:National Club Champs!
Posted: April 19, 2008 Filed under: DRambles on Black Mountain | Tags: Debby Rothman 2 CommentsI just have to share! Nate has coached the University of Colorado’s club swim team for the past two years. Nationals – the culmination of the American Swimming Association – University season – were held last weekend in North Carolina. The association is comprised of student-run swim clubs from colleges and universities across the country, founded in response to the elimination of collegiate varsity swim teams.
From the website: The 4th Annual American Swimming Association University League Nationals Championships proved to be a powerful display of the growth and rising level of competition of collegiate club swimming this weekend, where only 14 of 50 ASA U. COLLEGIATE CLUB SWIMMING RECORDS were able to withstand the onslaught of record-breaking swims at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Koury Natatorium.
Colorado dominated the meet, winning the men’s, women’s, and overall team competitions and sweeping all four relay events in record time. Rounding out the top three in the team competitions were UNC-Chapel Hill and Penn State with second and third place respective finishes in all three divisions. Eighteen clubs and 310 swimmers participated in all, making this year’s ASA U Nationals the largest and most competitive ever.
Nate was really, really proud of his team and swimmers. He told me they worked hard in practice and the many, many personal bests are evidence of their hard work. Here’s the team…that’s Nate in the white dress shirt and tie on the left.
Here’s what The Campus Press had to say… including some quotes from Nate.
Here’s a youtube video about the team, including a brief interview with Nate.
:Sick of winter
Posted: April 8, 2008 Filed under: DRambles on Black Mountain | Tags: Debby Rothman 6 CommentsRemember a week ago Sunday when I posted the gentle snowfall that morning was beckening me to slow down? It snowed at least twice yesterday and again in the night. Do you think if I listen to stillness of the snowfalls, if I pay them heed, it will quit snowing??!! This is the time of year that is the most difficult for me. It seems like spring has sprung everywhere else.
Certainly there are signs of spring. I hear birds in the morning. And the mud. Can’t forget the mud. Much of the snow melts within hours (this is not to say I can see the ground!!!), leaving sticky, mucky mud. Okay. Okay. I’ll stop whining. After all, in a few months when most of the rest of you are sweltering, up here fresh mountain breezes will flutter beneath bright blue skies. That’s when I’ll slow down! That’s when I’ll sit on the deck for entire afternoons!
This past weekend was another whirlwind. Rose Day. Tax Day. Sun Day. Over the past two weekends I’ve also spent time completing the requirements for recertification of my Red Card, the credential required for getting ‘behind-the-scene’ in case of evacuation for forest fires. Recert requires an eight-hour refresher in Wildland Fire Training and the infamous Pack Test. We were fortunate enough to be home when evacuation was required for the Black Mountain Fire in 2002. Had we not, my dogs would have been unattended for several days, not to mention possibly being the victims of the forest fire. Citizens cannot get beyond the barriers set up once evacuation is in place. I’m now part a group that formed that summer – Animal Evac Volunteers. My status on the Red Card is THSP – which means Technical Specialist.
Here I am controlling a ferocious dog in a mock-evac…
And here I am in full Wildland gear…
:My Edie Beadie
Posted: March 22, 2008 Filed under: FFT Lhasa Apsos | Tags: Debby Rothman 1 Comment
Okay. It’s now way after Five O’clock Somewhere. And, yes, we had a dog named that! I’m anxiously awaiting a phone call from Julie. Fernando was shown today. Josie could now be a champion. Keeping fingers crossed!!!…. A day spent catching up. A day spent uploading. And here we are now. Edie. My Edie Beadie. I love this little dog. And for all you neophytes out there, learning to accept limiting your dog’s play because of growing show coat, because your dog needs every advantage, please know that there are still those dogs – after all these years – that break my heart because they are no longer allowed to play with friends that….destroy their coat. They hang off their ears. They hang off their heads. They hang off their necks. That would be My Edie Beadie. She loves to let her friends grab her by the hair and pull her around the yard. Every day I promise her it’s only for a brief while her friends can’t chomp on her head, her ears, her neck. Soon, she’ll be able to, once again, join the Girls in the Mud Pit.
Edie has been shown selectively. She has back-to-back Best of Winners wins at Specialties. She’s a beautiful Apso. She is sired by Ian, C’est La Vie’s litter brother. And it shows. She’s built to move. A compact body. With an endearing personality that makes it hard for me – The Cold Hearted Bitch – to separate her from her hair chomping friends. “It’s only for a little while” I tell Edie Beadie.
Last September, upon leaving the show ring under breeder/judge Shery Swanson, she commented, “don’t worry, she’ll grow hair on her head.” Edie sported a Dr. Suess look last fall. Sprigs of hair standing straight up, no matter what product was applied. After all, it’s hard to glue down hair that’s an inch and a half long. It tends to ‘spring’ to the heavens. I knew she could grow hair on her head…if only I kept her away from her girlfriends. :::sigh:::
Friday, the weekend of our big four-day weekend of shows in February, was Edie’s day to shine. She showed like the Super Star I think she is. She showed like a million bucks that day. She was awarded Best in Sweepstakes (an event for dogs 6 months to 18 months) under Tibetan Terrier breeder Andrea Rieman and Best of Winners at the Lhasa Apso Club of Central Colorado’s Specialty under judge Arley Hussin.
