The Funeral That Was A Gift

Church window, cross and bible verse stained glass window., originally uploaded by Sans Soucie Art Glass Studios, Inc..

We have attended three funerals in the past four weeks. Our own minister says he dislikes performing funerals and one can hardly blame him.

When I was young, my Mother planned many of the funerals and I was quite used to the protocol. Of course that was in Toronto and visitations and funerals are a little different here in Texas.

A few months ago, I made the mistake of showing up in a dress. I was the only one and when I mentioned it to the person's sister, she gave me a good rule to go by:

"When in doubt, wear pants." That's what she said.

So, I acquired a new black jacket and a new navy jacket in my current size. So, I was ready this time.

A major difference between Ontario and here is that there is only one visitation, generally in the evening from six to eight at the funeral home. We used to have afternoon and evening visitations with the funeral the next day.

Here in Texas, people are generally more casually dressed than I was used to but I am afraid I have not changed much for that.

Possibly more of our funerals where I live are at the church rather than the funeral home. We often have hymns that the congregation sings as well.

Something that has changed and I imagine it is in Canada as well, is the wonderful Powerpoint presentation of family photos on a TV screen at the visitation. It enables us to enjoy the happier times of that person's life.

The recent funerals were very fine. One was for an older man from our congregation who had been sick for a long time. Yes, he was older . . . that would be about a year younger than I am now. I enjoy his grandchildren very much and his daughter works tirelessly with our youth.

He was a man who was generous with humor as well as money and way back when he was still fairly well, he liked to kid that the computer should say,

"Windows Are Closing." He loved to talk about once having lunch with Warren Buffett . . . who wouldn't? He was an accountant . . . that would be an accountant with a fine sense of humor.

The second man was also younger than I . . . about eight years younger and had had Alzheimer's for a long time. His wife and I scrapbooked together as well as attending the same church. She has two wonderful granddaughters who she likes to spend lots of time with and has made the most of the years her husband has been in healthcare. He was a psychologist/counselor, working in the government.

Yes, today's funeral was also for a man younger than I. He was 65 and probably succumbed to the effects of Agent Orange in combat. He was a musician who played church music on both the organ and the piano. He loved dogs and he loved music. He wrote for the newspaper and still loved to send in letters to the editor which were a joy to read. I did not really know as well as I know his sister and brother-in-law.

What I want to tell you is this. Last night after we were at the visitation at the funeral home, we were wondering if we really should attend the service today as we really were not as close to him as his family. I thought about it and suggested that there would probably be some very special music. Well, yes, we were there.

This was a funeral that truly was not a funeral but a true celebration. If you can understand that this man digitally recorded some music himself which was played along with some major talented others playing wonderful old hymns and classical music, then you can understand this.

Two ministers, his brother-in-law and a friend, gave the invocation and benediction. His nephew recalled some fond memories of his uncle and everything else was music.

One of his friends did step over to the keyboard mid-service and play "Tea For Two" which is something the man himself was known to do if a choir practice was getting boring . . .

Thank you, my friend for a wonderful gift that everyone there today enjoyed. I imagine you were looking down and smiling at such a non-traditional remembrance of you.

The music we heard was: Suite No. 5 in G Major, Amazing Grace; Balm in Gilead; Sheep May Safely Graze; It Is Well; Choral Prelude on Rhosymedre; Fugue in E-flat Major and Thine Is The Glory.

What a wonderful way to remember our friend . . .

Rogers Centre aka The Skydome, Toronto

Rogers Centre aka The Skydome, Toronto, originally uploaded by stephengg.

From Dome To Dome

Reliant Astrodome, originally uploaded by markhodgins.

You might be surprised to find out how many ways Houston and Toronto are alike!

Now, we do not live in Houston, but rather a hundred miles up the highway, but that is just about a two hour drive.

One of the features that makes me feel "at home" is Reliant Stadium where the Houston Astros play. Reliant Stadium was renamed since I have been here.

