Category: 100 People

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My Trip to Virginia!

Friday was the day!  Mr. Guy is not tired anymore.  He is officially retired!  To celebrate, we went on a trip Norfolk, Virginia to meet some of The Lady’s picture taking friends.  Well, I’m not sure that Mr. Guy thought of it that way, but I was excited to get to go on a trip and I think that Mr. Guy had fun once we got there.  He met The Lady’s picture taking friends and their Guys.  

When we fly on trips, we usually leave very early in the morning.  This time, because Mr. Guy had to go to school one more time, we left at night.  When we got to the airport, they were glad to see me. The computer told me that!


This is where we got our tickets.  There was one for Mr. Guy and one for The Lady.  They called me a lap baby so I didn’t get my own ticket.  I guess they know that I prefer to sit in Mr. Guy’s lap when I’m on the airplane.

Everything went smoothly until it didn’t!  Our plane was delayed because there was lots of rain.


We waited.  


And then we waited some more.  Then they changed our gate so we moved.  Then we waited some more.  


I’m glad that Mr. Guy always carries me in the airport.  There are lots of things with wheels in the airport and they don’t always watch out for people, let alone little blue and orange furry monsters.   It is kind of scary.  People pull and push and roll boxes with their clothes in them and they don’t watch where they are going.  Then there are these wagons that drive inside, right down the middle of the sidewalk; there isn’t a street.  They make lots of noise.  “Beep,  Beep,  BEEP.  BEEP!!!’  They always seem to be in a hurry but they are full of only empty seats.  They never seem to stop to let poeple on.  They just beep their way through the airport nearly running over people and their boxes of clothes!

I was getting to be a hungry and tired little monster.  The good thing about the new gate was that it was right next to a pretzel store.  The Lady went and got me a cinnamon sugar pretzel, but just as she got back with it, they called us to board the plane.  FINALLY!  But then I had to wait to eat my pretzel.


Just as we were about to step on the plane, we had to wait again because something spilled on the airplane and they had to bring a special truck and a special person to come suck it up.  While we waited, I got more hungry and more tired.

Then finally we got on the plane!


And I ate my (cold) pretzel.

The good thing about being an hour late leaving Dallas was that the storms all passed and it was time for sunset.  Sunset above the clouds is so pretty!!!  The Lady let me borrow her phone so that I could take some pictures.


Look at all that beautiful blue and orange!!!  My monster belly was full and my monster eyes were full of pretty sky.  In the end, everything was good!  Then I went to sleep and slept through the rest of our flight.

We got to our hotel very late and all of us went to bed because The Lady told me we had a very exciting day the next day.  Well actually, it was that day because it was 1:30 in the morning!!!

We met The Lady’s picture taking friends at the Norfolk Botanical Garden.  I remebered The Lady telling me last week that I was going to have a chance to see lots more pretty flowers. I could tell exactly who the picture taking ladies were because they all had cameras around their necks and carried boxes of stuff, but not like the boxes with wheels that people pulled around in the airport.  They carried them on their shoulders.

The Picture Taking Ladies were full of smiles and laughter and headed off together to take pictures.  Fortunately, one of The Picture Taking Ladies, Ms. Sherri, brought her Mr. Guy with her.  So, my Mr. Guy, Ms. Sherri’s Mr. Guy, and I spent a lot of time sitting on benches talking and watching The Picture Taking Ladies run around pointing their cameras at anything and everything…including us!  At least they didn’t forget we were there!



The Lady thought the flower was prettier than us, but there we are in that blurred background!


We were happy on our bench talking to Mr. Ray  Well, really we sat on lots of benches; this is just one of them.

We also walked around and saw lots of green stuff.

The Picture Taking Ladies saw lots of things.  The Mr. Guys and I sat on our benches and enjoyed fresh air, the fragrant flowers, and conversation with each other.


I did see a funny looking water monster!


We had lunch under a tree.  We got our lunch from a truck.  The food guy piled a bunch of ingredients on a long paddle and stuck it in a big box on wheels.  This box on wheels was much bigger than the boxes on wheels that people had in the airport.  It would not fit in the airplane’s overhead bin and it wasn’t full of peoples’ dirty clothes.  It was a magic box!  


The food guy put the pile of ingredients in it and when he pulled it out, it was pizza!!  He cut his pizza into nice even pieces.  I liked that.

After we ate our magically made pizza, we went to look at the roses.  These are the flowers like we have in the gardens in our town.  The Norfolk Botanical Garden had rose rows of rowses roses.  That was hard to write!  I don’t like all of these phonehomes or homephones or whatever these words are called!  


