BlueperB's Blueprints

Good Friday night, everyone!  My kitty and I are ready to put this week to bed.

Today was a good day!  It was the first day of The Lady’s summer break and we went on a little adventure.  First, Mr. Guy, The Lady, and I went out for lunch and coffee.  I had a banana for lunch and Mr. Guy shared his coffee with me.  Mr. Guy told me that he didn’t think that it would be healthy for a furry little blue and orange monster to have a whole cup of coffee of his own.

After lunch, Mr. Guy and The Lady took me to the Red Circle store to get a new shirt.  Yay!  I was very excited.   I always find cool shirts at this store.  As Mr. Guy rolled me in the cart back to the little monster section, I was thinking about what color shirt I wanted and what words I might like on it and what picture  would be fun.  Even after all of this thinking I still didn’t know what I wanted.  We finally got to the right place for my size.  I looked at the shelves of shirts.  I kept looking and kept looking.  I didn’t see anything that looked just right for this little monster.  The words on one sad said, ‘Coolest brother.”  I’m not a brother so that one wouldn’t work\.  Lots of others had pictures of beach stuff on them.  Since we don’t go to Delaware, where there is a beach, anymore, these shirts didn’t feel right for me either.  I was very disappointed.  I finally saw a shirt that was The Lady’s coral color.  Do you remember that she has to take pictures of coral, without an ‘H’, stuff this week?  I decided this shirt would be OK.  It’s not like any of the shirts that I already have.

It has plants on it.  We have lots of plants at our house so I guess it is a good shirt for me.  I wondered what kind of plants they are.  I used Mr. Guy’s computer to find out what they might be.  I may not be the best Googler, but the computer told me that some of my shirt plants look like poison sumac.   Poison?!  That didn’t sound good.  I read that poison sumac makes you itch and turn red and bumpy.  I think adding red bumps to my orange and blue fur might be a little too much color for me.

Mr. Guy said that he didn’t think my shirt had poison sumac leaves on it.  He thinks they are more like palm leaves and leaves from tropical plants.  I hope he is right because just thinking about poison sumac makes me itch.

Even though my shirt shopping trip was a little disappointing, I still had a good day.  I hope we have lots more like it this summer.  And, The Lady said that we can look somewhere else for a new shirt.  I hope I am a better shirt Googler than plant Googler.

Do you ever have days that are both happy and sad at the same time?  We had one of those days today.

The Lady gave a big test to her class today.  She does that at the end of every one of her teaching semesters.  I think having to take a big test makes the day a sad day!   The Lady’s students didn’t seem too sad about having to take a big test.  Maybe that is because they are all very smart and knew all of the answers for the test.   I think they were most happy when they were all finished with the big test.

Everyone was sad because these students have all been in a class together for more than two years.  It was four different classes all in a row.  (After four classes in music theory I sure hope they knew all of the answers to the questions on their test!)  Now they are all done.  Some of the people are going to go to different schools soon so all of these friends may not see each other again.  That is the sad part.  The happy part is that those people will get to go learn more stuff and work hard to make their dreams come true.   I bet there will be some more big test days in their future that might make them sad.  Hopefully they will get to play and compose enough music to make them more happy than sad!

I get to go to school with The Lady on the last day of the last class and meet her students.  They are all very nice and were happy to take a picture with me.  Mr. Sam was especially happy to meet me.  He asked if he could hold me for our picture.  I was sad when we had to say good-bye to everyone.

But, I am happy that The Lady is almost done with work and will be home with me for a few weeks.  Maybe we will have time to go on some big adventures before she has to go back to school in June.

I guess you have to feel sad sometimes to also feel the happy times and you have to know happy times to get you through the sad times.

That’s a hard test for this furry little blue and orange monster!

I hope your day was more happy than sad!

XOXOXO

Do you want to hear something funny?

GRAPEFRUIT.

Grapefruit is funny.  Do you want to know why I think that grapefruit is funny?  If not, you should probably stop reading right now.

• A grapefruit looks and tastes nothing like grapes but we call it grapefruit.
• Grapes have been around since 6500 B.C.  Grapefruit has only been around since the 18th century.  Surely someone could come up with a new name for this new fruit.
• Mr. Guy and The Lady say that fermented grape juice, something they call whine, or maybe it is wine if we are still not using H’s), is tasty, fermented grapefruit juice not so much.
• I can eat the flesh and skin of grapes.   I only eat the flesh of grapefruit.  Its skin is only good if it is grated and sprinkled in little amounts in or on another kind of food.

