Remembrance of ALL who sacrificed 1775-2010

Versatile Blogger Award

Sugar passed on the Versatile blogger Award to me. I went around the internet to try and find who started this thing but it was an impossible task! So, with a few mild modifications here goes….

Rules for accepting this award:

1. Thank the person who gave you this award.

2. Share 7 things about yourself.

3. Pass the award along to bloggers who you have recently discovered (or old friends) and who you think are fantastic!

4. Contact the bloggers you’ve picked and let them know about the award.

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#1 Our Thanks go out to Sugar the Golden Retriever aka Rock Star Pooch. My very first follower and the one who started the ball rolling, introducing me to many doggie bloggie friends.

#2A Share Seven things about Lady:

1. Loves to chew and eat ice cubes

2. She loves belly rubs

3. Lady will PAW you if you don't give her enough attention

4. Surprisingly good swimmer

5. Not a very good retriever

6. Very tough and confident, doesn't put up with any aggressive crap from other dogs

7. Prefers the company of small children and is very protective of them

2B Share Seven things about myself

1. I can juggle

2. Beets are my least favorite food ever

3. I played drums in a weekend gig, country rock band from 77-81 (don’t worry, I had a day job)

4. I love the beach and the surf, but other than that, I don’t do water sports or boats

5. I’ve been to Singapore (and loved it)

6. I like cats, but could never own one

7. I can read a raw data capture from the Internet

#3 Bloggers I would like to recognize:

Kim at Golden Pines - http://lifeatgoldenpines.blogspot.com/

Thor from Brazil - http://meupequenograndethor.blogspot.com/

Jack and TG from Tucson - http://dailydoseofjack.blogspot.com/

Skylar's Mom Kimmy - http://skylarmarie.blogspot.com/

Morgan, Mully and their Milkbone provider, artist supreme - http://art4milkbones.blogspot.com/

Luna and her Mom Elizabeth - http://dbwluna.blogspot.com/

Walkabout

Lady's favorite pee-mail and snooflin' spot is in the shadow of the community water towers. It's always our first stop before we do our 2-3 mile walk. She is what I call an "off leash 90 percenter". Considering she couldn't even walk ON the leash without pulling your arm out of its socket when she came to us; she has come a long way. Lady tries very hard to be the best she can be. I can tell that she really loves being off-leash when we are out and about (I'm sure that never happened in her past life). She goes into a different mode (highly distracted and excited) when she's at the dog park, which is just fine, its her time and special place.

Here are a few pictures from one of our walks this week. She is off-leash at the water towers and in front of the school.

Come on Dad, let's go, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy

Not The War of the Worlds, just our water towers !!

 Snooflin' done, pee mail checked and answered, time to get to a serious walkabout - see ya later.

Farewell to Max

MaxDog from South Africa has gone to the Rainbow Bridge. It has been a real pleasure knowing Max and learning all about South Africa. We will miss you buddy.

My personal favorite picture

The beau-beau guitar

A 1950s vintage Gibson acoustic guitar found at a pawn shop was the canvas for this amazing portrait done by Cosmo and Devos' favorite Aunt Lisa. Lisa and Uncle Jeff would dog sit every couple of months after we moved back to Seattle from Coeur d'Alene. They got to know the beau-beaus intimately. The guitar and the portrait was arranged by my wife Andi as a 10 anniversary gift in 2005 when the dogs were still with us. I was SO surprised and blown away by the incredible likeness of both dogs. Want to mention that Lisa is not a professional, just a very gifted and generous person. I will always treasure it. I just recently got around to taking a decent picture of the guitar. My fur-kids are with me every time I play.

Comments, Email and response - building the bridge

Here is the situation: I have a blog (KT-Goldens.blogspot.com) where Google account members, Followers and others can leave comments on a post (a common occurrence every day for most of us). When a comment is submitted, I receive an email notification that tells me who left it, what time and what it says. Sometimes I would like to respond privately via email to the commenter (a question was asked or a running gag is required!). When I select "REPLY to", occasionally the commenter's email address is filled in, but most of the time the "reply to" address is which goes nowhere.

If this comment and email response interests you, this is what needs to be set-up as the commenter and as a blog owner. I looked through the Google help section, but it was never addressed properly, so I just did a couple of experiments. I believe the following is the correct procedure.

Google blog owner: Under your settings tab, you must allow comment notification to a selected email address (Settings, Comments, Comment Notification Email). Whenever someone leaves a comment, blogger will send you an email with the details of that comment. If you want to respond to the commenter via that email, this can be done if the commenter allows it using the settings below. Otherwise, the address in the reply will be noreply-comment@blogger.com (goes nowhere).

Google member - Commenter: Allow an email address to be displayed on your profile page. This will be the address that shows as the "reply to" address when a blog owner receives notification that you have left a comment. This setting can be found on your blog's Dashboard-Edit profile-Show my email address - fill in an email address then check the box to allow.

Example: some of my blogger friends/Followers that I can respond to directly via an email notification when they leave a comment on a post at KT-Goldens....
- Kim at Golden Pines
- The lovely Khyra with the floofy tail
- Sammantha
- The Bumpass Hounds

I've had this set-up for 2 years and have found it valuable for personally responding to Followers and Commenter’s (whose settings allow it). No problems with spam as of yet!

So, if you don't have this set-up, and you ask a question about a post within your comment, unless your notification is on, that question may not get addressed in a timely manner (or at all !!).

I welcome any questions or corrections that may be needed on this subject. Just leave a comment to this post and I will respond ON THE COMMENTS PAGE so all can see.

And now a word from our sponsor.

