Hey Look at what I won!

Not going to scoop this ultra cool contest, visit Mary Forney's blog. She was my best The Pamplemousse bud last season and is a favorite of mine!

Nice Day!

Molly and I had a surprise walk with our best German Shepherd friend and her dog Tilden at dawn, then we went to the Farmers Market and my bud tasted her first cherimoya, which is a wondrous fruit if you've never tried it.

Without doing my usual frantic handicapping, Jon and I headed to Santa Anita because I wanted to try to find the statue in Mary Forney's contest. A season pass to the Clubhouse is an exceptional prize, and I was sure I knew where the little horse statue would be hiding. The hint was that it was amidst some potato chip displays. Do you know how many kiosks and cafes at a giant racetrack sell potato chips?

Between races I scurried here and there looking for the statue. The food stand person would say to me, "May I help you?" "No, thanks, I'm just looking." How pathetic, just looking at the potato chips.

I thought we'd found every possible display of chips but then we went into the paddock room, where I'd never been before, a basement area filled with people, and there in the corner was one more potato chip display. And what was that? The little statue. I was so excited that most of the pictures I took with my phone were impossibly blurry. I emailed one to Mary. I won the contest, I'm going to get my season pass! For someone like me, this is worth hundreds!

Every bet I placed was wrong until the 5th race when I bet on the horse Chantal Sutherland was riding to win, and in an exacta. She won. I won. The exacta too.

If you haven't seen Chantal Sutherland she is incredibly pretty and has a goofy website. I believe she used to be a flight attendant. She's Canadian and has a bit of Princess Diana about her. (be sure you see the first image on the site). She's a really great rider and has just returned to Santa Anita.

The woman next to me said, "Oh yeah Chantal beats the snot out of the guys every time." euw.
Not exactly Chantal's intended image. The same lady told me my jacket was worth at least $800. Jon's been trying to get me to throw it away. It does have a few stains. euw.

Down at the actual paddock we stood next to a friendly young woman who was about to start photographing the horses coming into the circle. We made some jokes and she said she was practicing taking pictures because she wanted to go to Kentucky to take pictures of horses breeding. Um, do you mean like, -breeding? Oh yes, she said, and you have to be very fast with your camera.

Jon said, "Maybe you can sell those pictures as a calendar, with Chantal photoshopped in the background."

We left after I had my wins. Great day. It is such fun to search for something in a contest and find it.

Rachel Alexandra

photo credit: Kevin Stafford

Don't you love the look of intensity on Calvin Borel's face?

Go to this link on Facebook and click "like" under the video tribute to Rachel Alexandra!! Help my pal Kevin win the contest!!

Kevin Stafford is my favorite horse racing pal on the internet. His great blog "The Aspiring Horseplayer" has helped educate me in the intricacies of betting on racehorses, and his enthusiasm and intelligent commentaries on horses and races are a delight. His weekly racing tips are also reliable and sometimes a jackpot. Thanks Kevin!!

Rachel Alexandra is the amazing filly who won the Preakness this year running against the boys. "Her Royal Freakness" some people call her, because her racing career has been so incredible. She's a gorgeous dark horse with a funny blaze that looks as if she got hit in the middle with a chocolate ice cream cone. Her tongue is always hanging out.

Rachel's running against the boys again at Monmouth Park in New Jersey on August 2, in the Haskell Stakes.

To highlight this important race, Monmouth Park is running a contest via Facebook , " The Ultimate Rachel Alexandra Fan Contest". Here's what the winner will get:

• VIP Haskell Seats (or an upgrade if you’ve already purchased your tickets)
• Designation as the Haskell Facebook Fan of the Day
• TV interview on Haskell Day with host Mike Curci
• Private backstretch tour and breakfast in the track kitchen

And here is where it gets good…as the Ultimate Rachel Fan, you will accompany the Haskell field up the racetrack, including Rachel Alexandra, to the English Walking Ring and Paddock prior to the Haskell!

Help Kevin win this contest- no one would enjoy this win more. Just follow that link and click like. Thanks!

"Uh oh! Bad dog(s)!"

That was the theme of the german shepherd contest last month and I won! The picture's from a few years ago. I didn't win anything but I've entered their photo contest so many times, that it was fun to win.

The chocolates go to Tom Davick, but you get-

His winning entry was entitled: "Anita East Tennessee Beehive Can I Hep You"
(sounds like someone who's gonna try to house sit here.)

All the entrants are on display here in a fancy Flash component which won't display within Blogger, something I find very annoying.

but everyone who entered can have a choice of one piece of art from the groups displayed. (One per person regardless of number of entries.) The art will be signed, and from the group, but not necessarily the one on top.



Clockwise from top left:

1. Anita coming out of pool Esther Williams style
2. a woodblock print titled "Jailbirds"
3. A drawing from the dream sequence in "Quasi at the Quackadero
4. same- on paper with watercolor markers so it might fade
5. Ancillary Anita- but no background
6. water fighting little Anita and Snozzy
7. The Octopus Stroll

If you submitted an entry before today, just email me your name and address and I'll send you the cel you want, and Tom, want that chocolate dark or milk?

