Such Pretty Dogs!

I stayed up the extra hour to see who won the 150th Westminster Dog Show last night. I was actually quite surprised, the winner was not the dog I had thought would be taking home the title. But they were all beautiful, perfectly fit and happy dogs, so that's the important thing. I'm VERY fond of dogs, even though I don't have any four-footed fur friends living with me at this time.

CJ, the German Short Haired Pointer, was the winner of Westminster
this year. What a stunning dog he is. 

Lucy, the Russian Borsoi won Reserve Champion. What a wonderful
dog. I'm sure my friend Helen will love this one. She is
owned by two Afghan hounds, so the Russian is only a few steps
away from Eli and Sparkles. 

The Samoyed was another of the final seven. I've always been
very fond of this breed. That "Sammy Smile" and their sparkling
black eyes are endearing. 

Another dog in the final seven was Rumor, the German Shepherd
Dog. He was a beautiful dog, but lost in the final round to CJ. 

I have always had a fond spot for Bulldogs, and Annabelle, this
lovely lady, was the top of her breed and into the finals last night.
Isn't she just wonderful? My aunt used to say that bulldogs were
so ugly that you couldn't help loving them. 

A Shit-zu (Panda) won for the Toy Group and a Silky was the winner in the Terrior group. Thus, the final seven dogs. But there was no hesitation on the part of the judge. He had them around the ring several times and had his hands on each of them. As a former breeder of two of the breeds - Borsoi and Silky - he certainly knew what he was looking for in those two dogs. Congratulations to CJ and all of the other dogs. Now to get to the pool and get my swimming in before my very busy day starts. Happy Wednesday to all!

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

I had two goals going in to Sunday - to wake up Monday morning with no "Beast" car in my driveway and to have a deision on how to sell/donate the items still left in my father-by-marriage's house. So today as I wake up, take my shower and bring my mind back up and running, one of the two were accomplished. I am still waking up to a "Beast" in my driveway. Not for lack of trying, though.

My "Beast" is not a topiary, it is a rust-bucket.
It is time for it to go...

My nephew and his friend Chris came by around noon to try and get "Beast" operational. They spent almost an hour working on the engine, finally determining that the brake lines weren't something they could trust on the road. They then discussed bringing over a car trailer which another friend owns, but taking a careful look at the underside of the car, they determined that the frame was completely rusted through. That makes the truck completely unsafe and, basically, not repairable - at least not as a "project" piece. So...the "Beast" is still with us. I'll be contacting the Disabled American Veterans today. According to their advertisements they take any vehicle and will tow those that do not run. They are welcome to whatever they can get from the scrap value, I just want a clear driveway again.

I suspect that the DAV's tow truck will be a bit more modern than
this one, but this one is a beauty, isn't it?

While standing outside watching the boys doing their car thing I had a chance to meet the wife of our next door neighbor. Chris and Colleen have three young children - Annika, Braden and Jake.  They seem to be a very nice family. We spoke for a while and they left for their home. Shortly afterward a lovely dog came by to say hello - a real sweetheart that I hadn't seen before. Looking at his collar, I found out his name was "Charli". Taking a chance, I escorted "Charli" next door and asked Colleen if he belonged to them. Apparently they are dog sitting for her brother while he is on vacation. I'm happy "Charli" came to visit me. It would have been a shame if he had just wandered out in a strange neighborhood. He's home safe now.

Charli had a look similar to this Golden Doodle, although
I don't know exactly what breed he was. He was a very
friendly dog, though, and I'm happy he is back home now.

After all of this excitement we went to my father-by-marriage's house and I called Boyd Christenson to come over and take a look through the house. Boyd's name was given to me by Chickie who shares cycling classes with him on Friday mornings at the local YMCA. She said he was a really nice guy and he was. He was at the house a short time later and we went through room by room, floor by floor, looking at everything. He'll send me a contract and I think we'll sign it.

He'll photograph everything, group them into lots, and put them onto an on-line auction that will run for about ten to fourteen days. Then he sets a day/time frame for final bidders to collect their items, collects the payments, and about five days after that, pays us the proceeds minus his commission. I'm absolutely willing to have him do this and send these items to new homes where they will be appreciated, or to resellers who want to put them into their second-hand shops or on-line sales. More power to them. My goal is to have the house ready to put up for sale by the end of September and Boyd's auction will allow us to stick to that schedule. After the items are collected we'll give the house a good clean, donate the last few items to Goodwill or throw them out, and contact Jim and Mary, our local real estate agents. By the end of October the entire thing may be wrapped up and life may return to normal...so to speak. Just in time for NaNoWriMo...yeah, normal may be a total pipe dream.

