Author: Kris Baker

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A Big Surprise!

Yesterday I shared about how I helped to make Mr. Guy’s birthday cake.  Today when I woke up The Lady and Mr. Guy told me that today was a special day; it is my birthday!  Well, sort of…

The Lady said that birthdays are the day that you come into the world.  I don’t know the exact day that I came into the world; neither do The Lady and Mr. Guy.  So we are celebrating the day that I came into their world.  It was one year ago today that Mr. Guy and The Lady walked into Kid’s Ketch toy store in Lewes, Delaware and decided that they wanted me to become part of their family.  That made me one very happy blue and orange furry monster!  I have been a lot of places and learned many things over the last year.

The Lady likes to take pictures so that she can remember her adventures.  I like to collect T-shirts from all the places that I visit.  They are kind of like pictures to me, but I can wear them.  Every time I put one on it reminds me of special place, or person, or both.


For my birthday, Mr. Guy gave me these funny white things that look like triangles with a crooked horn.  I said, “Thank you.” but I had no idea what I was supposed to do with them.  He told me that they are called “hangers.”  They are used to hold clothes so that they stay neat and you can easily find the ones that you want.  Before I got the hangers, all my shirts were in a basket that I had to dig through to find the one I wanted; then they all got unfolded.  That was not good because my monster paws don’t fold clothes very well.  Now that I know what they are for, I am very happy with my new hangers!  And, I have some unused ones so I guess Mr. Guy thinks I will get some new shirts this year!  I am doing a happy monster dance!

Speaking of new shirts, I also got one of those for my birthday.


 It says “THE BEST IS YET TO COME!”  That is exciting!

Even though I was adopted in Delaware, I actually live in Texas.  During the past year I have made several trips back and forth between Texas and Delaware because we were visiting The Captain, The Lady’s father.  He was sick during that time and died back in October.  Though I am usually a happy monster, that was a sad time.  I am glad that I got to go see The Captain several times.  We liked to watch baseball games together.  The Captain always cheered for the Philadelphia Phillies.  I have a Phillies T-shirt that reminds me of The Captain.


On our trips to Delaware, I also got to meet some of The Lady’s picture taking friends, Ms. Michele and Ms. Peggy.  I got to go some neat places with them while they took pictures.  Ms. Michele sent me my very first package in the mail, a University of Delaware T-shirt!  Every time I wear it I think about Ms. Michele, Delaware, mail, and, most importantly, friends.  Ms. Michele also gave me another shirt on one of our visits.  It is my “dirt shirt.”  It makes me think about Ms. Michele, playing outside, and chocolate.  Dirt and chocolate are the same color.


In between our trips to Delaware, I also visited San Diego, California; Phoenix and Tuscon, Arizona; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  That is a lot of traveling for such a young monster!  I have been on lots and lots of airplanes.  Sometimes the other people on the airplanes look at me funny.  Well actually, I think they are looking at Mister Guy and the Lady funny because they are flying with a furry blue and orange monster.  It doesn’t seem to bother them, though.  Mr. Guy always carries me and holds me and keeps me safe.  I am called a “lap monster” on the airplanes so I don’t get my own seat; I have to sit in Mr. Guy’s lap when we fly.

My people said that we will adventures on airplanes this year too, but that we won’t go back to Delaware any time soon.  That makes me kind of sad because I have friends there, but I am excited to visit some new places too.

After I opened my birthday presents this morning (the shirt and hangers), we went out for lunch at Taco Cabana.


I had chips and queso something new, street tacos.


I liked them because they were little and easy for me to hold.  The people there were really nice!  They wished me a happy birthday.  One of them was so nice that he got me thinking…I thought about this the whole time I was eating my tacos and decided “yep,” this is a good idea.  I told The Lady about me idea and she thought it might be fun, too.  So here it is.  I am going to try to have my picture taken with 100 new friends this year.  We’ll see how it goes.

Travis at Taco Cabana was #1.  When Mr. Guy ordered, Travis wanted to hear my story.  I told him that I was adopted one year ago today in Delaware and we were out celebrating my special day.  He smiled and said that his grandmother had lived in Delaware.  Like The Captain, his grandmother has passed away too.  After I ate my lunch and had thought about my idea, I went and asked Travis if would mind having his picture taken with me.  He smiled again and said, “Sure.  I would love to.”


He joked around with me for a few minutes.  That was a nice birthday present.  The Lady was not comfortable taking a picture of a stranger so this is not her best.  Hopefully with 99 more to go, she will get better!

When we got home, I got to have a special treat too, something that the Lady called a “cupcake.”  That sounded a little strange to me.  I thought I was going to have to drink my cake.  The lady said that that was not what “cupcake” meant.  She showed me that a cupcake was a cake that was the size of a cup, not a great big cake like the one I made for Mr. Guy.  Actually, my cupcake came from the grocery store.  I don’t think The Lady has recovered from our adventure making Mr. Guy’s cake yet.  That is OK.  It was a yummy cupcake.


Other than cake we didn’t do anything else special for Mr. Guy’s birthday.  For me, my people got things that they called decorations.  I had a funny hat that was shaped just like my horns so it fit on my head.


 They put this fire thing in my cupcake that kind of scared me.  I thought it might melt my fur so The Lady made the fire go away.  And, there were these big things that looked liked colored eggs that floated in the sky.  They were kind of fun.


The Mr. Guy doesn’t like them.  He told me that they are fragile like the eggs but if they break, they make a loud scary noise.  The only loud scary noise when real eggs break is from The Lady.