SkyDome in Toronto has also been renamed and is now Rogers Stadium.

Both covered stadiums have domes that open three ways and make for a better baseball experience in both cities. Toronto does not claim to have great weather in the early spring and Houston gets really hot mid-summer.

The Houston Astros are in the National League and the Toronto Blue Jays are in the American League so this weekend was the first time the Houston team visited Toronto to play. As Toronto has been doing very well this year and Houston has not, I was expecting The Jays to trounce the Astros. So, I was quite surprised to see the three-game series end 2-1 in game wins for Houston Astros.

We once attended a game in Toronto when the Texas Rangers (from Dallas) were playing and we really enjoyed it. So, Hubby has seen "The Dome".

[I was rather surprised that when they built a new stadium in Arlington (Dallas), they did not do a covered one, but I guess for everyone money is money and domed stadiums take plenty.]

In case you did not know, Reliant Stadium is not Houston's first covered stadium. The Astrodome was the first and I think the first in North America. I have been there . . . to a dog show where I saw Canadian, Dr. John Reeve-Newsom judge Scottish Terriers, a breed I should know a bit about.

If you have ever heard indoor-outdoor carpet called "Astro Turf", that is because the Astrodome had carpet rather than grass.

I think some indoor stadiums have real grass now to enhance the baseball experience.

When I first came here, I learned that former President, George W. Bush was one of the owners of the Texas Rangers and belonged to the consortium that built that team which is in the American League.

The Bush Family are ardent baseball fans. Laura Bush (George Jr.'s wife) has said how much she likes baseball because it is a sport you can watch while still enjoying the company of those you are with.

Barbara Bush, wife of President George H.W. Bush likes to mark her card at the Houston games and she and George Senior are still often seen in the front row, behind the hitter.

For me, baseball is a sport I can easily understand and so I really got the best of it all this weekend when the Astros visited Toronto.

I'd like to thank the announcer for his comment which was so typical of a Texan - off the cuff and casual - but it made me proud to hear it,

(We have enjoyed seeing Toronto) - "Canada does cities well!"

Oh, yes. And thanks for bringing it all into our living room this weekend!

Birthdays Past . . . Birthdays Present . . .

birthday cake alight, originally uploaded by janined.

Today I am thinking of the cakes Mom/Kay used to bake for our birthdays with a coin wrapped in wax paper in every slice . . .

When I was a youngster still at home, Mother ordered what I lovingly called "pass-around sandwiches" from Coles Catering on Eglinton Avenue near Avenue Road in North Toronto. There would be a cake and sometimes strawberries dipped in chocolate.

We brought in lilacs from the garden and oh, how festive the house smelled!

Lest you think all birthdays have been great, I do recall one from when I was about ten years old where they served canned macaroni. (Obviously their idea of festive was different from mine.)

Sometimes there would be clowns and they would bring balloons. Everybody loves a clown; can't go wrong with that!

Now, people go to restaurants and some have the servers sing "Happy Birthday" off-key and the birthday person gets a free dessert. Hmm.

Some people do get great cakes . . . I see them being carried out of bake shops ever so carefully. Some are half chocolate and half white cake to please everybody!

It's a time to place cards lovingly on the mantle and enjoy a couple of phone calls from those who remember. But it is also a time when we realize that very little stays the same. That is when it is good to have great memories.

Peter Mansbridge: A Canadian Fixture Comes To Our Living Room

News Anchor Peter Mansbridge of The National at CBC Vancouver Open House, originally uploaded by susan gittins.

What a treat it was to watch Peter Mansbridge anchor the Canadian Election Results last night! It was a little bit of Canada right in our living room (well, it's called a "great room" in Texas).

Not much has changed about Peter over the years. He looks about the same, sounds a little more polished and delivers the news as straight as ever.

We received the CBC feed on C-Span 2 without any interuption. It was as though we were sitting in Toronto. A little bit of home always feels good!

