Dog Show

Like the sign says, Anne, Mark and HBomb decided to head to the Dog Show and enjoy it with the family.  Anne is well known as an animal lover.  It appears that HBomb is following in her footsteps, at least as it relates to doggies.  He's still maintaining a love/hate relationship with the family kitties, now affectionately referred to as "furs" (he loves to grab their tails, they hate having him around).

Anyway, HBomb was very excited to see the different types of dogs, many of which he had never seen before. Anne and Mark are proud to report that HBomb identified very few as anything other than dogs, and even the mistakes he did make were reasonable misidentifications:

HBomb diagnosis: bears.  I can see that.

HBomb diagnosis: Horse.  Yeah, I can see that, too.

For better or for worse, HBomb showed no fear of any of the dogs.  We spoke to the owner of a couple of Irish Wolfhounds.  These two "puppies" were only 10 months and 2 years old, but they were 6 feet tall when they stood on their back legs.  They are called wolf hounds not because they look similar to wolves (they do not), but because they used to use them to hunt wolves.  These are some big, potentially tough dogs.  However, HBomb was unfazed.  He reached right in there and gave those wolfhounds some good, stiff pets.

Mark felt that the one on the top of platform must have won a contest to have been named "Royal Canin," but that must have happened before we arrived.

Mark has limited experience with dog shows.  In fact, Mark's primary exposure to this culture is the Christopher Guest mockumentary Best in Show and the annual one or two nights of coverage of the Westminster Kennel Club dog show (which is probably the source of the satire that appears in "Best in Show").  So Mark was interested to see if the people involved really took it seriously.  So did they?  Yes.  Yes they did.

The pavilion was divided roughly in half, with one entire half devote to backstage style prepping of the dogs.  Several people had brought camping equipment and set it up inside the indoor pavilion.  Did they actually stay at the pavilion overnight? While this is the *only* form of camping Mark will approve, it still seemed like a little much.

Anne, Mark and HBomb also saw what they assume was either showmanship, or the worst attempt at intimidation ever.  Someone had displayed all of their blue ribbons near their set up area.  Was this set up to try to intimidate the other competitors?  I am not an expert on dogs, but I think I did hear somewhere that dogs are not great at seeing colors.  Honestly, you could intimidate the dogs the same amount with a whole bunch of grey, or yellow, or green ribbons, right?

But I digress.  Anyway, even the most exciting dog show gets a little slow from time to time, so our trio had to find something to fill the time between events.  We decided to get a quick bite to eat.  What were they serving?  Would you believe me if I said hot dogs?

After HBomb's initial excitement had worn off and he had finished his hot dog/muffin combo, we watched the demonstration of the sporting dogs running through the course (over a see saw, through a tunnel, then some slalom sticks, etc).  HBomb  found this to be hilarious,

.....but ultimately very tiring. 

Argentina Bicentennial

Vantage point between Plaza Espana and Palacio Bosch on Libertador.

Earlier this week, the United States celebrated its 240th birthday (looking pretty good for a 240-year old).  In Buenos Aires we celebrated with the usual... you know, park rangers,

THIS guy!

wildly decorated train terminals...

and adults posing with Disney characters....

Sorry this is blurry, I think the camera had been drinking.

All pretty standard stuff.

July 9 is the Argentine equivalent of July 4.  Kind of.  Also May 25.  But mostly July 9, so we'll go with that for our purposes.  Any who, on July 9, 1816, the United Provinces of South America declared independence from Spain, and then eventually evolved into the countries of Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina (there were also some small territories that are now part of Chile and Brazil).

Everyone Loves a Parade (everyone in Argentina anyway!)

So your centennials and bicentennials are generally a pretty big deal.  Argentina did its best to do it up right.  Granted, I did not see any park rangers or Disney characters, but it was still a good showing.  They had the big parade down Avenida Libertador, a huge artery through the heart of the city, which ended with military exercises at the polo fields of Palermo.

Malvinas veterans (one of the guys in front has an Argentine flag cut in the shape of the Malvinas Islands).

The military was well-represented in the parade, especially the veterans of the Malvinas War.  You may remember this as the war in the "Falkland" Islands, but when in Argentina, it is better to refer to it as Malvinas.  These are some small islands in the southern Atlantic.  Argentina and Great Britain had a brief war over them in the early 1980s.  It is still a very real issue here in Argentina.

Local marching band talent.

The parade also had the requisite musical pageantry.  Military marching bands from several branches of the Argentine military, as well as marching bands from several foreign countries performed.  There was even some representation from the U.S.A., fresh off their performance at some July 4th festivities somewhere.

Warming up, but apparently that guy in the front row is not all the way recovered from his July 4th festivities.