After all this excitement, I thought that my birthday celebration was over, but The Lady said that there was one more surprise.  She told me that there is someone who wants to be my pen-pal.  I wasn’t exactly sure what that meant.  I know that a pal is another name for friends and I like friends.  I know that a pen is something that you draw with, but only on paper.  (I learned that the hard way.)  But, I wasn’t sure how those two things go together.

The Lady told me that she has a new picture taking friend who lives way far away in Scotland.  Way far away was explained as ten hours on an airplane.  I understand airplane time!  Anyway, this picture taking friend also adopted someone like me and they too share adventures together.  My pen-pal’s name is “Stobbsie.”  Like me, he has a blog where he writes about his adventures.  Now we can write to each other and talk about all the things we do, places we go, and people we meet!  I am super excited!  Friends, old and new, are my favorite thing…except for maybe T-shirts.  No, friends.  Well, maybe T-shirts…Friends…Oh, I am having a monster conundrum I am going to have to think about this!  Anyway, The Lady is going to show me all of the blog posts that my new friend, Stobbsie, has written and then I am going to write to him!  I am such a happy and lucky little blue and orange monster!

Cupcakes!
T-shirts!
The Lady and Mr. Guy!
Friends all over the world!

What more could a monster want?

Thank you all who have made my first year so special.  I am looking forward to “THE BEST IS YET TO COME!”

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Blueper B. and the Birthday Boy’s Cake

Hi!  It’s me, Blueper B., and I’m back!!!

Finally The Lady and Mister Guy have finished their school year and we can do stuff together.  I miss them when they are teaching, but I know that they need to do that to make money so that they can take care of me, their furry blue and orange monster.

We started off our summer vacation together by celebrating Mister Guy’s birthday.  I learned that on your birthday people make you special treats.  You can have anything you want.  Mister Guy wanted a Citrus Angel Food Cake.  The Lady said that she would make it for him.  I asked if I could help because I have never made a cake before and I was ready to learn something new.  I’m not sure that The Lady really wanted my help, but I made her feel guilty when I said that she had spent the last nine months teaching her students at school new stuff and I had waited patiently.  Now it was my turn for her to teach me.  It worked! 🙂  I got to help make the cake.  It was a lot of work!!!

The Lady said that some people make their cakes by buying a box of mixed up stuff at the grocery store and then all they have to do is add one or two things and they had a cake.  We didn’t make ours that way.  She said we were going to make it from scratch.  Scratch?   I thought scratch was what you did when something made your fur feel funny.  The Lady explained to me that making a cake from scratch means that you don’t buy a box of mix from the store; you collect all of your ingredients yourself.  I asked her how you knew what ingredients you need and she showed me a piece of paper called a receipt…no, a recipe.  It tells you all of the ingredients that you need and then exactly what you are supposed to do with them.  The cake that Mister Guy wanted had a lot of ingredients, more than I could count on my orange fingers.  The Lady said that we had to get all of our ingredients out and measured and ready to go because this cake was kind of temperamental…whatever that means.  I didn’t ask because I was more interested in learning how to make a cake than learning new words that day.  Some day I’ll find out what temperamental means.

The Lady said that we would start by zesting an orange.  I didn’t know what “zesting” meant either.  This time I asked because it had something to do with making the cake.  The Lady showed me how to use a special tool, a “zester.”  


A zester is used to scrape the the outer skin from the orange into tiny little pieces.  I don’t know why you want to take off the pretty bright orange skin, but I am a good monster and I followed The Lady’s instructions.

She told me that the the zest would eventually go into the cake and make it taste “orangy.” 


 I was surprised that we did not use the inside of the orange.  I ate it.  This monster needed a little nourishment to get him through this adventure.



Next we had to juice a lemon.  


Just kidding.  This is not how it’s done.  Juicing a lemon took a special tool too…a juicer.  Haha.


Juicing the lemon was easy.  Again, we did not use the inside of the lemon.

Next we had to separate the eggs.  I asked if there was a special cooking tool for that too.  The Lady said that there was, but that she did not have one so we would separate our eggs without one.  The Lady said that the eggs are the most important part if this angel food cake that Mister Guy wants.  She said that eggs are fragile and that I was going to have to be very careful if I was going to help with this part.  


(I know what fragile means.  The Lady taught me that word early because she was worried that I would break something in the stores when we go shopping.  Sometimes I am not aware of how big my monster hands and horns are and I don’t control them very well.)  

The Lady explained that we had to crack the eggs and put the white part in one bowl and the yellow part in another bowl.  I wasn’t so sure that I could do that all by myself so I asked Mister Guy to help me. 


 Bad idea!  Either he can’t tell the difference between white and yellow or his hands are less controllable than my monster hands.  He kept dropping the yellow part in the white bowl.  Finally we got twelve eggs cracked and separated.  We only needed the white bowl for the cake.

We were finally ready to start mixing all of the ingredients together.  Here came another kitchen tool. This one was great big!  It was blue and had weird pieces attached to it and it had to be plugged in.  

I thought that we would just use a big spoon and stir everything in a big bowl.  I was such a wrong blue and orange furry monster!  First we had to whip the eggs in this big blue machine.  


The Lady talked about foam and soft peaks and stiff peaks.  I wasn’t really interested in all of that.  This was taking a long time.  Little by little we got all of the ingredients in the bowl and finally it was time to put the cake in the pan and bake it.  The Lady asked me to get the pan for her.

