So here we are in Denver,CO for BlogPaws West for our new website The Fit Dog. It's the first time that Athena has ridden in a car for an extended period of time and she did amazing! I was so utterly happy with her. She didn't fuss or bounce all over the car. 11 hours is a long time for a pup and she makes me proud to be an Akita owner.

This trip has already been somewhat stressful but I will manage. Athena is calm for me (she is kind of a fuzzy security blanket). The drive was long (but nice). We did have some issues at a stop just past the Colorado state line. We had stopped for a mandatory potty break and while walking Athena around to do her things she got a couple of sticky thorn brambles in her paw pads. They were pretty bad but she let me remove them with no issues. I did feel a tad like crying because those things hurt like you wouldn't believe and my poor Athena had 4 of them...on in each paw.

She is a trouper and absolutely amazing! I really have a love affair with my dog. She is the most wonderful companion and she is amazing in so many ways. I am blessed to have such a bond with her! Athena Beans I love you!

I don't know if you guys have been watching the girls who have been sailing around the world solo? Of course Jessica Watson from Australia completed her voyage (making her the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe solo) just recently. Well the American girl, Abby Sunderland, has had some troubles on her trip. She was out on the Indian Ocean and hit a storm facing 30 foot waves. Her mast broke leaving nothing (from what she described on her blog) but a 2 inch nub. This also took out her communications. She had no way to contact anyone except for her emergency signals. She had been floating helplessly for 2 days until a French fishing boat found her 2000 miles off of the Australian coast. Scary stuff! I'm just really happy to hear that she is alive and safe.

...and no....her boat could not be saved. For those of you who don't sail you might be like "so...it's just a boat" which under the circumstances, yes....it's just a boat because Abby's well being comes first. Those of you that do sail and own a boat you can understand how upset Abby must be (off the side of relief from rescue) because her boat is gone, never to be seen again. RIP Wild Eyes.

For all of you who don't sail here are the basic parts of a boat (if you don't know what the mast is)







ABBY & WILD EYES

It's that time of year, after the rains and before the summer heat sucks the life out of everything. Ash and I like to go hiking and this time I actually took some pictures. *grins* They turned out pretty good considering I took them with my HTC Hero.

Ash found a lizard

We had a nice clear day, look at that sky!

It;s sad to think in a couple of weeks all of these plants will succumb to the Vegas heat.





The only time a cactus is pretty...when it's in bloom <3

Wow!

I'm a bit overwhelmed but very happy with the new projects that have been presented to me this last week. So here is what's going on in my crazy life (which usually isn't so crazy) and are the reasons behind some of my delayed email responses.

1. The Fansite Store opening (June 1st)
2. Remodeling the Videos section so there is a better load time.
3. Constructing another site for another Sparty cast member.
4. My heavy involvement with the Las Vegas Harley Davidson Adoption Event coming in June.
5. Finishing up details on my wedding coming up in October.
6. Constructing a third website with Ash (non-Sparty related)
7. Ballroom Dancing classes
8. Hiking Group
9. Shooting Practice - pistols


um...I think that's it! lol What have I gotten myself into?!? No this is all great stuff that I'm extremely happy to be doing. Don't worry though. No slacking on the Jai Courtney Fansite. =P

First and foremost I would like to say thank you to all of the supportive people out there and all of the people on the Facebook Fanpage. It's been (and I'm sure will remain) a delight to chat with you guys and get all of your feedback. The Jai Courtney fan base is amazing, you guys rock!

Now I could just go on a total ramble about the site's progress which could get really boring lol so I'm just going to answer questions that have been emailed to me from the very start of the original site launch.

Q: What made you decide to do this (not that I'm complaining)?

