Eating Muffins in an Agitated Manner

C. Superbus Lipotus

Posted by Sari

Martti has had some very interesting times lately. First great upheaval was the Bone. We bought him a nice reindeer bone from the pet store as a treat. Martti was very suspicious of it and it took him three days to actually go near enough to touch it tentatively, and one more to actually grab it and start eating. Go figure. We have also started training some basic obedience stuff, though Martti seems to think that if I give him goodies inside, it means I am going to trim his nails. Which has meant giving him random treats with clicker just to remind him what it is all about.

We also met another Lancashire Heeler on one of our walks, first time this has happened. Another first was a nice lady with Västgötaspets who was the first ever person to be more taken with Martti than Viivi. A woman of discerning taste, obviously. As you see, camera is still something a bit suspect, but he does stay put and does not get too stressed about being photographed :-)

V-08

Posted by Sari

No I am not mispelling the name of the engine...

Martti returned home from his tour today. In Sweden he won open class and was fourth best dog in his breed. Today he was even more successful: at Voittaja 2008 show at Messukeskus he was Best of Breed and thus got the title V-08 to add to his FI MVA title. I think he now has more titles than I do, definitely he has more trophies...

We have been celebrating with chocolate for people and dentasticks for Martti. He also had his fifth birthday while on the road, so that had to be celebrated also.

Now he has time to rest on his laurels and enjoy life, there is nothing on his schedule before his eye exam sometime in the spring: heelers are prone to a nasty genetic eye disease called lens luxation and regular eye checks are recommended for all but especially for breeding dogs. 

So now we are just going to enjoy long walks on the Tali golf course and try to learn new tricks, maybe even take in an obedience training course.

Suddenly, life is incredibly busy

Posted by Sari

Yeah, I don't rightly know how it happened, but suddenly I have heaps of stuff to do. And Jukka is clocking overtime almost daily. We may briefly meet during the day.

Martti has just left to spend few weeks with his owner and after that he is off to Sweden to a dog-show. He was in his first show in champions class in the beginning of November, and got graded a red ribbon (very good). There was around 80 heelers there!

Viivi has developed a stubborn streak and does not want to let herself to be caught. Myy sleeps. A lot.

In other news. Ysabel won the World Fantasy Award! Finally GGK is a WFA winner. And with a pretty good book too. I still think that his later books have not been quite on the par with the earlier, Lions was touching but lacked layers, Mosaic duology had great potential but never really got there, and Last Light of the Day is my least favourite Kay of them all. Ysabel is an excellent YA fantasy and does the past breaks into the present trope so much better than (for example) Mosse's Labyrinth. Go and read it.

Also worth a look is Tor.com's blog where among other luminaries, blogs another WFA winner Jo Walton. Her winning novel, Tooth and Claw is one of those high concept novels that should not work but does. It is a Victorian novel of manners, only with dragons. And it is hilariously brilliant, especially if you are at all familiar with authors like Trollope. She also seems to share my taste in fantasy and SF to an uncanny degree. Her latest post on who killed Arianne Emory has me wanting to read Cyteen for about twentieth time.

And in yet other news, Finncon 2009 website looks pretty cool, and we should soon have more English content available. Honest.

Trick nro 2

Posted by Sari

We were at the Book Fair today. Jukka interviewed Jukka M Heikkilä (again...) about Germania and his other interesting historical novels, and I spent few hours behind the HYFSK stand selling mainly badges to kids. Then we wandered around and met people (Jan and Satu! teen idol and municipal election candidate Mr. Pohjola!). We'll be around again tomorrow afternoon so you know to avoid the stand...

This meant that Martti was getting bored alone at home and when we got home he was getting hyper. I was using a shoehorn to get shoes on and he decided it was a barkworthy dangerous object. To defuse the situation I started to teach him a new trick with the help of the clicker, touching the dreaded shoehorn with his nose. About thirty repetitions and he got it. Lets see if if he remembers it tomorrow...

Training Day

Posted by Sari

Martti and Myy went to the vet today. Myy had some problems with her teeth, and one of the lumps in her stomach had grown a bit, but nothing too alarming for a dog of her age. Martti had some blood drawn and a dna swab done (very CSI...) for all sorts of genome registers and research projects, and behaved beautifully. Myy got new food better for her teeth and Martti also got some changes in his diet. I feel like part alchemist, part nurse and part lunch lady when I am mixing together all the different things they eat...

