After a night out with friends Terrence and I came home to find that Dutch had gotten into an entire bag of baking chocolate. Terrence stayed awake to watch over Dutch, he seemed wired… pacing around and panting. Dutch is 14 years old, has a melon sized tumor threatening his life at every moment and then as if that weren’t enough he has to scare us by trying to commit coco-cide. Terrence had finally allowed himself to nod off when Dutch paced over to my side of the bed and collapsed. Nothing can describe the horror that we felt in those brief seconds before pulling him out from under the bed.
When we flipped on the lights we found him laying in a giant pile of partially digested chocolate chips and bile, for a second we thought he was gone. Dutch was dazed, he’d thrown up so hard that he lost his balance. Terrence rushed to clean him up and see that he was ok… and I was left to clean up the chocolate mess. One roll of paper towel and a bath later, Dutch was now fast asleep.
The next morning I made him eggs and rice, but he wouldn’t get up to eat it so I put his dish beside him and he slightly lifted his head and strategically licked up the food… without actually getting up. I tried to take him for a walk and he just looked at me and put his head back down. I gave him his water dish and he used the same maneuver as the food. Half the day had gone by and he just laid there on the floor in the middle of the office.
He was the saddest thing, but eventually he got his energy back and let us walk him. By the next day he was back to normal.
Old dogs are bad news for the easily stressed. Word of advice, keep the chocolate on a high shelf.
Basking in the windows warm glowing warming glow. Not as good as the televisions, but she only does that when she gets jealous that we’re paying attention to something, not her.
People think that I’m obsessed with my cat Penelope “Penny” Pussycat. They tell me that I tweet nothing but pictures of her… which is a lie! Really. I was going through my twitter feed, to link to all the Penny madness, and could only find 3 photos of her (here, here, and here). Hmmph, in your face… haters. I can not however vouch for how much I talk about my kitty… I didn’t search that. No comment. Terrence is way worse than me, I swear.
SHE’S JUST SO ADORABLE!
Anyway, because my cat is so amazing, I thought it fitting to add a regular series here about her… to showcase the adorable. This way now people can complain that all I do is blog about my cat. Which is fine by me, my cat is worth the noise.
She was inside of it earlier, which is way cuter but this works too.
And then there was Dutch… (who is also by the way the cutest dog of all time and the best)
Usually they nap near each other, don’t get me wrong… they’re only about 6 feet apart at the moment. I worry for Penny sometimes, her and Dutch are about 10 years apart, she’s so attached to him that she howls at the door when we take him for walks. I tried to train her to walk on a leash so she could come with him… but she’s too inconsistent and slow. She’s happily co-dependent, one of her better traits.
Back in December I received my first Warby Parker home try-on frames, and thought it was so much fun that I decided to do it again. Hooray for glasses! The last time I got my frames in record time and was totally shocked and elated… this time it seems that Warby Parker have run into some fame and recognition so it took quite some time, although still very worth the wait. The last time I was able to keep the frames for 2 weeks, this time they had to be returned after just 5 days, which meant that I wasn’t able to bring them around to as many judgmental friends as I had last time. Which is why I’m going to be relying on your internet opinions far more than I did last time. Help!
I’m hardly home when I receive packages so it’s always nice to get that text message from Terrence alerting me to the fun. When I arrived home to my box o’ Parker’s Terrence was actually rushing out the door to class and I quickly showed them to him and felt robbed of the fun… so instead I had a picture party with Dutch. Dutch didn’t give me any opinions but he was helpful nonetheless.
As I opened the box their were 4 frames I was super excited for and one filler frame, I had initially requested to try on the special edition Japhy frames in pink but received a phone call a few days prior to my packages arrival to inform me that the pink ones were not eligible for home try-on. It still confuses me why I was able to select them, I sure hope they’ve since fixed that glitch because it made me sad. The woman on the phone asked me if I’d like to see another pair instead and I told her to leave the spot empty since I wasn’t at a computer and had no clue what to pick… she offered to surprise me with one. I didn’t really like them at all, hopefully one day I can make it to one of their things in the city to play with the pink Japhy’s.