The results were amazing this time with Bloc Quebecois only maintaining three seats and their leader losing his.

The interesting "wild card" was Jack Layton of Toronto who is leader of the NDP (New Democratic Party) who lead them to a historical first time Opposition Party. The Liberals did miserably. A new party, The Green Party, elected their first member of parliament (MP) from Vancouver Island.

Stephen Harper not only is still Prime Minister but his Conservative Party now has a majority.

We thoroughly enjoyed keeping up with my roots and just have one thought . . . Couldn't someone have delivered some Swiss Chalet to us? Swiss Chalet BBQ Chicken has been around since I was at Weller College at 19 years of age. Texans would think it rather bland, but to a Canuck, well, it is the best!

God Bless America and Let Us Pray for Peaceful Times Again

American flag, originally uploaded by gary718.

Today is a day to pause and reflect on all the days, months and years since 9-11 (September 11, 2001). Think about where we were at that moment. Thnk about what we were doing or where we were headed.

Until the last of our troops is back home safely, we cannot rest. We must always be vigilant.

Let us all pray today. Let us all display our patriotism and Lest We Forget . . .

GOD BLESS AMERICA!

Peace At Last

GoldMarie - Magnificent Yellow Rose - C95-9-18-09_26394, originally uploaded by Cap001.

R.I.P.

Mom, Grandma, Aunt Kay

1918 - 2011

Special People In Our Lives

Some of the most special people in our lives are "family" and we never forget them. Kay and her daughter are exactly that.

The marriage to Kay's son lasted only 10 years but my friendship - rather relationship - to Mom has lasted all these years.

This picture was taken in October 2007 when we last went to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia to visit. Yes, that's Kay with her daughter who really is a lot like Kay. Oh, yes - and she can cook like Kay too!

Kay has been family to me all these years and now she is 92. I am not the only one left who count her as family. This special lady has endeared so many people over the years and we all like that she has treated us like family.

Kay's meatloaf recipe is still in my cookbook on the pink telephone message slip where she wrote it. I make it often only I usually substitute ground turkey or chicken for the beef.

She was widowed in her fifties - he smiled a lot and always reached out to lend help when he could. He was a gentle person and I guess she never even thought about anyone else.

Wonderful memories of important times and silly times - that's what I have to cherish and so do others.

You know I am sad that she is slipping away and so are many others. So let me give you a little smile: that hair really has never been colored!

Tonight Before Concert - Older & Slimmer

What Is It About Hats?

You don't see women wearing hats as often as we used to. My mother wore hats all the time and left a shelf of about thirty of them which were distributed among friends.

When I became an American citizen and we had a marvelous Citizenship Party with the Lufkin Community Band playing and I wore this hat. My friend, Bonnie brought it for me from California (probably San Diego).

Tonight the Lufkin Community Band is having a patriotic concert and yes . . . I think I will wear this hat. I have taken it from my patriotic shelf and dusted it off.

A "new friend" of mine come to find out is known as the "Hat Lady" so I hope I see her tonight as I watch Hubby play his clarinet with my favorite band.

As an aside, I will try to have a picture taken tonight as that was a few years ago and I am a little trimmer now.

Hats Off To Patriotic Music!

Yonge Street Texan Discusses Some Differences

Skydome with Ritzy Harbourfront Condos, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, originally uploaded by Bencito the Traveller.

I have been thinking a lot this week about the differences between where I came from and where I live in East Texas, 100 miles from Houston.

I chose this picture this time because it shows a place Hubby and I have gone to walk, have lunch and browse shops. It is at Lake Ontario and has been built since I was an adult. If it were panned a little further, it would include the CN Tower which is a communications tower, sometimes claimed by some to be the world's tallest building. (Surely, some taller buildings have risen since.) This area is for pedestrians and helps Toronto keep it's nickname of "People City".

The Skydome was built to house the Toronto Blue Jays Baseball Club and was home to the Toronto Argonaut Football Club. It is now called Rogers Centre (Canadian spelling there).

