St.Patrick's Day with Nick the Boxer

This is Nick the Boxer all dressed up for the annual Huntington St. Patrick's Day Parade.   The little red sock is protecting stiches he received during a small operation on one of his toes. 

 Nick is a rescue dog and has a very nice disposition, and loves people.

 The Huntington St. Patrick's Day parade is one of Long Island's oldest and largest  parades.

Of course many volunteer fire departments send their amazing trucks and brave men and women.

 Bag Pipers are the soul of this parade.

 Vintage muscle cars and motorcycles are included.

This vintage army truck belongs to the American Legion post 1244 of Greenlawn.

 The Kiwanis Club puts their antique cars on display.

Proud members of the Halesite Volunteer Fire Department.

Nick meets a drummer and member of a bag pipe group.

All in all, Nick was well behaved for the Huntington St. Patrick's Parade.

Nick the Boxer, N.Y. Giants Fan, Plays Football

This is Nick the boxer, my son's three year old rescue dog.

 Sometimes I am called upon to let him out during the lunch hour, while my son is at work.

 For months we have been playing football with a Giants ball.

 This is a really wonderful boxer who was left at a Pennsylvania shelter.  My son always wanted a dog, especially a boxer, and he e-mailed Adopt a Boxer Rescue.

 Nick is a really healthy and strong animal, and loves to run around protecting the ball.

 Nick is fierce football competitor, but a really gentle dog.

He loves to keep the ball away from me.  Our family got lucky when my son adopted this fabulous dog.  

Who could not love this face and spirit! 

Dog Sitting the Dobermans in Centerport

These are two wonderful Dobermans that I dog sat for a week while their parents went to California.  Most of my friends were skeptical about their behavior since this breed of dogs has a poor reputation, but I have to say they were fun, smart and quiet unless someone came to the door.

This was the hottest week ever, some days were over 100 degrees with a topper of 102!  I set up some watercolors in the sun room, but it was like a green house, really hot.

I decided to bring a notebook with me so that I could answer the question,"What did you do for a whole week with the dogs?"

 They are always in motion when awake, so I could only sketch them while the snuggled in their "doughnuts."

 Louise the female, a rescue, and a sweetheart.

Roo-Roo the huge male, and a very smart doggie.  I taught him to fetch and stay, drop the toy and to wait until I picked it up and threw it, before he went for it.

While I was there I was able to read the complete book by Robert M. Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, 1974.  While raising two children, and working full time, I didn't have the opportunity to read much, except magazines.

I am catching up with the classics that I missed.

 a colored pencil sketch in the notebook, looking out of the sun room windows.

 The scene.

 Roo-Roo would sit next to me while I read.

 One of the characters in the book is Phaedrus, the counterpart for Socrates in a play written by Plato of the same name.  I found myself looking at an 8 foot by 4 foot fish print that was behind the Steinway piano, and talking to it after  a few days, a-la the pig in Lord of the Flies.  Phaedrus actually translates from the Greek as "Wolf,"   but the big fish would do.

 There was a Weber grill outside.  I went on Google and found the directions for

 this charcoal starter, which worked really well.  The key was rolling up newspaper and making a ring out of it instead of just pushing paper into the tin and then layering the charcoal pieces on top.

 The sausage, zucchini, summer squash, fingerling potato, onion shish-ka-bobs.

Perk's Port

All in all a great week for dog sitting, painting, reading, cooking,  and sketching.

Belmont Raceway, Elmont, Long Island, NY St. Mary's Hospital Auto Fest

Belmont Raceway horses flying.  This was the first time ever, that I saw a horse race at a track.

 Belmont is an  historic racetrack with many interesting gardens, and plenty of things to do in addition to watching the horses run.

 Sunday, I went with Team Jilli Dog and Rick Caran to a benefit walk-a-thon for St. Mary's children's Hospital.

 He always gets to take pictures with beauty queens.

The first glimpse of the dirt track and 3/4 mile marker.

 Supporters of St. Mary's Hospital including a few jockeys.

 Adorable Jilli Dog.

 Spidey the Chihuahua.

Ruby the newest Poker Playing Yorkie.

 Surprisingly beautiful seating around the track.

 The winner's circle where on June 11, 2011 the winner of the last race of the Triple Crown will be honored.  The first race, the Kentucky Derby, May 7th, at Churchill Hill Downs, the Luckiest Horse wins, the second race the Preakness was on May 21st. in  Baltimore where the Fittest horse wins, but it is said that the Best Horse wins the Belmont Stakes because it is the last race and the longest race, 1 1/2 miles.  A horse has to be the best to win after running in the other two.

Amazingly there is an actual man that plays the "Call to the Post," the  trumpet fanfare.

Inside there are huge posters of legendary horses and jockeys.

 We get to take a picture with the crew from "Rescue Ink,"  and we try to look tough.

Ruby shows no fear.  What a spunky Little Dog!

 Rick signs and "stamps" a paw print on his new book.

Ruby playing Poker for the crowd.

 As if there wasn't enough already, the Antique and vintage cars were amazing!

 The Batmobile

We all had a great day.  More car photos to come soon.