Introducing our newest member of the furry family, Twitter (aka Lil Mama, although we don’t actually call her that… more like Stinky and Rambo and CARRRRAZY KITTEN).
We love her. :) The other girls? Verdict is not in quite yet. ;)
More photos of her on flickr.
This morning I was having a fitful dream where all of the people I work with went to the production floor for a company meeting (that never happens) and when I came downstairs because something IT related was urgently needed all the desks were cleaned off, cleaned out, and we were all being laid off. I woke up from this to find Dawg on the couch with his eyes closed. I woke him to check if he was ok then his mom called. I heard the word “body” come from her mouth. Dawg looked at me in a nervous way and then asked when it had happened. I got up and ran to the bedroom, hid under the covers, and started bawling.
Kit Kat died in his sleep last night after 19 great years.
I love you, buddy. I love you so much. You know I do.
Love you more than words can say, baby girl.
Just got back from a spectacular weekend in Vermont with Dawg. We had one goal: Take my dad to the 4-Wheel Jamboree monster truck show at the Champlain Valley Expo on Saturday. Let’s see if we met the goal…
Friday I took a half day off work so that I could shop for kitty food so Mama Dawg could take proper care of the girls while we were away, pack our stuff, and rest up for my leg of the driving to Vermont. After saying goodbye to the girls we dropped off Dawg’s work truck at his parents’ garage then made quick stops to the gas station for snacks for my car and 7-Eleven for snacks for us humans then we were OFF! … Juuuust as the torrential rain started. And all the traffic. A normally 2.5-hour lasting journey to a Cracker Barrel in Massachusetts turned into 4.5 hours of white knuckle stop and start in heavy rain and traffic. When we finally did get to Massachusetts it was 9:30pm and we had to pee! so we did, then we had food — I had the country chef salad with blue cheese dressing, Dawg had the pot roast with a name I don’t remember plus mac and cheese, dumpling, and mashed potatoes with gravy — and went shopping in the store for treats to bring with us for the ride and hotel room.
At this point, around 10:30pm, we switched off driving and I drove us to the gas station for a fill-up then the rest of the journey in… gah, no more rain but such heavy fog that I could only do 40 mph safely for most of the trip. We arrived at the wrong hotel at 1:25am, were told there was another hotel just another driveway down, and arrived at the correct, sold out hotel, at 1:30am. THANK GOODNESS I have done enough travelling to have had my room given away before so I had the forethought to call ahead and tell them we wouldn’t be in until closer to midnight than the check-in time of 4pm (heh). After settling into the room we finally got to sleep for about 2:30am. (I might, maybe have said the words, “I know it’s one-thirty in the morning, but are we gonna have sex?” and since Dawg loves me so very, very much he granted my request. :D With the condition that he got to sleep in a half hour. :s Eh, totally worth it.)
At 7:30am I got up and got dressed then woke Dawg up so that he could do the same. We made a quick trip to Dunkin’ Donuts for coffees then went to pick up my dad and stepmom for the monster truck show. No hitches there, they were dressed and ready and raring to go. I had left my sunscreen in Dawg’s truck back in NYC so at the 7-Eleven on the way to VT I had picked up Banana Boat SPF 50, but I had forgotten to pack ANY hats so I purchased a Monster Attitude hat from some really nice Canadian girls who were selling Brutus, Spike, and Avenger memorabilia. Dawg bought a red Spike shirt and an orange Brutus shirt then we went in to watch the mud bog. We got confused and thought we weren’t allowed to take photos (some of the signage said we couldn’t) so I didn’t, but it was lots of fun watching the trucks try to get through the 100-ft track of super murky mud. Of course, they had a truck on super huge tractor wheels go through last and clear the mud with ease to get the crowd riled up. Then after the bog we walked around until it was time for the main monster truck event.
We decided we would grab some Al’s French Frys food and bring it back into the grandstand with us since two years ago when my dad and I had tried to get into the grandstand when Grave Digger was there the doors to the stands were shut in our faces just as the event was starting and we couldn’t get in so had to watch from the fenced area. This time we got GREAT seats and Dawg, my dad, and I picked our favorite monster truck. Dawg chose Spike, and since I had been debating between Spike and Brutus it was then an easy choice: Brutus!!!! My dad loves Avenger from all the TV show competitions he’s seen him compete in so he chose Avenger. Little did Dawg or I know that Spike, Brutus, and Avenger are all part of Team Scream.
