just a small family of three

This past weekend, Topher and I traveled to pick up someone very important...

Boomer!

Reuniting with the pup was so much awesome that I can't even explain.  She is currently passed out next to me here on the couch and we have spent the majority of the past few days snuggling, taking many long walks each day and generally loving every minute of her furry butt being back in our lives!

Here is the proof of the passed-out-ness:

And for the final photographic evidence of our past few days:

while my chest tremendously aches

such a dramatic title for such a wee little pup.

let's chat for a moment about the small ache that i carry around in my chest each day.  that little part of me where i actually lose my oxygen, where the sadness presses against my lungs and hearts and shoots a resounding gong of lament when i see a certain four legged furry thing in a picture, on skype, or even another furry thing on the streets of cambodia.

the CERTAIN little furry thing is named boomer.

she is deeply loved not only be me but by countless others.

her wacky little ear, her fuzzy little belly, her relentless little growl at the doorbell.

each piece is a heavy and sharp pang.

and every time i ride my bike, i see countless furry reminders of my boomer.  furry little animals, covered in invisible fleas, missing spots of fur, often with rib cages protruding through it all, noses scouring plastic bags and rubbish piles for remnants of rice.

endless pangs for man's best friend that are anything but in my new country.  friends that are in fact rather guard dogs, things to be tolerated, but more often a nuisance, something that gets in the way of all moving vehicles on the roads, loud thumps when they aren't seen after the sun has set.

it's not that cambodians hate dogs- i haven't seen anyone maliciously attempt to seriously harm a dog.  and it's not that it's a bad place with bad dog-hating people. it's just the pup reality here.

and the reality just is.

and to end on a happy note, a video of the boomster playing a favorite game called "slide on the floor" at my parent's house.

how deeply would you miss your furster if you moved to another country?

of boomer and plops

Ok, so this little note has little nothing to do with plops.  (Must reserve plops for most important occasions, like half birthdays.)

But it does have to do with Boomer.  It's not your average look at how cute my little pupper is.

Because, really, Boomer has a face only a mother could love.

She's awkwardly shaped, all long like a wiener dog, but with a scruffly, rat like tail. A rat tail that's overgrown with sad long hairs that should be black but are becoming all white like.  She's growing a little white beard but it's not quite Santa or even dignified.

Her one ear just. sticks. out. Like, all up in your face, making you turn your head sideways to catch it all.  It's panoramic.

And she's got the crazy eye.

And she's mine, all mine.

Sometimes, though, she just takes my love- the love that sustains me through her shmugly face, her pooping on the carpet, her barking at air vent, her eating of my favorite grey old navy flip FLOP- and flings that love back at me, covered in her smug doggie poo.

Poo flinger, she is.

Because what she does is be all cute up in YOUR hizzouse and all DUMB up in mine.

She's all running around, letting herself out to pee, smiling and giggling in YOUR house.

Then she's all scurrying and flitting and fleeing and peeing in OUR house.

Dumb dog loves our parents' houses more than her own.  She's angelic and adorable at THEIR house and demonic and fugly at ours.

Fugster.  If she wasn't only so damn cute.

Does your pet fling their poo back at you (metaphorically speaking, after all they lack opposable thumbs)?

Outtakes

Tonight, I was trying to get ahead on my vlogging for next Friday (plus, Topher was playing Call of Duty and I was trying to be a nice wife) and answer the prompt for this week.  Cole and I haven't officially settled on a new prompt for the next week, but I figured I could add that later.

My husband had other plans.

First off, my mac is still not recording sound 60% of the time, so I end up talking for four minutes only to realize that I just look like an idiot on the playback. So I asked Topher to help me out.  He did, somehow, but he also got excited with the laser pointer (though, for the life of me, I couldn't remember this word, and called it the "red light" in the outtakes.)

I had to share these few outtakes with you, in case you can get a weekend chuckle out of them.  Chris is playing with the laser pointer while I try to vlog at our kitchen table.  In these vlog outtakes, you can see me barely holding in my laughter and giving him THE LOOK, and for you Boomer lovers, you'll definitely love these.

Happy Martin Luther King Weekend, and I hope you get Monday off!

Bandwagon (again): Dialect Vlog!

So I jumped on another bandwagon: the dialect vlog! First I saw kjpug's vlog, the Katie's at Ruffles and Truffles, and finally, when I saw that Abby from Wife, From Scratch did it, I just had to join in the fun.

Though I don't think I say anything weird at all, because where I grew up in Southeastern Idaho is right near Salt Lake, which is right where they send all of the newscasters to learn how to speak without an accent. So I don't have one, right?

