Snow dogs
Hi all,
We have been working on our sledding skills. Wanted to share some photos from our latest outting. Even though we are enjoying the snow, we are all dreaming of springtime!
What is everyone else doing to battle cabin fever this time of year?
Comments
Great photos Peggy! So who are the handsome/pretty dogs in the photos? How did they take to sledding? I know most Siberians are natural pullers in harness, but wasn't certain how Shikoku would be. They look great!
I wish we would have snow here...but alas, it is just either very cold or warmer and raining this winter (ie, 30s). Or an ice storm (even more yuck!). Your snow and sledding looks much more FUN!
What wonderful pictures! Your dogs are gorgeous. Makes me (almost) miss winters back east. We take Tenji to run on the beach, here in San Diego
Those are great pics! I'm jealous, I really want to get a sled for mushing. I have been training our pups while walking and skiing, tho they are not doing that well - but this is their first winter in snow. Hilo, Ahi and Loa LOVE it - but there are so many bunnies they are constantly in hunting mode and that makes it very hard to mush them.
We have also done a lot of hiking with them, we keep them on a long line and tie it to each other so they get a lot of freedom w/o being off leash.
The Shikoku dogs that I sled with are Suki & Aki. We have a joke: Dinner and a sleighride with Sukiyaki. They seem to enjoy their new "job."
Loved the pics of your snowdogs in NM!
Today it's freezing cold and the thought of running on the beach in CA sounds wonderful about now.
It's been snowing for the last couple of days. We accumulated about 24 inches of snow in some areas of my yard. Everything looks so beautiful in white fluff. But wait until the thaw...I have 11 dogs to clean up after!
oh man... the taw sux so bad. lol Everything is thawing here right now and we live off a dirt road... so that means MUD lots of MUD... it really sux to have dogs and mud, we get mud on everything.
My car is supposed to be black, not "black and mud" color:
Wow! 24 inches! I guess that you got the good Lake effect snows this year east of Cleveland. My husband would have died and gone to heaven if we had that much snow (not me!). And I surely understand MUD - it seems we have either frozen solid MUD or gooshy yucky MUD (remember I have horses, so where ever they walk in the winter makes mud).
Suki and Aki look like they are having a blast (and Sukiaki sounds like a meal you might eat, LOL)
Brad, our cars look about the same as we live down a long gravel driveway. Thank goodness for car washes! (when it dries out).
Peggy - I was just looking at your pics again. Your Shikoku are really great looking! :c) I love that last pic... How is Loa's sister doing? Any pics? She was so cute, reminded us of Ahi as a pup. :c)
lol... I am not hiding it, trust me.
Anytime its muddy/snowy and we need to go somewhere I'm like "I'll drive!". I try to play it off like I just don't want Jen to have to drive in the mud/snow but really I am SO FREAKING STOKED inside my head. lol! (I'm sure Jen sees right through me).
And loves you for it.
I'd be the same way if I lived in your neck of the woods. I used to live snow country in NY and would always find parking lots to pull the e-brake in when we had any reasonable amount of snow. I'd also do it on the roads if there was nobody around. Sooooooooo much fun!!!!!!!!
The shop I used to work for had 2 drift cars as well as their own driver that we would fly in from Japan for each event. Also, we leased part of our building to a fabricator who would work on drift cars and make custom drift cars. He is actually a pretty good driver himself. I had the pleasure of riding shotgun while he drifted around the course in the RS-R Honda S2000 he built at a drift day event. It has approximately 400hp and 300 torque. That thing is FAST! I must say, it was an experience ill NEVER forget. Even though I wasn't driving, just the rush of sliding back and forth about to lose all control, but totally in control, it was really an amazing feeling!
This is the car during a tandem drift race. (its the red and white car in front)
If you guys love e-braking, you will LOVE drifting!
Also, if you don't know what drifting is, here is a video clip of my old shops' driver drifting their Nissan S14.
I have some fiends that are big in the drifting scene... I have never really gotten into it tho.
Damn, I get so tense just thinking about it! I don't think I'd have the nerve to be any good at drifting but I'd love to try.
I've always wanted to read the pace notes in a WRC event. That shit is crazy!
Brad - I used to have to go to the events and work the booth when they would come to Irwindale. Its fun to watch and its pretty competitive. John spent like 600 on those little RC cars, he got the drifting version. To me that was a waste of money, but you can't stop boys from buying their toys. He also has a ton of driftin dvd's if you ever want to watch em, ill ship them to you lol.
Dave - its SOOO FUN! Formula D actually goes to Atlanta for an event. You should check it out when it comes there. Its pretty awesome even just watching. Its also pretty cool watching them crash into the walls or eachother!
Dave, one of my good friends is a big drifter... he lives in ATL, I can arrange a ride for you.
*That's my car btw.
Romi, I'm sure John would love you shipping his DVDs away... All guys have something they spend to much money on, for me its dogs, cars, and watches... The watches are the worst for me tho!
Hahaha Brad, you wish that was your car.
I didn't realize that X-games has rallying now. I'm going to have scold my Tivo for not getting it for me.
And if you're serious, I may just take you up on the offer to ride with your friend!
I'm sure my friend would be down, just let me know when!
I am/was a huge Audi fan, I have had two. I love Quattro - but then I got a TT and it killed Audi/VAG for me. Audi really shined in the 80s in their road racing, due to "Turbo Braking"... really cool stuff, check it out:
Oh, you know, it was a reliability issue and a drive-ability issue for me.
Ok, you asked... but I will try to keep my rant down to just a few paragraphs.
Audi in general...
