We here at Intrigued just wanted to take a quick moment to extend our best wishes for a very Merry Christmas (or related holiday event) to all or wonderful readers!
It’s that time of year when we shut the lights off and close the office doors for a few days so we can enjoy this special holiday with family and friends. Hit the jump to see a few more warm tidings from our staff!
Continue reading Merry Christmas and Warm TidingsBrad (and Jan) are still out wining and dining our editor staff at the Denver facility – tells you how important they are to us I.T. professionals. I can hold my own in the coding world, but my knuckles still have not recovered from the damaged inflicted during my first class in deconstructing a sentence under the iron rule of nuns wielding heavy wooden rulers (WHACK). They eventually wore me down and got the basics past my defenses and honestly, these past 17+ year here at Intrigued has helped, but I still prefer talking bits and bytes. In Brad’s absence, you are stuck with me again for today’s featured feathered friend.
I know, I know, a bit of a letdown from the more colorful specimens featured in my previous posts. We still need to give the species that overslept the day when Mother Nature was waving her paint brush.
Hit the jump to read more about this species that could easily be mistaken for a member of the Sparrow family.
Continue reading Hiding in Plain SightWelcome to May everyone! Trying my best to get caught up since getting back from the Purina Farms Poodle Specialty Agility Nationals and FastCAT runs in Missouri. I am beginning to think the term “caught up” is just a polite way of saying getting some semblance of order before receiving another dose of chaos as we head out the door on another adventure – retirement is wonderful, but I definitely didn’t expect to be this busy! The good news is, while Brad was looking after the Intrigued complex, I was able to get caught up on this year’s Average Year stats (link here) – note, as of today, it is technically 4 birds behind (I can’t win ha). My count officially sits at 285. Not a bad number this early in the season, but it has been a struggle of sorts as we changed up our travel destinations a bit. Warblers did just start arrived today, fingers crossed I’ll be able to get several of those in the tin before they move on.
Linda received her FastCAT picture downloads today and thought I’d throw in some brag shots of our speed demon!
Hit the jump for another shot from the competition and I promise we’ll get you to a feathered friend as well!
Continue reading Fast Dogs and Weird GeeseEvery four years we are granted and extra calendar day to attempt getting all the crap done we’ve procrastinated on since the previous gift of 24 hours. We’ve come to that charity point and I sit here staring at all the things on my to-do list wondering just how long ago each of those items were added. Each comes with a progression of analysis honed over the many years in the corporate grind – does it really need to be done, does it actually have to be done now, is there something more important that delivers greater benefit, is it still as critical as it was when the item was added, is it really independent or it is preceded by another task on the list (or worse, not even there), is it too daunting and needs to be broken into subtasks and more important than all, what kind of trouble will I get into from Linda if I delay any longer. Scan the list, re-prioritize, rearrange, prune some, add some, stare at it, flip some coins…screw it, let’s have some fun and write a post!
Want to give Brad a little bit more time to process all the tins from his recent adventure, so spent some time going through the recently processed shots from our Texas 2023 snowbird migration- you have probably noticed the heavy emphasis on that January trip as of late. What could we feature in celebration of this Leap Year. Then I jumped over to see Jet’s latest post and she absolutely Caarussshed it (link here)! All of my Bunny shots have been used and the only other good option was a Leopard Frog I took several years back – pretty lame. Maybe I could get “close”
Ladies and gentlemen, would you accept Jeep Year!?! Unfortunately, I should have been working on this years in advance to have a nice collection of shots to use (like it says right there on my to-do list ha). As a substitute we are going with a Free-For-All clear out of the (mostly) Texas one-offs. Put your seatbelts on and hit the jump for a joy ride.
Continue reading Leaps, Jeeps and MisfitsEveryone here in the Intrigued family would like to extend a hearty Merry Christmas to each and all! We have had a wonderful year here and that is entirely due to all our wonderful readers.
Hit the jump for some more merry good cheer!
Continue reading The Intrigued Family Wishes You a Very Merry ChristmasI’ve said it many times before and I’ll say it again, I have no idea how I got anything done while I was in the corporate grind. Even with the forced downtime to recover from the recent ultra race, it still felt like I was “busy”. The bright spot is looking back I was able to get a number of the “Bri-do” items checked off. The break gave me a chance to turn my attention to the Mothership with two mega posts on this year’s Halloween Haunted Trail Prop Tutorials – the new 2023 tombstones (link here)
..and the Radioactive Spiders (link here). Along with those prop posts, also threw in the Bix 7 recap (link here) and the all too painful recollection from the recent 100K ultra attempt that caused the whole extended rest in the first place (link here). Definitely some heavy lifting posts. Now time to get back to the “wild’ side where we have plenty of material to bring you. Brad just sent me a number of new adventure posts you will surely enjoy and I still need to dip my toe into our Texas and Florida adventures. I want to give Brad and family a bit more time to focus on their affairs, so you are with me today….but first a quick brag.
Congrats to Linda and Ruger who earned their Beginner FastCAT Title yesterday. Basically the 100 yard dash for doggies. Found something Ruger was basically born to compete in and he absolutely loves it. In previous runs he was in the 19.5mph range – dialed it back this weekend to 18.5mph which is still amazing (they had two patches of straw on the course covering muddy areas which he didn’t like and basically leaped over it each time likely accounting for the slower time).
