Good Time With Alan Jackson

Alan singing "Where Were You (When The World Stopped Turning)", a song dedicated to 9/11.










Alan singing "Remember When", a song dedicated to his wife Denise.







Opening Act LeAnn Womack whose signature song is "I Hope You Dance".







Entrance of the HP Pavilion, aka the "Shark Tank", the home base for the San Jose Sharks hocky team.







People lining up at Alan's souvenir stand.

Alan's t-shirt display on the wall.










Food concession stand at HP Pavilion.

Betty says,

"My favorite singer is Alan Jackson. Hubby and I have been following his career since 1991; we buy all his albums and go to all his concerts when we can. Since 1991, we have gone to at least 15 of his concerts and enjoyed every single one of them.

Alan was in San Jose on August 14. Needless to say, we had tickets in hand months prior to the concert. We got row#15 on the concert floor in front of the stage; better than most seats in the huge HP Pavilion.

Opening act was LeAnn Womack who has many charted singles, of which the most well-known one is "I hope you dance". She has a very clean and clear voice, was many times being compared to Dolly Parton's.

Alan's tour is named "Good Time Tour" to promote his new album "Good Time". We certainly had a good time; even more than a good time, we had a great time.

According to newspaper "Tennessean", Alan's record label Arista held a party on August 14 to celebrate Alan's career milestone of 50 million in album sales; see http://www.alanjackson.com/newsGT.php?p=1130&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1#more1130

I noticed that the shirt he wore in that party was the same one as in the concert. Alan must've flown from the party in Nashville to San Jose directly."

Curiosity Kills The Cat

Oh, no, another cat post? A cat got killed?

Betty says,

"No cat was killed; but curiosity was definitely in play.

After Big Boy left, I did not put in any bait in the trap. The trap was just there, remained open from letting Big Boy out.

It's a good thing that I went and checked; it's a hot day. There it was, a seemingly 'dead cat'. No, it's not dead, just sleeping. I went closer and woke it up; it's Tiggar from next door.

Dumb or curious, I don't know. Our trap sure is popular among the cats."

Big Boy Or Dumb Boy

Betty says,

"The critters are acting up again recently. We seemed to have hundreds of squirrels playing and making nests on top of trees in our yard. I set up the trap and caught three squirrels. I relocated them and things seemed to be somewhat better.

Then I found piles of smelly poops in our fruit orchard. Two days ago I set up the trap and promptly caught a skunk. It was not an easy job to relocate a skunk; hubby and I had to work together to handle it.

There has to be more, so I set up the trap again. The next morning I saw from far away that there was a 'thing' in the trap. It looked bigger than a skunk and the color was grayish. A raccoon? A Bobcat? I walked cautiously toward the trap, and a big 'MEOW' broke out from this gray animal.

It's 'Big Boy', a friendly neighborhood stray. He looked insulted but not frantic. I opened up the trap and he just leisurely got out of the trap, sat for a while, accepted a few pats from me and walked away.”

San Martin Veterinary Hospital, Part II

Cat figure welcoming guests.

Cat waiting room. Rabbits usually stay in this room.

Dog figure welcoming the canine guests.

Dog waiting room. It is separate from the cat waiting room by a children playroom and a small door.

Doggie pictures on the wall of an examination room.

Display cases for medical products.

Dr. Pete collects trains. The inside of the glass area is the children playroom.

Assistant Sabrina is enchanted by Chu's Princess.

The office workers are inside the counters accross from the children playroom.

Office workers inside the counter work area.

San Martin Veterinary Hospital was established in 1982. Betty "discovered" it in 1992 and has been going there since then. Dr. Pete was the owner/manager until recently that he decided to take a lesser management role and more hands on job in patient care. There are five other veterinary doctors in the hospital but Dr. Pete is Betty's favorite.

The office is well run, kept spotless clean. According to Bay Area Checkbook rating, it has a satisfaction rate of 94% and the price is 22% lower than average in the SF Bay Area.