I saw pretty colors that weren’t roses, too!


And I found this funny dead flower.

Mr. Guy said it was a pine comb.  A pine comb??  I asked Mr. Guy how I was supposed to use this to comb my fur.  It didn’t look to me like it would work very well.  

“Pine CONE!”, he said, “Not comb.”

I was so glad that I didn’t have to use it to brush my fur, but I still didn’t know what it was for.

The Lady told me that is the female, or seed bearing part, of a pine tree and…

I told her to stop.  This seemed like more information that I really needed.  The most important thing is that I don’t have to use this female seed thing to comb my blue boy fur!

I had a super fun day at the Norfolk Botanical Gardens and I think all of The Picture Taking Ladies did too!

Ms. Sherri, the lady that goes with the guy, Mr. Ray, asked to have her picture taken with me.  That reminded me that I have not done well with my 100 People Project.  Almost a year ago, on my “birthday” I decided that I would try to have my picture taken with one hundred people before my next birthday, which is next week.  That isn’t going to happen.  I got sad and disappointed about that.  Mr. Guy and The Lady said that it was okay and reminded me about our conversation about disappoinment a few months ago.  They said that we could just continue from where we are and eventually we will get to a hundred people.  That made me smile!

So, Ms. Sherri is #24 in my 100 People Project and I am on a roll again!  Thank you Ms. Sherri for helping me get back on track!


Sunday morning while we were at the hotel, someone knoecked on our door and gave us food, already cooked!  It was another magic food moment.  


I wish the mailman in Dallas would bring our food to the door already cooked!  Then The Lady would not have to make meals when she is tired.  Oh wait…Mr. Guy is not tired anymore so he can fix the meals and the mailman doesn’t have to bring them.  

Another thing that was not a disappointment on this trip was that Starbucks in the Norfolk airport is open 24 hours, unlike the one in the Dallas airport.  When we got to the airport at 4:40 in the morning to come home, Mr. Guy got us all a cup of coffee!


Oh, and if you want to see more of The Lady’s photos from her visit to the Norfolk Botanical Gardens, check out her blog!  Give her a day or two, though.  She has been busy sorting through her photos and she is not retired and had to go back to work this week.


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Cars, Trucks, and Airplanes

Hi everyone!   It’s me, and I’m back!  Have you missed me?  Life for Mister Guy, The Lady, and me has been crazy busy since I last posted.  Mr Guy and The Lady spend way too much time teaching and not enough time helping me with my blog.  That’s just my opinion.  But I do love them and they take very good care of me!

Today I was going to write about our Christmas, but I had a very special day today so my Christmas stories, which aren’t very exciting except that I got some new T-shirts, will just have to wait.

Mr. Guy and The Lady decided to end the old year…or is it begin the new year…by buying a new car.  They actually bought it in New Year’s Eve.  Does that make it the end of 2015 or the beginning of 2016?  Are beginnings and endings the same thing?  Do they always happen together?  Can you have a beginning without an ending?  2015 had to end for 2016 to begin.  2016 had to begin for 2015 to end.  This is way too complicated for a little blue and orange furry monster to figure out!  Maybe The Lady can explain it to me.  But, not now because right now I am going to tell you about my exciting morning.

Because it was so late on New Year’s eve when Mr. Guy and The Lady finished all the paperwork on their new car, the dealership did not have time to clean it and make it pretty for them before they closed so the salesman very nicely said to bring it back today and they would do all of that stuff.  I’m not sure why Mr. Guy and The Lady decided to take me with them this morning, but they did and I am really, really glad!

When we walked in, I saw a great big blue truck with blue and orange balloons.  I was sure that that was the new car we were getting because I love blue and orange and Mr. Guy and The Lady know that.  

I asked Mr. Guy if this was our new car and he said, “NO!..”  It is way too big.  I would be like I was driving an airplane if we got that truck.”  I have been on lots of airplanes, and it didn’t look THAT big, but since Mr. Guy is the driver, I guess he knows.  If we are going to ride in an airplane, I don’t want Mr. Guy to be driving; I want him to hold me on his lap like he always does so that I can look out the window!

Almost as soon as we walked in the door, a really nice man starting talking to us.  His name was Mr. Edwin.  Mr. Edwin asked Mr. Guy and The Lady all about me.  After hearing our story, he volunteered to have his picture taken with me.  Yay!  It has been awhile since I have added anyone to my 100 People project.  I am going to have to get busy in the next six months to get to 100 before my “birthday.”