Guessing about now you are wondering if we are ever going to get to the featured duck of the day. Without further delay…
Hit the jump to see a few more pictures of our yellow-eyed wave runner.
Continue reading Brags, Stones and ScaupsI have to feel a bit sorrow for all the SoaRs out there (Spouse of a Runner) or more specific SoaIRs – Spouse of an Injured Runner. Clearly we can be a difficult lot as Linda continues to remind me daily. Beginning to think my full name is really “Don’t You Dare”, purely based on the number of times that is proclaimed lately and as far as I can tell..always directed at … well, ME. She caught me heading out to a pile of concrete with a sledgehammer the other day (we had some new concrete poured and the contractors left huge slabs for me to deal with). My excuse that it couldn’t be any worse than what the therapists were going to do me apparently didn’t hold water. The good news is Doc says the elbow is healing nicely, but wants to re-xray it in three weeks. Obligatory head nod while inner Bri goes postal “THREE WEEKS, is he crazy!?! I have a road race this Saturday and an ultra in October to train for – where did she hide that sledgehammer, I need to get on with building my strength back up …when Linda is away, of course”. While my accelerated recover plan germinates, thought I would see if I could get a quick post out. Brad was kind enough to take us along on his Huntington bird walk last we met. Unfortunately, my birding days are put on hold for some time – even decided to send The Beast in for some spa recovery time at a local Nikon repair shop – so, how about we take a walk of a different kind.
This adventure will be from the comfort (and safety) of my den. Yep, it is time for a hodgepodge of images that either didn’t make the first cut, one-offs or in some cases just some fun images that have been perpetually stuck in 5 o’clock traffic.
Hit the jump for a walk for those of us with no particular place to go.
Continue reading HodgepodgeBefore anything else, I want to bring out the brags for Linda and Raven. We recently returned from Kalamazoo, Michigan after attending the UKC Agility National Invitation. The top 50 UKC ranked dogs in the nation per division were invited to compete against each other in the All-Stars event. Our little guy got it done bringing home the “bigger than me” (Raven’s words) first place ribbon! Congratulations to him and Linda (can I take credit for being the Team Raven Sherpa!?!).
Even Ruger got into the action. He pulled the “but I’m cute” on his agility runs, but we definitely found his star event, the Dash. A few years ago at this event we tried out this 50ft sprint competition and he ran like a bat out of hell, but more focused on getting to Mommy at the end of the course than he was the “rabbit” that was supposed to lead him. Two years later and his brain has now clicked putting full concentration on the rabbit – even chased it all the way back on his own. This now sets him up for the lure coursing events which use a similar lead around a far more complex course.
In addition to all this excitement I was also able to take a huge chunk out of my blog backlog that has been absolutely gnawing at me. Big thanks to Brad for holding down the HQ while we’ve been gone. The Average Year 2023 is not completely up to date after putting in 50+ daily recaps (link here) and I’m all prepped for 3 massive posts for the Mothership that should be ready to go by the end of the week. While the bows are being placed on those, wanted to give you something to entertain you in the meantime. Brad has had the bird front covered, so going with another Not a Bird from the queue.
Hit the jump to reveal the featured creature!
Continue reading Not a Bird nor a SnakeWe here at Intrigued wanted to extend a hearty Merry Christmas to each and all! Mr. Freeze has decided to insure we have a white Christmas for a change – at least here in the Midwest Tundra. Sprinkle in some wicked windchills and you have the perfect conditions to stay inside and enjoy some hot chocolate nestled around the fireplace…or basking in “the soft glow of electric …”.
Hit the jump for our holiday wishes!
Continue reading Time for Reindeer Games 2022!For the last two weeks I’ve woken up, looked at the day’s to-do list, covered my dog’s ears and let out a string of colorful words. In big bold letters is the word “POST”. Although that probably is obvious but it is short for “Get your lazy butt into the den and get a post out you lily-livered, bow-legged, flea-bitten varmint”. Yes, I’m retired, yes, I still have to-do lists and yes, my to-do list entries mock me. This month it isn’t so much procrastination, just too much stuff going on, but today we are going to take another bite out of the self-imposed monthly post quota.
Going to start with another brag introduction. I previously mentioned Raven did well in the TDAA National competition held last week in Minnesota. He is starting to slow down a bit, but he is getting the job done qualifying in 4 out of his 6 runs. I’d be sleeping on the couch if I didn’t give some of that credit to Linda ha!
I think Raven is starting to feel the pressure from the newest member of the agility family. A long way from the steady runs of his brother, Ruger is just starting out, but showing amazing talent – Linda just needs to get him focused. We laughed at this shot of him “doing” his first ever weave poles. By “doing” we mean running right through them to get to his favorite obstacle the teeter-totter. “That isn’t how it’s done Ruger!” Raven was absolutely embarrassed and went and hid in his crate after that fiasco.
As they Say’s, hit the jump to see today’s featured feathered friend!
Continue reading It Say’s I’m the Best
Wildlife Intrigued 