Well I think I started out like any other Jai fan. I fell head over heels for Varro on Spartacus: Blood and Sand and decided that I wanted to know more about the actor that played him. Of course after ep. 110 "Party Favors" I really wanted to know what else Jai was in or would be working on. Like the rest of you I found nothing. Nothing but little blips here and there. I have to admit I was very frustrated and a bit confused. Other cast members had facebooks, twitters and websites to keep in touch with fans. So late one night I said to myself "I know I'm not the only one trying to get some kind of information on this guy as an actor. *sigh* If he's not going to do it....I will.. F* it!"

Q: Do you know Jai?

No, not at all. I've never met him (though I do hear that he is nice) I've never spoken to him on the phone or in any online setting. I also have zero connections to him in any way.

Q: How many people visit the site and are they all just from the US?

Well when the site first launched and the last episode of Spartacus had not yet aired we were seeing well over 100 visits a day...now that we are in a Spartacus lull and have had no interaction or updates from Jai or Jai's agency, numbers have slowly dropped in daily visits. No, not all Jai fans are from the US. Other top visiting countries are Canada, South Korea, Australia, Netherlands, and we get visits sprinkling in from other countries all over the world.

Q: Why do you not have "Boys Grammer" on the video page?

If you have seen that short film it is one of tense and heavy subject matter. Jai plays Alex who is one of the boys in the group and you see a little bit of him but he isn't one of the main characters. The video is a bit intense to be put on the site without having something to keep young eyes from seeing (though I think 99.9% of Jai fans are adults). The video is easy to find if you want to see it.

Q: No nudy photos?!? What's up with that?

As much as most of us like seeing Jai's bum I do want to keep the site friendly for all eyes. So...no nude photos will be posted on the site.

Q: Is Jai going to be in the prequel?

I have no idea. I'm hoping that we do get to see a little bit of Varro at least in one of the episodes. *crosses fingers*

Q: Has Jai seen the site?

It's a mystery so far....I wonder that myself....and sometimes worry to be honest.

Q: Do you have his address or phone number? If you do could you please send it to me?

No I don't have any personal information on him. I also don't plan on finding out unless Jai releases any information himself. Not to be rude but even if I had obtained that kind of information while building the site I would not release it to anyone. Even though I really have no obligation to do so....I have a self made strong moral code that goes along with this site.

Q: How can we be sure that anything you put on this site is accurate?

umm...well I guess you just have to trust me. I'm not going to post anything on the website that I don't know is actual FACT. If it is something that we are guessing at (like how tall he is) I'll put up "best guess is that he's about 6'1". Right now being the only resource and place for Jai fans to get to know and appreciate him the last thing I want is false information to spread, even about some of the most unimportant topics like his height. I also do not take information from just anyone either, like the messages "I know Jai from blankity blankity blank" or "I know a guy that knows him yada yada". Random emails with information do not make it to the site because I can not verify any of it as fact.

Q: I see that the new site is getting a store, do tell.

The store was something I mulled over. I thought it would be nice for the fans to be able to have something and well...web hosting is not free my friends. So the items in the store are going to be non-copyright infringing designs. I don't want to step on Jai's toes or on Starz!.

Q: What kind of person do you think Jai is?

That's a question I wonder about myself. I've heard from very good sources that he is a nice guy. Looking at his acting history he's done more theatre work than film and he is part of the theatre company Cry Havoc....so he seems like a theatre buff which many people will argue that he's a very different kind of actor versus most tv actors, his passions are in a different place. This may mean that fans outside of Australia might not see him in something for a while if he's working on more theatrical projects.

Q: You make yourself very pronounced on the site....you don't see a lot of that with fan websites. Any special reason?

YES! I wanted to make it very clear that the site is NOT an official site for Jai Courtney and that the person running it (me) is just another fan like you but I do want to keep the lines of communication open with fans. I wanted more of a sense of community for the site and that's why I'm doing this blog, why we have the facebook page and the live twitter account.

Q: Who is this new "member" of the site you keep talking about? I'm curious!

AH! Yes, Ash is now part of the Fansite team. She is a professional photographer, avid adventurer and all around wonderful, crazy person! She and I have plans that involve the site and essentially all of you. *grins*