Are you smarter than a 4th grader?

Cassie and a friend have partnered up to work on a science project. I'm not 100% clear on what the requirements are for it, but her task was to write 5 math questions for part of the "Wheel of Fortune" type game. She spent some time searching online for some questions, but ended up writing all but #1 herself. She tells me she and her partner already wrote 5 science questions for the wheel; she didn't have them here at home for me to post (sorry ANGELA!!!)

Anyway----wanna play with the math questions??? ;0)


#1) Do mathematicians know who invented multiplication?

#2) A heptagon is a shape with how many sides?

#3) How many factor pairs are there for the number 24?

#4) If 8 x 7 = 56, what would the p mean in p x 7 = 56?

#5) If 6 people have 1 1/2 apples, how much apple would each person get in order to share equally?

Answers to be posted Wednesday night just so you can feel good about yourselves :0)

Raven Stars; Red Blossoms; RRCB; BIL visit; Stash Report

Since Raven Stars isn't a mystery, AND for the fact that I want to show you all that I HAVE been doing something quilty this weekend.........my quilt center has been pieced despite having two more steps yet to be printed for y'all. This is merely the quilt center; I am still planning a simple border.

A shot of my design wall, still housing Red Blossoms; the border pinwheels were my leader-ender project for the day.


At the end of the day, with about 30 minutes left on the clock before I knew I needed to pack up, I pieced together 10 of the string blocks for RRCB.

Amazingly, for much of the day though, I was upstairs watching "Uncle Ryan" and Cassie and all the others play the Wii. Simutaneously, I worked on a puzzle that has been out on our side table since Christmas; I'm not much of a puzzler, but.......I finished it. Sorry Cass!!!!

Although a good amount of sewing happened this weekend, my stash report still won't change (much) since all the fabric used had already been recorded. However, I will at least get updated numbers to include the fabric used last weekend for the mini-nine-patches.

Stash Report: Feb. 14 - 27
Used/week: .61 yds
Purch/week: 0.0 yds

Used/year: 34.93 yds
Purch/year: 6.0 yds

Net Used: 28.93 yds

:0( Comments not going to email

HEY! My email is quiet!!! Maybe my Email Hoarding is catching up with me???? ;0) Here I thought my readers ditched me and left me high-n-dry!!!

But NOPE! I have comments. I can see them on my blog. BUT for some reason they aren't showing up (or being sent) to my email.

Hmmmm.......anyone else experiencing this????


The last comment that was sent to my email was early on the 24th of Feb. NADDA since then.

Pork Roast---tryin' something new.

Usually, I do the simple "set-it-and-forget-it" procedure when cooking pork or beef roasts. A couple of years ago, I was watching my mom prepare her beef roast (and NO, my mother is NOT a cook; just ask my husband!!!----I grew up with Mac-n-Cheese and Hamburgers) :0) But anyway....ya can't really screw up a roast in a slow cooker (unless you simply cook it too long!). She tore open a package of Lipton Onion soup mix, dumped it in her slow cooker, poured water in and let her roast take a bath for a couple of hours in the mixture. Tsha! Easy! And I've done it that way a few times since; enjoying the ease of the "recipe" (is it really a recipe when all you've done is dump in a dry mix????), and the flavor is perfectly fine for my taste. Plus, the seasoned "juice" is great to make gravy from.

Well.... :0(

Of the whole list of items I had DH pick up yesterday, I FORGOT to put Lipton Onion Soup mix :0(

Now, there IS a condensed Campbell's soup can of French Onion soup in the pantry, but I was strictly told "NO! I have plans for that!" {{for crying out loud...as IF the store doesn't stock more, right!?!?!?}}

BUT, not wanting to have a foolish tiff going with company here, I rummaged through the seasoning cupboard to see what goodies I could find to give this roast for tonight's meal some good flavor.