Brutus
Avenger
As soon as the first of the monster trucks got out on the field the announcer said, “get out your cameras! This is gonna be good!” so all the people who had been muttering about not being able to take photos went, “HUH? OH! YAY!” and pulled out our cameras! And boy, am I glad I did. I didn’t have my camera out when Spike flipped over onto his roof, but I did when they were flipping Spike back onto his wheels.
Getting rolled
Back on his feet
And the crowd went WILD when he was able drive off the field!
Well, that’s the way I like to remember it. Actually, the announcer had pumped up the crowd by telling us free t-shirts and cup coozies would be thrown at people who cheered the loudest, but *I* was cheering for Spike.
And since Brutus is Spike’s monster truck brother, and Brutus’s theme song was Who Let the Dogs Out, and he was my choice for favorite, and he was FANTASTIC, I went WILD when he came out…
and was the only one until he started doing ALL kinds of crazy tricks and dug up the most dirt when spinning around on the ground, then the crowd actually did go wild for him and he got the most applause and cheering as he left the field. :D :D :D
My dad’s Avenger car was pretty great, too. It’s a green 57 Chevy that is pretty famous on the monster truck circuit.
Yup yup, he was good.
AND THEN WE LEFT! And had creemees from the 100-flavor creemee stand near my dad’s home. Dawg has photos of this, all I have is a fresh memory of a chocolate-peanut butter creemee that I couldn’t finish because it was too huge.
Then I was super tired so Dawg and I dropped off the parents and left to the hotel so we could nap before dinner. I woke up at 8:30pm, changed, then woke up Dawg so we could grab some dinner at the yummy steakhouse down the street. Very glad we did, we both had fantastic steaks. Dawg had a steak and rib combo that he enjoyed by making obscene sexual noises while sucking the meat off the rib bones, and I just kept going, “mm, this is AWESOME!” over my New York strip steak.
My NY strip steak
Chocolate Stampede for 2 (or 12, whichever)
We got dessert to go, bought some plasticware at the grocery store across the street (rather than ask for something they should have given us I felt like going to my old grocery haunt instead…), and went to the hotel for chocolate stampede, a suspenseful 2 hours of Angels & Demons on Pay-per-View, then some angel and demon action in the bed (ooooommmmmmgggggggg wheeeeee), and I was out like a light before Dawg.
Sunday arrived too quickly. We are old so we took our sweet time getting ready, packing, and leaving. We headed for Denny’s for a quick breakfast that turned out to take forever (our waitress had too many tables, not her fault), and I had something new! Pancake Puppies! They are pancake batter fried with a coating of cinnamon and sugar. They’re served with fake maple syrup, but please skip that. It’s the delicious puppies themselves that you want to eat. They are AMAZING, like pancakey donuts that are still fresh out of the fryer delicious. I didn’t have my camera so I can’t show you mine (although some are sitting in my fridge, but I’m old and lazy) but trust me, they are delicious.
After Denny’s we made a stop at the convenience store for more snacks (we really like to have snack options) then a stop to Dunkin Donuts for ice coffees, then I did my leg of the trip in the pouring rain all the way to the same Cracker Barrel but this time we just used the bathroom and ducked back out (heh) then switched drivers and gassed up at the Shell. As soon as I was on the passenger’s side I opened the remainder of my birthday presents from Dawg and the girls: A second camera battery charger for my Canon, and a fur clipping kit with oil and spray for the clippers so I can groom Ripley at home. (I might have had a psychotic episode in front of Dawg where I was irrationally worried that leaving her at an unknown groomer’s to be groomed for the day might result in her being sold to the highest bidder — she’s gorgeous and very friendly!) Dawg drove the rest of the trip in better-ish weather and when we got into town we ordered East Meets West then went to Mama Dawg’s for his work truck so we could drive both vehicles home to the apartment… and here we are! Home! Two pieces! The one goal of the weekend has been met! Yippy!
Here’s the whole set of photos. You will enjoy them comma dammit. I promise!
Thursday night Dawg and I went to Five Guys to have our favoritest burgers on the planet and they did not disappoint. Then we went to his parents’ house to pick up some packages and hang out with the kitties.
We eventually got sleepy enough that we came home and zonked out until the next morning.
Bright and early wake-up for no apparent reason, then off to Dawg’s parents’ place to pick up Dawg’s truck so he could get it inspected. After dropping off the truck we headed to E*SPARKS for pastries and iced caffeine, then home and hung out waiting for the new TV!!!!!!!!
