Mountain Hounds 2009

I never got into the whole scrapbooking craze that took over all of womanhood in the early 21st century. I will admit that I attended 20 minutes of a scrapbooking party that lasted 7 hours, but sitting a group of crazed women that are trying to lose baby weight, sniffing glue and armed with scissors is not what I call a good time.

Instead of a long traditional post of the amazing time we had at our first official greyhound gathering, I created a few scrapbook-esque pages of our fun-filled weekend.

Dog Pack

All of our friends have kids. All of them. We've been married for going on 8 years, which is longer than almost all of our friends, and everyone seems to be waiting on us to catch up with them. I hope they aren't holding their breath. When we listen to them talk about how their lives have changed when the baby showed up, one thing rings true for every couple - they can't believe how much stuff they have to pack to leave the house with the kid in tow.

I thought about this kernel of truth as I was packing up our Honda Accord two different times for our very full weekend of greyhound fun. While my babies might not be allowed in most restaurants or a grocery store, they certainly know how to fill up the trunk of a four-door car with supplies for a two-hour gathering.

Saturday night was the annual Southeastern Greyhound Club take your hound to the meeting - meeting (better known as the annual cookout). Held at Summerwind Farm in Newnan, GA, it's a two hour drive for us, but well worth it for the friends, food, and greyhound fun. Here's our packing list for this trip:

1. Ex-pen: to keep the girls contained while mom and dad eat
2. Outdoor rug: so the beds don't get all gross
3. Beds: bony butts cannot lay on hard ground
   
4. Folding Chairs (2): mom and dad need somewhere to sit
   
5. Tarps & Clamps: gotta have some way to keep the GBD out of the afternoon sun
6. Water Bucket: I brought the small 1 qt bucket for this short party
7. Treats: you can't leave home without them
8. Muzzles: another must have at any greyt gathering, even if you don't wear them

This year, the theme was a Hawaiian Luau, and many hounds and their owners came dressed in grass skirts and leis. I made a trip to the thrift store that morning and found a great Hawaiian shirt for Kev and a skort for myself that made great costumes for the evening. My mom made the girls new Hawaiian print scarves especially for the event, bringing our collection to about 10 different designs of matching scarves for the girls to sport about in.

The highlight of the night was greyhound limbo. Going into the game, Roxy looked to be one of the early favorites. But, she got a little performance shy, buckled under the pressure of the very low pole in the semi-final round and came in third. Venus (sporting her flowered tank top below) wowed everyone with her impressive "get low" skills, while Remi (shown in action below) came in second. Roxy charmed everyone with her winning smile though.



I was very excited to finally meet Denise, Limo and Less in person. And of course, Less did his fabulous tongue trick for me. What a handsome and lucky boy! It's not easy to find another greyhound/horse person without kids that is close to you in age, so we had a great time.



Sunday morning we got up and repacked the car for our annual trip to the Atlanta Braves' Bark in the Park event. For $23 you can bring yourself and your dog to a Braves Game at Turner Field and the proceeds from the event go to the Atlanta Humane Society. The first year we went they held the event at the end of July. Talk about the dog-days of summer - it must have be 99. They quickly changed the time of year the event was held and they now have two days - mid-May and early September. The weather on Sunday was as close to perfect as you get in Georgia - 75 and breezy - and we absolutely enjoyed ourselves. Our packing list for the day included:

1. Full-sized comforter & 2 Red Sox Throws: skinny butts had to lay down on something besides concrete
2. Water Bowl: obvious
3. Water: Turner Field is the only major league stadium where you can actually bring your own food and drinks into the stadium!
4. Kongs (2): Frozen with peanut butter, marshmallows and kibble
5. Snacks for mom & dad: ballpark food isn't always great on the hips

All of that, except the comforter, plus my M.I.L.K. (Money, I.D., Lipstick, Keys) fit into my backpack. We successfully climbed to the top of Turner Field so the girls could enjoy their own VIP luxury box and we could enjoy the shade and breeze (it helps with mom and dad are baseball nerds and know that stadium like the back of their hand). Being able to spread out was key to keeping Seka comfortable. Roxy couldn't take everything in fast enough. She was smiling at everyone she saw - neighboring dogs, little kids, the beer man. Word got around with the Bark in the Park volunteers who make the long trip up the stairs to refill the water bowls that there was a smiling greyhound in section 418, so we got quite a few visitors as the game went on.