My objective in this bundle of frames was to find a dark frame to suit my face, to find a clear frame that my friends won’t hate on me (I love them all), and to have fun with Dutch (who, now that he’s old is much more willing to sit still in front of a camera). I’ve so far succeeded in two out of three, unless I have any takers of the clear frames… eh… ehh.
Penny has learned a lot of weird dog behaviors from growing up with Dutch as her brother but lately I think she’s begun teach him some of her odd tendencies instead.
Exhibit A, the strange napping habits of pets:
Penny has been sleeping like this since she was a kitten and all of a sudden a few weeks ago I walked into the office to find Dutch in a very similar position.
These two absolutely kill me. Dutch being 10 years older than Penny I can’t imagine how she will ever get on without him, unfortunately we’ll likely be finding that one out the hard way sooner or later… with fingers crossed for that ladder. We have the best children, EVER!
And if Dutch and Penny’s napping habits ever graduate to this type of adorable I will have to die several times over… I couldn’t be contained.
Living bakery adjacent has its perks, the air outside is always delicious and sometimes if we’re around at just the right moment we score free bread. Downfalls come with perks too unfortunately, lack of parking, loud baking sounds throughout the night, oh and one more thing… the occasional mouse. This is the part that makes me thankful we have Penny… sometimes. In the year and a half living here we’ve had a handful of tiny visitors, but Penny made sure that they counted. Their was the first one, when I thought she was playing with a toy and then it began to move on its own, resulting in my crying/laughing hysterically as I clutched onto the broom and the phone (with my mother coaxing me back from the ledge) trying to get the mouse out before it scurried back downstairs from whence it came. Second time Penny caught a friend she wanted to show off her talents while we were sleeping and dropped it onto me in the bed. Try getting back to sleep after that, well… Terrence had no trouble… bastard. Third friend Penny cornered in the bathroom until Terrence grabbed it up by it’s tail and set it free outside.
Terrence is friend to all things Mickey, Jerry and Itchy. I’m all about murder, death, kill the intruder and he’s all set it free in a patch of daisies and sprinkle some cheese on it. These three visits were all last year around the same time… the end of Winter/Beginning of Spring. And like clockwork it started again. This time Penny is better prepared, last year she had been new to hunting… she’d carry her friends around in her mouth and then lose track of them. She’ll not be made to look like a fool this year though, this year she was better prepared. A few weeks ago on a lovely Sunday morning, I was walking into the bathroom as I was wiping the sleep from my eyes and their he was on the floor waiting for me… this time, dead. Penny had learned how to kill her pray, at least she didn’t bring it into my bed. I ran into the bedroom and begged Terrence to get rid of it, all the while he was apologizing to the critter and saying “Poor little guy”. Freak. I looked at Penny and was all, not cool cat… but thank you.
Yesterday morning a similar pattern of sleeping from eye wiping was occurring on my way to my morning shower when I noticed yet another friend of Mickey on the floor… this time the bathroom floor was splattered with blood… it was everywhere. I ran into the bedroom and shook Terrence awake (did I mention it was 6am?) and told him that Penny had massacred a mouse in our bathroom. Without a fuss or evening asking questions he got up, unrolled some toilet paper and picked up Penny’s leavings… on his way back from the garbage he said to me without raising his head, “You’re gonna have to clean the blood” and then he went right back to sleep. I was still standing their stunned that my adorable little Penny had become a serial killer.
