Big Blue

You may recall me telling you about meeting Maverick at last year's show. He's a magnificent blue Dane that I fell in love with. With the kind permission of his owner, Jeffrey Ball, I posted some pix of him and included a link to their site, Blunote Great Danes. I was delighted to see him again this year. Here a few shots of him in the ring.

And here's a close up of this sweet, wonderful boy! (Sorry it's a bit blurry...it gets a bit crowded in the benching area and is sometimes hard to catch good shots!)

Be sure to visit their site and see terrific pix of Maverick and his gang...especially the New York shots they do every year...truly amazing photography.

We got to eat at the Barking Dog restaurant shown here. It was quite a treat.

Today's SotD double edition:

"Hot Child in the City" by Nick Gilder (playing in my head at 4:30 a.m. when the hound had to go out) and

"I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz (when I got up at regular time of 5:30 a.m.)

Around Town & at the Show

This polar bear was *so* comfortable...note the back foot propped up on the rock wall. He actually stretched...once...and went right back to the same pose.
Sunday evening we went to the Orpheum theatre to see _Stomp_. I can not tell you how highly we both recommend this show. It was fabulous!!! Go see it if you get the chance.

Here's a shot of what the show is like during the day. There are six different rings running at the same time. You can wander around for close-up views of a particular breed, or venture higher into the stands to be able to watch several at once.

How can you not love a Bloodhound face???

I love the quizzical expression of this Pharaoh Hound. I think his name is Elliot.

Monkey Business

While in The City, we went to the Central Park Zoo. I thought it was really well done for a small zoo. As we walked around we happened to catch this great interaction between some snow monkeys (whose habitat is on a rocky island) and this goose/swan (?).

There was just one monkey near the water and the bird clearly thought he could take him!
Monkey was a bit nervous...approaching and then backing off.

But wait! Here come the reinforcements! The *big* daddy monkey came strutting around (as did numerous other monkeys...from every direction!)

With the entire battalion forming up, the bird thought better of his original plan and took off. His antics did, however, send the littlest monkey baby into Mama's comforting arms.

Views from the City

A few more shots taken from the Empire State Building. This is shot from all the way up at the top. That's Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty out there. We haven't been there yet...perhaps next year.
Because of a commitment to meet some more friends, we didn't stay at the top through sunset, but it was close. The colors were amazing...

Not much time to edit...these don't do it justice, but at least you get the idea of the contrasting colors.

There was still a bit of snow on the ground in shady areas when we got there. Central Park was a bit icy.

On an unrelated note: Today's SotD: "Gotta Be Something More" by Sugarland. Interesting sidebar: My hound (who is an older gent) sometimes (frequently...okay, most every night now) has to go out in the wee hours of the morning (sorry. couldn't resist. "wee" hours! ;D ) Anyway, I've discovered that I generally have a different song in my head each time I get up.

Bright Lights, Big City

So we're taking the train from Jersey (where we'd spent Friday night) into The City and I shot this out the window. I'm pretty sure it's the Giants' new stadium going up. Cool, eh?
Just walking around, and this place cracked me up..."The Bar that Banned Danny Boy"!

Gotta' love Times Square...even the NYPD gets lots of lights!

Crossroads of the world? Yeah, maybe.

NY & Westminster, Year the Second

So, we're back from the Big Apple. Thoroughly enjoyed our second trip up there for Westminster. Hard to believe I've had this crazy blog going for exactly a year now! I have so much to show you and tell you about from our latest trip. (And, who knows, someday I may even finish my four-month-long telling of the last UK trip!) For now, I'll give you a few teasers:

We met up with some friends and went up to the top of the Empire State building:
A beautiful Am. Staff. taken just for...well, you know who you are!

This, to show you that sometimes you got a visual of just how stressful this show is to some of the dogs! (But, all kidding aside, it is pretty stressful for some...just not particularly this one...)

Yes, SIL, there were lots of lovely borzois!

And plenty of greyhounds too! This gorgeous 92 pound male was one of the few close in size to my Phil ;D

Since I don't have President's Day off, that's all for today. But I'm back, and have hopes to blog more regularly again. Til' next time...

More on Food...Getting Hungry Yet?

What trip to New York could be complete without pizza, cannoli and cheesecake (not at the same time of course!). For the pizza, we discovered Mariella's. The doorman sent us there. It was a short walk from where we were staying. It's a small place and the warmth from the ovens was welcome on a cold night. The smell was divine! (Not that it mattered to us, but Oprah and her bud, Gayle, declared it the best pizza in the land.) We thought it was mighty fine pie!

I've always been a huge fan of cannoli. Not that I run into it all that often, but I never turn it down when I do! I managed to fit it into the schedule several times while we were there and was not disappointed.

And then there's the New York cheesecake. Mmmmmm. Your mouth is watering just thinking about it! Our last day in the City we went to Lindy's for brunch. (You might as well call it lunch. We missed breakfast trying to figure out alternate transportation as our flight home had been cancelled because of the snow. We ended up finally finding a rental car and driving home.) Besides the good food, it was fun to look at all the celebrity pictures on the walls. Lindy's is *the* place for cheesecake. They also have really good sandwiches. There was so much food we ended up taking the cheesecake to go. It was a welcome treat several hours later on the road. Amazing.

Did I Mention the Food?

No recitation of the details of a trip would be complete without the mention of the culinary adventures involved! We're big believers in trying out the local chow wherever we go and in eating things we might not be able to get at home. You might be thinking "What is she talking about? It's not like she went to a foreign country." Let me just say that what's available in NY is a pretty far cry from what we can get in the South.