Meet Mr. Edwin!

At the car store, he is a salesman, but he did not sell us our new car.  Mr. Edwin has another job too.  He hosts a radio show called, Juicy Talk.  It was exciting enough to meet a radio personality.  But even more exciting than that is that Mr. Edwin said that maybe, just maybe, that we–me, Mr. Guy, and The Lady–someday could come to talk to him and his show and share our story with other people.  That would be so much fun for this little blue and orange furry monster!!!  The Lady gave Mr. Edwin our card and he gave her his information so this could happen if Mr. Edwin doesn’t get too busy selling cars and Mr. Guy and The Lady don’t get too busy teaching.  I hope this works out because I am a very happy and lucky little monster and I would love to share those things with the world.

I don’t watch TV or read the newspaper because I know that a lot of the news is sad and scary.  I am too little to want to know all of the terrible details of many of the things going on in the world.  Fortunately, my family takes good care of me and takes me places where I meet lots of nice people who are very nice and are also willing to be part of my 100 People Project.  Today I am grateful for having met Mr. Edwin!  I hope I get to see him again…or maybe I’ll just get to hear him on the radio.

And back to the now less exciting news…our new car.  We didn’t get the airplane-like big blue truck, but I did take a minute to pretend to be the co-pilot.    

What do you think?  Would I make a good co-pilot?  I guess that first I have to find a pilot since Mr. Guy won’t do it.

After all of my pictures, I got to play while the service department finished “detailing” (what a funny word) our car.



Our new car is much smaller than the blue truck.  Mr. Guy showed me pictures and told me all about it.


I guess it is kind of like the little tiny airplanes we flew on between Philadelphia and Salisbury all those times, and the big blue truck is like the jets.   Hmm…no drinks or snacks on those little airplanes. I’m not so sure about this new little car.  The blue truck was so big I bet it had a refrigerator and microwave!!!  I suspect what I’ll get in our car is only my lunchbox.  Oh well, that is better than nothing.

I like our new airplane car.  It is quite comfortable.  Mr. Guy even let me sit in the pilot’s seat before it was time to buckle up and head home.  


Thank you to Mr. Edwin and all of the folks at Freeman Buick GMC in Grapevine, Texas for making my whole family happy!

Mr. Guy, The Lady, and I all wish you and those you love and happy and blessed 2016!

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A Quick Trip to Philadelphia

Hi, everyone!  Life has been quite busy around our house.  Mr. Guy and The Lady are both back at work and the animals and I have been at home during the day.  I thought things were going to be calm and quiet for us, but we have been having lots of landscaping done at our house.  The dogs have spent the days watching intently and barking a little, the cat has slept through it all, and I have been trying to stay out of the way.  despite all of this busy-ness, we got to take a short weekend trip to Philadelphia last weekend.

The Lady is part of a group called NOAH, National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation.  Every other year the adults of NOAH get together for a weekend of fun.  NOAH is for people with albinism.  One of the things that that means is most of them have white fur.  Even though I have blue fur and Mr. Guy has no gray fur, they let us go too.  People with albinism also have difficulty seeing so Mr. Guy and I were able to help them find things in this unfamiliar city.

We got to the airport early, but not as early as when we were flying to Salisbury all those times, on Friday morning, September 11.  We sat down to eat a quick breakfast in the airport.


As we were finishing our meal, there was an announcement about a service of remembrance in the airport chapel.  Mr. Guy and The Lady explained to me that fourteen years ago at exactly that time, a terrible thing happened in our country and  lots of people lost their lives.  As I was listening to what had happened, I got very sad.  Mr. Guy held me tightly and we all said a prayer for all the lives lost and changed forever on September 11, 2001.

So that I wouldn’t be quite so sad, Mr. Guy took me to the candy store and bought me a treat to have on the airplane.  I got grapefruit, watermelon, and peach gummy chews.  Yum!


I must have fallen asleep as soon as we got on the airplane, because I don’t remember the flight at all.  I didn’t even eat any of my candy!  When we got to Philadelphia, we met some of The Lady’s NOAH friends in the airport and then we all rode to the hotel together.  While we were in the car, I realized that it has been quite a long time since I have added any new photos to my 100 People Project.  I hoped that while I was in Philadelphia that maybe I would meet a few people who would be willing to support my project.

