Furry Friday

We have until the 4th to let Corgibutts.com know that Hampton is all we want for Christmas.  If you haven't voted yet here is your chance. Click here to go and vote.  If you have already voted on your computer you can vote via iphone or other phone as well.

Child Wranglers

Wanted to stop these people and ask them if they were professional wranglers or not.  Wonder if there is a 'child whisperer' whose tricks and tips are passed  along so that they can be the leaders of the pack.

The scary thing is probably that, in order to end up in a spot where leashes are used for kids they would have had to lose one at some point.

Office Space

Anyone ever feel like their day is straight out of the movie Office Space?

PC LOAD LETTER?  What the F does that mean?

Hampton needs your help!!!

Hampton is in the midst of a calendar contest on corgibutts.com.  She needs everyone's help to make the 2013 calendar.  So we need everyone's help to get her in.  Click the link Click here to go and vote.  She is 1 of only 2 Cardigans up against all the Pembrokes.

Get to voting!!!

Blenhiem Palace

Not sure what happened but these pictures were lost for like a year and have mysteriously popped up, so figured I would go ahead and post about it.

The palace was originally a gift to John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, in appreciation for his military service.  The appreciation must not have been too strong, as the funding was withdrawn shortly after construction and the completion of the palace ended up taking about 30 years to complete construction.  The palace and construction nearly bankrupted the Chruchills and in 1896 in a last ditch effort to save the family fortune, married into the Vanderbilt's for a $2.5 million dowry.  

Winston Churchill was born and lived here for a time, and the Vanderbilt Spencer-Churchills still live there.  As they were out of town when we visited we got to tour their 'apartments' and see what it was like to live in a palace.  They have to open the majority of the palace up to visitors to cover the costs of maintenance etc.  There was a stark contrast between the public and private portions of the palace.  The public parts were grand and amazing, and the private parts (ha ha) were like the land where time forgot.  Lots of nice things, but because the building was so old it seemed to miss the normal comforts which we are used to.  And there just seemed to be so much stuff around.  I guess when your family has 300 years of history, you have alot to chose from when decorating.

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Furry Friday

Hampton's first print campaign.

Its actually a story about her dogsitter Yulia, but I think that she is really the star of the article.  I tried to read it via google translator, but don't think its quite the best translation.

If you get really bored and want to try your luck with Russian here is the website.

Crime Scene

Was at the fancy new mall, and was surprised to see crime scene tape and the little # things that they use to mark evidence. Couldn't figure out what was going on, but then looked it up on the internet.  Was shocked to found out that there had been a stabbing the day before.  Half the mall was blocked off still, some 24 hours later.   Would have thought it wouldn't take so long to take care of whatever it was that then needed to do.

Deer in Richmond Park

I have posted picks before but was even a bit surprised how little they seemed to care that I was so close.  How long do you think this deer would last standing on the side of the road in Tulsa?  Cars and guns.........my guess is not long!

Wicked

Another last minute ticket purchase and more great seats.  Not sure how Kristen does it.  If anyone doesn't know the plot the story is everything that happened before Dorthy ended up in Oz.  What really got me about the whole thing was how someone could have sat down and came up with the story and then written such great songs.  I can't stop singing this 'Defying Gravity' song!! 

Premiership Football

As the days wind down I finally went to a Premiler League soccer game.  While not the elite of the elite, it was still pretty cool.  6th row right at midfield for Fulham vs.  Norwich City.  30,000 screaming idiots it was a sight to behold.  Kinda like sitting in the student section at Boone Pickens.  Everyone there would give their right arm for the team, and regardless of the other team absolutley wanted to win.  Singing the entire game and going absolutly nuts for goals.  I can't imagine what it would be like to see two teams play, that really hated each other.  Or even more to watch a game at one of the new big fancy stadiums.  Double the crazy fans that were at Craven Cottage.

I guess it would have been like seeing a baseball game at the old Yankee's stadium, or Fenway or Wrigley.  Not as big or nice as the new stadiums, but tons of character.  The stadium is a protected building so they can't really do much to change it or make it bigger.  I am sure they could make more $ that way but sure the fans would go for it.  You could see through the floorboards from below the seats.  