The thing that kills me about Audi is that it is flagged and marketed as the "sport" brand of VAG yet they continuously produce cars that don't perform at their full potential. They seem to be to worried about safety so they dumb down their chassis and dial in understear... it just is frustrating for me because we all know they could easily out do BMW but they just never seem to step up to the plate. Also, they market Audi as the sport brand yet they build cars like the R32 for VW that our performs most of the Audi vehicles... just makes no sense to me.
My TT...
Man, I will be fair and state this first: I had the first Audi TTQc in Georgia, so I had a car with all the early bugs. Having said that, the freaking TT is a VW GTI, they have had years and years to clear up any bugs.
My TT was in the shop or had a problem at least, no exaggeration here, every other week. For 4 years I had to deal with that. When I had my A4 and took it in to the shop I kinda enjoyed it, but with my TT it was around the time that VAG really started to be dicks about warranties and stuff.. they hassled me all the time.
An example of the TT ridiculousness:
My gas gauge stopped working one day, I took it in to Audi service and told them I just filled up with gas yet the gauge says I have no gas. They said "ok, we will hook it up to the computer and see what we can find". Ten minutes later they came back and said "The ECU is not throwing an error code so we have no idea what the problem is". I said "I know what the issue is, my gas gauge is broken". They told me to drive it for a few days till the service light came on and then they will be able to read the code from the ECU. I drove that car for F%CKING SIX MONTHS taking it in EVERY WEEK and they could never find the issue - but they didn't even try to find it... just plugged it to the machine and told me that same bullshit as before, no code no fix.
After 6 months I got pissed and figured I would throw some weight around, I happen to be good friends with a guy that was married to the head of Audi USA, told him, he made some calls... I took it to the shop, they replaced the gage and magically it worked.
I mean, I don't think I have to bring up any more stories (like how my windows would roll down randomly when the car was parked and the engine was off)... I think you see the point. No more VAG for me, ever.
Dave - here is the link for the event. It starts on May 12th at Road Atlanta in Braselton, GA. http://formulad.com/prochampionship.php?id=3 You should definately try to meet with Brad's buddy and get a ride. It really is an amazing feeling! Its the feeling where you get scared that you're going to crash and die, but when you realize the driver is in total control, you get this rush of excitement, a bit addicting too...and im just the passenger! BTW, that sucks about your cars dying on you.
Brad - Those video's are awesome! That looks like so much fun! Seriously, if you want to watch the dvd's, I will send them to you ASAP! hahaha. he won't mind, ill use it as an excuse to drive out to taos to pick them up! haha.
My favorite has to be Lexus. There are just so comfy and smoothe and last pretty long without any problems. I don't think i've ever owned a non-japanese car. Oh, well besides the Mini, but thats like half a car lol. John and I recently went to check out the new Audi's because I was interested in the Q7. They had a new A5 on the lot...OMG that thing is so sexy! Im really tempted to get it, but John is going to get the BMW 335 when he sells his car, and I don't think it would be practical if we both had coupes.
Wow brad, that totally sucks. Man...you would think that Audi would take care of their customers better. I mean for the price you pay for the friggen car, the least they can do is service it and actually take the time to find the problem. I mean even at car shops, kids will come in and say that something's wrong with this and its because of the install and yada yada yada, but we still check it out ATTEMPT to find out the problem. We don't just turn away customers telling them to come back later when the check engine light comes on. Thats ridiculous!
I mean, even with my infiniti, it is a KNOWN FACT that they were having problems with the transmissions (i believe they have gone through 8 or 9 different trannies since 2003) and the VQ engine burning oil. My car started to burn oil bad, I would get an oil change every 3000 miles using Royal Purple Synthetic Blend. My car takes about 5.5 quarts, when I was doing one of my oil changes, 1 quart came out, my car wasnn't leaking oil, so something was wrong. I took it in, they had my car for 4 days and said they didn't know what was wrong. Its like dude, you can't find out why a car is burning oil just by looking at it, you have to take it apart. Anyways, my car had a plenum spacer and I had test pipes and a full exhaust, so there were no cats. So what do you know, they blame it on that. What exactly does the exhaust have to do with burning oil? Yeah....So since then, I gave that car to my brother and told him to change everything back to stock and then send it in and bitch and bitch and bitch until they give him a new motor. Its like they know about the problem, everyone knows about the problem, yet they still refuse to fix it. I hate dealership service people!
BTW, I hope Peggy doesn't get mad that we totally jacked her thread lol.
Brad: I couldn't agree with you more. The most frustrating thing about Audi and their warranty BS is that I've been afraid to do anything to my A4 out of fear that the warranty hassles I would have would be 10 times worse than they already have been. Something is fucked up when your cars needs a head cover gasket and cam adjuster seal 500 miles after the warranty is up and they failed to notice it when it was in for service 500 miles before the warranty was up. I eventually got them to pay for half of it, big deal. What is even worse about the whole thing, is I didn't believe them so I asked them to show me the leaks. In the process of showing me, the tech broke a plastic t-fitting and guess who had to pay for it? Yep, that would be me. I didn't have it in me to continue arguing after 2 hours.
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Romi: I'm going to check it out for sure! One unfortunate consequence of being a CS graduate student is that nobody I know here is into cars at all. Its pretty absurd actually. Maybe I can convince The Chad to come with me. And yeah, that A5 is fricking SSSSSSEEEEEEXXXXXXYYYYY!!!!! I was swooning over the S5 in the parking lot of my local dealer a few weeks ago. I don't get it though, its like $50K. I assume that they are trying to compete with the M3, but its waaaaay cheaper. They're gonna make a killing off of it. As far as BMWs go, I think my next car is going to be a bimma. My mom has a 323Ci convertible that I absolutely adore! I may have spent some time convincing her to buy it over a mustang, solara, and saab 9-3.
Some trivia for you....Any idea what lexus stands for?