A whole new bunch of weiners!

Ah, apparently I made this one tough. I didn't mean to, but I guess I did; this second occasional Three Dog Blog competition stymied you more than the first one. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth and rending of garments as you tried to figure out Nos. 2 and 4, especially.

I thought they were easy. But, to quote Dylan Thomas, "Ah, easy for Leonardo!"

And what a coincidence! Our grand prize winner's name is Leonardo!

Oh, wait. [Consults notecards. Riffles through documents. Clicks through several files and Web pages] Oh, never mind. Our grand prize winner's name is actually Amy. Anyway, more on the winners in a bit.

First, the answers.

IMAGE ONE: Cafesjian's Carousel in Como Park, St. Paul.

Some of your guesses:

1. The Kiddie Park in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, across from Johnstone Park and the very first oil well drilled in Oklahoma. So they say. I grew up going there as a kid, riding that merry go round and the little kid roller coaster. When I was really little, I thought the name of the park was Jellystone and that the kiddie park was named after baby goats.

2. scarborough sea front

3. Carousels--regular feature of the Minnesota State Fair. I recommend that you not ride them after eating a couple of fried elephant ears in consideration of other riders.

4. Pole Dancing horses at Reginal Gunthorpe's Stud Farm and Ice Cream Parlour in Bridlington, England. My Uncle Barnabus works there, so this is not St Paul. I went there once as a young child and was scarred for life, though the ice cream was great. They paint the horses up so that it looks like a Merry Go Round, but it's really eye-candy for reluctant stallions.

IMAGE TWO: The Guthrie Theater.
In Minneapolis. Which means it's not in St. Paul.

Some of your guesses:

1. This is a lego helicopter/museum, built by a four year old genius to house a small hamster named Terry. It is in St. Paul. Just turn right at the bus stop.

2. St. Paul RiverCentre in Bloomington--luckily since you no longer have to do much business travel, this one may not be tha familiar to you. I'm sure you admire the architectural design and know who designed the Centre--I do not.

3. Toby's last foray into modern architecture. As a young pup, he trained in Japan and NYC with modernist masters. His goal was to combine the traditional aesthetic of the American Dog House with the minimalist curve of the steel dog dish. This master work is located in his adopted home of St. Paul.

4. Picture number two is not an actual building, it is a diorama on your kitchen table made of old oatmeal containers, cracker boxes, fairy lights and construction paper. You are a very talented woman.

IMAGE THREE: The Landmark Center, downtown St. Paul.

Some guesses:

1. Euro Disney

2. Image Three is Riley's Summer Home. When he is in residence, the flag of his regal beagle ancestors flies from the clock tower.

3. This is a very big cake. I made this cake when I was last in St Paul. It has 3 layers, one chocolate sponge, one fruit cake, and one meringue. I made the windows out of liqourice, the turrets are jam roly poly towers covered in marzipan, and the trees are twiglets, covered in spun sugar.

IMAGE FOUR: The Union Depot train station, Lowertown, St. Paul.

Some guesses:

1. Union Depot in historic Lowertown area of St. Paul And it is the nicest looking SPUD I have ever seen! Mine are generally brown, dirty and oddly shaped, this one is lovely.

2. Image Four is a railroad station, where Laurie embarked on a trip through Europe, paid for by the royalties earned on Boscoe's, Riley's and Toby's first top ten single "Bark for Heart" on Black Tail Records. The single went platinum in the first five minutes and is the most downloaded song of 2006. (Gwen Stefani came in second. She is a big fan.)

And now, the Weiners

Once again, you guys outdid yourselves. You should all get prizes, but then I would go broke.

Some of you took the serious route, and you pretty more wore out Google, which is why they couldn't buy Yahoo--they were too busy.

You pelted me with messages containing partial answers, complaints that the contest was too hard, moments of despair over ever figuring out No. 4 (or No. 2), followed, hours and sometimes days later, by messages of happiness and enlightenment: Oh, that's what it is!

Wrote one exhausted entrant, "If I ever get to St Paul, I don't think I'll have to do much sightseeing - I've seen it all by now. ;-)"

The Grand Prize Winner of the Three Dog Blog calendar is Amy Rea, who sent me all the right answers within moments -- well, hours -- of my posting the competition. "Ha!" she wrote. "What a nice way to start the week--knowing more than some people!"

And getting a fabulous free calendar, I might add.

So Amy, email me your snail mail address, and I will have my sister send you a calendar posthaste--that is, hastily, through the post.

There were others who slogged behind Amy by hours and days--Babaloo never gave up and finally figured out the Union Depot ("I keep thinking it looks like a train station," she wrote, before figuring out that it is a train station), and My Two Cents bravely sent in three correct answers, with the promise of a fourth (I'm still waiting).

Honorable mention also to MJ Krech, who got them all right, even though she briefly thought that the Guthrie was in St. Paul.

And then some of you went the funny route. And boy you were funny! I couldn't judge those by myself--I needed help. So I enlisted Famous Blog Cult Figure PMiller to help me judge. As it turned out, she and I picked the same winners in the same order. (Are we pals, or what?)

She wrote, "those answers are absolutely hilarious! what clever blogging pals you have! i have to say the completely made-up ones made me laugh the hardest. i liked 1 and 6 the best for pure laughter. 4 was good too. heck, they're all good. i love the merry errors such as no. 2's 'st. paul rivercentre in bloomington.' "

The short list for humor is:

1) Jo Beaufoix.
2) Kaycie
3) Murphy's Mommy

Send me your snail mail addresses, Jo, Kaycie, and Murphy's Mom, and Riley will dispatch your booby prizes to you.

Honorable mentions, which come with fame and glory but no loot, go to Ped Crossing, who combined accurate answers with truly bizarre explanations; Faye and her dog Willie, who tried to impress me by telling me that they were superdelegates to the Westminster Dog Show (to which Riley said, ZIP IT); and to Muddyboots, who found places in Europe that looked almost exactly like the places in St. Paul. (The resemblance between St. Paul's Union Depot and London's Harvey Nicks is pretty damned uncanny.)

I'm exhausted. Take a bow, everyone!