good dog!

Matt and I went to Pene's first dog training class last night. It is held by the All Breed Obidience Training (http://www.abotc.com/) at Flagpole Hill. They have an 8-week beginners class and offer further intermediate and advanced training. Since only one person can train, Matt just watched while Pene and I joined dogs Emily (Rottwieler), Diego (some long-haired setter-type), Duke (golden), Ralph (little yappy mutt), and Clive (blood hound) and their owners. We had two instructors - one mostly doing the talking and demonstrations and the other observing and helping out individuals. In our first one hour class we began teaching the dogs sit, stay, heel, and down. I was glad we'd already taught Pene sit, as most of the other dogs knew it too. We learned about keeping the dogs at our left sides, how to hold their leash, and how to make the most of the commands. Pene did really well when she got over the distractions of the other dogs and people. I think she wants Clive to be her boyfriend. He's pretty adorable with all his extra hound skin (he's only 4 months old). Matt and I were really pleased with everything - the closeness of the class, the quality of the instruction, the small class size. I hope Pene enjoys it too! I was pretty impressed that she did as well as she did considering she has ear infections in both ears!

Did I ever mention that my first Xbox 360 got the red ring of death after four days? I thought that was pretty incredible...luckily Best Buy didn't blink when I brought it in for an exchange, and they switched out the hard drives so I could keep my saved games. Anyway, just thought that was note-worthy. 360 #2 is trucking along just fine. I've logged some major hours on it, beating Blue Dragon today (51 hours played I think), and it has been good.

Rick and Emily played Rock Band with Matt and I when they were here this weekend. For the first time we experienced four people rocking out at once (Rick on vocals, me on bass, Matt on guitar, Em on drums). It is ridiculously fun, although the singing takes some getting used to. Emily and I were incapacitated and barely able to play our instruments when Rick started belting out the Beastie Boys "Sabotage." Quality!