KateAndDally

Relaxing at home...

...Reading the Business Week powerpoint The Failure of the Internet Decade, which apparently Explains It All to us.

(Someone, as you can see, has her pacifier in case things get hairy.  As it were.)

We Has Our Priorities

Kate just threw up in the hallway, which reminded me of our finance directpr's complaint about his Labrador.  "Why," he asked resignedly, "do they run AWAY from the hardwood floors when they puke and ONTO  the wall-to-wall carpet?"

Why, indeed.

Quick: Who am I?

first correct answer gets... well, nothing.  But good luck anyway!

...But They DO Take Pictures of their Dogs...

UO and Offering Boy got an Xbox tonight while TLO and I were Watoto-ing...Now OB has been sent to bed and UO is hammering away on "Conan."  Kate sits next to him exhausted from the dog park and overwhelmed by the noise.

Speaking of Kate, here are two new pix:

And,

I love the way her fuzzies show up!  All gossamer and sparkly, like she's some fairy dog!

At the dog park

We took Kate to the dog park this a.m., where there were upwards of a dozen canine beasts and their hoomans.  They swarmed Kate as she entered (dogs, not peeps) and she seems a little overwhelmed.  Then she rushed around, sniffing butts and shaking hands and retrieving tennis balls for quite 45 minutes until it was time for us to go get organic chicken carcasses.  I took a little phone movie which Verizon assures me I can upload (uh huh), so perhaps I can get it to post later.  In the meantime, here's a picture of Kate and Offering Boy on the way back from the park:

(I like the way you ncan see Kate's whiskers...they're so inadequate and funny anyway)

UO also took a picture of me and OB whhich I'll post if his G-D phone ever sends it!

How Much is that Doggie in the Window...

I am amusing myself by looking through the puppy ads in the WaPo.  Kate lays at my feet, UO taps away on his laptop beside me.  There are (blue) wall-eyed Australian Shepherds, Small and Mini, for $800.  That seems a bit excessive.  There are Boxer pups, and Cavalier King Charles Spaniels.  There are Mini Dachshunt pups that turn out to be Shih Tzu Poos (UO suggests this is what happens after the larger dog eats the Shih Tzu). There are fuzzy white German Shepherd pups (I thought those were Alsatians), and of course there are the ubiquitous Golden Retrievers and Yellow Labs.  "Here's your Marley!" declares one of the ads.  Um.  Marley was the untrainable dog.  Perhaps that's taking truth in advertising a little too far...There's a yellow lab bitch pup for $350.  I point this out to UO.  "Yes," he says, but then you're out $350.  And you have a yellow lab."  Well.  I guess he told me.

So much for the dog show...

Alert readers will note that I did NOT live-blog the final night of Westminster last night...The Littlest Offering HAD to watch  'Flight 29 Down," a "Lost" for kids but without the Others and/or the polar bear; and by 8:30 I was crawling the web looking for Wegner Papa Bear chairs and otherwise distracted.

How sad then, that I missed Stump, the sussex spaniel who won best in show. 

I mean, how could one not root for a dog named Stump? 

Stump is apprently the oldest dog to win at Westminster; he spends most of his time asleep between the sheets of his handler's home in Houston (just like Kate, i would like to point out) and he "doesn't travel much," according to his handler.  I mean, he sounds like a normal 10 year old much loved lazy hound and just as worthy to root for as was Uno,the beagle who won last year.

Ah well.  On to Eukanuba!

Live-Blogging the Westminster Kennel Club - 1st Night

It's on CNBC, rather than USA (although they say it's moving back to USA tomorrow night)

The Bulldog is moving up the list of most desired breeds in american homes

Coming up - the non-sporting group...

And we're up with Mike LeFebre...(I think)...someone is explaining what makes up the "non-sporting group" which includes both the bulldog and the poodle, among other breeds, like the bichon and dalmation...they are awfully cute...the bulldog's got a serious waddle going on...the judge is dressed in red silk with lots of sparkles...the American Eskimo Dog has got some serious fluff on, keeps making good eye contact with the handler...

The little bichon is just a total fluff ball also; poor little guy looks nervous; oh god, it's little butt is a totally different texture from the rest of the dog; must be a hoot being behind it going downstairs...

Boston Terrier...why not in the terrier group?  sweet little thingie, little twinkiing legs...

Bulldog's name is Razzle Dazzle; both dog and handler resemble fire plugs...

Now we're up to the Shar-Pei...name literally means sand-like coat, according to the announcer...lovely gait, seems very happy...

Chow-Chow-Chow!  blue-black tongue and stilted gait, whatever that means.  The bit about the gait, I mean.  Yet another fluff-ball.If I had one of those, I'd have to spend more time doing ITS hair than I do my own...

The Dalmation...just a lovely looking dog. very happy...

Finnish Spitz...gorgeous, named Sir Barksalot...lovely mover...

OH, FRENCHIES!  I LOVE FRENCH BULLDOGS!  They are too cute, little waddler named Lola...unfortunately she looks like she has mange, although I think it's just her coloring, poor baby

Keeshound, the national dog of Holland...now we're with the Lhasa Apso, from Anakin Sabon, VA (Where? never heard of it)..

next up, the Lowchem, the poor thing has a shaved ass.  What's the point?

Miniature Poodle #20...Cedar could take it cold. Oh God, it's got pompoms on its hips, the poor thing!

Standard Poodle...the poor baby, it's got ... A MULLET!!!  The poor thing!That's so wrong!

Schipperke...do they have docked tails?  I didn't know that...ewwwwwww, not even a nubbin.  Ick.  Pretty purple silk suit on the handler, though.

Shiba Enu #9...adorable.  Described as a large animal in a small animal body...