Toronto has a population of about 5.5 million in the Greater Metropolitan Area (GTA) which is a little more than the 500,000 people living there when I was kid living in central North Toronto, near Eglinton and Avenue Road. I used to be able to walk down two blocks or across one block to catch a bus to the subway (underground train) which was originally built in the early 50s. The subway part of the transportation system now has many routes going in every direction. Cars are best left home when going to work or college.

Transportation is one major difference where I live now. My neighbour had a wreck (Canadian: accident) two weeks ago and she really had to rely on her friends to give her lifts to anywhere she went.

Our Community College sure could use a parking garage and one is being built in the next town at the University. If you have lots of cars, Toronto likes to "stack" them and there are many, many parking garages.

There are also some parking lots with attendants so they can get the optimum number of cars into the smallest amount of space.

The land is premium in Toronto because that is where everyone wants to live because that is where the jobs are. So, a forty foot lot across the frontage of a residential house is considered pretty good. (All due respect to Vancouver which is now a hub for jobs in Canada as well.)

The house I grew up in had a 29 foot frontage and today is still considered a nice house in a nice and convenient area. Virtually all houses have basements and are more than one storey. If there is enough land, in the outlying areas, there are split level layouts and some bungalows (one storey). (In East Texas, most houses are one storey and have no basement.)

Torontonians are pretty much tidy people who are known for not littering. People in all of Ontario do a lot of recycling. Some have compost piles in their backyards and most people have larger amounts of recycle than trash at curb on pick-up day.

A Torontonian parks his car on the street or in a driveway and can expect a ticket for parking on the lawn.

The Canadian population - especially in Toronto - is very diverse now. But when I was a kid, Canada was still a British Colony. Even as a youngster, I studied French in School which was what you would hear in Paris, France not Montreal, Quebec.

Because we were a British Colony, our ways were a little stiffer and we grew up having stricter ways of doing things. East Texas is a very laid-back area which sometimes reminds me of our beautiful Muskoka Cottage Country where we used to vacation.

Today, Toronto is ethnically diverse with many languages being spoken with foods available to many different groups as well as mosques and temples and special groups. Toronto just "grew up" as it were.

Toronto is a great place to visit and in fact, has a lot of similarities to Houston, if you forget weather! Shopping, theaters and restaurants are plentiful.

Tied in with the subway transportation which is mostly underground are shops and theaters and restaurants: an underground community as it were.

After 14 years, you would think I would no longer tack "eh?" on the ends of sentences, but actually, what has happened is that Hubby does that now also.

I would tell you to book a vacation in Toronto but would caution you that it is a pretty expensive place to visit, although not quite as costly as to live there.

Just a few differences . . .

Father John Corapi

Father John Corapi, originally uploaded by Pray the Rosary.

"It is my personal opinion, one which is in accord with the mind of the Church, that you will profit very much by praying the holy Rosary every day. The prayer of the Rosary is the prayer of the holy Gospel, the Good News Who is Jesus. My best piece of spiritual advice to you, no matter who you are,…PRAY THE ROSARY EVERY DAY! You will be blessed beyond your wildest dreams. God bless you." Father John Corapi.

Hubby and I came across Fr. John Corapi several years ago on EWTN (Eternal Word Television Network). His life story is one of having been to hell and crawling his way back to become priest (ordained by Pope John Paul in the Vatican) about twenty years ago. He speaks with knowledge and clarity and although we are not Catholics, his message came through to us loud and clear.

If you go to Father Corapi's website you can see his message of how on Ash Wednesday, his world fell apart with charges from a former staff member of Santa Cruz Media, the company who markets his DVDs and CDs as well as booking him for his speaking engagements. Fr. Corapi has written a book due to be presented in the fall in October.

It is my hope that some fine lawyer will see this as a time to offer his services to Fr. Corapi pro bono.

I am more than disturbed by the application of guilty until proven innocent which is opposed to the laws of the United States of America.