As usually, Mr. Guy was carrying me when we walked into the hotel.  Several people called out, “Look!  It’s Blueper B!”  I wasn’t sure who any of these people were or how they knew me.  Mr. Guy said that he bet that they read my blog and that’s how they knew who I was.  I felt kind of like a monster star.  I got to talk to people, shake hands with them, and have my picture taken with them!  The first one is with Joni.  She and The Lady are good friends.  They have lots of things in common like this thing they do where they tie string together with two sticks.  Somehow they make the string turn into objects like hats and socks. They call it knitting.  I think it’s some kind of magic trick.  Maybe they could knit me a magic T-shirt.


The NOAH people said that people are fascinated with their white hair and that sometimes people ask if they can touch it…and sometimes they don’t even ask; they just do it.  I don’t think that that is very polite.  Another friend of Mr. Guy and The lady asked if she could give my fur a new style.  Ms. Cindy worked hard to give me a Mohawk.



What do you think of my new fur-do???


I think Mr. Guy might be a little jealous that he can’t have a cool Mohawk like mine.  

Since I let Ms. Cindy practice her hairstyling skills on my fur, she agreed to have her picture taken with me.


Ms Cindy and I had some interesting conversations.  She lives in Canada and invited us to come visit her some time.  That would be fun; I have never been to another country before.  

On Saturday, we went on a walking tour to see some of the historic buildings in Philadelphia.  Well, I went on a carrying tour; everyone else walked.  We had to take a short ride on a train to get to the starting point of the tour.

We saw lots of old buildings that are important to the history of our country.  Since I don’t go to school, I don’t know very much about history, American or an other kind.  We had an entertaining tour guide whose name was Mr. Jim.  He knew lots of things about all of the historical places in Philadelphia.  Though there is much more that I need to learn, he gave me a good start on learning a few things about my country.

We saw Carpenters’ Hall where the First Continental Congress met.


Independence Hall where the U. S. Declaration of Independence and Constitution were debated.

The U. S. Mint.


We saw the Liberty Bell, but only through a window.  The lines to get into all of these buildings were long.  Mr. Guy and The Lady said that we will go back sometime when we can spend longer looking around.

We saw this interesting sculpture.  The Lady was taking pictures of it when Mr. Guy said that she should take a picture of the reflection so that all of us would be in the picture.  I don’t have many pictures with The Lady because she is always behind the camera.  


I am grateful that Mr. Jim was willing to show us his city.  And, that he was willing to be photographed with me!

Even though it was a quick weekend trip, I had lots of fun in Philadelphia.  Mr. Guy and The Lady have some great friends in NOAH.  One of them in particular made me laugh all the time.  Her name is Becca.  She is very silly and lots of fun!  Becca and I ate donuts together and we had our very first Slurpees together.   I think that will make us friends for life! And her blue eyes make my blue fur really stand out! We also had a Philly Cheesesteak together in the airport.  She said that she might come visit us in Texas sometime.  I hope so! 

Thank you everyone for letting me share in the NOAH weekend even though I have blue and orange fur instead of white fur!  You all are lots of fun!!  The Lady just told me that I will get to see you all again next summer in Pittsburgh.  Yay!


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Digging

Today was a busy day for all of us. Since we came back from North Carolina, we have not done too many things.  The most exciting thing was going to see Avenue Q where I got to meet Nicky! 

Even though we haven’t gone places, The Lady and Mr. Guy seem to have been working on something though I was not too sure what it was. They have been talking to a lot of different people. Today I finally found out what is going on. Before I was adopted, they put a lot of time into remodeling the inside of our house. I did not realize how much they had done and how many changes they made. Apparently it was a completely different place.

Now they are ready to do work on the outside. When we had some serious plumbing work done earlier in the summer, the yard was all torn up. There is almost no grass left in the front yard. That is what got The Lady and Mr. Guy moving on remodeling the outside too. 

They talked to a man called a Landscape Architect. That is another thing I did not understand. But The Lady and Mr. Guy are teachers and they do not mind explaining things to this blue and orange furry monster. A Landscape Architect makes a plan for the whole yard. He figures out where all the plants and trees will go, what kind of grass to plant, and even builds sidewalks all to make the yard really pretty. The Landscape Architect that they called used to be a teacher. He and Mr. Guy worked at the same school a long time ago, but it took them awhile to recognize each other. 

Tomorrow someone is coming to clean up the yard. There are some trees that Mr. Guy says need to go away. Also we are getting a sprinkler system. I did not know what that is, but Mr. Guy told me it is a way to get water to the lawn without him having to run around with hoses and these little twirly things that spit water. That sounds like a good idea to me.