I was first introduced to Warby Parker frames a few months back when I was reading through my blog feeds and was immediately smitten. My favorite part was being able to select up to 5 pairs to have sent to you for home try-on. Back then the waiting list was around 6 months long and I was slightly discouraged from putting my name in the hat. Recently I decided it was time to do so and discovered that the wait was dramatically slashed, only 5 days. I was floored and immediately submitted my try-on order. They even arrived a day early, nice. Before opening the package I went out to dinner with some girlfriends and had them assess the frames on me. The following morning, still without looking at them on myself, I asked for Terrence’s opinion. Now I felt prepared to look in a mirror. Most of the frames come in a variety of colors, so more than looking for the perfect pair I asked that my pals consider the shape of each frame and the color on my skin tone. The responses varied person to person. Still a bit lost I brought the pairs with me to work and asked a few colleagues. Sadly, the results are still up in the air. Most of my work responses were indifferent, my close friends were blunt to say the least, and Terrence seemed either indifferent or strongly against. At $95 a pair I’m not opposed to buying multiple frames, all 5 pairs together still don’t equal the amount I’ve paid in the past for any pair of my regular Selima Optique lenses. Which have in the past cost me well over $500 with the lenses included, whereas Warby Parker’s set price of $95 includes lenses. Sure the quality of the frames aren’t in the same league, but they’re not far apart either. So without further ranting I give you the results of my Warby Parker home try-on fun:
In some cases I think that Dutch may look cuter than I do in the frames… he got a smooch and a biscuit for being such a good sport.
Ok really, I need your help. I still may do another 5 pairs before actually purchasing. But I need all the feedback I can get. Leave a comment, send an email, text me, do something. Even if you just want to tell me how horrible I look, just be gentle.
Thanks.
(Ed Note: I decided on the Webb’s in Amber, they’re absolutely lovely.)
We took Dutch to a new vet last night to renew his rabies shot. The doctor expressed concern about heartworms and suggested some blood and fecal testing on him (ED: Results came back negative). We sat in the waiting room, I impatiently and Terrence distracted by a baby kitty in a cage. When Dutch came out he looked violated and his booty was a tad on the red side. Usually whenever Terrence or I take Dutch out of the apartment for any reason Penny immediately leaps into the window and begins to cry at the top of her lungs until we return. The moment Dutch emerges through the door she’s immediately at his side. If he returns after a long absence she’s jumping on him and licking his ears, sniffing him as if to ask “Where have you been?!”.
However, last night when we returned home Penny wouldn’t go near Dutch. She was angry with him and I’m assuming really didn’t appreciate the vet smell he was carrying. Whenever he came into her view she puffed up and hopped away hissing. She’d lurk around him and peer at him from underneath the side table. When she was sure he wasn’t looking she’d approach him and sniff, then back away slowly. Terrence was sure she’d lost her damn mind. My immediate reaction was to lay her on her back to submit to him and let him lick her face… she didn’t like me after that. And definitely didn’t like him either. I will admit I was a bit worried about their relationship. I didn’t want my once best friends to become foes. Penny was being a serious witch with a B!
Thankfully today all resumed back to normal. Whew! My pets are in love again, if not a bit suspicious.
I’m trying to catch up with my life today. I finally got around to putting all my photos from my very full camera onto my pc, I even went as far as to upload some of them onto Flickr. I introduced myself to the show Alias (which I had been thinking of doing for quite some time). I even finished my October Playlist. But still there was something else I wanted to do before the day was over… I wanted to post something here on my poor neglected website.
I’m not sure that I’ve mentioned it before but we’ve moved recently. And our lives have been absolutely chaotic for the last 6 weeks. I bet it would have been a lot less stressful had we not gotten it into our heads to have a yard sale before we moved. This meant that I had to alphabetize and organize thirty crates of vinyl. About two crates were doubles and one was uber crap; sadly only 1 person even glanced at the crates and we ended up having to lug them in the move anyway, as we did about 80% of the yard sale items. Thankfully we live across the street from Terrence’s parents who have lovingly given us one half of their two car garage. Maybe when it gets warm again we’ll try to unload our crap once more.
So much concentration went towards the albums that I had to squeeze a month’s worth of packing into one week, most of which was done on moving day. It’s a good thing I had my mother to help me, she may have thrown things together that made absolutely no sense at all, which resulted in glitter all over my food, but whatever gets the job done. She also cleaned both our new and old apartments that day to make our lives easier. Terrence’s parents loaned us their family van to lug the bigger stuff. But with the seats in the way we had to tie our couch and a few other things to the roof, well… not me.
