Irony

Shane achieved his Advanced Gamblers title Saturday in College Station. He has his Open Fast Title as well. In Jake's entire life, he got one Gamblers Q and Woody never achieved any. Now I have a dog that loves works away from me, but won't go down on the table. It's always something.
Friday afternoon, we all left for College Station. Frank didn't have a gig, so he and Woody came along for a family weekend. I used Frank's Hilton points to get a free room at the Hilton Conference Center. Checking in, we noticed a lot of kids. Learn they are hosting the Miss Cinderella pageant. Awards banquet was that night. Lovely going up and down the elevator packed with people in sequined dresses while restraining two curious dogs. Frank goes out for Pei Wei. Forgot I have a problem with MSG. Can't get to sleep. Also, girls are running up and down the hallway, slamming doors until about 3am. Great.

Set up at the show was restricted to people helping set up equipment, so I expected a scramble for space Saturday morning. We get there way early, and the place is full already. I have to stop following rules. Found a little place to squeeze into, but I'm supposed to save a place for my friend too. I decide to wait and see if anyone leaves at the end of the day. Later on a vendor place opens up and I get her tarp down, but it's on the other side of the arena from us. Sucks.

Our first run is Advanced Pairs. We usually do well in Pairs, but the second leg has a teeter. So I have to decide to risk a bad teeter performance or try to catch Shane during the hand off. I opt to risk the teeter. Turns out that wasn't even a problem. Shane knocked some bars and spun quite a bit. We even missed a jump. I apologized to my partner several times, but didn't seem to do any good. I hate ruining someone's run. We did so badly that our names weren't even on the score sheet.

We did Steeplechase to get the bugs worked. We didn't do too badly considering how hard it was. Nice serpentines. Lots of spinning. Next was Starters Standard. Same old troubles. Took a long time to go down on the table, but he eventually did go down. Progress! Blew the dog walk. Out of time buzzer goes off as we go over the last jump. Bummer.

Last run of the day, Advanced Gamblers. Gamble was tough, but followed Gerry's teachings and pushed him out to the tunnel from the teeter. He missed the last jump, but I called him back and flung him over. Score! We got 1st place and a Q. Tied for points with my pairs partner from the morning, but we were faster. Ha.


Saturday night, Frank and I went to Outback Steakhouse for dinner. Not a bad meal considering the price. Our steaks were cooked exactly opposite of our request, so Frank and I switched steaks. The Miss Cinderella infant pageant was Saturday, so it was pretty quiet that night and we slept well. Lots of little hands grabbing at the boys when we went outside to pee. Shane is still pretty shy, so Woody got all the lovin'. Glad to see the little girls were just dressed like pretty little girls and not like Jon-Benet Ramsey.

Sunday was a total bust. Advanced Snooker, we knocked a bar. Only got 19 points, and 2nd place. Starters Standard. He went down on the table! It's getting better. Still missed the dog walk. We seem to be having trouble with winged jumps. Not sure what that's about. Starters Jumpers was bad as well. Knocked bars and spinning. I watched the video Frank took and I am not running with conviction. I really need to get over my performance anxiety and give Shane the handler he deserves. Lots of work to do.