For Christmas 2007, my sister and BIL gifted my husband with a large box of Penzey Spices. Some of my favorites: Northwoods seasoning, Pork Chop seasoning, and Bicentennial Rub. After searing the meat in a HOT frying pan, I grabbed the Rub and gave the meat a good coat.








AND.....I grabbed this as well! I've never cooked with it; I think DH bought it for a recipe some time ago. But after opening it up and taking a whiff......YUMMMMMMY smoky smell!!! I knew I had to try it!

So, into the crock pot it went: 8 Tbls. I HOPE that's not too much with 8 cups of water!?!?! There wasn't much for directions on the bottle, and I didn't search online about it. {{I dunno! Have you ever cooked with it??? What can you tell me about this??}} This is a BIG pork roast!!!! I'm certain the flavor will be just fine, but always a little unsure about new "attempts"----specially when cooking for a BIL!!! ;0) **yikes**

Okay----we'll see. I've "set it".....so now.....time to forget it.

But I'm pooped! No interest to head back downstairs right now. However, I have a book waiting on the end table; I'm reading "Breaking Dawn" for the third time. I haven't read it for some time and I kinda forgot some of the details, so.....yeah....wanted to read it again.

Cold Quilting!

I'm working away on the quilting of Blue Ridge Beauty.....after one pass, I realized that my fuzzy socks alone weren't going to keep my feet warm, so I went upstairs to find my slippers. Then three or four passes later, I had just about enough! Gah! 54 degrees----no WONDER that I thought it seemed a bit colder than normal! We don't heat the downstairs, and recall that I purchased a little space heater for my quilting room, BUT the quilting frame/machine is in a different part of the downstairs.

We have enough of these black $1 thin gloves in our glove-stash. The girls don't wear them much (unless they've misplaced their thicker heavy-duty-play-in-snow-and-don't-get-cold gloves.) The sacrifice made really did make a difference.

reply to a post update
Cindy writes:

Ok...I don't want to sound smart, but couldn't you unplug the portable heater and move it to where you are? Of course if its plugged in behind lots of stuff, this wouldn't be feasible.

Cindy

Yes, I thought of this as an option, but the heater is rather small; for a small room. The space where my frame is is very large, very open and I'm moving back-n-forth along the frame; never really in one space. I didn't think it would be a great solution; simply too much space to heat :0( Thanks for the suggestion, though!!!!!!!!








Company update:
SIL headed out (alone) this morning to travel to her grandpa's house. Our house is a good "inbetween" location. Besides, by stopping here, the cousins can hang out as well as DH and his brother. They just took off for a couple hours of ice-fishing with a couple of kids in tow. Cassie and Candace chose to stay behind with me, though.

A funny:
As I was trying out the new gloves, Chessa (niece) came down--already bundled up, ready for fishing-- and asked....
Chessa: "Aunt Amy, what'cha doin?" (She's 5, BTW).
Me: I'm quilting
Chessa: Why are you using the thread that way?
Me: To keep the quilt sticking together.
Chessa: {{a few moments of silence}}........why don't you just staple it together?


**giggle**.....

I DID give her a response after my giggle subsided.....and said..."Well, I don't think it would be snuggly with staples in in." To which she said....."Oh yeah! Okay Bye!" ....and off she went upstairs

Email hoarder!

There are ALL KINDS of hoarders out there!

This morning, I realized.....I was an EMAIL hoarder!

I attempted to clean up my emails, but found myself saying....
....."oh, that's a new reader. I can't delete her email because I want to find her profile and blog again." Of course, some of you probably say..."add her to your bloglist!" (nope, too long on my page already). Or "become a follower"...(could do that, but...well...don't really have an excuse reason other than I don't usually look at my 'blogs followed' list very often---I may still lose track of her)

....."oh, this is a great picture. I'll need to get that into my files someday." To which the response could be.....'DUH AMY! Just take 1 minute to save the file on your computer and delete the email already!" (yeah...sounds great, so why aren't I doing that?? Dunno---don't have an excuse reason.)

