The Midwest Birding Symposium, Baker Style

A bit of a hurried post as I prepare for our biggest day (Saturday) at the MBS here in Lakeside, Ohio. It's everything we dreamt of and so much more. About 1,000 people, all committed to birdwatching and appreciating and conserving our environment, are gathered together, and it is a beautiful explosion. 

I am very happy to have Chet Baker along, and there are lots of folks who are happy about that, too.

He's taking his job as meeter/greeter at Hoover Auditorium very seriously.

Surely there is someone here who needs a kiss. I am on the lookout for people who need kisses.

 Found one! Here's KatDoc, and she always likes my kisses. She does one better--she gets down and plays with me. She is a 10 on the Dog-o-Meter.

 There are wonderful talks going on in Hoover all day long, and Chet and I are delighted to be there with our art display, able to listen and learn while manning our booth.

 Mary Ann Barnett is a very nice bloggerlady. Those people who have blogs seem to be the happiest to see me.

I gave my friend Ruthie the Nature Knitter some special love. She needed dog.

 

She is a very, very nice person. I like her very much.

 Mether has about 50 paintings hanging up. They are all her favorites from Letters from Eden and from her book that is coming out, The Bluebird Effect: Uncommon Bonds with Common Birds. There are a lot of people wanting to buy them but Mether says she wants to mount a traveling exhibit so she doesn't want to sell them before the book comes out. It is awkward, in my opinion. So people have to settle for ordering the new book or buying the new bird gardening book, or a print, or Letters from Eden. I think she should sell them all so she can keep me in the manner to which I have become accustomed.

 I do have to admit she makes sure I am comfortable. She has a chair set up with a brand new non-smelly bed, some bikkits,  and my leash. My friend Miss Jen Sauter made me a special  MBS kerchief, which lends a tinge of officiality to my presence.

 

We are in a huge auditorium where people like Kim and Kenn Kaufman, Pete Dunne, David Bird, Bridget Stuchbury, Alvaro Jaramillo and Mether and Daddeh are talking. 

 There are many, many birders here. This is Jen Brumfield, getting her lunch. She refused any help with her scope, claiming that it was perfectly balanced. I have to believe her.

 This is the wonderful blogger Chris Ciccone. I was happy to meet him!

There was a small small babeh here and I was so excited to see him I jumped up and kissed him while he was still in his daddeh's arms. Then we talked a little bit. We used pictures instead of words. That babeh liked me.

I try to make sure that babehs understand that dogs are friendly and sweet. I also like the way babehs smell. 
They like me, too.

 

Mether pretty much gives me the run of Hoover, but she makes me come back to her booth often. She should not worry. I have work to do, and that sometimes involves going out and clearing the big stupid fox squirtles from the premises. It needs to be done. They have been running amok for too long.

 This is Mether's editor, Lisa White at Houghton Mifflin. She loves me so much she bought my half-sister Ella Fitzgerald. Part of my job is to give people who need it some dog, just when they need it. I must go now, because I am needed! More later!
Love,

Chet Baker, Greeter Dog