Then we all piled into Hollywood’s car to head off to an Argentine steakhouse in Forest Hills that serves absolutely amazing steak.
After we went back to the house where we all had Fudgie the Whale cake and talked about wrestling and The Real World. After this we went home and watched some more of our new TV then had some very deserved hiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!! time and fell asleep until morning.
Saturday we stayed home to watch the 2009 Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest (Joey Chestnut won by a landslide) then decided to go to Jackson Hole for lunch.
OMG the burgers there are AMAZING. Five Guys, run for your money right there! The burgers are 7 oz and are a perfectly wonderful texture inside with a wonderful caramelized top and bottom. I’m drooling just thinking about it. And there was so much that I cut my burger in half before starting to eat it so I still have the leftovers! We then headed to Best Buy to look for an HDMI cable to hook up to the TV, at which point we realized we need an HD cable box, so decided to hold off with that, then went to Target and did a little bit of shopping. We got Street Fighter: The Lengend of Chun-Li, the John Cena movie 12 Rounds, an extension cord for diverting the power for our computers so we could put an air conditioner in the living room window, and some light daughter-hates-tyrranical-father-memoir subway reading: House Rules by Rachel Sontag. After Target we went to 7-11 to pick up hot dogs for our own hot dog eating contest!!!1
After fireworks we made our own fireworks/hot dog eating contest in the bedroom and fell into a deep slumber.
Sunday we bit the bullet. We got fortification at E*SPARKS then went to the Super Stop & Shop to do a full shopping, our first since The Incident. I suggested a new game plan: I take the cart and I do the shopping while Dawg drinks coffee and wanders the store on his own to pick up whatever items he wanted. WOW, that worked out way better. He went to the deli and ordered all he wanted from there while I worked off the list I made, with the cart at hand. We would occasionally run into each other and flirt and kiss and say those lovey words, then go our separate ways so I could continue working on the list while he waited for his 31-minute-long deli order. (It was a lot of stuff.) We did check out together since we had $338 of groceries to bag and cart, so much that the cashier asked us if we were having a party but Dawg just explained we only go full shopping once every 2 months. On our way out the door she said, “see you in two months!” That made me giggle. :) We came out of the store still in love, still in like, and still speaking to each other. Amazing what a change in strategy does!
And then we went to 7-11 so Dawg could pick up our winning Mega Millions ticket and we got a parking spot directly in front of the apartment building so we could bring up alllllll the groceries in two trips (only had to clean out one garbage bag full of old food to make room for the new, heh). After that it was tennis time — caught the end of Federer kicking Roddick’s slimey ass after 4 hours 17 minutes, and Serena redeeming a doubles title for Venus after stealing the women’s title from her ;) — and then we watched movies. Or, I assume we did. I wrote this part before we got to that part.
Full set of weekend photos are here. I highly recommend that you take the time to look, especially if you’re a Dawg fan or a Poppy fan. :D
And since this is what many of you have been waiting for, here’s The Trick Candles / Fudgie gets whacked / The guy we all think is so damn great celebrates a day he says he hates but seems to tolerate very well if we make it extra special:
(Mom, there’s your real ice cream and cake. ;)
Give me a day off and I return to my old tricks: Two posts in one day!
The Scene: Dawg and I are in the kitchen talking. Ripley is draped on me with her back feet in my hands purring away.
Poppy: You’re awesome.
Dawg: I’m not awesome. I’m okay. You’re awesome.
Poppy: No, you’re awesome!
Ripley swats Dawg in the face with her tail.
Dawg raises an eyebrow, we both laugh.
Poppy: Ripley’s an extension of me. Try that again.
Dawg: You’re awesome, I’m just okay.
Nothing happens.
Poppy issues the executive order to Ripley through her mind.
Ripley swats Dawg in the face with her tail.
Poppy: See? *smile*
Dawg: You’re right.
Poppy: It just got all Twilight Zone in here.