Thanks to all who entered-- I got such a kick out of your pictures.

ALSO!! Note new cool feature. If you make a new picture, then go directly to sendcard, you can send a postcard of that very card. However, if someone gets there before you, their image will be on display. Let me know if it doesn't work, though.

Help Anita and Win Chocolates

I've been on a code roll today, breaking through some ActionScript 3 concepts.

And I'm thinking about chocolate.

Meanwhile Anita decided to accept the free promotion Charbucks was offering and chose the coal burner makeover. Now she needs help.

Head over to Whinsey's blog to see what I mean, and enter the contest. You don't have to draw anything.

Papa's Got a Brand New Bag

James Brown the white King Pigeon, named by Linda Davick in a contest a while ago, has been sharing custody of two eggs with his little friend the un-named pigeon.

This morning when I went in to the aviary to check on things, I noticed the pigeon looked unusually fluffy. I had my camera with me because it seemed as if it should be time.

And here's what I saw. Miniature condors? They must have been born last night!

And announcing!

Jon was no help-- he liked the puns and wittiest ones, but this was a NAME I needed, something that I could say without slurring or spitting.

So I took it to the Pelicans at Lake Balboa. Mouse over and then click to find the winner. (sound on)

The great entries, don't think I missed any:

Lunchmeat
Snow Man
Big Foot
white knight
Marshmallow
pudding head
Pearl
Cotton Ball
My Little Pony
Sugar Baby
Tea Cake
apollo
marcel marceau
napoleon dynamite
silverlight
Tapioca
White Shoulders
Remember Mr. Peabody?(Mr. Peabody)
Caspar
romeo
Snozzi!
Back Door Man
snow bird
Lamb Chop
Eddie Haskell
bertrand russell
Little Chick Pea
Mod Squab
White Lightnin
Mac, short 4 macaroon
James Brown
Mr. Big
Whitey?
Maltese....
Bob
Noel Coward
Squablicious
squabble
Milky Way
Pretty Boy
King Arthur
Dumpling
Kindle
Shmoo
McNugget
Iggy (short for Igloo)
Squabiscuit (a long shot becomes a pigeon)
Rocky
Coconut Creme Baby
Frosty
Sputnik
E. B. White
Alfred North Whitehead
White Cap
Flash Lite
François Truffaut
Mr. Tibbs
Henning
Ajax
Dovezilla
Dollop
Dough Dough Bird
Poppin' Fresh
Clydesdayle (Clyde for short)
De Düva
Candilicioius
Mr. Pickles
Sweet P. (P. for Pigeon)
Puff Daddy
Frappuccino Grande
Stuart Margolis
JCPenney
Walter Pidgeon
Altoid
Bibendum (the official name of the Michelin Man)
beignet
Sugarloaf
Splenda (or Splendove)'cause he's a substitute.
snowbird
white knuckles
white lightning
baker woman
pineapple torte
scratch 'n' sniff
meringue
bechamel
Foster Grant
Gregory Peck
white boy

Why James Brown? Aside from the fact I cracked up right away, we have a tradition in the aviary of totally inappropriate names. (and now the squab has a theme song!) Like the rooster's name is Elle, and the all black chicken is named Star. There used to be a chicken named Axie. Jon's favorite was Mod Squab, but that is hard for me to say,as I see that b flipping back and forth into a d. Same with Squabble, I mean I'd go back and forth rhyming with scrabble or sounding like squab. And then I start to feel like Donald Duck.

I loved these entries. Noel Coward the squab, how funny! Squabiscuit! Actually I'm cracking up all over again looking through this list. Thanks, all. And Marilyn, send me your address so I can mail the grand prize. (funonmars(at)earthlink.net)

Here's the Prize- winner tba Sunday

This dear little chicken saint came back with me from Santa Fe, from the Museum of Folk Arts and Crafts. It was NOT a part of any gift basket-- I bought it for myself! I could say give it a name but NO don't you dare! Seems to me it's a nice prize for this contest, though some pals were hinting about Kindle. But I don't have Pioneer Woman's vast resources. (That gal gives away big bucks in her contests!) In the future I'll drag out some art of mine, but if you saw what a teetery mess that closet is in, you'd say, "Don't open that door!"

I've made a list of all the entered names separate from the blog so I won't remember who said what, and tomorrow I'll go in the cage and try them out. There was a giant hawk in the back yard this morning which the crows were chasing off just as I went out to feed Mr. Mystery and his friends, so I guess the word that there's a new squab in town has definitely gotten around.

Whoever started posting the baking names this afternoon was on a psychic streak with me as I spent the afternoon making the pineapple torte with meringue and whipped cream and pineapple custard. If I don't drop it on the way to a Hanukkah party tonight, it should be a big treat.