Tibetan Terrier -- parti-colored, if that applies...looks like it has a Fu-Manchu moustache...

I do love the Pedigree "Inappropriate Pets" ad... esp. the wild hog in the backseat of the SUV...Mom says brightly "How you doin' back there?" and Grandma replies, "How do you THINK we're doing?"

Judge has just named the Standard Poodle as #1; My frenchie is second, cute little plodder...Poor poodle.

Sounds like David Duchovny doing the Pedigree/Pedigree Foundation ads...can you say image rehabilitation?

Next up -- THE HERDING GROUP!  Bring on those australian shepherds and border collies!

(In case you were wondering, Kate is not watching the show with me -- she is peering out the window looking for UO, who is out gaming tonight...)

Judge is Robert Slay of Cary, NC...he's a German Shepherd man, I wonder who will win...the b/c is gorgeous and wired as always...

Australian Cattle Dog looks less scruffy than usual...Australian Shepherd is yet another fuzzball and a beautiful merle color... would we say he has tan points also?  Well, I would.

Bearded Collie #19...has joie d'vivre and yet another Fu-Manchu

Beauceron #5 - french, named Leo, 2nd yr they've been at Westminster; beautiful muscled dog, but not a patch on Kate and Dal...

Belgian Malenois...lovely doggie, very fluid gait.

Belgian Sheepdog - used for pulling machine guns in WWI.  Cripes.

Belgian Turveren - BEAUTIFUL dog.  Great pose.

BORDER COLLIE! this one's from VA, #6; square-built, blocky head; great eye, you can see the way it looks at its handler

Bouvier D'Flandre - I just can't get excited about this one...

Briard - another frenchman...official dog of the french army, which is unfair to the dog...

Canaan Dog - Israel's only native dog...Also wandered in the wilderness until it was redomesticated in 1935...used to guard the ILLEGAL settlements in Gaza and West Bank, sez the announcer (OK, emphasis added by me)

Cardigan Welsh Corgi (the one with the tail) - OK, it is a really cute dog...

Rough Collie - a lovely merle, with that gorgeous long snout that Kate doesn't have...very happy looking animal...

Smooth Collie - a cattle driver nij the south of England...another lovely smart-eyed animal, keeping that link with the handler...

German Shepherd - gotta love that stretched out pose - even pups seem to do it naturally ...This one's named Twist...

Old English Sheepdog - oh WHAT have they done to your hair??? Poor think looks like Buckwheat on a bad day.and Dear God, what is the handler wearing?  It's a red long skirted suit and the skirt's in layers of what might be georgette trimmed with gold...it's a DOG show, people!

Pembroke Welsh Corgi - the ones without the tail, favorite of QE2, little twinkling legs...

Puli - ancient breed from Hungary...it's the Rasta dog, the one with dredlocks...gets into all the bob marley concerts for free, or is actually a mop with legs...

Shetland Sheepdog (Sheltie) - beautiful tri-color; not a mini collie but their own separate breed...a little too over anxious, keeping the handler in sight at all times...

Swedish Vallhund - a Viking dog -- and UO is home!  Kate is happy! And another Horribly Dressed Handler...it must be a job requirement, in order to make the dogs look better...

Picking the final lineup...won't be the border collie...most of the european shepherd-related breeds in the final mix...and it's...THE PULI!

UO declares that if he were a sheep, he would just laugh at the Puli.  Kate is curled up in his lap, gazing at him adoringly.  UO is home now, all is right in the world.

Sunday Night, and wine blogging

I'm bummed ... UO and Offering Boy took Kate to the dog park yesterday, which she absolutely LOVED.  UO took, a video and sent it to me, but windows media player doesn't recognize the file extention and can't play it...so I will experiment with youTube and see if I can't get it up loaded there...in any event, Kate had a blast and properly exhausted herself.  Then she had to suffer the horrors of the vacuum cleaner...but that's all UO's fault, since he went out and bought an LG flat-screen tv.

See, a new tv means the old one (36" wide, 3 feet deep, works fine while the drywall is peeling off the bathroom wall, but no resentment or anything, no, not at all) has to go somewhere; also, you don't clean behind something that weights close to 200 lbs, or at least I don't, so there's years' worth of accumulated dust and dead flies behind the old set; so much vacuuming has to be done.  And Kate is afeared mightily of the vacuum, as we discovered.  Dally, made of sterner stuff, would attack it.  Kate tries to hide in the lazy susan in the kitchen.

Anyway, after much stress and effort, the old tv is in Offering Boy's room (we had to turn it end over end to get up the stairs, but I didn't break any nails, how cool is that?) and the new TV is on the old coffee table in front of the couch downstairs.  And yeah, the picture is incredible.  Almost 3D-like at times.

And Kate was EXHAUSTED.  We watched "Ironman" mostly because it was the only DVD we could find; and Kate ended up with her head in my lap even after UO went up to bed, because she utterly dead to the world.  We could have dropped her off the couch and she wouldn't have woken up.  And don't think it wasn't tempting!  BAD dog owners!  Bad, bad!

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So I'm finishing up the Balducci's Montepulciano D'Abruzzo...$9.99, um...well, I like it -- if I was looking to buy a case of wine for casual drinking, and I wasn't especially confident about my wine-discerning abilities, I could go with this one easily... but since I know a little more about what's available and where to find it, I might go back to Sniders and pick up a case of Protocolo...  Anyway, about the wine: mild currenty nose, benefits from oxygen, mild structure, but lots of fruit nonetheless.  It's certainly a perfectly fine $9.99 bottle of wine.  I'm damning with faint praise, but there you are.

Good sipping, friends. 

Recent Revelation

Sad but true.