You see, there are lots of differences between grapes and grapefruit.  But, you know what?  They have more things in common than you might think…kind of like people of different Skins and colors and sizes.

• Both grapes and grapefruit are actually berries.  We could call them grapeberries and grapefruitberries.  That’s funny!
• Both grow in clumps.  That is actually how grapefruit got its name.  Someone thought these clumps of round fruit growing a the tree looked like growing grapes.  I’m not sure if that is funny or scary.
• Both grapes and grapefruit are healthy foods.   This is good!

I like both grapes and grapefruit, but today grapefruit is my favorite because its juice is coral colored!

 

Yay!  It is a new week!  That means no more black and white photos.  My world can be colorful again.  I am very excited about that and couldn’t wait for The Lady to tell me what we were going to take pictures of today.  She said that all week we are going to be taking pictures of choral things.  

Every day this week we have to take pictures of people singing?  That was easy when we were in England because that is why we were there…so the choral people could sing every day.  (Mr. Guy and I just sat and listened, or drank tea and ate scones.  We don’t do choral stuff.). At home, I don’t see singing people every day.  I started to think that taking pictures this week might be even harder than the ones last week.

I asked The Lady if she was going to sing today.  She said that she wasn’t because she had too much work to do so I asked her who then was going to sing for us?  She looked confused.   “For our picture, because we need choral,” I said.

The Lady said, “Choral without an H.”  

We have to find someone singing songs that don’t have any H’s?  This picture stuff is getting harder and harder.  And then I thought, How would anyone know in a picture if the singers were singing songs with H’s.  

I tried to think of songs that I know with no H’s.  I decided maybe I could  sing Rocket Man or Yellow Brick Road  since Bohemian Rhapsody and Happy Birthday were off limits because of their H’s.  The Lady got a little annoyed with me because she was trying to work and I had Pandora playing Elton John kind of loud.  (I hope is doesn’t matter if the singer has an H in his name!)  She asked me why I was listening to Elton John over and over.  I told her I was trying to learn all the words so I’d be ready for our picture when she was done working.  For once, she looked more confused than me.

”Why do you need to learn an Elton John song for a picture?, she asked.

”Because you said we need a picture of choral without an H!”

“Not choral without an H!  Coral, the color coral, coral without an H!”

Hmm…coral, a color.  Maybe I should sing Color My World.  It has no H and has color.

The Lady and I finally got this all sorted out.  All I needed was to find something that was the color coral.  Next problem.  I had no idea what color coral is.  The Lady tried to explain to me that it was sort of orange and sort of pink but not really orange or not really pink.  (Maybe I was better off with black and white!)

I started pulling shirts out of drawer asking her if any of them were coral.  I found one with lots of colors.  She told me that it did have some coral in it.  Yay!  And it is one of my favorite shirts.  My friend Ms. Joni gave it to me!

It has coral without an H but coral with an L.  Even better a rainbow and an L for LOVE!  Anything that has to do with everyone loving everyone makes this furry little blue and orange (not coral) monster very happy!

Maybe I should sing All You Need Is Love.  It doesn’t have any H’s!

 

Today was a calm and quiet day at our house.  I had a lot of time to enjoy being with Mr. Guy and The Lady and to think about things.  I like to think, but sometimes I think I think too much.  This morning, The Lady told me that our picture-taking prompt for the day is sought after.  I wondered if she was confused and meant to say after-thought.  Nope.  She meant what she said, sought-after.  I had to give that some forethought before I had an idea for our picture.

First I had to figure out what “sought after” means.   Did you know that “sought” is the past tense of “seek?”   And, sought-after is a derivative participle?  (Whatever that means.). The best I can do with understanding this is that sought-after means something that I was seeking for yesterday…or the day before…or maybe two years ago.  I’m not sure how long ago I was supposed to be seeking for something before it becomes sought-after instead of still seeking.

After thinking about all of this for awhile, I decided that I don’t really seek things.  I just let things happen.  I go places with Mr. Guy and The Lady and other people, but they are never places that I decided that I wanted to go.  (I’m not complaining.)  I do things and I eat things and I experience all kinds of fun things, mostly things that I had never thought about seeking.  That is what makes them so much fun.  I do shop for t-shirts when I go, do, and have fun, but this is not because I want the t-shirts but because when I pull the shirts from my drawer and put them on  I want to remember all that I experienced and all of the people with whom I shared those experiences.

