Sweet Temptations Expo & Other things

Another non-doggy weekend! This is about the 3rd in a row and boy, I think i'm starting to have withdrawals!! Saturday involved Mum and I going out for a very belated Mothers Day present :). Usually now, rather than giving her presents, we'll go out for the day and do something, or go out for lunch etc... much more enjoyable :). So - the main reason it was so delayed was because whenever I was free, Mum had something on and vice versa! Always the way!! Anyway - we decided to go to this "Sweet Temptations Expo" at the Exhibition building - basically it was an expo of all things 'sweet' - chocolate, cakes, icecream etc,etc. The day was heaps of fun and boy - did we eat our fill! Almost every stand you walked past had something to 'try' and mmmm..... they were yum! By lunch we were all 'sugared' out so briefly left the expo to have something a little less sweet (ended up at a nice dumpling restaurant in Chinatown), came back to the expo for another 'demonstration' and then headed off home :). Mum thoroughly enjoyed herself and picked up some great ideas for cake decorating etc, from seeing what was 'out there'.... they also had 'cupcake demonstrations' ie: making fancy decorations etc on cupcakes - was interesting and now Mum is all inspired.... well - who am I to refuse - means I can be the taste tester right?!

Well - here are some piccies from the day:

Chocolate Fondue fountain - free and you could have as many as you liked! Mmm.. the chocolate was sooo tasty too :).

A 'rocky road' pyramid.... this stuff was really nice - bought some home - all kinds of flavours - original, honeycomb, cookies and cream, choc mint..... you get the drift!

Cupcake designs: mum is all inspired to make these now :)

Our attempt at making cupcakes (mine on the left... ie: the one that looks worse!)... i'll let you be the judge of which is better - the ones in the stalls, or ours!

A sample of the types of cakes on display:

Came home Sat arvo after the expo to get ready to go out to Frankston for Kylie's birthday bash. Twas a good night, but unfortunately not many 'pub' choices around - so by the time we got there - we had to wait in line for 2 hrs!!! THEN, as I had to get up in the morning (7am) and drive for 1hr to get home (and remain awake) I had to leave a short time after getting into the pub! Major bummer! But, we still had a good night! Some piccies:

Kylie, Loz and Myself.

The whole gang - don't know how I did this one! The wonders of 'happy snaps'!!

Loz and Kylie

Ended up getting home at about 2am! Had to get up in the morning for Kinta's basic 2 test - which she passed with flying colours :D. This now means that we can join the 'trial ring' for some proper practice rather than rambling around class. I did have a giggle to myself though - as I have missed so many classes, I wasn't sure how we would go. I read through the criteria and realised that the dogs had to 'heel' for 2mins!!! There was no WAY I was going to heel K for that long without any reward.... so I didn't and told her just to walk "with me" instead.... coz I was talking to her she was great, but of course a bit 'blah-ze' at the end (which was fine, as I think she started to realise I was saying "with me" as opposed to heel LOL. Even after that I still think she was one of the better 'heelers' in the class VBG! Next we had to do food refusal - OOPS!!! I completely forgot to practice that and had also *never* done that in class!!! Hmm... would be interesting to see how that goes (a whole plate of sausage under her nose!).... the little trooper was soo good and only took one command to leave it!!! yipee!! Her SFE was also good considering I only did one run through with her last Monday night, using dad as the 'dummy'... this i'm especially proud of as many of you remember how she was a bit 'skittish' when she first came home... now she is quite confident (with minimal training aside from show training) to hold her SFE with me out front :D .... so the long and short.... yes, i'm proud!

Sunday had some lovely weather so ended up taking the pooches for a lovely long walk and romp - they had a blast, but apparently a 1hr off lead run chasing each other, balls and ducks is NOT enough exercise and we still have ample energy to burn *rolls eyes*!

As for the saying 'it never rains, but pours' seems to be the case at the moment! When Leo was a bub, he went through a week where he had vet visits about 3 times in a week - once for his vacc, once for a tummy bug and then again for a bee sting! Since then, he has barely been to the vet other than for his vaccinations etc.... now he seems to want to be sick again - constantly *sigh*... as you know- both dogs have had Kennel Cough last fortnight (which they are both much better from :) ).... Leo had a bad dose of it and was quite lethargic on the Friday.... then Wed just gone, Leo came down with a bad bout of the runs which it seems is only *just* starting to clear up today. He was quite lethargic Wed night but fine from Thur arvo onward... his normal self again on Sat/ Sun.... so hopefully this is starting to clear up now.... But - went outside yesterday (as you do) and said 'howdy' to Leo - I noticed that he had considerable swelling in BOTH ears! My first thoughts were 'haematoma'... but then, how would he have got it?! Never mind - I thought - i'll take him to the vet Mon/ Tue to get them drained (insert very BIG sigh here!).... even then, I thought it a little strange that he should have a haematoma in both ears... likewise if it were an allergic reaction (and he was quite sprightly). Then, throughout the course of the day, the swelling started to reduce.... I wiped his ear clean and it was leaking clear fluid (not coming out fast, but enough to make his ear wet.... there is no smell etc. Today - the swelling is near gone, but the ear still sore/ red.... will see how it is tonight/ tomorrow and if still sore - off to the vet we go! But I have no idea what it is (bacterial infection?) or how it happened.... but bl**dy hell dog! I have other ways to spend my money ya know!!!

This week is pretty busy work wise - more piggery visits, more storyboarding and a weekend trip to Syd to visit my brother with the family :)..

Cya all later :D