This is the strangest looking pan I have ever seen!  First of all, it fell apart when I picked it up.  I thought it would make better armor for a monster in case he had to do battle with that big blue kitchen machine. 




I felt sort of like Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street except that I’m a happy monster, not a grouchy one!

 The Lady was not amused.  She suggested that perhaps this was taking so long because I was not giving my full attention to the task at hand.  Possibly, but I was bored with the cake by this point.

We got the cake in the pan and in the oven.  Woohoo!  Playtime!  Again I was wrong.  The Lady told me that now we had to clean up all the mess that we had made in the kitchen.  This cake making thing is a whole lot less fun than I thought it would be.  Because I am a good monster, I helped The Lady wash all the stuff that we got dirty making this cake. 


 The only good part of this cleaning up part was that I got to lick the the bowl.  


The uncooked batter tasted good so I figured the cake would too!

When the cake came out of the oven, we had to let it cool.  Then The Lady took the pan apart and there was the cake…with a hole in the middle.  That is how it was supposed to be.  It looked light and fluffy.  Mister Guy said is really good.  When I saw how much he liked it, I was glad that The Lady and I had gone to the trouble to make the special cake that he wanted.

I makes me happy when I can make other people happy!


If you want to know exactly how The Lady and I made Mister Guy’s birthday cake, The Lady wrote more about it here.

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I’m Still Here! And It’s Snowing!

Today we had a talk at our house about time management. I was feeling a little bit ignored. Even though I spend most of my time in our office with The Lady and Mr Guy while they’re doing stuff, they haven’t really taken me many places (actually, they haven’t really gone anywhere) or helped me post to my blog. Big orange fingers don’t work too well on the computer keyboard, so I need their help. I was feeling left out.  I think they understand how I am feeling.  They told me that they felt badly too.

 I know The Lady and Mr Guy are busy. The Lady does her pictures everyday for Capture Your 365 and has started a new blog with her friend Ms. Tracey.   You can see it at Plates, Pixels, and LOLS’s. (Ms, Tracey is another of the Lady’s photography friends.  I hope that I get to meet her some day like I did Ms. Michele and Ms. Peggy.  So far all of those people with cameras have been fun people.) The Lady also has a lot to do for the school where she teaches. They haven’t given her an office so she does a lot of her stuff at home. That is not nice of them.   Her school stuff is taking over my T-shirt shelf!

Mr Guy does stuff for his school too. He doesn’t take pictures, though. That’s why you see him and me in most of the pictures. The Lady has to take them. Mr Guy does help me to do some of the writing and The Lady fixes up what we say.

And lately they have been dealing with the things from the Captain’s life. I am so glad I got to meet the Captain last year.  It makes me sad to think he is gone and I will not get to see him again. But he was a good man and he had lots of friends who will make sure he is not forgotten.  He and I will always have Lewes in common.

So whenever I feel left out I remember that there are lots of things going on and that orange and blue furry monsters sometimes need to be patient.   But, Mr. Guy and The Lady also told me that it is OK to tell them when I am feeling sad and unhappy.

Earlier in the week it was icy and I was glad not to go outside. We all stayed home and rested. It was very nice. Only the dogs went outside. I guess their fur keeps them warm.  But yesterday it started to snow and snowed all day long! This morning, after our talk, we went out to see it. I got to wear The Captain’s beanie to keep my orange horns warm. I had never seen snow so I did not know what it was like.


It was kind of weird looking!  Snow is cold! And it is white! I looked through the tree and all I could see was lots of white everywhere.


 It was hard to believe this all came down from the sky! Mr Guy said it does not happen that often here, but in other parts of the country, they have lots and lots of snow…way more than we have here in Texas. He said we get a lot of ice here   Snow is way more fun than ice.

While we were out playing,  I looked at the house I saw Frankie the cat sitting in the window. I went over to say “hello.”


I know that she would have been very cold if she had come outside.  The Mister Guy said that she is an indoor monster cat.  She doens’t come outside unless she is sitting in someone’s lap.  I couldnt tell if she was sad about being inside while we were playing in the snow.


I made a “snow angel,” sort of.


I also made a snowball, with a little help.



Mr Guy and The Lady said that you can throw them like a baseball, whatever that is, and that people sometimes have snowball fights. They throw snowballs at each other for fun. I am not so sure about that. I don’t like anything that sounds like a fight. I really don’t like fighting.  The Lady and Mr Guy said it doesn’t hurt when it is just snowballs.  I tried to throw my snowball, but I wasn’t very good at it and I didn’t hit anything.


Our snow had a crackly layer of ice on it.  I think that might hurt someone.

The Lady said that sometimes people make snowmen out of the snow, but that here has to be a lot of snow for that, more than we have. She described a snowman as three different sized balls made from snow stacked on top of each other with the biggest one on the bottom and the smallest one on the top.  She said that you can give your snowman eyes with something like buttons and a nose with a carrot.  He can even have a hat and scarf. When she described a snowman, I remembered something from last December.


Back at Christmas time, The Lady took a whole bunch of pictures of me in my fancy clothes.  I got this weird thing with no sleeves that The Lady called “a vest.”  She told me it was for special occaisions, when my T-shirts were “not appropriate.”  I can’t really think of such an occaisions, but she assured me that they do exist.  I don’t think that I like them.


Anyway, The Lady and Mister Guy felt really bad that they never helped me post my Christmas pictures.  They told me that even though it is past Christmas and past Valentine’s Day and is almost spring, we could still post them.  So we are having Christmas in February…almost March.