Dawg: Yes it did…
It all started with an email from my boss after he was away for a week, up through yesterday. It was titled “is everything ok?” and said “if anything is wrong please tell me.” I thought it was a JOKE because I had emailed him updates the whole time he was gone and I said hi to him when he got in and said hi to me, so I laughed it off and didn’t answer it. And then HE FORWARDED IT TO THE DIRECTOR AND CC’D IT TO ME AND COMPLAINED THAT I DIDN’T ANSWER HIM. The director had to read the email 5 times, still didn’t understand, then called my boss and asked him what the hell that was about. I emailed the director saying “I have no idea how to respond to that.” There are many theories as to why my boss did this, and none of them are good. He avoided me for the rest of the day, until the very end, when we had a regular discussion about work stuff. *shrug*
A few choice nuggets happened between this first incident of the day and 5pm when it was time to go home, including someone daring to ask me “what DO you know?” when she asked me where someone was who sits on the other fucking side of a wall because YO I AM SUPPOSED TO KEEP TABS ON MY CO-WORKERS AND ASK THEM WHERE THEY GO IF THEY LEAVE THEIR DESKS JUST IN CASE CRAZIES COME ASK ME WHERE THEY ARE, along with so many other incidents that at one point in the day I actually googled “phases of the moon” only to learn that the full moon was actually on May 17 so I really had no explanation for why so many crazies were trying to insert themselves into my life. I’m pretty sure the count was up to 10 by 5pm, just at work. I didn’t go anywhere all day, brought my lunch.
So, we’re at 5pm now and the elevators aren’t working and the fire warden gets on the building-wide intercom to tell us there has been a false alarm so it will be several minutes before the elevators are working. So a bunch of us go back in our office space to go down the stairs and that “cool” girl I mentioned before who doesn’t understand about work friends starts bitching at me for not holding the door for her and I fall into the trap, trying to explain that she wasn’t even AT the door when I was near it and she turns to her sister-in-law who also works there are starts high school name calling me, loudly saying I’m crazy and need prozac and that what I say doesn’t matter while I’m walking in front of her. I get to the closest stair landing and I yell at her “we are NOT friends. GO. GO!!!!!” and I give her the “don’t you DARE fuck with the Poppy” look and point down the stairs. And she and her SIL walk on by, not daring to say anything more to me. When we get street level I put in my ear phones and say nothing to anyone around me, just walk off to my own sunset.
And all this waiting to get down to the street makes me late to the train which turns into missing the first train that shows up 10 minutes after I get there because it’s just too jam-packed, but the next train arrives directly on its heels and I get a seat on that one. And we’re going, going, going, and we get to Queens Plaza and there is a huge THUD and people start scattering and other people start exiting the train and I look over and see a woman yelling out the door and then a few minutes later I see a Metro worker calling in whatever happened (it sounded like someone fell down, but who knows) and then we’re on our way and I get home a half hour later than life would normally allow me, not bad not bad, but then I’m supposed to walk up the 4 flights of stairs to the apartment, find my bank card that I left in my jeans pocket this weekend, and walk a city block down and a city block over to the bank to get money that I promised to give to Dawg, since it’s rightfully his, that he needs for 6am tomorrow, but I am so done with the day and so exhausted emotionally that I can’t even stand to think of going back down the stairs… so I check my cash stash and, look what I found!, exactly the correct amount that Dawg needs!
Oh, and there was an incident at home with the smoke alarm, and Georgie got locked in the bedroom, and when she finally got out she sat on my lap and she pushed out a big, fat, juicy TEAR from her eye. SHE CRIED! MY BABY CRIED! Broke my heart. I can’t even explain…
I got iLife ‘09 this weekend, but haven’t had a chance to install it. If I did I’d be recording a video and you’d be watching it. Instead you get a recap with words! You like those better anyway. Moving Picture Poppy isn’t as exciting as Pretends to be Literate Poppy. I’m aware.
So, yah, about the weekend… I wouldn’t call this a recap because (see disclaimer at the end), but I will be filling in some blanks to decrypt part of what I said before.
Friday night I went with Dawg to The Steff and Donkey’s wedding rehearsal and the dinner that followed it. I’d say the rehearsal went off without a hitch, and dinner was mostly ok.
The next day I got Dawg to Donkey’s house for 1:30pm so he could go with the guys in the limo in their monkey suits. I then rushed home, got dressed, and rushed back out to the church. When I got there I gave Donkey a kiss on the cheek and a “good luck” in his ear then sat with the only person I knew who wasn’t in that damn honking huge wedding party who was there at the moment: KC. I tried my best to take photos during the ceremony but I was too far back and the lighting was bad for that camera (shrug) so I took video of the event instead. Got Steff walking down the aisle, got Donkey and Steff saying their vows, got them kissing and walking away as husband and wife. On the way out the door we got bubbles!
