Going to the Dogs

This family is BIG on tradition, and Thanksgiving is one of my favorite days of the year.

Sure...... there's the turkey and stuffing, pumpkin and pecan pie.  But while we're waiting for the bird to roast, and anticipating the delectable flavors of dessert,  the highlight of our afternoon is settling into the family room and watching the annual National Dog Show.

Well, as it turns out, the venue for this special event is held less than an hour from where we live.  So, how could we resist making the trip to see this competition first hand?

Once through the doors of the Expo Center, we were bombarded with excitement.

Flyball Relay Races where we witnessed some very eager participants

Competitions where judges scrutinized each dog to determine the Best of Breed.

Fluffing and primping

And one little guy kept himself busy watching movies on an ipad 

I think that he must be near sighted.

We met John O'Hurley, the entertaining commentator

and Julia, a past Corgi Champion

She has the cutest eyes, don't you think?

And we sat and watched the first four groups of competition.  This guy was patiently waiting for the judge's decision (and looking for a treat while he waited).

And, speaking of patience, when 4 1/2 hours of the big competition had passed, and there were 2 more categories to judge yet, Marty and I decided that we'd really seen enough for one day.

So, this blog does not need a "spoiler alert".  

Just like you, we'll have to wait until Thanksgiving Day to learn the results.

But I'm OK with that.  After all, it's more fun that way, don't you think?

Celebrating my Heritage

While last evening was spent listening to relaxing, melodious ballads, today was quite the contrast as we found ourselves amid the echoes of Slovak music and dancing in the Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh.

As you can see, it was a glorious day in Eastern Pennsylvania, and we took total advantage of the fact that our trip this weekend coincided with the annual Slovak Festival held on campus.

We arrived a bit early, which gave us an opportunity to pose with the panther.

That young lady on its back is the 3rd generation Pitt engineer on both sides of her family, with her father, mother, and their respective fathers all having graduated from this alma mater.  I suppose that you could say it is "in the genes".

She shares that accomplishment with her older brother, yet another Pitt engineering grad, who is the proud father of two of our entertaining grandchildren.  Since we were enjoying the afternoon out with the eldest, how could we resist snapping a photo of him on the panther as well?

But it was time to get serious and head inside to check out the festival, and, in particular, partake of some delicious, homemade Slovak food.

Pirohy..........Kielbasa.........Halushky

Lahodný.......chutný........skvelý!  (translation: Delicious.....tasty......great!)

And so it was!  But the afternoon was not all about food.  

The entertainment ranged from adorable young tots

to talented young adults

with some interesting "seasoned"performers adding to the amusement.

Let me just say that celebrating my Slovak heritage is quite a bit of fun

and, needless to say.......quite filling!

Josh Groban, Revisited

 It's been well over a dozen years since I first heard the melodic voice of Josh Groban.  It was in November, during a PBS fundraiser, when we were first introduced.

Twelve years later,  I must admit that his voice continues to capture my heart and soothe my soul.

So, you can only imagine how thrilled I was to find myself as part of the crowd tonight at the Consol Energy Center, compliments of two of my daughters who treated me to this delightful event.

And, it certainly is obvious that they were just as excited about seeing this performance as I was!

This wasn't my first "Live" Josh Groban experience.  That was back in Feb 2005, as part of a Christmas gift from Stacey, which included two tickets to his "Closer" concert, and instructions to invite the guest of my choice.

So, I picked my good friend, Morena, as my partner for the evening,  and we excitedly made the drive to Hershey arena.  We found ourselves in awesome seats, swooning at this young man's melodies, and thoroughly enjoying his sense of humor and overall inviting personality.  When Josh began singing "Mi Morena", my friend bent over to whisper in my ear, "Barbara......he's singing to ME!" We were hooked!

When the concert was over, while Morena and I drove home, we excitedly discussed the possibility of packing our bags and hitting the road to become Josh Groban Groupies.    

It certainly was a night to remember for both of us.

Obviously, neither of us followed through as stalkers,  but I have had the opportunity to see him in concert with Stacey in Philadelphia, and once again in the past at this very same venue in Pittsburgh, with these same two daughters. Each performance had been thoroughly enjoyable. 

And, tonight was no different.  We were entertained by soothing ballads

exceptional musical performances

and spectacular special effects.

And it certainly didn't hurt that we had AWESOME seats!

Once again, it was a night to remember!

How lucky am I to have such awesome daughters? 

Bye Bye Buster

From the moment we brought this puppy home, our lives would never be the same......

Once he arrived, we would never lack for entertainment.  

We could dress him up as a pirate and have him walk the plank,

but he would rather jump.

He liked to hang out with bunnies

and turkeys

and, on occasion, he would even relax with Lily (when she let him)

and sneak in a nap with Marty on a cold Sunday afternoon

as well as relax in the sun with Amy.

We had fun adorning him with antlers

and scarves

although he obviously wasn't too thrilled about wearing them.

He was excited to meet Jack

and they had many a rumble.

And, when Stacey moved to Pittsburgh, he was ready to go along.

But those plans were quickly spoiled.

When the kids moved out, we still celebrated his birthday

and the holidays were always fun.

And when the grandchildren came along, they added to the fun.

Just look at that smile!

He was smart enough to know how to play cards

and he had a fondness for Margo Monkey.

As of late, Buster was an easy traveler, 

and he soon felt quite comfortable with gallivanting himself.