And, we are going to be better at sharing more family time together and documenting and writing about it as we go!  Mister Guy and I started this morning by having a warm cup of coffee after we came in from playing in the snow.  We talked about all the things we want to do and see this spring and all the places that we can go.


 I am now an excited, rather than a sad, furry blue and orange monster!

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Friends, Dirt, and Chocolate Chips

Things have been very busy with my family lately.  Mister Guy and The Lady have made many trips to Delaware because a sad thing happened; The Captain, The Lady’s father died in October.  I was glad that I got to meet him.  He liked me though I think he thought it a little silly that Mister Guy and the Lady took me lots of places with them.   

I have not been able to come on all of the trips.  I understood.  I stayed in Texas with Offspring No. 1 and the other furry members of my family.  I missed Mister Guy and The Lady when they were gone, but I knew that they had lots to do and didn’t have time to pay a lot of attention to a furry blue and orange monster.

I am happy that I got to come with them this week for Thanksgiving.  The Lady and Mister Guy had some business stuff to take care of, but they also had time for some fun things.  I was excited when they told me that we were going to take a trip to Dover and I was going to get to meet Ms. Michele and Ms. Peggy.  I wrote about them earlier.  They are The Lady’s picture-taking friends.  Ms. Michele is my friend too.  She sent me a special package in the mail.  I have wanted to meet her in person for a long time!

Dover is the capital of Delaware so there are lots of important buildings there.  We met them at the library.  (Offspring No. 1 told me that the library is the most important building in any city.  I don’t know if I believe her.  I think maybe she just says that because she is a librarian.)  I didn’t care where we met; I just wanted to meet them.  And I did!  Ms. Michele and Ms. Peggy recognized me.  I felt so important.  They weren’t even embarrassed to walk around the state capital with me.  

We saw lots of old buildings and a nice lady walked around with us and told us about lots of stories about the early history of Delaware.  I learned a lot about the state from which I come.

We all had lunch together, walked around a little more to see the governor’s house, and then we went to have some dessert.  The picture takers were supposed to photograph dessert that day so they were all excited about pie and cookies and scones.

The only bad part of the whole day was that something was wrong with The Lady’s camera that day and none of her pictures came out.  She said that they were all fuzzy like me, but not blue and orange.  It makes me sad to not have any pictures from my day in Dover, but I have lots of happy memories.  Mister Guy and The Lady said that they will take me to see Ms. Michele and Ms. Peggy again and The Lady will do a better job with her camera.   

Fortunately, Ms. Michele sent The Lady a couple pictures from our day.  


The other thing that Ms. Michele did was bring me a new T-shirt!!!  She read my post about going to the playground and brought me a special playground shirt.  I love my new shirt!!!!  And, I am so happy that The Lady and Ms. Michele are friends because that makes it possible for Ms. Michele to be my friend too!


I haven’t had a chance to go to the playground in Lewes yet because yesterday it was cold and rainy and yucky.  I stayed inside where it was warm.  The rain makes my fur feel funny and I don’t have a raincoat.  

I did get to play in the yard today.  


There is a little building in the back yard that The Lady said used to be her playhouse.  She would play inside it when she was here visiting her grandparents.  


There isn’t much in there now, but I bet it was fun when she had toys in there. 

I discovered something new to play with – leaves!  We don’t have a lot of leaves in our yard in Texas, but here you can rake them into a big pile and jump and hide and play in them.  


It was so much fun!  And, I wore my special dirt shirt so The Lady couldn’t get mad at me for getting my shirt dirty.  It hides all the dirt!



It was still a little cold outside so we didn’t stay outside too long.  Plus, The Lady needed to go inside and make something called pie to take to The Aunt’s house for the Thanksgiving meal.  The Lady told me that most people have pumpkin pie with their Thanksgiving meal.  That sounded like a good idea to me because pumpkins are orange and I like anything that is orange.  Then she said that she wasn’t making pumpkin pie.  That made me a little sad until she said that The Cousin was making pumpkin pie so she was going to make a different kind, pecan chocolate chip.  That sounded interesting, but not orange.  I asked if I could help and the Lady said yes.  She told me that I could measure out the chocolate chips.  I have never had chocolate chips before so I didn’t know if I would like to measure them or eat them.  



Chocolate chips are kind of funny looking.  They look more like drips than chips to me and they are not the right color for food.  I decided to brave and try one anyway.  Much to my surprise, they tasted pretty good.  I tried another one.  And another one.  As I held them in my furry paws, the chocolate chips went from chips, to drips, to…mush.  I had a mess on my paws.  I looked for something to wipe them on.  Then I noticed…my dirt shirt was also chocolate colored!  I could wipe my paws on my shirt and The Lady wouldn’t even notice.  I found a perfect solution to my chocolate covered paw problem!


The Lady let me help her take the pie out of the oven.  


I have not had any yet because I was too full after eating my dinner.  I liked the sweet potatoes best because they were orange, but the turkey, dressing, green beans, and dumplings were really good too.  I will try a piece of pie tomorrow.

This week I have learned what it means to be thankful.  I am thankful for The Lady and Mister Guy, for my friends Ms. Michele and Ms. Peggy, and for my extended family.  I missed being in Texas with Offspring No. 1 and Offspring No. 2, but I will get to spend Christmas with them.  

I am one lucky furry blue and orange monster.


Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
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Saturday In The Park

Today Mister Guy and the Lady took me to the park. They said it is officially the last day of summer, but that it will not turn cold here for a long time. They wanted to go to the park today because they have been very busy at school and have not been outside much.  I am too little to go outside by myself, so I haven’t been outside very much either.

By the time we headed out, it already was starting to get dark. The Lady said that it would get dark earlier and earlier now. So, we will have to get out to take pictures sooner each day. Mister Guy said that the change from summer to fall comes between today and tomorrow. He called it the Equinox. I had to ask him how to spell that big word. He told me it means ‘equal night’ because the day and the night are exactly the same length today. Mister Guys says this happens again when winter turns to spring. 

While we were at the park I saw some ducks. I had seen birds before, but they were always flying or standing. But these ducks were on the water. They floated!! It was very cool. 

The ducks started to come closer to us, but when they realized that we did not have any food, they moved in the opposite direction. The Lady told me that the water in the park is called a lake. That is where the ducks swim. 

I had seen water before; that was a big ocean in Delaware. The Lady said lakes are not as big as oceans. She said that not only do lakes have ducks, but they can have lots of fish and turtles in them. I have never seen a fish or a turtle. Maybe someday.


We went up to the playground. There were lots of fun things to do. 

I like that there is a playground close to our home. There were not too many people in the park tonight. The  library nearby was showing a movie outside on a big screen so people seemed to be there instead of in the park. That’s ok. I like to meet new people, but I also like being able to do things with just Mister Guy and The Lady.


I tried to ride a thing that looked like a great big grasshopper; I was too little and my arms would not reach. 


The grasshopper was too small for The Lady or Mister Guy to get on so they could not ride with me, but there was a smaller thing that I could ride all by myself!. It looked like a horse. I could stay on it if I hugged it’s neck! 

I had fun riding the horse. It really did not go anywhere. It just rocked back and forth, but it was fun to pretend that I was riding off into the sunset!  It really was sunset, at least.


I also got to go on two different slides. One was just a straight line and the other was all curvy. They were fun, but the curvy one made me a little bit dizzy. These slides were just the right size for a furry blue and orange monster. Mr Guy took me to the top and The Lady caught me at the bottom. 

I was glad she did!  I didn’t want to fly off onto the ground and get sand all in my fur.

I went inside a thing that Mister Guy said is called a teepee. I was confused because I thought he meant TP like toilet paper and I didn’t think I wanted to go inside that.  Mister Guy laughed and said that it was spelled t-e-e-p-e-e.  A teepee is a place wear Indians lived.  He said it was not a real teepee, but one made so little folks like me could play cowboys and Indians. 

He said long ago, the Native Americans, who many people call Indians lived right here in teepees. He said they had to fight for their homes because some people wanted to take their land. The people who wanted the Native Peoples’ lands would sometimes kill them for it. So there was fighting.  Why is there so much fighting?


I don’t understand things sometimes. It looks to me that everywhere I go there is lots of room for everyone. People should be able to get along. They should not try to take other people’s things. Blue and orange furry monsters are always happy to share. If I can be a friend and help someone by giving them something that I have, I will gladly share. But I would never just take something that did not belong to me.

There was also a make believe train in the park. It didn’t look much like the real train that I rode on before. That’s OK. 

 It was fun to pretend that I was the engineer who gets drive the train. 



I like trains. I hope I get to ride the real one again sometime soon.  The Lady said that we would probably go to the Texas State Fair in a few weeks.  When we do, I will get to ride the DART train again!

So that was my day in the park! I had fun. I like going places with The Lady and Mister Guy. They seem to like being with me too. 
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I’ve Got Friends…and Mail!

Today was a fantastic day for this furry blue and orange monster.  Something happened that has never happened to me before.  I know, I am little and lots of things have never happened to me before.  I like to have new experiences!

I learned about friends!  Mister Guy and the Lady told me that friends are people who are not part of your family but are special people in your life.  They said that friends are people who do things for you and with you because they really like you and care about you.  I asked how I could get some friends.  They told me that I already had lots of friends.  I was surprised when the Lady and Mister Guy told me that.  How did I get friends?

The Lady and Mister Guy said that there are people who read my blog and though I have not actually met them, they are still my friends.  I learned that people can decide to be your friend based just on what you write in a blog or on your Facebook page.  That is kind of scary and kind of cool at the same time.  The lady and Mister Guy have some friends that they have met on Facebook and through Capture Your 365, the community of people who like to take pictures like the Lady.  Some of these people they have just met online and some they have met in person.

One of the picture taking people that Mister Guy and the Lady have met in person but I have not is Ms. Michele. I have seen her photographs and I have read about her on Facebook. She also sent me some messages on my Facebook page. While we were in Delaware in August, Mr. Guy and the Lady met Ms. Michele and another picture taking friend, Ms. Peggy at Fort Delaware. I did not go tthat day because it was threatening to rain. Blue and Orange furry monsters should not get wet.

Last week Ms. Michele posted on my Facebook page that she was going to send me a package. I wasnt sure what that meant, but Mr. Guy said that was a good thing, something that friends do.  Ms. Michele told Mister Guy and the Lady what she was sending, but they did not tell me.  They wanted me to be surprised.

The Lady and Mister Guy knew the package was supposed to come today. So when they went out to get the mail, they took me along. They told me to look in the mailbox.  Mailbox?

They explained to me that when people send you things, this person called the  mail carrier leaves the sent things in this box on the curb.  The whole thing seems very mysterious to me, but I did what Mister Guy told me to do;

I looked in the mailbox and saw that there was a white package with my name on it!  To Blueper B.  That’s me!