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When I opened my drawer today to get dressed, several of the shirts right on the top of my stacks all reminded me of special times and special places.  And, I noticed that they were given to me as gifts by special people in The Lady’s picture taking group!

One of my favorite memory shirts is my Dirt Shirt.  It was given to me by Ms. Michele when we spent a day with her and Ms. Peggy, both picture takers, when we were visiting Delaware back when The Captain was sick.  I wrote about my visit with my friends that day here.

One of the other memory shirts on the top of my stacks today was given to me by Ms. Rene Mac Donald.  I traveled a long way to meet her.  She lives in Scotland but she came all the way to Bristol, England to visit me and The Lady when The Lady was there singing.  This shirt has The Loch Ness Monster on it.  Ms. Rene thought I would like it because I am a monster too, but not the same kind of monster.   This monster hides in the water.  I don’t do that because, well, because water does funny things to my fur.  Also, there are not pictures of The Loch Ness Monster.  Some people don’t believe that this monster is even real.  There are lots of pictures of me.  I am very real!!!

I have lots of fun memories with The Lady’s friend, Ms. Joni., too  She and The Lady do lots of things together with sticks and string and stuff that looks like clothes but doesn’t have any arm or head holes.  Even though Ms. Joni doesn’t live close to us, she and The Lady talk a lot.  Ms. Joni gave me another of my shirts on the top of my shirt piles that I saw today.  She also made me a sweater and my very own quilt!  She went to Alaska with us.  And one year, I got to be on her Christmas card picture with her!  The Lady told me that Ms. Joni is coming to visit us in Texas this summer!  Once we are done with these black and white photos, I will show you my quilt.  Guess what colors it is.  HINT: It is not black and white!

Only one more day of black and white photos.  I can’t wait!

Anyway… back to this idea of “sought-after.”  I like to think about things that I have done and may do sometime, but mostly I like to think about today.  I like to be happy with the people that I am with right now even if sometimes we are together because something sad has happened.  I like to have as much fun as I can doing whatever it is that we are doing.  I like to make people smile.  Mostly I like to be a happy furry little blue and orange monster.

 

 

That is all for today.

This furry little blue and orange monster is very unhappy about this week of black and white photography!   I like blue and orange so much more than black and white!   The good news is three days down only three more to go!  Happy Hump Day!

I was not  really willing to have my picture taken today, but The Lady got a new guitar this afternoon and she told me that our photo would be more about her guitar and less about me so I agreed.  But, this picture still makes me sad.  Not only do I look much better in color, so does The Lady’s guitar.  It  is made from a maple tree and a spruce tree so it has interesting tree markings, kind of like my stripes that you can’t see because of this black and white stuff.

I’ll try to be a better sport about our photo and story tomorrow.

I learned a new word today:

Quintessential – representing the most perfect or typical example of a quality or class.

Mr. Guy told me that when he was a teacher and he was helping his students to learn new words, he would have them use their new words in sentences.  That sounded kind of fun.  Then I heard The Lady and Mr. Guy talking about poems.  I wasn’t exactly sure what a poem was so I looked it up.  A poem is “a composition in verse, usually characterized by concentrated and heightened language in which words are chosen for their sound and suggestive power as well as for their sense, and using such techniques as metre, rhyme, and alliteration.”  I still don’t think I know what a poem is!  Mr. Guy tried to explain this to me in a way that I could understand.  I was curious about these poem things.  I decided that I was not going to use my new word, quintessential, just in a sentence, I decided to use it in a poem, my very first poem.  I hope you like it.

Quintessential Me

In case we’ve not officially met,
I’ll share a bit about me.
I’m a furry little monster,
And I use the pronoun “he.”

My horns and claws are orange,
Some of my fur is too;
But most of me is a vibrant
Deep cerulean blue.

I live in the state of Texas
With The Lady and Mr. Guy
They adopted me in Delaware
Though I don’t know exactly why.

That doesn’t really matter
Because I’m as happy as can be
amidst all the crazy people
That I now call family.

We’ve visited many places
Both near and far away –
England, Iceland, Alaska,
Virginia, Milwaukee, L.A.

Seattle and Philadelphia
Minneapolis, Asheville, and KC.
I’ve met hundreds of nice people
I’m so lucky to be me!

I buy myself a t-shirt
To remind me where I’ve been.
I have a great big drawer full,
It’s hard to fit them in.

