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| Not photoshopped. There really are 3 floofs in my bag. |
When we got south of Seattle, we saw evidence of the ice storm that didn't make up to our northern climes:
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| Tree at Maytown Rest Area |
But we arrived safely in Portland, just in time to join our friends at the Used Tack Sale.
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| Used tack sale |
I managed to off-load enough of the stuff we weren't using anymore to cover the cost of our hotel room! (We had a LOT of stuff).
Susan and John Favro have run "Healthy as a Horse" for many years, but they want to retire now. Their prices were fabulous, so I stocked up on a bucket of electrolytes and some other long-lasting stuff.
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| Get yer bargains here! |
(They are still holding a retirement sale at their website, click HERE to visit!)
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| Floofs can attend the meetings, but they aren't allowed to vote. |
After the shopping is time for the meetings. The hotel is "dog-friendly" so the floofs attended most of the meetings and lectures with us.
Jim is in the audience. I'm secretary for the organization, so I have to sit up front during meetings and take notes. Gail helps identify people--she knows everybody, and when the group has a really good squabble, sometimes things go too quickly so she makes sure I get everything documented.
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| We never waste an opportunity to goof around. |
We had great speakers this year, too! Susan Garlinghouse was the headliner. If you've never heard her speak about nutrition or anything else, go make a hole in your schedule so you can. She's adept at making scientific research available and understandable by non-scientists.
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| Show up. Learn stuff. |
And then, of course, there's the DANCE! We dressed up in our finery. Jim wore his kilt, and charged $5 to anybody who wanted to see if he was "traditionally clad." (He didn't make much money, sigh).
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| It looks like Jim is wearing a bustle in addition to his kilt; really, we're just standing in front of a table with a black tablecloth! |
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| Nice tiara, dude. |
PNER Prez Paul Latiolais, also known as Jim's evil twin.
Here's how to tell them apart: Jim wears the kilt; Paul wears the tiara.
Here's one of my evil twins:
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| Pink Fish, wearing red and rhinestones. |
Patty sure does clean up purty, doesn't she?
And check out how big my grand-junior is getting:
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| Ashley Ann scored at the desert table! |
Ashley Ann is almost 5 years old already--and her new baby sister Tembra is due to be born in March. I can't wait to meet my new grand-junior!!!
Before the dancing started, we gave out a bunch of awards, and raffled off some stuff. They asked me to talk up the sales of raffle tickets for a really nice set of corral panels...so I did...
I told people--entirely truthfully, you understand--that the panels in question were impossible for a horse to break out of, that they had been blessed by the pope, that the horse who slept inside the panels would grow a luxurient mane and tail overnight, and that any person who didn't buy tickets would not only probably go to Hell, he or she would also discover that for the next 3 years, photographers would only take pictures of their butt.
For some reason, we sold bunches of those tickets....hmmm. Imagine that. It sounded like such a good deal, I even bought a ticket for myself, and I don't NEED panels. But hey.
Life is good.