 I wasnt sure what to do with this white rectangle.  Mr. Guy said that there was a gift on the inside.  I secretly hoped that it might be a T-shirt, but it seemed an odd shape for a shirt. The  Lady explained that the enevelope was just to protect the special present that Ms. Michele sent me.  I felt better.   It could still be a shirt.

By this time, I was getting very excited!   I had never opened a package with something special for me inside.  Well, really I had never opened any kind of package.

I was so surprised!. Ms. Michele send me a t-shirt from the University of Delaware.

That is where her sons go to school. (There is that school thing again. I need to get to school.) But there was more!   She sent a card…

…with lots of happy faces on it and wrote a note especially for me!!

Ms. Michele said she is looking forward to meeting me next time my family and I are in Delaware. She also said she hoped I liked the t-shirt and the other things.

Other things??? Oh yes, she also sent me a University of Delaware button. They have the Blue Hens for a mascot. I think that is great.  Mr Guy said that people who are my friends know that I like blue.

Yep, blue and orange are my favorite colors. And guess what!! Ms. Michele sent me some stickers with orange and blue (and a few other colored) monsters on them. They are very cool.  The Lady said that now that I know about the mail carrier and the mailbox and packages and cards that maybe I can send a card or a package to a friend.  She told me that I could decorate the letter or package with my new monster stickers that way my friends will know that they are getting something from me.  Getting a package today from Ms. Michele made me so happy.  She sent things that she knew I would like.  Now I understand a little more about friends and what they do for each other.  I would like to send some packagaes to people and make them as happy as Ms. Michele made me today.

I am one excited blue and orange furry monster. Here are pictures of me in my new t-shirt and button, with my new stickers, and my card.

 I am going to wear my new t-shirt tonight to sleep in. But not the button, I might get stuck with the pin if I roll over.

Thank you Ms. Michelle. You are a really good friend!

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Green Line Train to Dallas

Mister Guy and The Lady have been really busy that last two weeks getting ready to go back to school. They are teachers and have to be prepared to share what they know with all of their students, so they have not been able to help me work on my blog post.

Mister Guy started back to school two weeks ago and The Lady started this past week.  I have never gone to school, but when I listen to them talk about it, I think school might be fun. They told me I would be the only blue and orange furry monster at school if I went. Maybe someday they will take me.  While they have been gone, I’ve been at home thinking about all I have seen since they adopted me.

In July I wrote about trains, planes and automobiles. Well, I hadn’t really seen any trains back then. But, now I have! Just before school started, we all went to downtown Dallas on the train.

Mister Guy needed to go to take some papers to the County offices. The Lady wanted to go to a place called Thanksgiving Square. They said it is a really pretty chapel. I wanted to go because I am always full of thanksgiving because they adopted me. They told me that having me makes them always thankful too. 

To get downtown we rode something called the DART train!  We went to a special place called the Farmers Branch Station, bought tickets and got on the long yellow and white train. It is called the “green line” so I don’t know why the train is yellow.  Mister Guy and The Lady said blue and orange furry monsters get to ride free. So away we went! 

The train was fun. And very interesting. We passed a lot of places and saw a lot of different people.  


I had never seen so many buildings, not in Delaware or anywhere else that I have been. At one point while we still riding on the train, two people came by and Mister Guy had to show them the tickets he had for himself and The Lady. The two people looked at me, but the Lady told them that she thought that blue and orange furry monsters did not have to have a ticket. They said that was true and moved on.


When we go to the stop closest to the county offices, we got off. The Lady, who likes to take pictures, wanted a picture of me at the station. 


In the background is a DART guy smiling at all of us, or maybe he is surprised to see a furry blue and orange monster riding on the train. He must not see very many blue and orange furry monsters. 


We went into the records building, The Lady and Mister Guy told me this was where lots of papers were kept to show who owns things. Mister Guy needed to give them some papers. We could not take pictures inside.  The Lady and Mister Guy showed me a water fountain that had a sign that said “Whites Only”. They told me that once upon a time people who did not have light colored skin were not allowed to use that water fountain. They said that anyone could use it now. The sign was still there too remind people of that awful time. I just cannot imagine why people would be like that to other people, That is wrong.  Everyone should be allowed to get a drink when they are thirsty, especially here in Texas where it is SO hot. I don’t understand what drinking water has to do with your color.  I wonder if I would have been allowed to use that water fountain. Does blue and orange fur count as light skin?

After Mister Guy finished the business part of our trip, we all went outside to look around. 


Mister Guy had not been to downtown Dallas in a long time and The Lady had not ever looked around in this area. In the background was a great big tower called Reunion Tower. 


Mister Guy said when he was a boy that was where all the trains came into Dallas. But that train depot and a lot of the tracks are now gone. I would have liked to have seen all those trains. Oh well, I got a good look at the tower. The Lady said that at night is is all covered in lights that turn on and off like they are dancing. I want to see that some day too!


We also saw a monument to John F. Kennedy. Mister Guy said that JFK was once President of the United States but that he was killed here in Dallas, very close to where we were standing. 


This monument was built in Dallas to help us remember JFK. Mister Guy said JFK was young and well loved by people in this country. Mister Guy could not explain why someone would kill JFK. The Lady and Mister Guy both said they did not understand how anyone could kill another person. I do not understand that either. 


We then walked a few blocks to Thanksgiving. Square. 