I love Edie Beadie. I am grateful Julie allowed Tequila to have one more litter so I could breed Ian.
Carpe Diem!
:Saul wins the Bred-By-Exhibitor Non-Sporting Group
Posted: February 17, 2008 Filed under: FFT Lhasa Apsos | Tags: Debby Rothman Leave a commentIt seemed as is Saturday would never end. By the end of the day, most bailed from a long-planned dinner at an Italian restaurant. The results of Saturday’s show were entirely different than Friday’s show..which is very often the case. Another day. Another dollar. Another dog show.
Saul was awarded WD for a 3-point major and Best-Bred-By-Exhibitor Lhasa Apso. The same procedure I described yesterday for Best Puppy applies when an all-breed club offers Best Bred-By competition. Saul and I managed to pull off winning the Non-Sporting group.
It was a nice win. It was fun. Then the wait began. The show dragged on and on. And on. Our dinner reservations were at 6PM. At 6:40 Saul and I finally entered the ring to compete for Best-Bred-By-Exhibitor in show. He performed with enthusiasm, far more enthusiasm than I had!
Carol and I stopped at the Italian restaurant, sure we’d find everyone else fed and gone. Not so. We shared a nice meal with Tammy, Matthew, Mark and Ginny. It was a pleasant, relaxing way to wind down from the day.
Ruby walked around the ring again today. Her tail was up. Yippee!! She won her class. Yippee!! Yippee!! Christi was thrilled.
I’m off again this morning for an 8AM – did you read that?! 8AM!!! ring time. This is unheard of with Lhasa Apsos. The short haired breeds, especially the bulldoggy breeds start at 8AM. Not coated breeds. I left my grooming stuff at the show site to force myself to groom there, but I’m stopping by my grooming shop on the way. Edie is getting a bath.
It’s 3:55 in the morning. I think I’m nuts to show dogs.
:Another blast from the past
Posted: February 4, 2008 Filed under: DRambles on Black Mountain, FFT Lhasa Apsos | Tags: Debby Rothman, Julie Timbers 3 Comments
Okay, I have to share. I just have to share! Some of you may have read Sondra’s comment over the weekend – Sondra on A Blast from the Past. The blog only allows the 5 most recent comments to show up in Recent Comments in the left hand column, so don’t know if you read it…I’ll cut and paste it:
Wow! That photo was 20 years ago–sometimes those days seem like yesterday and other days it was a whole different lifetime ago. Thank you once again, Debby, for finishing Delilah! Our last lhasa, Razor, a gift from you to Harry on his 10th birthday, is still going strong at 8.
Sondra, that makes Harry 18?! Let’s don’t do the math for Tiffany and Shawn. Nate turned 23 in December.
For those of you who don’t know Sondra – and that would be most of you – we met not long after I started showing Lhasa Apsos in ….gulp…1979. She had Dandie Dinmont Terriers. I had Smooth Fox Terriers. We each had Lhasa Apsos as a ‘second breed’. Sondra, do you recognize any of the dogs or people in the above photos? I’m showing Zshoi (Joy is the pronunciation). And, surely I’m wearing my best dress! 🙂 I’m serious and Sondra will know what I’m talking about.
At one point in time, Sondra was secretary of ALAC (American Lhasa Apso Club). Maybe that’s what did her in! She retired from showing and breeding shortly after, if I’m recalling correctly. Not to mention the arrival of Harry… The gold Lhasa Apso ring I wear was given to me by Sondra. It was hers. She gave it to me. It’s on my right ring finger as I type. We’ve been friends a long time.
Sondra moved to Florida some years ago. I miss her. She introduced me to scrapbooking. And look where that’s led! The website is actually a morphed, 10th generation product of my love of scrapbooking. Scrapbooking is why I learned PhotoShop. It’s one of the reasons I learned about websites, web design and now, blogs! We would meet sometimes on Fridays, rent the back room in the scrapbooking store, spread out our layouts, get out our scissors and paste. And memories. And history. And knowledge of the dog world, people and players. Even though Sondra was no longer active, she understood everything I’d share about the dogs and the dynamics within the dog world. We’d start with breakfast at the Le Peeps next door to All My Memories. We scrap away until lunch and then walk across the parking lot to either Red Robin or the Hoffbrau. Have some lunch and drinks and go back for more.
Here’s another one. Name those dogs! Name those people! And surely that lavender outfit was also a ‘best dress’! Right, o-person-wearing-lavender.
If you’d like to see Delilah, the Lhasa Apso I exhibited for Sondra and Niall, do a search on A Blast From the Past in the upper left hand search box.
Kunza at FleetFire Timbers 