San Martin Veterinary Hospital, Part I: Bunnies Going To Dr. Pete

A pair of 5-month-old English Angora are waiting to be seen by Dr. Pete.

Lilac Tort doe Chu's Princess is sitting on the examination table waiting for her turn.

Cream buck Chu's Fedrick is on the table.

Dr. Pete with Princess.

Another shot of Dr. Pete with Princess.

Betty says,

"I have the good fortune of finding a wonderful veterinarian Dr. Pete Keesling for my rabbits in 1992 after going to four other veterinarians. He does not just treat the animals that I brought in, he taught me how to handle various issues so that I could take better care of my rabbits when needed.


Dr. Pete has a very broad knowledge on both large and small animals. He co-hosted a PBS program Petpourri for many years; he is currently hosting a call-in radio show with a similar name 'Pet Pourri' on radio KSCO http://www.ksco.com/dsphost.cfm?hid=112; he also writes a column in the local newspaper. It's even more unusual that he is familiar with rabbits and rabbit shows; his two daughters, Sarah and Mary, used to raise rabbits when they were in 4H. I'd see Dr. Pete with Sarah and Mary in some of the local shows in the late 1990s and early 2000s.


These are pictures taken during my recent visit to Dr. Pete's office. The purpose of this visit was to get health certificates for my two rabbits to fly to their new home. I will post some more pictures of his veterinary hospital tomorrow."

Carol G. Guest Blogs About Alaska Trip

Carol in a show with a cute puppy.

Bridalveil Falls is along the highway just as we arrive at Valdez.

This is a veiw of Prince William Sound from the salmon hatchery. The silver salmon are coming in now, and there were so many salmon that they were piled on top of one another.

We also saw the Columbia Glacier, the second largest tidewater glacier in Alaska. There are glaciers everywhere in Alaska, but it is pretty impressive to paddle through the ice flow, very "otherworldly".

I went on a cruise in the Sound, while Jim when kayaking. We both saw humpback whales. Fantastic!

Puffins--very cute!

Alaska is huge and even though we drove 900 mi in 8 days, we saw just a small piece of the state. We flew into Anchorage, then drove to Valdez on the Prince William Sound where we spent the most time. The area around Valdez is amazing in its beauty, but its famous for some pretty bad things. In 1964 the largest earthquake ever recorded in North American occurred in Alaska and Valdez was wiped out. Then 20 years ago, the Exxon Valdez grounded in Prince William Sound and spilled millions of gallons of oil for the largest environmental disaster ever. Valdez really deserves to be remembered for much better things, like waterfalls, glaciers, humpback whales, and puffins.

Michelle And Valerie Are Everywhere

Holly says, "Judge Michelle Uptagrafft-Smith awarding HHR's Creole at 4 1/2 mons an Open All Breed Reserve In Show. Creole is son to my 6 BIS winning doe, HHR's Avalanche & son to my BIS buck HHR's Nanuk whom are children of my following Bunnies: Chu's Terena, Chu's Vance & Chu's Eqadora!"

Holly says, "Judge Valerie Uptagrafft with Senior Doe HHR's Pandora awarding her the Specialty BOB, Pandora is now 13 months old, this show marked her retirement. HHR's Creole took the Specialty BOS ."

Valerie and Michelle, mother and daughter, judged our triple specialty show at Carol's backyard in late June. Last weekend they were at the EARS Quad show in Edmonton Alberta Canada. In between, they have traveled to several other places to judge. They are in great demand for their judging and do a lot of traveling together.

NCAG Canadian member Holly reports,

"It was a lovely show & everyone had a ton of fun. There were many outstanding breeds shown by breeders from the USA & Canadian Provinces who travel to this show. It is held in a shopping mall, but the mall pays our club a good fee so we can hire four Judges, we all look forward to this show. The public enjoys the show & we get to inform them more on the wonderful world of bunnies."

Holly's white junior buck took one Best of Breed and went on to win all breed Reserve In Show; her colored senior doe won Best of Breed three times. One was a specialty Best In Show and two others received honorable mention.