No, I'm not playing the card game. I'm excited about watching the 132nd Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show at Madison Square Garden on TV again... because of a 3-year-old 15" beagle named Uno. Well, actually he's Champion K-Run's Park Me In First, but he won Best In Show!

I guess this was a big show this year - 2627 entries in 169 breeds & varieties from 48 states, the District of Columbia and at least six countries, including four new breeds (the Plott, the HUGE Tibetan mastiff, the Swedish vallhund and the Beauceron).

Oh, man, I'm exhausted. I spent all day with my family at the International Kennel Club of Chicago Dog Show at McCormick Place. Not much to talk about. I mean, there were dogs, dogs, dogs, dogs, dogs, dogs, dogs, dogs, dogs and more dogs. I was heavily medicated due to my alergies, but I survived well. Between the new position at work, all the work I had to do at Gary's yesterday, hockey last night and dogs today, I am friggin' exhausted...

Josh is a great looking dog! Josh (aka "Ch Darbydale's All Rise Pouchcove"), a gorgeous a "Newfie" (a Newfoundland), won Best In Show at the 128th Annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.

So, Carol is glued in front of the TV for one of her most favorite events - The 128th Annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. She loves dogs and just loves this event. She knows breeds on sight and can rattle off all kinds of info about them. She'd make a good judge at these events.

Diane's dog Chelsea has been a major pert of our extended family for years. Chelsea had a pretty fast-growing tumor pop up on her chest over the past few weeks and it was time to get it surgically removed. The biopsies (yes, plural) were inconclusive so it was time to go in surgically and remove it. This required Chelsea to be taken to an animal surgical center (no quick trip to the vet).

Chelsea's surgery went well, with the doctor saying he was able to get a "good margin" around the tumor. We're all hoping for the best - pathology results won't be back until next week.

It was time to bring Chelsea home and Diane (correctly) thought she probably shouldn't do this alone, so she asked me to help her. How could I turn down Chelsea??? (oops... I mean... "How could I turn down my darling sister?" Yeah that's it...)

So, I drove into the city so we could drive together to the doctor in the northern suburbs.

I am SOOOOOOO glad there was two of us.

Time to pack-up Gracie. She looked a bit confused this morning, almost like she knew something was up but couldn't figure out what it is. But, then again, I think that Gracie's just not wired right. We got her packed up in the car and she just wouldn't settle down. She also didn't seem to recognize the neighborhood around my parents house. Odd. We got there and as soon as we walk into their house, she went nuts. Chelsea and her started wrestling as soon as they saw each other, like they missed it other. We couldn't stay long, since it's a baseball day and Fox has the coverage, so it's an early start.

At Comiskey, it's time to play the Cleveland Indians again. Seems like we just saw them, but that was back at the beginning of July. I mentioned back then how I didn't like their fans, but they didn't show up to cheer their team. This time, nobody showed up to cheer either team. The place was empty - 16,622 paid. It was hot and humid. We had to drink lots of fluids to stay on top of things. The shade didn't get to us until 2 o'clock, which is at least earlier than in June/July when it's 3 o'clock. Anyway, Carlos Lee had a home run, but that was it for the team - Sox lose 4-2. Sad. Jon Garland didn't look too good, not like the complete game shutout I saw him pitch a few weeks ago.

After the game, we went up Lake Shore Drive to Wrigleyville. I'm not getting used to seeing the construction at Soldier Field. It just doesn't look right. The seating "bowl" is huge. It looks pretty damn awkward, sort of out of place. Anyway, we went to pickup our buddy Barry. We met Buffy up in Evanston to go to the Evanston Century 12 to see My Big Fat Greek Wedding. What an absolute fun flick! A Must see! The other cool thing is that it was only made for about $5 Million, and it was the 2nd highest grossing film this weekend! I didn't know it was filmed in Chicago.

After the movie, we went to the Davis Street Fishmarket. OK, this was a delight (I'm starting to sound like James Lipton...). I really loved this place. Loved the service, loved the food. Our girls got roses on the way in (have no idea why). Need to go back again. Highly recommended. Between the movie and dinner, it was a great evening. When we got home and picked-up the mail, we noticed we got out check from White Sox Charities! Thank ou again, Elvis! Except for the Sox losing, it really was a great day.

Trying to watch the White Sox game tonight. Gracie and Indy are checking each other out - both of them really want to play with each other, not realizing how bad of an idea that really is. Gracie actually has been a good dog this week. Indy has only been out about 2 hours this week, so she's a little frantic. Tomorrow, Carol and I drop off Gracie at my parents' house on the way to the White Sox - Indians game. Diane will finally be back from her road trip out west on Monday, and she'll pick up Chelsea and Gracie when back in town. (Diane should be at Jackson Lake Lodge in the Grand Teton National Park tonight, if she's still on schedule.)

I want to go to sleep. I can't. Gracie has decided to fall asleep on my side of the bed. On top of that, Carol has fallen asleep, remote still in hand, with her arm sprawled over my side of the bed as well. At least the TV is on TLC... there have been times when she's fallen asleep, and her thumb would twitch a bit and God knows what station would be on when I do to bed...

*sigh*

So far, all Gracie wants to do is sleep. Everywhere. Anywhere. Last night, she was on the bed with Carol and me - until about 1:15 when I couldn't get comfortable and sort of pushed her around a bit to get her out of my way. Damn, she's heavy.

Carol and I had a bad night's sleep. My legs were twitching all night and I couldn't get comfortable. Plus Gracie has been walking all over the house all night. Should be an interesting week.