To learn more about Father Corapi, visit his website at www.fathercorapi.com.

Elizabeth Taylor - R.I.P.

FILES-US-TAYLOR-BURTON, originally uploaded by O POVO Online.

Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor each had Mexican divorces not recognized in Ontario, Canada. So, they were married in 1964 in Montreal, Quebec in a civil ceremony at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel.

I do remember seeing Elizabeth Taylor in the audience at the then O'Keefe Theater in Toronto where Burton was playing King Arthur in the stage production Camelot in Toronto before it opened in New York City. So, they honeymooned in Toronto. (In school, we had studied Idylls of the King by Alfred Lord Tennyson which was the story of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table including Sir Lancelot.)

Everyone has a moment in Toronto, right? So did Elizabeth & Richard. (That theater or "theatre", was not on Yonge street, but Front Street near Lake Ontario, east of Union Train Station.)

No matter her many husbands, I do think Elizabeth Taylor will be remembered for her flawless complexion, jet black hair, unique violet-colored eyes and fabulous jewelry. She probably defined the term "Hollywood Star".

In latter years, she turned her interests toward helping others although she endured a lot of ill health.

For me, the passing of Elizabeth Taylor is more the passing of an era . . .

Facebook Down Today . . . Hmmm . . . Think Of The Possibilities!

FARMTOWN FACEBOOK, originally uploaded by sydneyreyesjr.

Looks like the Facebook website is down today.

So, I guess we can find out what we could be spending our time on.

You know, your farms' harvest will wither; you will miss who went to Starbucks and who skinned their knee.

Gonna miss who has the sniffles today and who is already at work. Now, if they are at work, how come they are still updating on Facebook?

Well, I am not going to blog on this topic for very long because that would just point out to you and everyone else how much time I and all of us spend (waste?) on Facebook each day.

Today, Hubby & I have planned a lunch to spend time with a Canadian friend who will be on her way back to Peterborough after wintering down in the warmth. (Of course, I expect she will mention that it wasn't as warm this year as it usually is. And she might also mention the snow we had.)

Then there is the pile of index cards I have on the side of the kitchen table to organize coupons and deals so we actually take advantage of them.

Ah yes, then there is the dust I can remove. There are clothes to be washed. There are some items to take back to Belk Department Store (best return policy ever) and some grocery shopping to be done.

So, there you have it! I bet you have a few things to do.

A day without Facebook . . . well, let's see just how well we can cope without the constant invasion to our old-fashioned routine which actually worked quite well.

Ah, yes, Hubby off to Band Practice tonight which is as good as it gets when you are looking for a hobby.

Time to look for a vase to place some flowers for a friend having surgery today . . .

Oh, yes, I think I can get by without Facebook . . . as long as it is down long enough for me to learn how much I can do in a day . . .

See Something You Like About This Photo?

FAMILY dinner night, originally uploaded by aimee4frogs.

We "oldsters" out of touch? I think not. The total boredom and searching for multi-tasking, represents a totally out-of-control generation who cannot get enough thrills simultaneously. Is everyone on alcohol and drugs? This is the generation who have been eating their dinner out of the microwave at the counter. Family togetherness apparently is a rarity now. We certainly have come a long way, Baby! This is the generation raised by the so-called liberated people. The world must be winding down. (Some scholars of the Book of Revelation must be nodding their heads.)

This is what I wrote as a comment to a news story from our local TV station that a young girl (I think it was 11 years old) was gang-raped by at least 15 young men. There is a trial going on and they are actually looking for more suspects.

Well, guess the young people are pretty happy that they have gone so far south of the way we seniors were raised. This is heart-breaking, sickening and totally divergent from any teachings we learned.

God bless us all!

Are Our Leaders Fiddling While Our Country Burns?

Nero and Rome Music Box, originally uploaded by edburkle.

Two years into President Obama's term, people are still getting press, still circulating e-mails and generally wasting their time pondering whether this man is a bona fide American.