Funny thing about that van, it was raining this very irritating misty drizzle all day, which combined with the autumn leaves meant for excellent driving back and forth weather. That morning, just about 2 minutes before Terrence walked out the door to move the van to the back and pack it up, some douche swerved right into the center of two cars parked out front, both of which split and became very close friends with the curb and the cars on either side of them; one of those cars being the van. So we were onto a great start.
At the end of day one I insisted on walking Dutch to our new apartment, a swell way to say goodbye and show him the way home, just in case he decided he ever wants to go back (which is his behavior after the trauma of a move). I strapped on his raincoat and began walking away from my home for the last four years. As I was walking passed the homes of all my neighbors/friends I got a bit emotional and decided to give them a call to say my farewells. Of course no one answered their phones and the thought of all that was happening rushed at me at that very moment and I began heaving and crying like a crazy person. Dutch was looking at me as if I were deranged. I thought it best to walk away from the street and into the park, which only made it worse. Finally I got through to a friend on my phone, Julija, who had moved all the way to Florida just a few months ago. She mocked me for being such a pansy about moving a few blocks away and I admired her for being so strong and moving a few thousand miles away without so much as batting an eyelash. She kept me company until we reached our destination. Just as we were walking up the stairs Terrence had arrived with Penny and Dutch was officially home.
It took us most of that day and into the evening to move those five minutes away. We had to go back to the old place once or twice to get the smaller things. Our last visit absolutely broke my heart; I can’t believe I had to leave my walls behind in favor of these. That’s pretty much where the sentiment about that apartments aesthetic ends. This is by far the better apartment; I’m just being a big baby.
I’m very excited to make this place a home in appearance. But oddly enough it felt very homey from day one. I get excited to unlock the door and come on in every day. In the morning I smile as I greet the sun with all the windows shining bright. Good times. I dig it.
So to start off our vacation a few things went wrong. We had a bit of a struggle to find a last minute replacement sitter for our animals and though we found two suitors neither will be able to spend full time with them, so poor needy Dutch and Penny are gonna have to lone it out for a bit at a time. We left early Saturday morning in the midst of a thunderstorm so already Dutch was mid heart attack as I walked out the door. I was a crying mess walking away from my furry children, it took me quite some time to regain my composer.
Before we even pulled out of our parking spot Terrence out of reflex threw on the rear windshield wiper forgetting that the bike rack was blocking it and so now that’s busted. Halfway to Cape Cod we realized that the odd smell that we assumed was the motor burning out on the rear wiper was in fact Terrence’s front bicycle tire melting from the heat of the exhaust.
Upon arriving at our destination the woman we were renting the cottage from was nowhere to be found nor was she answering her phone… eventually we found her husband and he informed us that we were two hours early for check in. We scoped out the cottage that looked no bigger than our livingroom and began to worry that it wasn’t gonna be large enough to accommodate two couples for a week. Instead of freaking out we got some lunch and found a bike repair shop. Thankfully, though a very tiny space it did in fact have two bedrooms.
It was sweltering inside the cottage and one of the three fans was busted upon arrival, at the end of the night Terrence was setting up the remaining two and dropped one of them breaking it and rendering it useless… this vacation is a bit sweaty to say the least.
And I believe lastly on our string of bad luck aside from the nonstop raining was the enormous riptides that were swallowing the beaches of Wellfleet, MA. Beaches were closed off and we were sad. For fun yesterday we decided to go and check these giant waves out… holy shit, they weren’t kidding. We were walking almost against the sand walls and were still getting devoured by these crashing waves at times. It was an awesome site and though it was inconvenient to our vacation to have the beaches closed I was certainly glad that I witnessed this site. I sat back and watched as Terrence behaved like a 6-year old sneaking up in the shoreline and running away from the waves only to be beaten most of the time. At some point a few seals even joined in on the party and I had even more adorable objects of interest.
I’m hoping that with that joyful afternoon our string of bad luck is over and we can enjoy the rest of our week. I’ll keep you posted and I’ll keep Terrence away from all breakables.
