hey blogiverse!
sorry i haven't been around lately.
but tonight i find myself with a mug of tea, watching a marathon of law & order: svu while husbear does homework in his office.
soon he'll emerge and cook us a delicious dinner of salmon and pasta, and we'll curl up with the dogs and watch mad men, and i am greatly anticipating this.
but for now i'm enjoying the solitude and letting my mind wander to the approaching season and how much i'm looking forward to it. to october, with the sound of dry leaves skittering across the pavement and the smell of Cold and all of my autumn decorations that i'll pull out us soon as the weather dips below 60 degrees. to halloween, and my sewing machine and the hours i'm going to spend slaving over our costumes this year (Max and Moishe from Where the Wild Things Are, in case you were curious). to november and scarves and cider and walking down our street aflame with the beauty of photosynthesis. to thanksgiving, and seeing family, and baking without sweating, and the comfort of curling up on chilly nights with the dogs and husbear and a mug of tea.
just like tonight.
i don't have much to say, specifically, but i just wanted you all to know that i'm still here. that i'm alive and well and happy. that the dogs are getting along famously, and husbear and i are loving fiercely, and new york and i are getting along pretty well these days.
thanks for checking in, loves.
I have two announcements to make.
1. Upon our return home from vacation, Steve McQueen has been exhibiting some symptoms of what seems like depression. I'm sure it has something to do with dirty sidewalks replacing the expanses of woods and beach to which he became accustomed.
But i also think it is the lack of playmates, as he got to run wild with our bother/sister-in-law's two carolina dogs all week.
So yesterday, we got him a playmate.
I'd like to introduce you to Charlie Bronson.
(i'm sorry about the picture quality, all i have so far are cell phone pictures!)
He is a 7 month old pitbull/lab mix.
And he is just. fantastic.
He's housebroken, he's learning commands so fast, he sleeps through the night, and he worships Steve McQueen, who quite likes being worshipped.
Are we crazy for living in Brooklyn with two dogs, a cat, and a ferret? Definitely. But I've never presumed to be anything else.
2. I WON MY VERY FIRST GIVEAWAY! Thanks to the oh-so-crafty wife/mother/jewelry-maker extraordinaire,
Secondsister Suaviloquy herself, I am now the proud owner of the VERY appropriate SPOT BROOCH!
I think it suits me. Don't you?
Snippets from our week-long vacation to Pengilly, MN:
Steve McQueen loves to run, play with other dogs, and sleep in sand. He does NOT love water. How do we know?
...I pushed him in.
He sank to the bottom, swam up quickly, and doggy paddled like hell for the shore. And then puked.
I felt so horrible, but could not stop laughing. He's so cute when he swims!
This was a few hours after he fell off the dock trying to come play with me as I was sunbathing.
He seriously trotted halfway down and just went
kersploosh! into the water. It was only chest-deep, but as he is a city dog, he had never been in any sort of standing water before, and didn't know what to do.
It took him a full half hour to realize that you can in fact move your paws when submerged in H2O. and when he figured that out, he high-stepped his little butt right outta there, making sure to lift each paw allll the way out of the water with every step. the hind ones were tricky, but he got those sky high, too. Again I collapsed in laughter.
Another night, we played spoons.
Basically, this is played by passing around cards until you have collected 4 of a kind. when you do, you grab a spoon. when you see someone grab a spoon, YOU DO IT TO. the object of the game is essentially to NOT be the one left without a spoon, similar to musical chairs.
Now.
I was up at this lakeside cottage with my in-laws. That means Husbear, his brother, his brother's wife, his father, his father's wife, his mother, and his mother's husband (they get long like that. it's very interesting).
I did not win the game, but I sure as hades did not lose.
It may have had something to do with the fact that I wrestled my stepmom-in-law OUT OF HER CHAIR and ONTO THE FLOOR in order to grab her spoon. Because that's allowed. encouraged? who knows. but it is allowed, and i got that freaking spoon.
my sister-in-law took off a few layers of skin from husbear's paw. Husbear about sent his dad into cardiac arrest. Oh, it was lively.
We spent a day at a logging reenactment camp. That was pretty fantastic, even if it was geared towards kids on field trips or retirees, like my in-laws. We had a grand old time on the trails, and in the gift shop, where my fully grown and oh-so-mature Husbear bought a slingshot...that is shaped like a bear. And he has used it. Oh, how he has used it.
But my favorite moments were the subtle ones.
Like how we'd wake up early each morning and make breakfast together. And we'd walk down to the lake where the boys had bonfires going as the sun rose, and we'd sit in chairs on the sand and drink steaming coffee and sigh about how beautiful the colors in the sky are.
Or how we'd all sit and make s'mores at the campsire every night, and argue over who was better at toasting the marshmallows and the merits of hershey bars vs. kisses. The dogs all slept soundly in the sand by the fire, completely exhausted from chasing each other and other small animals all day.
Or how still the lake is at 2pm with the sun shining and the breeze blowing just the right amount to get the best suntan of your life without sweating a drop.
I loved all of those things.
And then we came home, and people stopped waving to us in the road. and they stopped waiting their turns in line. And the stopped offering cheerful smiles and speaking in charming accents.
Hey brooklyn. Did you miss us? I haven't decided yet if we've missed you.