(As you know if you read this regularly, I am originally from Canada and became an American several years ago. That means I have dual citizenship and may hold any office but the presidency.)

Right now, while United States of America - to quote Donald Trump - is the laughing stock of the world, and needs to fix the economy, fix healthcare, fix that very few of the durable goods we buy are made in America, we need to focus on FIXING!

Why are film and television actors who misbehave and/or may have mental health issues getting so much space in the press - newspaper, internet and TV?

There is a very old expression from approximately 64 A.D. that says the Emperor Nero was fiddling while Rome burned.

Well, that is pretty much what is happening today.

(Yes, I know that generally this blog is more gentle but somebody had to say it!)

James White: Accountable Politician - You Are Going To Like This Man!

This election marked the first time my Hubby ever put an election sign on the lawn. We heard a lot about James White and one of our friends was working on his campaign.

Well . . . guess what? James White was elected!

Yes, James is now a first-term Republican Representative for Texas State House District 12. He invites people to visit him at the Capital office - E2.720 in the Capitol Extension. You can phone him at his Capital Office (512-463-0490) or e-mail him at james.white@house.state.tx.us.

Soon, James' Lufkin Office will be open as well.

The first week he was in Austin, I got to meet James at a Chamber of Commerce First Friday Luncheon.

What really sets James White apart from other politicians I have known is how accessible he makes himself!

James is a school teacher in East Texas and also has a farm (well, okay, a ranch). He cares about people and naturally he cares about education.

At the Chamber meeting, James had a presentation showing a flow chart of the Education hierarchy here. Now, first he told us that he had trouble fitting it on the one page. Then he told us that when he clicked on some of the squares, there was another grid that come up on his computer. So, what James was telling us is that there are too many people and too much money being wasted. You just knew from listening to how sincerely and quietly James spoke, that down-sizing waste was going to be a priority for him in Austin (the Texas capital).

James is on Facebook and also writes a column each Sunday in our local newspaper outlining what is happening.

When I think about James, I recall one of the first politicians I knew back when I was about 20 in Toronto. His name was Len Reilly, a locksmith and every time I saw him he would say hello and quote my street address.

Well, that was then and this is now but I think that James will remember each of us every time he sees us (although he might not quote an address).

You gotta love a person so sincere and pleasant when he speaks. This man is not a "politician", but more my neighbour who has gone to the Capital to see if he can make my life a little easier.

God Bless James White!

Thank You, Peter Jennings: How I Became The Yonge Street Texan

When I first came to Texas from Toronto, I marveled at how many entertainers and broadcasters were also immigrants from Canada. (I arrived here in December, 1996.)

On 9-11, Hubby and I were headed to his college reunion in Terre Haute, Indiana. Bags packed, we saw the same thing you saw on our television screen. That was more than a wake-up call for me and was a focal point in my defining the differences between Canadians and Americans. The first thing I went for was my passport and retrieved it from the filing cabinet. That - back then - was a Canadian passport. (I know have American and Canadian passports. Dual Citizenship is available in U.S.A. to persons immigrating from 130 countries.)

When I was a kid, it was the atomic bomb people worried about and I remember my Dad always saying we would get into our car and drive north (from Toronto) . Well, that was my first thought that morning. Well, we were driving north all right, but we would have to drive about 1,600 miles just to get to the Canadian border and then the drive to isolated country - or "safe" country - would be about 200 miles or more. Two Hundred miles drive north of Toronto would put you approximately in Algonquin Park which is a National Park with lots of wildlife, lakes and is probably not a hot spot for terrorists to target.

So, now I was really afraid! This was another challenge for my thinking. Back in 2001, I definitely thought from a Canadian perspective and I probably still do today.

My mother used to talk about Peter's father, Charlie Jennings who wrote for a Toronto newspaper going to North Toronto Collegiate with her and how she would see him at parties. If you listen to the interview above, you will hear Peter talk about his father and mother loving to socialize and inviting all kinds of people from the arts into their home. Charlie Jennings loved to socialize!