I give the Norwich City fans some credit.  They stood up and sang the entire game even though they were getting stomped.  But I guess when you come all the way to London to watch a fame you gotta make the most of it.  They brought like 20 coaches full of fans, quite an impressive rollout if you ask me.

The only day part of the day was the weather.  Strange but it was probably too good.  It was like 85 and not a could in the sky.  I know not real hot in the grand scheme of things but in London that type if heat causes mass chaos.  Not only did the stadium sell out of water by halftime, but they had run out of cups too.  I thought there was going to be a riot trying to get tap water.  People were grabbing random dirty cups and having the workers at the concession stand full them up for them.    I felt bad for the guys behind the counter, nobody wanted anything but water and there was none to be found.

All the fans that sat around me were super nice.  One of the guys said he had been watching game there for over 50 years.  Strangely enough the stadium probably hadn't changed that much since then. 

The grounds crew came out and fixed the divots at
half time

The owners of Fulham are big Michael
Jackson fans, this is the worst statue
ever.

When you gotta go....

How bad do you have to go to actually use this urinal??  Right out in the middle of Piccadilly circus.  

And done...

The Olympics are essentially over now, and have to say it wasn't what I expected.  There was so much build up and talk of the disruption it was going to cause, and in the end I think people would tell you that they didn't really notice it at all.  Yeah there were lots of flags all over, and some of the roads were closed but other than that there wasn't much to it.  I am a bit sad to say that the best part might have been that we could wear jeans to the office for the last two weeks.

I think that Coca-Cola rented out the entire Holiday Inn near the flat, and I kept confusing the coke people for the Swiss or China athletes.  One more than one occasion people caught me trying to take pictures, and looked at me really confused.

My Olympics experience ended on Tuesday with the semi-final soccer game at Wembley.  It was Mexico vs. Japan, so pretty sure 90% of the crowd was indifferent about the team that won.  It turned out a good game, but the best part was the Mexico fans.  Not really sure if any of them were actually Mexican, but they took the opportunity to dress-up in ridiculous outfits.

Wembley was pretty impressive, less impressive was the transportation away from the stadium.  I guess in reality they moved 80 thousand people out pretty quickly, but I am so used to waking to the car and then leaving, that the standing in line to catch the tube home was a bit of a pain.

Thats ALOT of people headed to the tube

Furry Friday

Hampton got a bath, and she hates the hair dryer so she took things into her own hands.  Actually took us about 5 minutes to find her, and when we did it was hilarious!

Almost like home

If you would have asked me what things I was likely to do and see in London, this would have been somewhere down around #3,385.  Riding with someone else from Tulsa, through the English countryside....wouldn't have ever expected that.  Anyone, who has ever ridden a big group ride in Tulsa knows that this is the wheel you want to be on, and I have to admit I needed all the help I could get.

Look familiar??

If it weren't for all the roundabouts, and riding on the left hand side of the road, we could have been on Avery, for all we knew.  This was my view for the majority of the day.

Highlight of the day had to be stumbling across the hot seats from the Olympic Time Trail at Hampton Court.    I guess we can say I know what it feels like to win the Olympics now.  I guess the other 4 people there at the time, doesn't quite compare to the thousands that were cheering the real athletes on.

Nobody confused me for Wiggins.

Another sign

Can't imagine what use rope would be in the event of an emergency on a train.

Irish Randomness

Just a few perceptions from Ireland a month or so ago.

Not too many TV channels in our room but enough to pick up on the local sports.  Easily to of the craziest games I could ever imagine.  If I hadn't seen them myself I would have thought they were made up.  Seems like something we would have came up with during a snow day in high school.

Hurling

Gaelic Football - a mixture of soccer and rugby

And then when we were out and about the weirdness just kept coming.....

Cleaning equipment and groceries.....not a combination you
would expect

I guess there needed to be a few more no
parking signs to get the bus drivers attention.

Must mean something different in Irish.  Or maybe
someone lost a bet.  

Even the Irish know a good thing when they see it!!