age). My trainer recommended Tasha run in preferred because her body is longish and she is six years old.

Here is Tasha basking in her 4 qualifying ribbons (green) and her placing ribbons (3 first, 1 second).


Actually she hates that I made her sit there because it is near the 'toilet' part of the yard.

It is not quite as impressive as it looks, because in two of her classes (Sunday, Open level) she was THE ONLY DOG. However, I looked at the score sheets and in one of those classes she was still the top scorer among dogs in 20" classes, while in the other she was second. So not too shabby :) In the other two classes (Saturday, Novice level) she placed first and second out of...I think five and six other dogs.

Of course, the most important thing is to HAVE FUN!


I have neglected to mention that she was able to do so well in spite of having little puncture wounds about her head and neck where she was bitten by another dog one week ago. She seems to have forgotten, and did not act weird around the dozens of other dogs at the trial.

Actually, her last two trials back a couple months ago were right after she had recovered from surgery to remove a skin tumor from her shoulder.

We have another trial next weekend, hopefully more fun will be had! I will try to remember to post about it...

Squirrel-watcher passes personality assessment

This past Saturday I took Tasha to a "Temperament Test" that was being held near Kansas City. The president emeritus of the organization himself was one of the judges (there are three), how exciting! He said he tested over 9,000 dogs. Yeah...OVER 9 THOUSAND!!! You can read more about the test, and past results, etc, here: www.atts.org (looking through the statistics for various breeds is really interesting). I entered Tasha as a mixed breed, due to her unknown parentage - she was the only mix there, actually. About 26 dogs were tested, we were in the second half, so we spent alot of time sitting around. Which was fine because there were CHICKENS nearby. Including a rooster that looked just like my mom's rooster Mr. Stripey. I gave him cookie pieces when no one was looking. Hopefully.
Here is a description of the test itself:
http://www.atts.org/testdesc.html
You can also see people take the test on youtube, just search for atts dog, some should come up.

The test is kind of scored on reactivity, with a low score being the dog didn't have much of a reaction to anything, a moderate (average) score being the dog had appropriate reactions, and a high score being the dog was very highly reactive. Ideally dogs would have scores in the average area, as far as I understood.

The one part of the test that I really had no idea how The Pie would react was the last item(s) where the "wierdly dressed stranger" appears with his whip/stick thing and begins acting aggressive before charging at dog/handler. Would she try to run? Would she try to play with him? Would she bark? Would she even notice? She's been around some pretty chaotic things so I thought that if she was not facing the correct direction she might just not even notice the guy. I just didn't know.

Also I had not thought this would be a problem, but the judge said one of the main areas dogs fail is the 'walking over wire cage footing'. You can guide the dog onto it, but they have to choose to stay walking on it and not jump off to a side. That is basically the only time in the test you can guide the dog at all other than just walking from one cone/station to the next.

During the test, Tasha did great. The only thing that was not perfect was the umbrella, where she tried to investigate the person behind it instead of the umbrella, but then she did, so it was fine. She walked right over the wire mesh, no problem. When it came for the aggressive stranger, fortunately she approached the station and faced where he was going to come from, so she did notice him right away when he emerged. And she did not try to run away or do anything silly! She watched him, with her head and tail in the upright position, and when he started approaching she moved a little closer, and when he charged at us she did not run or back away - she either stood still or moved even closer. Then as he walked away she just stood and watched him. I'm not sure exactly what her intent was, we weren't really even supposed to LOOK at the dog during the test, instead look at what the station is, so I was actually watching the dude. So, she passed her test with all scores in the 'average' zone except she got one higher score for being above-average interested in the 'neutral stranger' - considering her 'job' this is not surprising, ha ha. The judge said she was very well adjusted. Yay! Hopefully that will stand her in good stead for her Therapy dog "disaster stress relief dog" test NEXT weekend. Stay tuned for possible blog update following it...though it will be a busy couple of weeks!

Update for 2011...finally!

Here are a few interesting things that have happened recently!

Last fall I took Tasha to dog Agility classes at this local training place. Lately I've been taking her on my own (purchased a building membership, oh yeah) because the next class I need to take is never compatible with my schedule it seems. Oh well, building membership is not bad...here is PART of the facility:

In other news, we had considerable snow in early February. So much that my office was closed for emergency weather conditions. Of course, as an hourly I don't get paid if I don't work, so I did trudge into work one of those days. In 13 inches of snow it is hard to do anything other than trudge for very long! Here is the day after the blizzard:

Here is my sled perched atop one of the sledding hills at the park. The drop-off there is actually quite steep because the strong winds had blow lots of snow over the edge, forming a very steep angle for about 15 feet. Luckily the snow was pretty soft, so no one was injured (that I am aware of...except that one kid...but I think he was okay...).

Well, after the snow had been around for about two weeks, it melted. Then we actually had a couple of very warm days - one day it was over 70 I believe. So the snow melted. And I went to check on the burrowing crayfish at the little park by the University. Tasha accompanied, and actually somehow managed to find the only active crayfish! Awesome! Here is The Pie wondering if we can leave yet...or is she watching a squirrel?

Sometime in January, I noticed that the big stream aquarium in the front of our office had a softshell turtle in it. Eventually I found out that someone kind of abandoned it at our office, so some coworker just chucked it into the tank. Well, it had not been eating, or looking happy. So I arranged to put up a tank for it in the basement (my office is totally full!), with turtle-appropriate conditions:

His name is Pancake...or Dr. Pancake. He has an interesting face:

Here is a video of him eating: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3zI4VE5nVs

In other news, this dog that I fostered for a few weeks was adopted just a couple of days ago. His name is Damien, but he is actual far from being a devil, ha ha. He looks like Tasha, yes? They enjoyed playing together, after Tasha decided he was not totally beneath her. Here is a video of them playing together: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BC4u-wozOx8

FINALLY, today The Pie and I had our first visit to the VA hospital long-term care center. It went well, and no one threw up. We are scheduled to visit every tuesday...until summer field season hits! Then will have to switch days.

Okay, okay, last thing: we finished hiring our summer field crew! They don't all start until later, but at least we know who will be working for us. We are going to be the most-educated, oldest, and most out-of-state crew ever.