Julie

December 27, 2007

A Chorus of Dog Whisperers



The description of the Bark Busters training was more explicit than I have seen elsewhere.

I wish after all these years I knew that dogs are simple.

A Chorus of Dog Whisperers
By ANNA JANE GROSSMAN
Finding a dog owner nursing daydreams of becoming a trainer has become about as difficult as finding a waiter with a headshot.
December 26, 2007

The Quest – book review

I couldn't wait to get my hands on Wilbur Smith's most recent book in his Egyptian series "The Quest."  I am a huge fan of Mr Smith.  His book "River God" is my all time favorite book.   So with great anticipation I was ready to get lost in ancient Egypt with my old friends.  This book, for a Wilbur Smith novel,  was a new experience for me; I had to force myself to finish the book.  I reminded myself how much I loved "River God" and surely this will get better. I bull-dogedly finished the book and was disgusted.  I have no idea What Mr. Smith was thinking? What did he do with the Taita? Is Mr. Smith going through a mid-life crisis and this is how he expressed it? 

Taita had been a eunuch since his teens and spending a lifetime of evolving above human fallacies and weaknesses, at the age of 170 Taita all of sudden succumbs to lusty desires and whims and through the fantastical theme of this book, Taita re-grows his "manhood" and takes up with the re-incarnation of Fenn/Lostrus who is only a young teenager.  Huh? When did the Egyptian series abandon the historical fiction and become a fantasy?

I think Wilbur Smith should claim someone assuming his name wrote this book while he was in a comma. This book is so bad it has even tarnished my memory of "River God."



December 25, 2007

Cover Shot


Alta-Tollhaus Kirsch makes the back cover of the GSDCA-WDA Newsletter Sept-Oct 2007.
Kirsch is owned by Garth and Michele.

Remember you don't have to be on a cover of a magazine to send pictures....HINT, HINT!



December 25, 2007

Excellence


In Terry Stanford's final address to the Faculty of Duke University, circa, 1984:

"Everybody is seeking excellence, or claims to be. I sometimes think we have misused the word or weakened it by overuse. Excellence is not a brand of cheese. It is not even a place. It is more like a path or a guiding star. A single professor in a classroom in a small and otherwise inadequate college may seek excellence with as much validity as does the total institution of, say, the Johns Hopkins University. Every individual, every institution, can seek excellence in performance. That does not suggest by any means that they will all end at the same place, because excellence is not a destination. It is a spirit; it is a determination; it is a set of personal and institutional values.... "

James "Terry" Stanford, President of Duke University


 

December 25, 2007

Christmas Letter from Chopper

What a surprise Christmas pictures of Chopper and her beau Coke, along with a letter.

I am so proud of Chopper, first leaning to read, and now mastering the word program on the computer!  These GSD are so smart!

Julie
December 25, 2007

L-O-V-E

From the movie "Akeelah and the Bee" a wonderful feel good movie.


"You know that feeling where everything feels right? Where you don't have to worry about tomorrow or yesterday, where you feel safe and know you're doing the best you can? There's a word for that, it's called love. L-O-V-E."

December 25, 2007

Pillars of the Earth


Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

I have read only a small number of the books that Oprah has put on her book club list (aside from the classics).  A few I have liked:  Where the Heart is, What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day, & The Poisonwood Bible.  And then there was Vinegar Hill, Here on Earth, these books, well, they didn't entice me to read any more from Oprah's list.  Oprah endorses The Pillars of the Earth as a book different from the type of book she would normally read.  Additionally it is historical fiction, a genre I enjoy.  So I decide why not...

The Pillars of the Earth, is a long book, yet at times I felt the author was rushing, I wanted him to slow down, not to skim over the years and events.  So what if the book would end up being 1,200 pages instead of 600 plus.  This is a great read.  
December 25, 2007

Today…

Today, I do not wish for you a tree with wrapped gifts beneath it Today, I do not wish for you a big magnificant gift. Today, […]
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