In less than a month, we would have celebrated Buster's 15 years on this earth.

But, it wasn't meant to be.

In the course of these past few days it became quite obvious to us that Buster was ready to leave us to begin a different gallivanting adventure of his own, without us.

So, it is with sorrow that we say good-bye.

He was certainly one fun dog.....and we are lucky to have had him be part of our lives.

Lessons Learned While in Italy

Just for the record, I do realize that I write ridiculously long blog entries on occasion.

Correction:  change "on occasion" to frequently.  But I just want to keep my readers in the loop.  (Perhaps this is why I have so few followers......I'll have to give that some thought.)

But really, don't you want to know the whole story?

Don't feel compelled to answer that question.

In any event, you may find this hard to believe, but there are actually a few items that I refrained from including in my daily posts simply because I ran out of time and energy.

So...I'm going to list a few of them here.

I'd like to entitle them "Lessons Learned"

1.  Jack Russell Terriers have the same attitude no matter where they live.

I'll admit that this isn't the best photo, but part of that is due to the fact that I zoomed in while walking along the walls of Cittadella,  in order to capture this ridiculous behavior. 

Is there anything funnier than watching a Jack Russell Terrier rush from the back of the house, plow through shrubbery, then stop and look up while barking his head off, attempting to let us know that our presence on the wall was not appreciated?  Even though we were nowhere near the property?

Obviously, the temperament of this breed is consistent no matter where they are bred.  And, they appear to be a favorite breed in Italy as well as in Scotland, as we saw many on our travels.

2.  Never presume that a mailbox marked Posta is a government mail slot, even though it may be the only one that you see in a 3 block stretch.

I spent 2 euro on an international stamp, popped it onto a postcard that I had written out, and stuck it in this mail slot.  I hadn't seen any others like it, so I presumed that it was an official mailbox.

I was immediately informed (after I slipped the card through the slot) that this was a private box for mail deliveries.

Lucky for me, the owner of this mailbox must have been kind enough to re-mail my postcard, as it was delivered in just about the same amount of time as the one that I did place in an official box.

It's nice to know that Italians can be helpful when an American can be "stupido"!

3.   Think twice about downloading a GPS app for the phone while in a different country, particularly Great Britain.  

I downloaded the navigation system for Italy while in Scotland.  The end result was  a woman's voice with a British accent who considered rotaries to be roundabouts and gave directions presuming that one was driving on the left hand side of the road.

In otherwords, what would normally be the 3rd exit on the rotary, was "make a left at the first exit" on a roundabout.  Luckily, most of the directions involved staying "straight on" which is the same in either context. 

4.  Be prepared to eat late in Italy.  Restaurants don't begin serving dinner until 8:00 p.m.

I don't know about you....but there have been times when that was darn near my bedtime here at home.

and, finally:

5.  Never presume that Italians speak English, despite being told that English is spoken just about everywhere.  I have not found this to be true in my travels.

It would be like me saying that I speak Italian.  I know just about enough to say good morning, toilet, and "allergic to peppers".  Does that make me fluent in Italian?

I think not.

And so...remember that most Italians speak only limited English.

My advice would be to always bring a pocket dictionary just in case you need to translate.

And.....forget Rick Steve's Italian pocket dictionary.  I looked in the index for "meal" and "gasoline" as well as some other necessary words, only to find them all absent from the listing in the back.

But, if I wanted to say "marijuana" in Italian, I was all set.

I really don't see the value in that.......and if you do.....kindly keep that info to yourself, because I really don't need to know.

Arrividerci!

The Long Way Home

We had arrived in Italy from Scotland, and so we needed to return to Scotland prior to coming home.  The plan was to fly from Milan to Edinburgh, take a taxi to the Bridge Inn, where we had stayed before, and leave in the morning for home.

Since our hotel wasn't too far from the airport, we were able to get an early breakfast prior to leaving.

Once again,  I could sip on my morning Cappuccino and admire the mural while, this time, Marty was memorizing the map.

Do you have the sneaking suspicion that he didn't trust Lassie GPS?

We did manage to make it to the airport without much issue, although Lassie did take us on one obvious circle which could have easily become an infinite loop, but by this time, we were wise to her ways....and there were signs clearly marked after this point, directing us to the airport.

We had quite a wait time, having arrived quite early, and I'm glad that we didn't go to the gate too early since Easy Jet doesn't supply seating in the area of departure.

The flight ended up being delayed an hour, but other than that, it was uneventful.  

Once we landed in Scotland and gathered up our luggage, we took a taxi to the Bridge Inn, and settled in until our morning flight home.

The view from the room was somewhat entertaining as we watched the boats that were floating down the canal being flocked by hungry swans hoping for a handout.

We had a scrumptious dinner in the hotel restaurant where we shared one last dessert

then did some walking to try to burn off at least SOME of those calories!

I must say that I have found Scotland to be an absolutely beautiful country, and the people there have consistently been friendly and welcoming.

Two years ago, I would have NEVER dreamed that I would have had the opportunity to explore so much of this fine land.  It has been an awesome experience for me.

And, I do hope that you have enjoyed following my travels as well.

I don't plan on stopping my gallivanting ways......I just have the feeling that future adventures will be closer to home.  But I'm willing to bet that I'll be able to find SOMETHING exciting to share.

What do you think?