At this time, I have 324 emails in my INBOX, 1512 emails in my SENT box (realllllly have a hard time to delete those too---they're records of what I've sent), 1829 emails in my TRASH box (DUH AMY!!! DELETE those already, right?????), 89 in my JUNK box (I DO try to keep that one as orderly as possible), and then a bunch of "organized" mailboxes for my different online quilting groups that I receive digests from, etc....

"Hello, my name is Amy and I am an Email hoarder...."


Happy Saturday!

It's Friday

Although it was a "short week" at work, whooo-weeee! Around 1:30 today, I was feeling the toll from the week! I was crashing and could have probably used a good shot of caffeine, but wasn't able to get my fix! ;0)

It's not that this week was too much out of the ordinary (except for the parent-incident on Tuesday--which, BTW, I have done an adequate job of TRYING to let it roll off my back.
Candace's pre-school class has been learning about "P" this week, so they wore PJs on Thursday. Cassie had her "Destination Imagination" meeting on Thursday until 6:00. Caitlyn----nothing too special about her. {{**giggle**....just reread that after posting. Poor Caitlyn! Of COURSE she's SPECIAL! There just wasn't anything special about her schedule this week}}

Oh yes....and most of my morning today was spent on the phone with another parent---all GOOD this time. I have a VERY unique section of advanced Math 7 students----they are a DREAM to teach. Seriously----there was a day last week when I finished my planned lesson with 20 minutes to spare. I jokingly said..."Ahh...well, I suppose I can pull out a Pre-Calculus lesson." The response......"OH YES! Please! Can we?!?!?!?!?"

They soak it up and keep wanting more!!!! Anyway, working together with one parent, the gifted-talented coordinator and myself, we are trying to come up with some "unique" scheduling for some of these students who could test out of Algebra. It's a good amount of work on my end; writing assessment; writing independent student-contracts.....but I'm not ABOUT to take away the passion and desire these students have for Math!

Anyhoo.....

We're expecting company in the form of BIL (DH's brother), SIL, Niece and Nephew. The girls are OVERLY excited that "the cousins" are coming; their rooms didn't need too much tidying other than stripping the beds to wash the sheets. The rest of the house has been tidied; dinner has been eaten and now we're relaxing with "BOLT" the movie on the Disney Channel.

DH should be home momentarily from grocery shopping. (Yes, I do love my husband when he takes care of this icky task!!!) I DID do my job though of giving him a list of items needed for the weekend meals.

I do hope to get some time on my machine(s).
I REALLLY should get the quilting done on Blue Ridge Beauty. I don't know if Red Blossoms will see much work this weekend, because I really need to get going on Raven Stars. Additionally, RRCB has found a new light and I'd like to keep pushing on that project.

So.....plenty to do :0)

Quilt-along: Raven Stars - Step 3: HST's

From step #1, take the 168 Purple and White HST cuts, and piece them into 168 Purple/White HST's.


Now, that's not really enough for a complete step, so...

Once the HSTs are pieced, separate them into two groups of 84. Attach a 2.5" white square to each HST as pictured; you'll be making 84 attached to the right side and 84 attached to the left side, making mirror-images of each other. You will be using 168 white squares which will leave 168 squares left yet for the next step.

This is what NOT TO DO. I thought I double-checked the proper placement, and for whatever reason, half-way through my one stack, I stopped to check the placement. **hitting forehead** HOW many years have I been quilting??? Tscha...mistakes happen; don't sweat it! Sadly, I needed to unsew a buku amount of mistakenly sewn units.


Okay, now THAT is enough for a step :0)

Next scheduled posting: 3/2/11 Step 4: Star points.

one of those days....

To keep this short......

I HATE days like this! I HATE that I am going to have a sleepless night tonight because of something that I feel I handled correctly, but ended up backing down to a misinformed parent. I HATE that I let myself down today by backing down. I HATE that my mind will not allow it to rest; that I'll keep revisiting the day and the "woulda/coulda/shoulda's".