The Lady takes my picture
Every place  I go
And then I write my stories
About traveling to and fro.

I tell about the fun trips
About the sad times too.
I speak of all the things I learn
And moments gone askew.

Sometimes I  make mistakes.
I do not see things right.
The Lady says this is how we learn,
That experience brings insight.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this simple poem
About quintessential me.
A furry little monster
Who goes by Blueper B!

-Blueper B
5/2/2023

 

Hi, Everyone!  It is me, Blueper B!

It is my favorite time of the year, My Month of Me!  I look forward to the month of May all year long.  I get to go lots of places and do lots of things with Mr. Guy and The Lady and we get to write stories about the the lots of things that we do and then share the, with you!

I do stuff during other times of the year, but I’m not very good about writing about them during those other months.  I always think that I will be better about that and then those other months come and go and I’m not any better about writing.  That makes me a little sad.  In the eleven months since last May and this May, things have been busy at my house.  I got a new room and more space to store my t-shirts.  That is exciting!

And being back for this year’s My Month of Me is also exciting…but today is not  quite as exciting as I had hoped.  In fact, it is more disappointing than I had hoped.  

At my house, we always start the day talking about what The Lady’s picture taking prompt is.  That gives me lots of time to think about our photo while she is at school teaching.  This morning, she told me that our prompt for the day is Opt To Mall.  I got all excited with this!

Opt To Mall…that means we get to choose to go to the mall!  I haven’t been to the mall in a long, long time.  In fact, I haven’t done any shopping anywhere in a long, long time.  I can’t even remember the last time I got a new shirt.   Next to doing stuff with The Lady and Mr. Guy, and our friends, getting a new shirt makes me the happiest!  So, I thought all day about going to the mall when The Lady got home and I got happy and happier.

When The Lady walked in the door, I said, “Are we going now?  I’m ready!  I have been thinking all day about what color shirt I want to shop for!”  

The Lady looked at me with a very confused expression and asked, “Where are we going?”  

“To the mall!!!  Remember?!  I’ve been thinking about our word, our choice to opt to mall, all day!”

The Lady got an even stranger look on her face.  She picked me up and held me on her lap and gently broke the news to me that we were not opting for the mall, that I had condused her words this morning.  (Not really a surprise.)  She explained the word O-P-T-I-M-A-L to me.  In case you are wondering, it means “most desirable or satisfactory.”  Well, in this furry little blue and orange monster’s heart and mind, not going to the mall to shop for a new shirt was neither desirable nor satisfactory!  The Lady could tell that I was very sad.  She offered me a cookie that Mr. Guy had made earlier in the day.  I didn’t know he made cookies today.  Actually, I didn’t even know that he knew how to make cookies.  He must have made them while I was daydreaming about the Opt To Mall Adventure that now was not going to happen.  I guess that makes it less than O-P-T-I-M-A-L.   Did I use that word correctly?

After my cookie, I told The Lady that I would go find an OLD shirt in a pretty color so that she could take her O-P-T-I-M-A-L photo of me.  She told me that the color didn’t matter.  What?  When you are a furry little blue and orange monster, color always matters!  Some colors clash terribly with my fur.  Why did she even say this to me?

I calmly asked her why she said such a terrible thing.  She told me that the color of my shirt didn’t matter because our photo today would be in black and white.  Ugh!  I remember this black and white photo stuff from other years.  I don’t like it!  Black and white photos of this furry little blue and orange monster are waaaay less than O-P-T-I-M-A-L!!!  I tried not to show how disappointed I was.  I told The Lady that I would try to find a black and white shirt for today and I’d save my pretty color shirt for tomorrow.  I thought she would be happy that I was trying to be an understanding monster, but she still didn’t seem happy.

She then said, “I hate to tell you this, but this whole week is going to be black and white photos.”

I might have cried a little when I heard those words.  I don’t know that I have learned anything about O-P-T-I-M-A-L today, but I sure have learned a lot about less than O-P-T-I-M-A-L!  The Lady understood why I was sad and she was very kind to me.  She promised me that we would go shopping for a new shirt this week and on Sunday, when we don’t have to have black and white photos anymore, we can take an OPTIMAL photo in a brand new shirt.  Yay! Something to look forward to.  But, this is going to be a very long week for this colorful little monster.

For today I decided on a shirt that even photographed in black and white still has a bright and cheerful message.  I hope I have enough shirts like this to get through the whole week.

Happy May, everyone!  Share some kindness.  Kindness will make all your days optimal!