My bar had this on tap, so no bottle. I chose it because
it was a dark stout, and also because it comes from
Colorado. Would I buy it again? It's almost too sweet for
my taste, but it wasn't bad. I'd seriously consider another glass.

We ended the day at Grumpy's with beer and food. I usually have Guinness, just because I love it. But in honor of my friend Ann (just_ann_now) who adores beer and craft beers, I tried a crafted stout after my first glass of Guinness. I wrote the name down because I knew I wouldn't remember it. It was called Left Hand Nitro Milk Stout, a dark stout with a slightly sweeter taste than Guinness. It was quite good, but I'll return to my Guinness next time - I guess I know what I like :-)

Winners All Around

Congratulations to the Affenpinscher, Banana Joe, for winning the 137th Westminster Dog Show with the Old English Sheepdog taking Reserve Champion status back home. Since I really didn't feel like listening to our President spout off about the same old-same old, I happily watched the dog show instead.

The winners, the Affenpinscher and the Old English Sheepdog

What surprised me is that my DH also decided to watch the dogs instead of the State of the Union Address. Normally he's all over political things, but he said he was tired of empty air and I can't really disagree at this point. I'm totally frustrated with the inability of our government on the local and national level to actually work together for solutions to our problems. Shame on them.

Now back to some beautiful dogs. Three other groups were judged last night, the Sporting Group who had the German Wirehaired Pointer as the winner. He was a totally stunning dog.



Then we had the working dogs group - the drool masters. This is where the Mastiffs, the Saint Bernards, the Alaskan Eskimo Dog and the Giant Schnauzer fit in, along with many others. The winner last night in this group was the Portuguese Water Dog and he was a beauty.



The final judged category was my favorite, the Terrier group. I adore these spunky companions bred to go after vermin in the rocks. They seem to always be happy, perky, and generally energetic. The Smooth Fox Terrier was the Group winner. This was the only group where I had issues with the judge. He seemed to have a real thing for Fox Terriers, giving three of the four placement steps to some variant of the breed. The second place was the Wire Fox Terrier, and the fourth place was the Russel Terrier. Only the third place winner, the Border Terrier, was outside of that general family. So no, I didn't agree with all of the choices from that particular judge.



But the show is over for another year now, and my dreams of owing a Norfolk Terrier or a Norwich Terrier are once again unfulfilled. But I can share their pictures with all of you and wish you a wonderful Wednesday while I get errands finished and start the editing process for my latest o-fic.

The Norfolk Terrier

The Norwich Terrier

Pope, Pups and Parties

Pope Benedict, the "German Shepherd", threw the world a curve ball yesterday by announcing his retirement from the papacy effective February 28, 2013. No pope has retired from their job since the 1500's - a very long time ago, so the tongues are wagging.

Come on, people. Pope Benny is old! And he's sick! And he's probably really tired. Now I fully understand that this is a job where you die wearing the white miter, but apparently he feels that poor health won't serve the world's Roman Catholics, and I have to admire his choice. I don't like Pope Benny, he is no John Paul II. He's too intransigent and old-school for my taste, but he's done a good job and who's to say that the person the College of Cardinals choose to take over will do any better? One thing this will allow is an orderly transfer of power. So, here's to you, Pope Benny. I hope you have an opportunity to enjoy your retirement for a while.

These seven dogs were the group winners of 2012. The

Pekingese was the 2012 winner.

The 137th annual Westminster Dog Show is going on now. I was too exhausted last night to watch the final group judging, and all four of the finalists in the Herding Group were among my favorite dogs, so I was sad that I was too tired to watch. But the final three groups will be judged tonight and then there will be the Best in Show judging to end the show. So if you don't want to watch the State of the Union address or a boring sit-com, you might consider watching the doggies on CNBC instead.  Here are photos of the four group winners so far...

The winner for the Hound group - the American Foxhound

The winner in the Toy group was the Affenpinscher

The Non-sporting group winner was the Bichons Frises

And finally, the winner of the Herding group was

the Old English Sheepdog

Finally, party on New Orleans. Today is Mardi Gras, also known as Fat Tuesday. Today it is time to party as if it was 1999 or as if you won't awaken tomorrow morning. Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent.

I know that some of you may wonder, given the discussion about the Pope above followed by Lent here why I, a pagan, really give a darn about any of this. I have always been a student of comparative religions throughout my life - one of the major reasons why I walk a pagan pathway. I also am married to a nominal Roman Catholic man who picks and chooses the path he walks on in very odd and unusual ways. But they work for him. I find organized religion fascinating, and I also know the immense impact that Catholicism has left on history for the past 2000 years. As a student of history, I have to also acknowledge this and pay attention to the Church. So...Party On :-)