I suppose I can wrap myself in all the Walker garbage; THAT might actually make me feel better right now.

BLAH!

A snow-in quilting day! Rollin' along again!

Well...late, but certainly plentiful! It's been snowing non-stop since it started last night. I tried getting a picture to show how the wind is literally making it look like the snow is coming down completely sideways, but it didn't turn out. This picture is on the "quiet" side of the house; I'm quite certain if I were to head out and check out the driveway, there will be drifts well over 2 feet tall due to the wind.

Brrrrrr! No going outside for me! However, DH headed out this AM to spend the day ice-fishing. Double brrrrr!


While looking over blogs with my coffee in hand this morning, I really didn't have any specific quilting plans for the day; just another "whatever-I-feel-like-working-on" day. But, as I was in the stairwell on my way to my sewing room---it hit me! ROLL ROLL COTTONBOLL will see action today!!!

I left off with 240 HSTs the last time I worked on RRCB (on Feb. 5). So.......zooooooooooooooooooooooom! A couple of hours later, ALL 600 DONE DONE DONE!

And then some more zooooooooooooooooooooooming! The HSTs pieced into the 5er sets!

And then.....ya guessed it....ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOmin some more and step #6 was completely finished!

LOL....okay. So the day hasn't completely zoomed by! I've been at it for 7 hours finishing up step #5 and step #6. I'm startin' in on step #7 but came up to change the load of clothes and check on the girls. They're playing the Wii game and still getting along so far. (They've been at it for only 15 minutes).

I live in Wisconsin; we expect snow through April...

If you follow any blogs of those of us in the Minnesota and Wisconsin areas, you may have already read..."We have snow.....again." After such BEAUTIFUL temperatures last week! Remember my running posts? (Run 1 | Run 2)

The original forecast said we were to get snow Saturday night. As always, the meteorologists were paid to be wrong. {I wasn't complaining!}


Then all day yesterday, I was just a-waitin' for the snow to start. Again.....nothing! Although just 30 minutes south, the snow was falling and falling plentifully.

Then this morning.....yeah; winter-wonderland all over again. I don't think I'm complaining because it IS pretty out there AND I don't need to go anywhere today. As a coworker said on Saturday...."We're gonna get robbed of another snow day." (since we have a Holiday today, there is no school). Watching news this AM, our area has a seasonal average of 55" of snow; we've had 72" already. The record: 76". Think we're gonna make it??? And what's absolutely amazing me: with ALLLLLL of the snow we've had, we haven't had a SINGLE snowday! All of the storms have hit over the weekends.

I AM thinking of the Northeastern states of the nation though. If this is yet another system that makes its way that-away (which I don't think it will; it's traveling northeast from us), the Northeast is already hurting on days allowed off of school :0( I'm thinking of you Nancy!!! Andra also spoke about having had too many snowdays because she needs to work today. However, when I looked at her profile, not remembering where she was at, it listed....New Mexico??? Andra? Am I missing something? ;0)

Some quilting and cooking going on...

A small hint from DH lead me to making Beer Cheese soup for dinner. I haven't been a Beercheese soup eater for very long. When I was pregnant with Candace I was in the Twin Cities for some math conference or another. When the group went out for lunch, there was a special going on for Wisconsin Beer cheese soup. For whatever reason, it sounded so GOOD! (remember...pregnant...). And sure enough; I was hooked! SOOOoooo creamy and cheesy. YUM! Besides, I found it curious that a cafe in Minnesota was having a special for Wisconsin beer cheese soup :0)
Last year, I was browsing through a cookbook that was put together by an area church and County Fair team of my MIL. And there it was....Beercheese soup!