When we got there we discovered that the chapel was closed! The sign said there were problems with the water inside. Water seems to cause a lot of problems for people in many different ways. The Lady was especially disappointed because it is supposed to be very beautiful inside the chapel and she loves to take pictures of beautiful things like me and Mister Guy… 


I was disappointed too that we could not go inside the chapel at Thanksgiving Square. The Lady said we could come back on another day. That made me happy because it would mean another train ride! The Lady did get this picture of me outside the chapel.   

Don’t tell her that I said this, but from the outside it looks like a great big cupcake.

The Lady and Mister Guy were hungry. They decided to go to a small restaurant that had Mexican food. It is called Miguel’s Cantina. The Lady and Mister Guy said the food was very good. Blue and orange furry monsters don’t eat Mexican food, though it smelled good to me. The folks that worked there smiled when The Lady took this picture of me inside. 


I like the colors that they used to decorate!

Here I am on the outside. 


 I think The Lady wanted this picture so they could remember the name of the restaurant in case they want to come back again.


Mister Guy remembered another chapel that he used to visit when he was in high school. Mister Guy had a friend back then by the name of Bill Joseph.  His parents owned a cleaners downtown. Mister Guy told me that he used to go downtown in the summer and meet his friend and they would visit this chapel. 


Mr Guy seemed sad and the Lady told me his friend had died a year ago and Mister Guy had not spoken to him in a long time. We went inside the chapel, called St. Jude’s Chapel. It was a really great place, quiet and peaceful. 


Outside in downtown Dallas it was hot and loud with all the cars and people. Inside the Chapel, it was almost cold. Blue and orange furry monsters like the cold.

So that was our day in Dallas!  It was fun to see a big city! I hope we get to go again sometime soon so the Lady can take pictures of the chapel at Thanksgiving Square. Maybe we can get all the way over to Reunion Tower, too. The Lady said there is also a very nice place with lots of art in downtown Dallas that we should visit sometime. All of these things sound like fun to me.

I think I am going to have lots of grand adventures with my family here is Dallas!  I am looking forward to sharing them with you.

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To Philadelphia and Beyond

So today was adventure day.  We got up early so that I could pack all of my T-shirts.  Well, the Lady packed them in her camera bag.  She said she is going to have to get a new camera bag for all of my shirts.  I think that is just her excuse to get a new bag.

I slept in the car on the way to the airport.  There wasn’t much to see but corn fields, a chicken processing plant, and a few old buildings.  I wanted to be wide awake when it came time for the ride on the airplane.

The one thing I don’t like about airports is going through security.  That is scary for a little blue and orange monster because they won’t let Mister Guy or the Lady carry me.  I have to go through the scanner tunnel.  Today was different.  The TSA people in Salisbury were the nicest agents I have ever met.  They smiled and talked to me.  They knew I was scared so they made sure I was nice and safe in my bin.  


See…I told you they were super nice.


When it was time to board the plane, Mister Guy carried me.  I was still a little tired.  



Sometimes I wonder what people think when they see him carrying me around.  I don’t warn people to laugh at him or make fun of him. Mister Guy told me not to worry about that.  People can say whatever they want.  It won’t change how he feels about me.



On the little plane from Salisbury to Philadelphia, we sat in the Exit row.  The airplane lady said that that was a very important place to be seated because we might have to help in an emergency.  She asked each of us if we were willing to perform such duties.  I said, “Yes!” And offered to show her that I could pull the levers and through the window out.  


She assured me that that was not necessary. So, I just looked out the window.


We had a long wait in Philadelphia before our flight to Dallas so we had lunch.  Then I asked the question.  “Can I have a new T-shirt?”  The Mister a guy wasn’t sure because I didn’t really visit Philadelphia; the airport didn’t really count, but the Lady said she thought getting a shirt would be OK.  I stayed with Mister Guy and the bags because I could not be left unattended.  The voice in the airport sky said that.  The Lady got me a special T-shirt.



While we were in Delaware, Mister Guy and the Captain, the Lady’s dad, watched a lot of something that they called baseball. That explains the special shirt I  got. The Captain is a fan of the Philadelphia Phillies. I could tell by the way The Captain and Mister Guy talked, that the Phillies are not too good at this baseball, but sometimes they seemed to do it right.  Last night they had to play a really long time to beat another team called the Youstin Astros, or something like that.  The Astros live in Texas, but I like the Captain’s team best because I got to watch the Phillies with him.



When it was time for us to leave Philadelphia, the plane had too many people on it so we had to wait for the next one.  Mister Guy said that was OK because we got to fly first class.  I didn’t know what that meant.  He said that I would have my own place to sit and we would get food.  That sounded good to me.  It also meant that we would get home to Dallas very late, way past a little blue and orange monster’s bedtime.

Because I was so excited to tell the story of my airplane adventures, Mister Guy and the Lady helped me write this post on the airplane. 



 I kept getting distracted because I wanted to look out the window at all the pretty clouds.  



When it got dark, I finished writing and now am going to go to sleep in Mister’s lap.  Goodnight!


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Peering From the Pier

Today the Lady and Mister Guy told me that we would go see that big ship again. It was going to be sailing out in the Delaware Bay! It would be cool to see it with all of its sails upl. So all day I  waited to go. While I was at home waiting, the Lady and Mister Guy went out  to eat lunch. They found a new place called Blue Sea Cafe. They did not know it was all decorated in orange and blue, like me! My kind of place! But I didn’t get to go. The Lady took some pictures to show me.

