Eric Sink apologizes for commenting on the Madrid bombings in his blog. He lived in Madrid. No need for apology. It’s harrowing and heartbreaking.

Avonelle, James, Andrew, Scott – I absolutely respect everything you are saying which is why I am leaving your comments in tact.

I do not have the energy or heart to keep trying to fix what I have written to express properly what I am saying so that it does not insult anyone other than possibly the one person I was writing about – nor do I have the courage to even attempt to debate this with you. I am not expressing myself well. You all are very clear with what you are saying.

I started the day reading “feh!” in a Kent Sharkey post and ended it with Ted Neward peppering a worthwhile rant  with “chutzpah” and “oy”. It made me smile.

sad day in bicycle racing. Patani won the tour in 98. We love his wicked cool persona that earned him his nickname.

This article sparked an incredible discussion among a number of women developers that are at the top of their game in our development community. Many of them have, like me, been programming for 20 or more years. Most of them (unlike me) also have kids. Definitely check it out if you have any interest. It’s not about programmers, but about business in general.

Hmmm now which category does this belong in?

With all the buzz about Newfoundlands because of Josh winning the Westminster Kennel Club show, I am going to add a little google juice to probably the most wonderful book on Newfoundlands ever written….

Amazon has it listed as out of print, but it’s not true. It *was* out of print and selling for over $300 a copy on EBay, so my parents were given the printing rights by the original publisher, Henry Holt, and have republished the book. It’s for sale in a lot of stores and websites or you can buy it directly from Blue Heaven Publishing or Katie’s Bumpers websites.

In the Company of Newfies by Rhoda Lerman

Josh Josh Josh Josh Newfoundland Newfoundland Newfoundland Newfoundland Westminster Westminster Westminster Westminster

After Rich and I returned from a dog show (where I took these pics of Theo), I looked at our poor 10 year old Newfie, Tasha and realized she looked like a bear. So she got a day of beauty. First we gave her a big haircut (okay, a hack job). Her hair was probably 6 or 7 inches long!!

Here she is standing in front of the cupboard where her cookies are after the first part of her torture. This is SHORT hair!

The best part of the day for her was the ride in the car to the place where we can give her a bath.  She LOVES to go in the car.

Then there was the bath.

Lucky for us, we don’t have to clean up the mess!

She’s such a good girl! Afterwards, it took most of the day and night for her to dry off enough to comb her out. Now she’s all beautiful again and smells good too!

My folks got two new puppies from France this summer, Celeste and Theo. They are actually 2nd generation puppies from their own kennel. Their mother, Rudy, who lives in France, is  a Blue Heaven doggie. Celeste and Theo are now 9 months old. Theo was with my mother and another one of her dogs, Bumper (2 yrs old) in Saratoga 2 weekends ago for a dog show. Rich and I went down. I haven’t seen Theo since he was about 3 months. I am in love but I can’t have him. He is very big already for his age (140 lbs) but incredibly balanced which is highly unusual. Here are some pictures of Theo and two with Bumper in my mom’s hotel room. I love these and they are fun to look at so I hope they brighten up someone’s day. Lots more pics here.

If you own a newfie then this is a BIG deal. Westminster is the crowning dog show in the country and  a Newfie won best in show. Josh is a Pouchcove dog. (Hmmm, maybe someday a Blue Heaven Kennels dog could win…) He’s a beautiful boy.

Westminster is commonly won by small dogs. It’s really nice to have these beautiful special creatures touted at such a high level.

I have a bit of an affinity to Newfoundland dogs. I have one, Tasha, she is my 5th. My parents breed them (www.blueheavennewfoundlands.com) and keep almost as many as they sell so they have a LOT.

That’s why this is of interest to me! This isn’t one of my parent’s dogs, but Josh is a beautiful gorgeous thing.

Westminster is the biggest and most important dog show in the country.