The beautiful and WET - - - Miss Lady

Picture Perfect Wednesday

This portrait has been hanging in our living room(s) for 18 years. I finally spent some time and created a nice reproduction picture that would do it justice. This is young Cosmo and her PaPa Dog - Sunny. Cosmo is just shy of a year old and Sunny is 6. I never get tired of looking at this. The photographer (Brant in Bellevue, WA) did a superb job.

Cosmo and Sunny, 1992

Mt. St. Helens - 30 years ago today

For those of you that never experienced Mt. St. Helens before she blew her top, IMHO she was THE most beautiful and perfectly formed of all the Cascade peaks. Not only did she rock my world 30 years ago, but the destruction of this beautiful lady still saddens me even to this day.

I was standing on a softball field in Selah, WA on that fateful morning. In left field, I faced the mountain, but could not see it (very large foothills blocked my view). What I could see was the ash plume coming our way, dark as death with lightning flashing in its eyes as the hot ash met the cool northwest morning. Strangely enough, none of us heard anything. I knew the weather forecast was for perfect weather, so I was quite puzzled by this dark, ominous cloud that was beginning to blot out the southwestern sky. Before the inning ended, the Sheriff pulled into the parking lot and over his loudspeaker broke the news none of us could believe.

Off we drove, back to our hotel in Yakima to wait out whatever was in store for us. Before we arrived at the hotel, day turned to night and stayed that way until the following morning. As we lay around the hotel, I had visions of Pompei; finding me 500 years from now, encased in ash, laying on my hotel bed with a beer in my hand.

The heavy ash fallout after about 4 hours

Well, it wasn't THAT bad, but all the roads back to Seattle were closed the next morning, so a long circumnavigated route via Goldendale, Portland and up I5 would finally lead us back home. The I5 bridge over the Toutle River was restricted to one lane each way. Debris from the eruption was jammed up against the bridge supports and they ended up closing the bridge completely 10 minutes after we crossed.

I have visited the park since that day. To see the result of the awesome power that was released is humbling. Sometime after the eruption, scientists who were exploring the devastation found gophers alive and well in the blast zone, saved by their deep burrows. I don’t think a Holiday Inn would have sufficed! The circle of life never ceases to amaze me.

The road trip day-3

Day 3, Boise to Seattle

Nice weather so we made good time. Took our first stop in Oregon, at Baker City.

Oregon had the nicest and most plentiful rest stops. Decent pet areas and lots of room to roam

The Blue Mountains from high up on the hill above our rest area

Eastern Washington, Kittitas Valley just outside Ellensburg

Just when it looked like everything was going as planned, an awful traffic jam with no warning or opportunity to take another route. Thanks for the incompetence Washington DOT

Finally got home just before 8PM. Lady relaxes with Mr. Armadillo. 1600 miles, 3 days, she was good as gold. What a trooper. Lady proves again that she is one special girl.

The road trip day-2

~Cedar City, UT to Boise (day-2)

Day-2 the weather rolled in just before reaching Provo and we didn't get many good pictures in Utah. We did stop in Mountain Home, ID for a much needed romp in the park and a nice long walk.

In Utah, the first 80 MPH speed limit I have ever seen. The wind was blowing so hard (in our face of course) I never went over 70

  

Veterans Park, Mt. Home, ID - Lady thinks about changing careers

This park has some very interesting Pee Mail - lots of snoofling going on

Cool old moving trucks we saw on our walk in Mt. Home. Had a nice hotel in Boise, got upgraded to a suite, so Lady and I slept in the next morning, then took a nice stroll in the adjoining grass field (it was 40 degrees, brrrr).

The road trip - part 1

First a couple of clarifications to previous posts:
- My Mom not only raised me, but birthed me too! Thought I might point that out.
- On this road trip from Phoenix to Seattle, I was not physically stopping by to see some of my bloggy friends....just virtually checking posts when we were hotel bound at night (every hotel has Internet service, beats watching TV). We thought about Digby and Max every day.

Off we go, day one, Phoenix to Cedar City, Utah.

Lady, comfy and snoozy. As usual, she was a very good sport about being cooped up for three days. I tried to make every stop as much fun as I could for her.

Kingman, AZ - a rare treat, In and Out burgers.....yum. Dad just had to stop. Lady didn't mind either (a couple of fries for being so good).

Golden Valley, AZ (really!) - out in the middle of nowhere, a perfect stop to stretch our legs and check pee-mail.


Shuttled through Vegas pretty quickly, drove another hour to Mesquite, NV where we stopped again. Wow, has Mesquite hit hard times. Looks like a ghost town compared to 2003.

Off to Utah....

Through the Virgin River gorge. Very impressive, beautiful geology and colors

These are the red rocks around St. George, Utah. THIS town has really grown. A real hidden gem.

Final destination day 1: Cedar City, where we found a park and a steak house. Lady and I took advantage of both (doggy bag - steak and sweet potato)! Weather was beautiful. A good nights sleep, then off the next morning for Part 2 (coming soon).

Happy Mothers Day

Even though most of my Mom's generation is not computer savy, she has taken the time to learn enough to use email, watch soap opera videos and surf the web when the need arrises. She is a regular reader of this blog and a HUGE fan of Lady's, so here is my cyber-salute to the wonderful woman who raised me. Thanks Mom, you are the best. We love you.

Seeking some cooler weather

Lady and I will be hitting the road, heading up to Seattle. Won't be posting for awhile, but will stop by during our hotel confinement and visit as many of our wonderful bloggy friends as we can. Look forward to seeing some scenic country on the way: Phoenix to Las Vegas to Cedar City, UT to SLC to Boise to Yakima, WA then home. We'll get caught up next week. Tally Ho.....