Beer cheese soup recipe
4 chicken bouillon cubes
3 cups water
1 can beer
1 cup each, diced celery, onion, carrots
2.5 cups cubed potatoes
2 cans cream chicken (or potato) soup
1.5 lb. Velveeta cheese, cut into cubes (original recipe asks for 1 lb)

Directions
Cook: water, beer, bouillon cubes, vegetables until vegetables are tender.
Stir in the cream of chicken soup and Velveeta cubes. Heat until cheese has melted.

I've been playing around a bit with this recipe because the first time I made it exactly as the recipe stated, I didn't care for the proportion of cheese used. :0( The next time I made it, I added more cheese; much more to my taste!

And then I thought....this can work both ways....so...
A small hint from me lead DH to making homemade chicken strips for dinner. He tried out a new recipe from Food Network that had him using a wet batter and then a dry batter. The batter was definitely thicker than normal, but lovely crunchy!




I baked up a batch of Rhubarb Crunch too. (Recipe here)

Now that dinner is over; except dessert--haven't had the Rhubarb yet simply because my tummy is STUFFED. I am definitely not in the mood to tackle anymore quilting.

I didn't quite get to the half-way point in the BRB quilting. I only quilted for another hour once lunch was over and lost interest. I don't think I had the needed energy today to stand for hours with the quilting frame.

I pieced all the blocks for Maltese Star mystery listed in step #6 and began piecing them into rows. I stopped after piecing three rows, no longer interested.....((yikes?? some major quilter's A.D.D. today)....

The startitis quilter in me needed something new. Afterall, that WIP list on my sidebar is simply too small!!! Therefore, I pulled out some pieces left over from some FQs used last year; I hadn't cut them down to strips yet. So, I cut them into 1.5" strips and made 14 mini-nine-patches from each set. Pictured here are 28; I have another 14 almost finished, but that was the point I needed to leave them at so I could start dinner preparations. I have no plans for them yet.

I've done a decent amount of sewing this week, but all of the fabric had already been recorded in my previous Stash Reports. The only "new" fabric was for the mini-nines today, so I'll just wait until next week to make an official Stash Report.

Happy Sunday!

Casserole time-out

Since I'm sitting and waiting for the ground beef to fry up, I figured I'd check in and share a VERY EASY casserole recipe. This is a recipe using ingredients we usually always have on-hand; my family simply calls it Casserole and the girls enjoy it.

Ingredients:
- 1.5 cups uncooked elbow macaroni
- 1 lb. ground beef or other similar meat. We've made this with pork/venison equal parts; we've used straight venison; I even tried ground elk once.
- 2 cans condensed Tomato soup
- 1 can corn. I use corn that we've frozen from our garden; 1-1.5 cups
- 1 can peas (OPTIONAL-OPTIONAL!!!) My mother always put in a can of peas (yuck!) Since I'm not a pea lover, I no longer include this ingredient (my children also concur)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350.
Cook the elbow mac.
Brown the ground beef. Season with salt/pepper and/or other beloved seasonings.
Mix all ingredients together in casserole dish.
Bake in 350 degree oven for 45-60 minutes. I've also been known to up the temp to 375 in order to have casserole ready in 30 minutes.


I started quilting Blue Ridge Beauty just before coming up to prepare lunch. I also pieced together most of step #6 of Maltese Star. Pictures to come later tonight.

Non-quilty Saturday

So....two days ago, the conversation went like this....

Me: Caitlyn, if you want to attend Cadence's Birthday Skating party, your room and loft MUST get clean. Candace, if you want a playdate at Katrina's, your room and loft MUST get clean. Cassie, if you want to have a sleep-over, your room and loft MUST get clean.

Activity throughout the day yesterday was slow at best. By 2:00, I made the statement that all must be done by 5:00, or no one goes anywhere. By 4:00, LOTS still remained, so I started giving the "every 10-minute countdown." Once 4:45 hit, fractic movements were a'happenin' upstairs, and by 5:05 the vacuum was taking its last few swipes.

SO....
at 12:00 today, I dropped Candace off at Katrina's for her playdate.