In this interview, Peter also talks about smoking (after having quit many years before) during his coverage of 9-11. I remember him taking calls from his children who called to say they were safe and I recall he was still on air when we got to - I think it was Hope, Arkansas (yes, Bill Clinton's birthplace) toward the end of the day to stop for the night.

I remember my friend, a broadcaster, calling on my cell phone to ask about gasoline lines. Yes, there were lines at some stations and none at others where they had run out. That meant we did a lot of stopping just to make sure we were going to get there.

That is a little digression there to tell you how omnipresent Peter Jennings was in our lives.

When he announced in 2005 that he had lung cancer, ABC welcomed messages for Peter to encourage him. I tried to think of something that would indicate to him that I was also originally from Toronto. (There is a camaraderie when talking to someone who is from the same place you are.)

Toronto is very much a north-south, east-west city. It sits on the north shore of Lake Ontario so if you drive too far south, you will be in the Lake! As opposed to when Peter and I were young and there was a population of 500,000, there are now 5.5 million people in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area). The center of the city is a street called Yonge (pronounced "young") which goes all the way from Lake Ontario, north to the Metropolitan limits and beyond, up to cottage country as Highway 11.

So, you could pick a Nom de plume to use at the ABC website and rather explaining I was Canadian, I figured right away, Peter Jennings would have to know a Yonge Street Texan was from Toronto! When I started this blog, which would reflect how a Canadian living in Texas feels about things, it was a natural name!

A few months before I became an American Citizen in 1994, Peter Jennings also became a Citizen in a ceremony in New York City. My swearing in was in Houston with just Hubby and the official present. My party may well have been as flashy as Mr. Jennings' as 150 well-wishers came and went.

On Sunday, August 7, 2005, Peter Jennings lost his battle with lung cancer at his New York home. He is lovingly remembered by millions for the 22 years be came into our homes each evening as well as covering special events and interviewing heads of state worldwide.

I like to think he enjoyed knowing a fellow North Toronto neighbor enjoyed his frequent slips to Canadian pronunciations of words like "schedule" which Canadians say "shhhedule" and of course the letter "Z" which we say "zed".

So, now you know why I am the Yonge Street Texan!

More About Westminister Kennel Club's Winner

Breast Cancer Awareness Ribbon, originally uploaded by Cheryl's Art Box.

Photos both uploaded from Flickr.

Sally Sweatt, the owner of Hickory, the Scottish Deerhound who won Westminister Kennel Club's Best In Show this week, is back home in Minneapolis. Hickory and Sally have had a whirlwind time in New York City and of course, this is the first time a Scottish Deerhound has won Best in Show.

The judge who awarded Hickory with Best in Sporting Group on Tuesday night was James Reynolds of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Hickory then went on to win Best in Show under Italian Judge, Mr. Paola Dondina. Mr. Dondina had some mighty nice things to say about Hickory and how he conforms to everything Mr. Dondina has learned and read about Scottish Deerhounds. That means that for Mr. Dondina, this was the ultimate Scottish Deerhound. It means this dog came closer to its breed standard than any of the other six dogs presented to him in the Best In Show ring.

For Sally Sweatt, Hickory represents a little more. Hickory, like your dog sitting beside you right now, means the world to Sally. In fact, Hickory has contributed to her life itself.

When she was diagnosed with breast cancer last spring, Sally knew she could not quit . . . she knew she had a fine dog and an excellent handler.

"You have to go forward in thought. You cannot go back because life goes forward", Sweatt said. She is cancer-free now.

Our dogs mean everything to us - I know mine does. Ms. Sweatt said she focused on her passion instead of her struggle.

Havanese

2009 Havanese National Specialty, originally uploaded by Hav n Knit Lover.

This breed is in the Toy Group and you might mistake him for a Shih Tzu. He is newly recognized and is gaining in popularity.