Of course you can't go to the game without having some junk food, even if you bring your own 100-calorie packs with you. So, the girls shared my cotton candy, which they were confused by as the blue sugar melted away on their tongues. The peanuts, however; sent them into overdrive. After sharing just a couple, they decided to gang up on mom and take them from me, unshelled! Seka even helped herself to the picnic the neighbors were having to the right of us which included Krystal hamburgers. They were nice enough to share one with her. Pig.







We weren't the only greyhounds in attendance like we were the very first year they held Bark in the Park. There were several SEGC members enjoying the game as well, like our friend Lucy. In fact, Venus (the reining limbo champion from the night before) got a cameo on the jumbo-tron all decked out in her Braves hat.



As I was unpacking the car when we arrived home from Atlanta I was thinking back to all the dog/people watching I did while at the baseball game - I really didn't watch very much of the game at all. It was just too much fun to look at all the people and their dogs together. The one thing I did notice was that no one - well hardly anyone - had a kid with them. You either brought your dog or your kid to the game. I guess they didn't have enough arms to carry all the stuff you need to bring both.

What to Say at Your Next Dinner Party

I've been to several dinner parties in my 31 - almost 32 - years on this earth. I regularly entertain clients, and even though most of the time the gatherings are held at a restaurant the conversations are usually the same, dry, boring topics and somehow it takes just a bit more wine each time to get through the night. Whether it is their kids, politics, their successful business, their slumping business, or their new marketing strategy, the conversation typically runs its course in about and hour and for the last two hours that you're trapped with these people, you start bringing up things that are either hit or miss to talk about.

I once had dinner with the former Iranian ambassador, who now owns an oil refinery business in Houston. We had a very interesting conversation about bass fishing one evening after I asked him every question I could think of that might relate to his former profession without letting on I knew very little about that time in history because I was only 5 years old (max). That was an unexpected hit of a conversation. The time I had dinner with an HR manager who filled the silence by going down the list of every store in Manhattan that she ever shopped at and suggested I could use fashion help, that was a miss.

But Saturday night was the best dinner party I've ever attended. Great food. Great atmosphere. And great greyhounds! Eight of them to be exact. Thanks to my friend Patti's gourmet cooking abilities, we enjoyed an evening of steaks, shrimp cocktail, and amazing homemade ice cream. Oh, and wine. I forgot to mention amazing wine. In attendance were Kim and Guy and their three daughters - Bella, Lindsay and Rosie; Kevin and myself with Seka and Roxy; and of course our hostess with the most-ess, Patti with Remi, Sugar and Lucy.

Dinner conversation included a debate about what we feed our dogs, have fed our dogs, why we switched, would we ever switch and under what circumstances would we change. Guy spilled the beans that Kim developed an entire memory stick of 500 photos once and not one of them had a human on it - something that none of the ladies blinked an eye at around the table. We talked about the differences in having three dogs vs only have two. And of course we had to laugh at how they were all sacked out on their beds with a couple of them coming over to the table to monitor our eating habits just in case we were having trouble finishing our meals.

It was amazing to see all eight girls hanging out together without a bark, whimper, yelp, or fuss between them. But that's a greyhound for you. They all found a bed or sofa and assumed the typical greyhound position. A few of them dug into the toys. And us human girls got silly towards the end of the night and dressed up Bella for a few photos. It was totally worth the two hour trip north to spend a fun night with friends. Our girls thought so too.


Lucy had some extra melatonin to make it through an afternoon storm, so she was very mellow and woke up with the munchies half way through our meal.


Bella abuse recorded on film. Her father didn't approve, but he didn't do anything to stop it!



Rosie is a flirt. She loves the men. She and Roxy became fast friends.

Maybe next time I'm hosting clients and I find out that they have a dog, I'll ask them what they feed their dog? It was fabulous conversation at this dinner party. Who knows?

P.S. This weekend is lure coursing. Fingers crossed Seka will certify on Saturday so she can run with the big dogs on Sunday. Wish us luck! We're so excited.