I'm sad because my first attempt at this didn't record.  So, you get a fun 44 second intro, and then the reading.  I just realized while writing this that a lot of setting up got deleted, like me setting the rationale and guidelines and some "witty" asides.  Either way, enjoy part 1 and 2 of my first ever vlog!

(Oh, and in the spirit of full disclosure, I talk to Boomer a lot in this vlog. Someone (ahem, Topher) should have told me to leave well enough alone and not include her. Woops.)

Part 1:

(I really need to learn how to upload videos, because, really?! that freeze frame?! and the black screen below?! I don't get it...)

Part 2:


You all should REALLY do this. It's fun.

Here are the words to repeat and questions to answer:

Aunt, Route, Wash, Oil, Theater, Iron, Salmon, Caramel, Fire, Water, Sure, Data, Ruin, Crayon, Toilet, New Orleans, Pecan, Both, Again, Probably, Spitting Image, Alabama, Lawyer, Coupon, Mayonnaise, Syrup, Pajamas, Caught

And the questions:

• What is it called when you throw toilet paper on a house?
• What is the bug that when you touch it, it curls into a ball?
• What is the bubbly carbonated drink called?
• What do you call gym shoes?
• What do you say to address a group of people?
• What do you call the kind of spider that has an oval-shaped body and extremely long legs?
• What do you call your grandparents?
• What do you call the wheeled contraption in which you carry groceries at the supermarket?
• What do you call it when rain falls while the sun is shining?
• What is the thing you change the TV channel with?

I think I like vlogging. I know I need to make the light better and take out Boomer, but what kinds of topics would you like to hear about?

Bandwagon: Year in Review

Yep, I'm doing it too. Except I'm only going to mention things that I have pictures for.  It's interesting, as you can tell the months I worked a lot, as there aren't many pictures.  Sorry, Topher, for June, August and September.  I really overworked those months.

January

Right before we went back to work, Toph and I got our marriage license. It was awesome.

Almost as awesome, I got accepted to blog for Weddingbee and became Ms. Pencils.  Soon that same month, we had a meet up and I got to meet my amazing fellow Maryland bees!

At the end of the month, Topher and I took part, for the second time, in the Maryland Polar Plunge.  It was f-ing cold. We're doing it again this year.

February

It snowed, a lot, in February.  The Mid-Atlantic got swamped. Feet of snow.

That same month, Topher and I made our own wedding rings. Again, f-ing awesome.

March

We totally got our first wedding gift.

I had my hair trial when my mom was in town for her Spring Break.

We visited our venue for a tasting. I. Love. Cake.

April

In April, we ventured out with friends for our last night out before we're old marrieds.  

We also took dance lessons, with a last one culminating at our messy, wedding-covered home!

Amazing friends came from Idaho, Texas, Washington, and Virginia to support me as I got waxed and wed!

Oh, yeah, and they took me out for a kick ass bachelorette party.

Did I mention I met Jon Gosselin? Oh, I have? Still, a 2010 highlowlight

May

We got married. It rocked.

We celebrated in Costa Rica. I want to live there.

Topher cut my hair and we ate. A lot.

We attended the Andrews Air Force Base Open House & Air Show.

June

I really did work. A lot. I managed (organized and executed) a week long welcome week for our new corps members.

July

We celebrated our wedding in Idaho with my family and friends that couldn't make it. We ate delicious Costco cake.

While in Idaho, we floated the Portneuf River.  Everyone except Topher got hurt.

I also decided to try to go vegetarian this month. By October, I was over that.

August

We spent a week in North Carolina with my parents. We also may have put Boomer in a canvas bag. She liked it.

We also applied for something that I'm hoping will come true in 2011.

September

Again, I worked.  It was the first month of school. Exhausting.

October

Boomer dressed up as an ice cream sundae for Halloween.

Claire came to visit me and I celebrated my 25th birthday with a winery hopping tour, arranged by the bestest husband around.

November

I worked a lot this month, too, but we went to Mexico to watch my brother get married.  No other words besides amazing.

December

Boomer got in the holiday spirit.

She also turned 2. And loved it.

Toph and I spent our very first Christmas day together.  We got each other amazing leather bags.

We spent time in Louisiana with my family after Christmas.

We rang in 2011 with lots and lots of champagne. Which I just realized we left at Topher's mom's house. Like, five bottles. Damn it.

I really ought to photo document the year more.

Anybody want to drive to Annapolis to pick up 5 bottles of Andre for me? I'll give you one...