After the nuptials Dawg went in the limo to the reception hall and I went home to eat ice cream and chill until it was actually time to be there for the por-tee then drove out to a castle in the middle of Long Island. When I got there I switched into my impossibly crazy-high almost stiletto boots and walked in the door. There were many highlights to that evening, but I have to vote hands down for the slow dances with Dawg. The world around me did not exist while we danced in small, slow circles. I would look into his eyes and feel such intense feelings for him that I would eventually have to look down and put my forehead against his with my eyes closed. If I’m ever in doubt of his love for me I think all he has to do is ask me to dance…
Yes, yes, YES, Poppy, get ON with it.
Spectacular food, great company, very good fountain soda Coke, piss-poor bathroom arrangements (bwahaha! anyway, who puts bathrooms UPstairs from the main ballroom [inside of which is the bar {at which people get dRunK}], where the stairs are made out of marble and are very slippery?!), a sufficient amount of drama, and the very best wedding favor I have received in my entire life:
That’s the “if I can’t have you NO ONE CAN!” murder knife for LOVErs. Or a cheese knife, whichever you prefer to think it as.
The next day I woke up before the alarm and cleaned the bathroom, put the laundry together, took a shower, then we went out to run errands and had a little breakfast at Georgia Diner before heading to the cemetery with Dawg’s mom, dad, and brother and Pudding, Pudding’s Other Half, and The Wolves. We did our thing for Baby Boy, gave each other hugs, said goodbye to Dawg’s brother who had to head home, then the rest of us headed to our next destination.
Can’t have 10 people get together but have no food, so we all went to The Sizzler. I don’t even have any idea what it’s like for the rest of the world when we all walk through a door. I can only imagine it’s a combination of annoyance plus pure amusement. We’re so loud and in the way and indecisive and jovial but keep-the-fuck-outta-our-bidniss. I just love being part of that group. And at dinner Pudding invited both me and Dawg’s mom to a sex party on March 22. If I bring a friend I get a free gift! Sooooo, Rachel and Robin, I am officially inviting you. Wanna go to Jersey for a “slumber party”? As Pudding’s Other Half put it, we’ll all be dressed in sexy lingerie, having a pillow fight. Should be HAWT. Oh, and the woman brings three gigantic suitcases with her so you most likely get to take your purchases home with you the same day.
After lunch-dinner it was home again. I put down a package I had foolishly opened earlier and the first thing Georgie did was stick her nose in it and yank a cat nip mousie that Aunt Frankie gave her (and the other girls, *ahem*) for being such good NYC kitties. Here’s Georgie playing with her mousie:
A catnap then BSG and Dollhouse while snuggling on the couch rounded out the weekend.
And now it’s Monday and today is show 3 of Lick. Slam. Suck. Please listen live at 8pm Eastern as we discuss something we hadn’t actually previously planned to discuss but are now due to some concern from the TequilaCon crowd: Lodging!
Disclaimer: This represents about 37.5% of the weekend’s notable moments. The rest of the notable moments are in the vault where they are to remain. Anything not mentioned in this post was intentionally omitted. Thank you for your cooperation and have a nice day. Doesn’t mean other people can’t tell The Rest of the Story.
Let’s see. The train was really busy so it was hard to read my Triangles book for some parts of the trip. And then when we got to the transfer station it was really crowded and I watched somebody get arrested and then I went down the escalator and caught a train just as it was about to close its doors! … Yup, that was the train.
I got boots for The Steff and Donkey’s wedding this Saturday. Black boots. Black heel boots. Black knee-high heel boots. (Yah. :) I haven’t opened the box yet. Georgie keeps trying to get in there. I wonder if she wants to play dress-up with them… hmm.
Ripley did a bad thing Wednesday morning and Dawg warned me when I called on the way home that he and Ripley were not on speaking terms. When I got home Ripley was in a timeout location that we didn’t create for her, she just started using it and then she didn’t leave that spot all night. I picked her up a few times and Dawg held her for a minute to say the punishment was off, but she just kept hanging out in the timeout spot. And then I went to sit down to write this blog post, stood up, looked down, and there was Ripley giving me the love eyes, hanging out on her back with her belly exposed. Yaaaaaay. :) And now? She’s snoozing with her head propped up on a stack of papers on my desk, staying warm by the computer. *zzzzzzzzzzzz*
*In case you missed my habit of leaking Top Chef info, you’re in luck! SPOILER: That’s what Fabio says after he breaks his finger and they ask him if he wants to go to the hospital DURING the elimination challenge. Hardcore, sir, hardcore.