And you obviously tell that Caitlyn spent the afternoon at Cadence's birthday party. It was kinda a last minute decision for us to join in at the skating rink, but Cassie's plans fell through, so we (I) thought it might be a nice "fix" for her to spend the afternoon skating as well.

Even in falling, Caitlyn and Cadence were inseparable. They giggled the day away! Come to find out, Caitlyn was the only classmate that was invited; all the other girls were cousins and church-going friends. Kinda surprised me, but these two are definitely BFF! ;0)

The quality of the pictures are much to be desired.

The rink is in Rice Lake, a city about 25 miles away and has been under new owners for a bit over a year. They are doing a nice job with the place!

No quilting today, but I hope to get some fabric moving through my hands tomorrow.
I am not setting any goals; whatever inspires me when I'm down there is what I'll work on.
One of my possible projects:
- Red Blossoms; work on borders
- Blue Ridge Beauty quilting on frame
- Raven Stars; work on next step
- RRCB step...ummm....5? whatever step the 600 HSTs is!
- UFO #10 (Scrappy Picnic)
- Midget blocks
- Maltese Star mystery step #6 (just posted yesterday)

Dinner tonight with Chef Candace

Taking instructions by DH, Candace started the first part of dinner tonight by rinsing the fish fillets that Caitlyn and DH caught earlier this week.


And they were delicious!

Something a little different..

Flippin' through the stations, I came across "An evening with Eartha Kitt." I knew of her as an actress, but much of her career was not known to me. Wow....this past hour as been amazing and she really shared a lot of wisdom from her years about what really is important.

Something she said that I can only paraphrase here because I don't remember the exact words.......if you're in it for quick success, you're in it for the money and all the wrong reasons. If you hold steadfast and live what you believe, the rewards will come.



Happy Friday! The weekend has arrived. Enjoy the time doing things you love to do and with those you love to be with!

On nights like this...

you all simply have to post more to give me more reading material!
;0)

Beware of one of my favorite "studentisms".....

I AM BORED

Too lazy and tired to get my butt downstairs to quilt
Too lazy and tired to get my butt on the dreadmill
Too lazy and tired so I simply want my feet up, which is exactly what I'm doing.

It's been a day.

Quilt-along: Raven Stars - Step 2: Nine-patches

From the cutting directions last week, you should have set aside 13 - 2.5" purple strips and 11 - 2.5" black strips.

Strip sets:
Make THREE sets of Panel 1 (B/P/B) (6 black strips used; 3 purples strips used)


Make FIVE sets of Panel 2 (P/B/P) (5 black strips used; 10 purple strips used)

Pressing: For most of this step, I always attempted to press towards the black fabric.

Sub-cut Panel 1 strip-sets into 42 - 2.5" x 6.5" units.
NOTE! You will have excess from these panels! However, depending on the width of your fabric (WOF), you may need that little excess in the next sub-cuts.

Sub-cut Panel 2 strip-sets into 84 - 2.5" x 6.5" units.
Here is what I mean about WOF differences! My black JUST allows me 40". I didn't have quite enough in my 5 stripsets to cut all 84; I only could cut 80. :0(

So, my extra 2.5" sub-cuts from Panel 1 were ripped...


And my "hang-over" purple fabric from Panel 2 sets were cut to 2.5" squares...
...and I was able to get my last 4 PBP units.

IF all of your fabric only allows for 40" WOF useable inches, you will sadly probably need to cut a couple more Black and/or Purple strips to make the needed amount of units. SORRY!

But in the end, you should have:
42 - Black/Purple/Black 2.5" x 6.5" units
84 - Purple/Black/Purple 2.5" x 6.5" units

Each 9-patch needs two P/B/P units and one B/P/B unit. Make 42 9-patch blocks.

The next scheduled posting: 2/23/11 - Step 3: HST's.

Another run!