At dinner time we all left to go see the big ship. When we got to the dock, it was already out sailing.  Mister Guy and I waited and watched for it to come back. The Lady wanted to take pictures. While we all were waiting, she took some pictures of us. 


Mister Guy always tries to make sure I can see the interesting things. He also makes sure  that all of my fur is orderly for the pictures. 



The Lady tries to make sure  we both look good. 



The big ship finally came. It had been out sailing for almost two hours. 



We were all disappointed because it did not have its big sails out as it approached the dock.   It was being powered by a motor.  That just didnt seem right.  I guess they have be careful just how fast they are going when they come into the dock. It was still cool to see it gliding across the water. 



The place where the big ship lives also has a ferry. I learned that ferrys are another kind of big boat.  This one that takes people across to a place called New Jersey.   I think that I have heard on a TV commercial that New Jersey is where they make salsa.  The ferry will even let people take their cars aboard! 

Before we left the ferry terminal, we stopped to take a picture at the ferry boat sign. 



The ferry has been going back and forth from Lewes to Cape May for 50 years! Gosh, I haven’t even been around a whole year yet.  I think the Lady and Mister Guy are older than the ferry route.

On our way out, the Lady got all excited because she saw something and said we had to stop. She called  it Ms Pac-Man. I watched it for a while. 



The Lady said she used to play Ms Pac-Man A LOT once upon a time. So I learned this was a game I was seeing. She said it was more than a game; it was therapy when she was in college…whatever that means.

I was more interested in the reflection of myself than in those little ghostie things floating around.  



Don’t tell the Lady though;  she was so excited to show this game to me.   We went to the Blue Ocean Cafe, the blue and orange restaurant from earlier, they were closed. The Lady took my picture next to their sign. We matched perfectly!  I would like this place.  The Mister Guy promised to take me next time we come to Lewes.

Tomorrow we go home. I really have not been there much. Maybe this time I will get to learn more about where I will live most of the time.  But first, a new airport.  And, maybe a new T-shirt!

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And Now Ships…

Yesterday the weather was cloudy, but there wasn’t any rain. So the Lady and Mister Guy took me out with them. We went to the Cape Henlopen State Park.  The first thing I saw was this sign.


Were they talking about me?  Am I a pet?  I wasn’t so sure I liked this place.  The Mister Guy assured me that I was not a pet; he said that I was family.  That made me feel good. 


The Lady wanted to get pictures of something called a lighthouse. At first I wondered if this was the opposite of a heavy house. When we got there and I saw it. I must be right! The house was in the middle of the water so must be light to float, right? 



It sure looked tall…and it was round! Did someone live there?
The Lady and Mister Guy explained that it was really a big tower with a light on top to help big ships find their way through the breakwaters without hitting the land. Someone might live on the bottom of the lighthouse to make sure the light went on at the right time. And, it is so tall so the light shines a long way!  I think that’s cool.
We got to see the beach too. I had already been to a beach. But there were not any belly dancers at this one! I took a second to sit on this bench. It is nice that someone put the bench here to help remember another person.  It is so peaceful here.  I bet the people who donated this bench come here where it is quiet and beautiful and think about the person they love and miss.
Then we went to the park shop and I got another shirt! Yay!  I love new shirts from the places I’ve been! This one is blue. Not MY blue, but blue. We went out to the woods and took some pictures.



 I got to play in a tree. 



Mister Guy showed me a pine cone and explained how the tree I was playing in came from a pine cone just like the one I was holding. 



It made me wonder if blue furry monsters come from blue fur tree cones.  The Mister Guy explained that I had my “I’s” and “you’s” mixed up…something about fir and fur confused.  He talked about phoning home or home phones…I didn’t quite catch it all.  That was too much for a furry blue and orange monster to think about on a Sunday afternoon in the park.
After that we saw another tower. This one was not a lighthouse. It was big and heavy and we could walk right up to it. 



We could even climb up inside it, up to the tippy top. Mr Guy read that there were a bunch of these towers in Delaware. They were built to let people watch out for the enemy in a war. He said it was called World War II. I asked what war was and he said it was when people got so mad that they started killing each other. He said that there have been two times that so many people were mad at each other that almost the whole world was fighting. These times are called World Wars.  There had been many smaller wars. In fact people are fighting each other right now in places far away.
That sounds bad to me, even if it is far away. Blue and orange furry monsters like everyone.   I then got scared and asked if people here could start killing each other. The Lady said sometimes they do. I did not like hearing that.
To take my mind of or fighting, we decided to climb up the tower.  I could see a long way. 



I understood how this tower was used. I was glad to hear it help keep fighting from happening here, but the idea of people killing each other still made me sad. Then I looked down I saw this message and it made me happy.  



There must be some people who are not angry.

We climbed back down…well, actually the Mister guy carried me all the way up and all the way down. 



Then we went to a place on the water that was not a beach. There was a place for ships to stop. It’s called a dock. And wow!  What a ship was docked there!  It was a cool looking ship with an anchor and port holes, and ladders…a ran right to it!


The Mister Guy smiled at me and then told me to turn around and look the other direction.

OH WOW!  This ship was much cooler.  It had a bigger anchor, more port holes, longer ladders, and great big sails!




I was told that this ship is a copy of a ship that existed a long time ago, one that brought people from far away to Delaware. But, they did not call it Delaware back then. Those people wanted to get somewhere they could live happily ever after…just like me.  I liked hearing that last part of the story. 

So, I had a very good day! It was fun, a little sad, but good over all.

And I got a new shirt!