The food adventure really kicked off on Saturday morning when we were treated to some food from my friends' favorite NJ deli. Without me being able to use gestures, there's no way you can really appreciate my description of this food...but I'll do the best I can. (Incidentally, some of my coworkers swear I'm Italian because I absolutely cannot talk without excessive hand gestures.) First, we were treated to bagels and lox. I'd always heard it, and it's true: NY bagels are infinitely better than the bagels we can get. I can't explain it, but I now accept it without question. I don't know if you like lox, but I did. I thought I'd tried it before, but obviously never any authentic lox. I didn't remember being impressed with it. This stuff was divine! Then there was the corned beef and pastrami sandwich. ("For breakfast?" you exclaim. Dog gone right!!) This is the part you can't appreciate without visuals, but I swear I am not exaggerating when I tell you that this thing could feed *six* people....*easily*!! It was this ridiculously huge pile of meat with pieces of bread on the sides and long wooden skewers run through the lot to hold it together. You basically just added more bread (served on the side) and just kept making more sandwiches. Truly something to behold. And delicious!

Saturday night we went to "Benny's Burritos" in the Village. (That's Greenwich Village for you fellow small-town kids who didn't know.) This is a great little restaurant that my bro' loves to frequent when in the City. We had met up with his sis'n'law and had a great evening with her. Benny's is a funky little place with all sorts of cool artifacts on the walls to amuse....packed with people...terrific burritos! We finished off that night with a carriage ride through Central Park. (Okay, nothing about food there, but I just hadn't told you about that yet!)

Sunday night we went to the Jekyll and Hyde Club. This was so much fun. I could try to describe it, or post some of my pictures from in there (or a video I shot), but instead why don't you go to their official website: http://www.jekyllandhydeclub.com/ and check it out.

There's more eating to tell you about, but unfortunately, work looms in my near future. To be continued....

A Little Culture

While we didn't have a great deal of time to sight see, we did include some non-dog activities in our trip. Day one in NY city we went to MoMA (the Museum of Modern Art). It was a short walk from where we were staying. This statue was right outside the museum.
While I have family members who know a great deal about art, I am fairly ignorant about it. But I do enjoy looking and learning. MoMA is way too big for us to see everything in the time we had, but thanks to an insider we had some hints on parts we definitely wanted to hit. It was neat to see "Starry Night".
And there were a lot of Picasso's works I enjoyed looking at.
Some modern art is, well, modern??? This piece was made by dusting chocolate onto a canvas! I'm not sure if I truly appreciated what the artist was going for...but it did make me hungry ;D
And I know I didn't get the message here...but this woman was quite intently studying the piece.

Wandering Manhattan

Maybe it's because I'm a small-town kinda' girl, but whenever I visit a big city, I love wandering around and snapping pix on my digital camera. For me, the freedom of digital is that I can shoot away to my heart's content and never worry about wasting film on a picture that won't turn out.
I'm easily impressed by interesting architecture. I don't really know much about it. I can't tell you time periods or names of styles. But I know what interesting details catch my eye and strike my fancy.
And so, I wander along...stopping abruptly to capture images to take home with me as reminders of my stay.
I really liked the details on this building. It was across the street from The Brooklyn Diner--where we ate brunch one day. Don't ask me why it's The Brooklyn Diner when it's in Manhattan. Maybe someone else knows, but I don't! I know that our food was perfect. At least, that's what the waiter kept saying as we ordered. And yeah, it was pretty tasty.

Naked Cowboy, Part Duh!

Isn't life funny? You go along for years, your lifetime thus far, oblivious to some fact, person, place...then you discover it/them, and suddenly you can't get away from it! I had never heard of the Naked Cowboy until our friends told us about him and we saw him on our walk to Times Square. This morning, there he is, on TV talking about his lawsuit against M&M's...too funny! You can check out the story here: http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN1335812420080213

Times Square at Night

We stayed just a few blocks from Times Square. A dusting of snow began to fall as we walked there to see the lights. Who knew that nighttime could be so bright? I wonder if the city dwellers realize just how dark it can be out in the country at night?
I read in a travel book that there's a city ordinance requiring every building in the Square to have lit signs. It certainly appeared that it was being taken seriously.

And then, there was the Naked Cowboy. I'm truly sorry that my picture didn't turn out better. I'm not sure if it was the fact that I was trying to shoot through the crowd while walking, the fact that I was shivering in the cold, or some combination of the two. But at least you get the general idea. My friends tell me this guy is out there every year they go...wearing his cowboy hat, his cowboy boots, and his skivvys...which on the back read "Naked Cowboy". It was priceless.
We carried on a debate for a while about how he could stand the cold. You couldn't really prepare this Southerner for the effect of the wind whistling through the canyons between skyscrapers. Man! Was it cold!!

The Inspiration

So, my friend Pepper, over at http://www.peppercory.blogspot.com/ has been telling me I should start a blog. She planted the seed, so to speak. I thought about it. But I wasn't really sure I wanted to dive in and do it. Then we went to New York City to go to the Westminster Kennel Club dog show. What a fabulous experience! I returned home and thought, "what a wonderful way this would be to share pictures and thoughts about the trip"....so, Dog Gone Right was created.

To begin with this blog will be all about that trip. After that...well, who knows? It could evolve into just about anything. But a sure bet will be that it will deal with animals...a lot!

Happy Reading!