While talking to my sister yesterday, she remarked that I hadn’t been doing much blogging lately. She’s right; I guess it’s been a while. It’s not that life has been boring, quite the opposite, but I just haven’t felt the need to write things down. So, this entry will be all about catching up with lots of things.

The dogs enjoyed the big snow last week. Here is Hailey being silly, tunneling in and eating snow.

Alex thinks snow is tasty too.

Of course, Bella and Hailey have to play.

We had a long weekend with Rick being home for four straight days in a row, as Monday was a work holiday for him. Over the weekend we really didn’t do much. We walked the dogs, played many hours of Super Mario Brothers on the Wii (a multiple player game), caught up on all our TiVo’d programs, and had a wonderful Valentine’s Day dinner out with some friends.

On Tuesday he took a personal day off and we went into New York City to the Westminster dog show. Since moving here we’ve wanted to go in to watch our breed, Bernese Mountain Dogs, show and possibly see some old dog show friends. We took the train in (which was a good thing because it was snowing) which is so convenient since Penn Station is right there at Madison Square Garden. Get off the train, walk up some stairs and you’re there!

Did you know that Rick and I used to be into showing dogs? Well, we were. We had a dog, Indy, that was ranked in the top ten Bernese Mountain dogs in the country in 1996 and 1997. In fact, we brought him to the Westminster show in 1997. He didn’t win anything but it was an experience we’ll never forget. We did have a handler but not a big name one, just someone local. Rick did show Indy himself quite a lot though. Here they are:

Showing dogs is kind of an addiction, especially when you have a dog that wins. I think it must be like having a child that is a football or soccer star. It’s an ego rush and very competitive. I do miss the whole dog show thing from time to time but what I don’t miss is the political side of the sport.

Anyway here are a few photos I took at Westminster. This is the benching area where you can view all the dogs. It’s a very packed and crowded place! Thankfully there aren’t too many benched shows anymore. I much prefer to go to a dog show, show my dog at the appointed time, and go home instead of sitting around all day!

We walked down the Mastiff aisle because we think they are cute. Look at the size of those heads!

This one was trying to stay cool, calm and collected in the midst of chaos.

I liked this sign.

And this was the view from where we were sitting looking down on to the rings.

We did manage to meet up with some dog show folks we hadn’t seen in a long while, so that was good too.

It hadn’t really snowed that much in the city, but on the train ride home it was obvious it had been snowing all day further north. A virtual Winter Wonderland passed before our eyes! Here is what we were greeted with on our drive home from the train station.

A wet, sticky snow that clung to all the branches. We could barely get into our driveway because the plow had gone by a few times and really stacked up the snow. So the expected 1-3 inches turned into 5-7 inches!

Other things that are on my mind include deciding which country to move to if Sarah Palin ever becomes President. Mexico or Canada? I need to write all the pros and cons of each country on my hand ...

And the Olympics. I live for the figure skating events, and this year the men’s is on fire! I can’t wait until tonight to see the battle play out for the medals. Will Plushenko get the Gold after his comeback? Or will one of the other two men hot on his heels take it? Then there is the ice dancing to come in three different nights ... can’t wait!

See? Lots of nothing about somethings. I’ll try to do better next time ...