Went to my parents' house for lunch. Since my sister is on her driving trip out west, the dogs are at my parents' house. So, to give them a break from two dogs, we're taking Gracie until Saturday. Oh, boy... this is going to be an interesting week. Gracie was eating upholstery on one of my parents' living room chairs. I'm going to have to watch her this week. I hope this works out.

Hot today. 97° - Heat Index 108°. Terrible. Bad. Right now, at 9 o'clock at night, the Heat Index at Meigs Field on the lake is 102°. Thank God we didn't have a game at Comiskey today.

When we were at my parents for dinner tonight, my sister Diane told us about this website that breeds hybrid puppies. Of course, we all thought "gee, wouldn't that be a mutt?". Of course, these are kennel-born. (They also have pure-bred puppies). You have to go to The Barking Lot to see pictures of some of the "hybrid" puppies that they currently have for sale, such as: Peke-a-chons (Pekingese & Bichon Frise), Chi-Chi-Poos (Chihuahua & Poodle) and Puggles (Pug & Beagle).

GORGEOUS day outside. Did nothing all day (watched Big Brother feeds for a while and posted some transcripts). Drove to my parents for dinner. The Northwest Tollway is getting lanes reconfigured again during reconstruction. Good thing - construction is half over! Bad thing - construction is only half over. The new lane configurations typically throw off traffic for days. We'll see how it goes.

Back home, I'm watching the Running of the Bulls from Pamplona on ESPN2. Strange event, but it's a car wreck (or in this case, bull wreck) - you can't help but to watch!

Tomorrow is going to be interesting - Carol and I along with our White Sox Season Ticket Buds Janie, Gary, and Jeff are flying to Detroit to go to Comerica Park to see the White Sox play the Tigers. Sox have lost three in a row to the last place Tigers, and I'm not looking forward to the game itself, but we're going to see the park (We love seeing new ballparks. Janie & Gary have seen almost all of the new ones). We fly up there in the morning and fly back at night. Can't wait to see how the day turns out!!!

Another weekend at Comiskey Park. Today, other than the game against the Tigers, was Dog Day. People (with advance paperwork) can bring their dogs to the park for the day. There's a pre-game parade, the dogs and owners all sit together in their own section of the bleachers, and the outfield concourse is loaded with tables from local humane and pet organizations. It really is a fun time. For the last few years, it was held in August. There have been days where the temperatures were pretty high, and the dogs didn't fare very well being out in all that concrete in this heat. The Sox decided to change the date this year to April to help with the comfort level.

April is not the correct month to do this.

The day was miserable. Gametime temperature - 45°. Wind - 20 mph. Windchill in the 20's. This is not baseball weather. We got there early to look at the dogs as they entered the park at Gate 1. We went inside and it was pretty empty. The pre-game parade was one of the longer ones that I can remember. I also used to remember a costume judging aspect to all this - they must have stop doing that since we didn't hear anything about the winners.

The game started out a little rough. Jon Garland didn't have the command of his pitches. But then again, how can a pitcher really feel the ball when you're pitching with windchills in the 20's? Again, the Sox offense was unbelievable. Jose Valentin, Frank Thomas, and Magglio Ordonez had home runs and Paul Konerko hit a Grand Slam.

By the end of the 6th inning we had enough of the weather and went upstairs to the Stadium Club to watch the rest of the game and get a quick bite. We made reservations for seats on the glass for tomorrow - the weather is actually supposed to be worse.

The Sox won 12-5. They now have the highest team slugging percentage in all of baseball at .509 and highest team batting average at .316. Pitching, well... 5th in the AL 18th in baseball with a 4.39 ERA., third in the AL in Fielding Percentage but 14th in all of baseball. It's obvious we're all offense. We need the pitching to come around, but that's something we saw during spring training. All I want right now is to either stay tight to the division leader or get on top and get some room between us and the rest of the division.

Last day dog-sitting. Yeah! Katie's a very sweet dog, but it's a little stressful knowing you've got a one-eyed dog that's recovering from surgery and you're responsible for her medical care.

Nice quiet day dogsitting Katie. Replied to someone that saw my resume on Monster, but no reply from the EMail. Got my marchFIRST Microsoft Alliance shirt that I won on eBay. Watched a bunch of Hopkins 24/7 shows on Discovery Health. Great series.

Wooooooo Hooooooo! UPS just delivered my DirecTV stuff! Three boxes worth. One box is the dish itself, another box looks like a self-install kit (cable, connectors, a multiswitch and a videotape), and the last box is the 4 receivers (much smaller than I thought). Now I just need to get it installed and activated...

Damn... installation is expensive! More than the equipment itself! But I got an installer to come out tomorrow.

Another Katie-sitting day again. I gotta tell you, I've been looking all over the house to see if Katie left a "present" anywhere. She didn't. Man, is she passing gas...

Katie-sitting again. Now that she's got her cone off, she has no problem going up stairs, so she woke me up this morning. Now she's just hanging out with me in my "computer room".

Well another day passed, and still no UPS delivery of my DirecTV stuff. Starting to concern me. I want to cut-off AT&T Broadband as quickly as possible.

And, of course, everybody is at work this New Year. Everyone except me, that is. This job market better break real soon.

So, here it is New Year's Eve. Thank God this year is over. Going over to Barry & Buffy's tonight to party. Don't know when we'll roll home.

Carol is off today, so she's been handling "Katie Duty". Yep, Katie is over again today. At least she's not a funnel-headed dog any more - she doesn't have to wear her protective cone any more. She seems much happier. Carol got me an early birthday present - a new coat from land's End. It's lightweight (which I can't use right now - it's 21 degrees (wow - that's warm!). It came via UPS today. I was expecting my DirecTV stuff today, but it didn't show. Bummer.