Later we went to the airport to practice for our next show. Airport is a big inside space with noise and people and announcements from the PA system, so it simulates an indoor dog-show pretty well. Viivi who was along to get used to crowded places managed to wiggle out of her collar pranced about free for a bit but other than that everything went pretty well.

Martti has also been learning a new trick: he knows how to touch my fist with his paw to get the goodie hiding inside.There is a new picture of him at Marmalade's home page (the feet in the picture are mine!), and here are Viivi (in August) and Myy

Blech :-(

Posted by Sari

If Facebook is any indication, everybody seems to be having a flu right now. And so am I. At the moment I am quite unable to speak. Nothing but weak whispers come out of my mouth. Jukka says he can't hear me on the phone. I am also still running a fever after a whole week of feeling crappy. Blablabla, woe is me. So here are some happy things:

1. Congrats to Hannu for his publishing deal, it is truly honestly humongous news.

2. Here is an older picture of Myy and our Andalusian stallion Aguador. They are cute and make me feel better

Metsäilyä

Posted by Sari

Jukka jäi eilen kotiin Myyn kanssa kun minä ja Martti lähdettiin kaverien kanssa sienimetsään Siuntion lehtojensuojelualueelle. Suppilovahveroita ja kanttarelleja löytyi korillinen joten päätimme sitten lähteä katsomaan pientä koskea Siuntionjoessa. Muuten hyvä mutta korkeuseroa oli ihan mukavasti joten tuli kyllä jos jonkinlaisille lihasryhmille harjoitusta. Ja oli se koskikin ihan oikea koski, ei niitäkään ihan liikaa pääse näkemään. Ainut ikävämpi puoli oli että onnistuin tiputtamaan kännykkäni jonnekin metsään, joten jos on tarvis tavoitella hetimiten, soittakaa Jukalle, alkuviikosta on varmaan jo uusi simkortti ja oma numero toimii.

Martti oli ensimmäistä kertaa mukana pitemmällä metsäreissulla vapaana ja käyttäytyi täydellisesti. Hän pysyi kiltisti koko ajan ihan lähettyvillä ja pääsi ylä- ja alamäkeen treenaamaan selkälihaksia oikein kunnolla. Lehtojensuojelualueella kun tietenkään ei kaatuneita puita korjata mihinkään niin pikkumies sekä ryömiskeli niiden ali että pienen harkinnan jälkeen myös hyppäsi maassa makaavien yli päästäkseen eteenpäin.  Pari kuvaakin saatiin korvat pystyssä, joskin kuvakulmat ovat hiukan um, taiteellisia...
  

Hobbies clash

Posted by Sari

This weekend we had a slight hobby clash as Jukka is at Comics festival and I went to Porvoo to a dog show with Martti, who was expertly shown by Eeva and walked away with his second certificate and the best of breed trophy, proudly pictured on the left.  My previous dogs have been mixed breed so this was a first time at a proper big dog show with hundreds and hundreds of participants. It was fun and Martti behaved like a perfect gentleman all the time. Tomorrow we go to meet other Kennel Marmalade heelers, should be fun :-)  Jukka - I understand - will surprisingly be going to the comics festival. That would have been fun too, but at the moment I am pretty much all about the awesomeness of Martti the wonder dog (not forgetting the zen-like cuteness of Myy), so no contest, really.

An Update

Posted by Sari

As you know, our connection has been a bit spotty lately and Elisa, that queen of customer service, has not been quite as quick to improve the situation as one could have hoped. So blogging is done from work or from AP's abode.

Not that there is that much to blog about. Jukka is going to Parcon, found his passport and all, I am staying home with Myy and Martti, who was in his first Finnish dog show, and got his first certification and was Best of Breed. Jukka has been giving myy special certifications every day so she won't feel left out. Apparently Myy now has about 13000 of them.

 

Martti! Martti! Martti!

Posted by Sari

As Jukka said, we have a new dog, Martti. He is from England and is really called Bowanne's Smarty Pants. And he isn't really ours but his owners are Anna and Eeva are letting her stay with us.. Martti is a Lancashire Heeler and the second most adorablests dog in the world. He isn't too fond of flashlights, so we are easing into taking pictures without it and rewarding him for every shot. This is the best so far:

In addition to Martti the Clan has another new dog. Viivi, pictured below is my mother's puppy. She is what the breeder calls a "jackpot" (mix of jack russell, portugese podengo, dachsen, miniature pincher and a poodle - I think). She has no problems with camera. Except wanting to eat it.