2011 Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show

You're looking at the winner of this year's Best in Show, the Scottish Deerhound. A kind-looking dog with long, gangly legs that moved with ease and grace. This year the show was broadcast live on TSN. So many breeds I never heard of including 6 new ones admitted this year to the Kennel Club. By next year, the show will be adding another hour for judging as the field of contestants grows.

Photo credit: Spencer Platt, Getty Images

Rick Mercer and the Superdogs

As a result of Leslie's posting of Rick at the Weather Network, I found this amusing older offering of Rick with the Superdogs at the Royal Winter Fair. Go ahead, have a laugh.

The View From Here

This is my frosted up window - the souvenir of the 'big' storm we had last night. In fact, it's somewhat disappointing after the news sent waves of panic throughout the city using words like armageddon, apocalypic, blizzard.... Six hundred schools closed for a snow day but I'm still looking for snow. What little there is around here is not ploughed so that poses a problem for getting around. I plan to stay in most of the day. Maybe I'll venture forth to examine things on the east side (the direction of the wind) of the building.

I remember 1999 when we had so much snow the mayor called in the army with tanks to dig us out. Western Canadians had a big laugh over that one. I was talked into staying overnight at work so that there would be staff available should patients show up the next day. For this sacrifice, the CEO gave all employees a movie pass for being so generous. Needless to say, I was pissed since the majority of pass recipients didn't even come into work the following day.

Tayoh examines the outdoors.

Kindle

This isn't a very good picture because of the lamp illumination



After a year of not being able to read because of lack of concentration, or, so I thought, I whined at my doctor for assistance. He immediately suggested I try an electronic book reader as many of his other patients found them successful in alleviating readers' block. So I ordered a Kindle from Amazon.com and I've only just picked up the basics so far. It's the latest version and comes with WiFi and 3G so I can download books in under a minute without connecting to the computer. They say that the 3G will work anywhere, including Europe. I managed to change the size of the font 3-fold and what a difference this makes to reading. I haven't yet made time to read (being out of practice) but look forward to getting back in the groove. What puzzled me was the image that comes on the screen when you turn the Kindle off. I guess it's some sort of screen saver and depicts various authors or book illustrations.



My first read is the book I left abandoned a year ago - The Girl Who Played With Fire. Any recommendations for my next?

Doggie sweaters

This is the first time I've seen my sweaters on real dogs. It's such a thrill and this is certainly the year for bundling up. For any future knitting projects, the wards of Happy Tails rescue will be the recipients.

As time goes by

On Christmas Day there wasn't much going on here so I spent my time cruising etsy and came upon a watch studio that had the most interesting handmade steampunk wristwatches that I found irresistable. This is the one I bought and it arrived from Korea in 5 days! Beautifully giftwrapped. I don't regret this splurge for a minute.
And to caps things off, my second orchid came into bloom. But I noticed that instead of the previous 2 stalks, it now has only 1 and much fewer buds. Beggars can't be choosers....

Happy New Year

Wishing everyone a happy, healthy and prosperous new year. Next event coming up is on February 3, 2011 when the Chinese New Year begins. It is the year of the rabbit.
Just in case anyone thought I'd given up my bird fascination, here's to you.