Yup...ran again today. The weather was still nice; just wish the sun would shine a bit more. The mean clouds keep hiding it from the rest of us :0(

I found this image and found myself asking me the same posed question: Why do I start running and then why do I continue; or sadly, over the past two years.....why have I stopped?

I started running in 2002 to get in shape.
I continued running in 2003 to continue getting in shape, but then addiction completely took over! I needed to run! I needed to improve my race times. I needed to be fit. But...yeah...those race times! When I ran training runs and races, my mind was a whir of math calculations.....'how many miles to go? how many miles have I gone? what time? what's my split? how many calories have I eaten? how many miles do I have to run to burn off those calories?" It's quite crazy thinking back to that year. Complete obsession with fitness!

Then I continued....just cuz....over the next couple of years, only not so obsessed; but took a break for Candace's birth in Jan 2006. Once I started running post-pregnancy, I planned out my summer and fall races; ran my first half marathon; ran my first marathon!
2007 was a renewed year with big goals! Once again, I ran some half marathons; ran a PR at 2:11:10; ran another marathon and achieved another PR of 4:59.
in 2008, I backed off, but still ran and had decent mileage.

Then...
;0(
Running started disappearing from my life! 54 miles in 2009, and only 24 miles in 2010!!!! OMGoodness! Life took over; quilting jumped up on my 'wanna do' list, and then....volleyball hit during the big running season!

So...the good news: I've already matched 1/4 of the totals miles tracked last year just in my four days of running!
The bad news---but I WILL persist---it's gonna take some time for my legs and lungs to remember what it takes to get and stay in running shape!

Happy Monday

Are you a dog lover?

I had the TV tuned to USA channel tonight to watch the tail end of NCIS (LOVE that show, BTW). As we were finishing up dinner, the Westmintser Dog Show was starting, and we found ourselves NOT changing the channel.

I grew up with a beagle by the name of "Socks." He was mostly black with some brown and a patch of white on his chest and all four paws were white....hence the name "Socks." In 2008, the Beagle won the Best of Show; amazing headline news that year.

We have a dog now--"Shadow," a black labrador; Cassie is his main owner; she feeds him. The girls play with him, and I've tried, but.......gosh! That dog's a-runner! He bolts the moment he's leash-free :0(

We had two dogs previous to Shadow----"Lucky" a yellow labrador and "Buster" a brown labrador. Both dogs were good dogs; Buster was a wedding gift to DH and myself; AMAZING dog! And then....Lucky entered the picture. :0( Buster didn't like the new addition. But.....Lucky! He was THE BEST BEST BEST dog EVER!

Anyway....getting sidetracked from what this post really was for and about. I've enjoyed the show so far; I LOVE how the announcer gives some information regarding each breed. We've only watched the "hound" category so far, and I can't believe how many different breeds there are; many that I have never heard of!!!

The Scottish Deerhound ended up being the winner of this category tonight. {{Random google picture here}} I think the name "fits" the dog; and I'm not so sure I could see being the owner of this breed.

And did you know that the Irish Wolfhound is the largest breed in the world? Larger than a Great Dane even! Yup, definitely not a future-owner of a Wolfhound.

Both of these breeds (Deerhound & Wolfhound) were new to me tonight.

My husband has now since changed the channel, and I'm okay with that. While out googling for some pictures, I also came across this Giant Poodle picture. I hope not to offend anyone....but ....nuh-uh! NOT for me! Even some of the "hound" category breeds tonight were not appealing to me....

For instance...the Pharaoh hound.....nope. Not my style.

What WOULD I like?

The Siberian Husky has always intrigued me, although I will most likely never own one. I'm always stricken by the intense blue eyes of many Huskies.

And then I remember this little guy from watching the show last year.....The Papillon. I couldn't believe that I found myself really liking the look of this dog last year because I REALLLLLY am not a "toy dog" person......ya know......those little annoying dogs nicknamed the "ankle biters."

Anyway....are you a dog lover? A dog owner?