Honey's Dancing with the Doggie Stars!

OK for a bit of background, this video is my inspiration for my costume.... particularly the hair...I couldn't find the awesome pants anywhere though!

I am a child of the 80s, and I still love Cyndi and this song really makes me think of my relationship with my dogs. I know it's supposed to be romantic, but that kind of commitment is very much what it takes to be a dog owner!



Barbie looks a bit flat in this routine - this is because my camera was playing funny buggers and cutting out 30 seconds into the routine, so we had to do it about 7 times. More than enough to wear out a greyhound. I also have to admit that we haven't been training for this. She is asleep right now as I type this while Mittens is trying to attack my wig as it sits on the arm of the couch.

Cameras

I have only had two digital cameras in my adult life. My first one was a Pentax Optio WP - a water proof 5 mega pixel camera which took lovely vivid photos, including some of the older ones I have of Bender swimming in deep, blue water. The Pentax was lost in an airport, or left on a plane, but I never managed to find it.

My second camera was purchased about 18 months ago. It's a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FT1. It is now outdated, but all of the photos and videos on this blog were generated by it. It has a few scars from being in my bike bag with all of my tools, I'm too lazy to keep it in it's pouch. It's been dropped a few times but it's supposed to stand a 10ft drop. Since I'm only 5ft3, all of the drops have been from below that height.

It developed a problem, which may have been in train for a while now. It started being a bit slow to autofocus and take photos. Now when on video mode it makes a constant grinding noise as it focuses. I am going to have a shot at getting it repaired under warranty - I hope that it can be, because we are going on a holiday soon and so any long winded repair attempts may leave me without a camera :(( I am glad that I purchased the extended warranty when I bought the camera, but I may be stuck with the bill if they deem that it broke due to being abused. The JBHIFI guy said they were very generous with warranty claims but it remains to be seen exactly how generous. Would love to get a new FT-2 but I don't think that's very likely.

It also may be a problem for my DWTDS entry. It may not be recorded in my usual high-def standard. Oh well, youtube mangles it anyway so I suppose noone will be able to tell! ;)

Dancing with the Doggie Stars!

As regular readers of this blog will already know, we are going to be giving 'canine freestyle' a go for Honey's Dancing with the Doggie Stars competition. Honey and her person, Hsin-Yi, as well as other new followers have all asked for some practise footage so here it is, Barbie working on her moves.

Bender fetched his ball for about 4 hours yesterday and is still too tired and grumpy to do any work, so there's no video of him yet. But enjoy Barbie's!

We are going to try and do 'marching paws' as well but Barbie is insistent on offering just one paw! I think her balance isn't as good on the other side.... but once she gets used to walking on her back legs I think her balance will be better.

hey kitty, won't you come inside....

On our walk last night there was a very unusual occurence! Barbie got to meet a strange kitty!

We were walking along, minding our own business, and a white kitty was sitting in the shadows near the edge of the road. Barbie saw it and stuck her nose close to it to say hello. It hissed (and possibly batted Barbie's nose). Barbie took a little hop backwards. I think Barbie was a little indignant - all kitties are supposed to be friendly, like her kitties! She didn't pay it much mind though as we continued along the path.

In other news, I have been 'free shaping' with both the dogs to see what dance moves they will come up with for Honey's dancing contest. Barbie offered standing up and resting her front paws on my chest. I think we can use that :) Both dogs are now spinning when I spin, and we keep working on the leg-weaves because, well that is a classic canine freestyle move. There will also be some jumping in the routines, and I have to work commando in there somewhere ;) I still haven't decided on the music but I think we will be doing more of the 'narrative' style.

Also, good news on my truck. The insurance company is going to pay out almost enough money to buy something else of equivalent usefulness. I am thinking about getting more of a station wagon type car since we don't really do the type of serious four wheel driving that requires the clearance my old truck had. A nice condition Subaru Outback is at the top of my list. We are heading to Europe at the end of June for 6 weeks, so when we get back I will start hunting for one. I would like to get one from 1998 - 2001-ish with under 200,000kms on the clock.

The Biggest Event in Blogger History!

Well maybe I am being a bit melodramatic, but I am excited about Big Honey Dog's contest for non-dancing doggies to put together a doggie dancing routine!

We don't really have many dance moves going on but we've been looking for some motivation to learn new ones. And having two doggies, we may be able to string together two entries. I already have plans to move all the furniture out of the living room so it's a nice big open space to do a routine in! Hah!

Anyway wish us luck, we are going to need it!!!