Lemons and limes

Check out this pair of professional shoppers.  Lucky Amanda, having two extra pairs of helping hands at the grocery store! 

They are growing up so fast.  Maya is riding Nova's old Strider here, but she's ready for a big girl bike.  I have a generous friend who is donating her daughter's long-outgrown bike to the cause.  Thank you, Julie.

Why mess with time?

We can thank this fellow for feeling grumpy and out of sorts this morning. There's a national movement now to end Daylight Savings Time, and about 100,000 people have signed the petition. Personally I think we should just split the hour down the middle and then leave it alone.   In the meantime, it's going to take a lot of coffee to get Seattle going this morning. 

What a windstorm yesterday!  No damage here, but when we left the Symphony downtown at the peak of the storm it shredded my umbrella in a few seconds.  Well, that's what you get for pulling out an umbrella in a hurricane.  March is still roaring like a lion, but a bit of sun is promised for later in the week.

Today is National Pi Day (3.14) and appropriately, National Napping Day. Hope you can fit one in.  It is also the birthday of Albert Einstein, who was born in 1879.

Or does it?

At the dog show

"I'm ready for my close-up now"

Dolly and I had fun at the Seattle Kennel Club dog show yesterday watching Amy Trotter perform in the obedience class demonstration.  Lori coaxed her out of the crate and let me pet her (bristly) head before the show.  She was sparkling clean from her bath the night before. Pictures don't quite do her justice; she is a rather winsome creature in person.

But the most amazing thing was how she works right alongside dogs, who don't pay her the slightest attention and vice versa.  She is a much larger piggy than last year of course, so not quite as agile at weaving and such. She wasn't sure about going over the narrow banging teeter-totter thing. Who can blame her? She is very smart and will not do anything without a good reason.  Like treats.

Lori said hopefully she has stopped growing, but Amy will always have to watch her weight. We can all relate to that.

"Dog shows are exhausting"

On to the dogs. I've always liked greyhounds-- they just have two switches, "on and off."  These guys are getting some heavy rest in the section where the different breed clubs put their dogs on display for petting, fawning and general adoration.  (Hint: Never wear black pants to a dog show.)  

From baskets of teeny-tiny English toy spaniels, who suck up to people like little love sponges...

To rather terrifying, jaw-dropping giant Mastiffs like this one, just about all the breeds were represented. 

And one of the most fun demonstrations was watching the herding dog pups hone their skills on rounding up ducks.  It was a good time!

Horse stories

"Quincy"

Quincy has finished his tour of duty in the Army’s Old Guard at Arlington National Cemetery and is up for adoption, free to a good home. He served as one of the highly trained caisson horses, led by the riderless horse. The tradition of a horse walking riderless to a grave memorializes the service member who will never ride again. The tradition dates back to the funeral of Genghis Khan.

Quincy worked eight times a day, every other week, in every sort of weather. He is only 11-years old, but is having trouble with his feet because of navicular disease. The horses start their day in the barn at Fort Myer at 4:30 a.m., when soldiers assigned to the caisson come in to prepare for the day’s funerals.

It is a solemn and dignified ritual.  The riders polish 314 pieces of brass tack daily and by 8 a.m., the horses are ready to go to the cemetery, where they stay until about 4 p.m.  The soldiers say the horses have been doing it so long they know their job. Before the procession starts, they act up as fresh horses tend to do in the morning, but they are all business when it's time to start work. 

Many potential adopters have turned in their applications for Quincy, so hopefully he will find a wonderful retirement home.

A horse lover

Here's another good horse story that was on CNN recently.  New studies have shown that horses can recognize human expressions, and distinguish between positive and negative facial expressions.  Most animals cannot read emotions across the species barrier, but for horses, recognizing angry faces might be part of their warning system to anticipate rough handling from humans.

Horses also have 17 different facial expressions to indicate their mood, which is one more expression than dogs have.  Cats have 21 facial expressions, but that's because they're always twitching their ears and whiskers around. I don't think cats are especially complex emotionally, but then cat lovers might disagree.

When the red, red robin

The sweet robin was chirping this morning through the wind and rain, poor creature.  It poured all night, one of those nasty storms that beats on all the windows at once.  I had an unpleasant dentist visit yesterday and couldn't sleep.

Hey, what is "modern dentistry" anyway?  They still stick sharp things in your poor mouth and drill around with hideous sounding tools, just like they did 50 years ago. The only thing missing is that bowl we used to spit in.  I suppose that's progress.

You probably heard about the gas explosion in Greenwood, a neighborhood north of us.  Thank goodness it happened in the middle of the night.  Seattle is a patchwork of many small neighborhoods, one of the things that makes the city special.  For example, this is the North Seattle area, and you can see Greenwood to the left of middle. These natural gas catastrophes can happen anywhere, a sobering thought.

For me it's just been a pretty dull week of closet-cleaning and dental visits,  but better things are coming.  Rain or shine, I'm going to the barn tomorrow and spend time with the new quarter horse Dolly brought in for a trial.  Then this weekend, Miss Amy Trotter appears at the Seattle Kennel Club Show!  Now that's something to look forward to.  I wonder if a picture with the celebrity is too much to hope for?

On Sunday, we're having lunch with our friends Betsy and Paul before we go to the Symphony together. They are world travelers.  I have to share this delightful photo Betsy sent me from their recent trip to India. Can't wait to hear all about it.

Sahib and Memsaab

Book hoarders

The new decorating craze is minimalist.  This funky look is definitely out.  Every day I drive past the three-story, narrow boxes they're building in West Seattle.  The front is always glass and metal, and the door a few steps from the street. You can peer right in at the blank walls, open staircases and sleek modern fixtures.  No one wants window drapes, comfy-squishy furniture and built-in bookshelves. 

 Along California Avenue

It looks a bit cold to me, but then our old house is crammed with the accumulated junk, clutter, dust and treasure of 36 years.  And books, books, books!

I told John the other day I was thinking about "cleaning out" the book collection.  Then I was immediately overwhelmed.  Where do I start?  How do I pick favorites? Would it really be "liberating" to throw out my English literature textbooks from college?  

Guess I'm not alone in my book hoarding tendencies.  These sayings were on the Huffington Post.