Even though there are people coming to work on the tress, there were things we needed to do before they come. We have some flowers called irises. They needed to be taken out of the ground because The Lady and Mr. Guy hope to save them to be replanted somewhere in the new yard. I saw them this year and they are very pretty. I am glad they are going to try to save them.

I got to help!.  Since I knew that I was going to be outside digging in the dirt, I put on my Dirt Shirt that Ms. Michele gave to me on one of our visits to Delaware.  That way I would not look dirty even if I was!

The first thing that we had to decide was which of the irises that we were going to dig up and save.  

There were lots of them and Mr. Guy said that there would not be room for all of them in the new yard.  We had to dig up only the irises that we wanted to keep,

Then they had to be trimmed, but I was not allowed to use the scissors so The Lady did most of that part. Finally they had to go in a box.



The box will go into a cool place until it is time to put them back into the ground. The last thing we had to do was throw away the parts that were cut off. 


While we were working the delivery man came! He had a Dirt Shirt on too!  At least it was brown like mine.  I don’t know why he needs a dirt shirt when he drives around in a truck all day. I was really excited because I like it when packages come to our house. Sometimes I even get surprises!   He gave us three boxes!  

One was for Mr. Guy. He got new shoes. One was for The Big Sister. She got shoes too. Boy these folks get lots of shoes!  I wonder why I never get new shoes. The last box was for The Lady. I thought she must have gotten new shoes too.  But nope; she didn’t.

The Lady let me open the box. 

Hmm…it was filled with funny plastic pillows.  


I tried to look grateful for the present, but these pillows seemed like they would be hot and sticky and make my fur all soggy.  

We usually have soft cloth pillows.  The Lady told me to keep looking in the box, that these were not pillows and they were not the surprise.  When I looked again, I saw our basket from Ms. Susan, the basket lady in North Carolina! I had forgotten that she was making us a basket! So this was a surprise for me. 


Ms. Susan was one of my 100 people project. I think today’s package surprised Mr. Guy and The Lady, too. They did not expect it to come so soon after we got home. 

So, we got all of our yard work done today and tomorrow I can stay inside where it is nice and cool and watch the professional tree guys cut down some of our trees and remove some bushes.  Maybe I will find a snack that I can put in our new basket!
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I Met A Star!

Tonight I got to go to the theater.  This time yesterday I had no idea what that meant, but now I do!  The Lady explained to me that we were going to her school to watch a musical.  I thought that you are supposed to listen to music, not watch it.  Then I realized that The Lady said musical.  She explained that a musical is when there are people called actors that are on a big thing called a stage and they tell a story through words and songs.  People, and little blue and orange furry monsters, sit in chairs and listen and watch.



Mr. Guy and The Lady took me to this particular show because it has puppets and monsters just like me in it.  It was called Avenue Q and was performed by the Brookhaven College Theater Department. 


The Lady teaches at Brookhaven College, but she teaches music, not theater.

There were lots of things in Avenue Q that I did not understand – things like finding your purpose, and wanting someone to date, and schadenfreude, and porn, but that was OK.   I did understand the parts about the two boys who love each other, those about monsters being teased and having their fur pulled, and the part about a special school for monsters.  Well, I sort of understand that last part.  I know about monsters and since I have spent so much time lately with teachers, I am beginning to understand what schools are all about.  I think that I might like to go to a Monstersori school like the one that Kate Monster started in Avenue Q.

Like I said, I went to this musical especially to see the puppets.  They were just like me!  It made me think that some day when I am a bigger monster that maybe I could be in a musical too.  Of course, I will first have to learn how to sing.  I don’t think that I want to be like Trekki Monster, though.  The characters in the show called him a pervert.  I asked Mr. Guy what that meant and he said that it was not a good thing.  I want to be a good monster.

While I was watching the show, I thought that it would be exciting to get to meet one of the puppets in person.  The Lady asked the director of Avenue Q if that might be possible.  She said “yes” and even said that I could have my picture taken with one of them!  I was one excited monster!

At the end of the show, I waited for the actor people to come out to the lobby where we were.  They have a special place called backstage where the audience people can’t go so we had to wait for them in the place where we were allowed to be.


And then it happened!  Nicky said that I could have my picture taken with him!  And not only that, I could have it taken on the stage!  


In the story, Nicky loves Rob, but it takes almost the whole show for Rob to realize that he loves Nicky.  By the end of the story, Rod and Nicky are both happy!  I think it is neat that Nicky and I both have blue fur!  He doesn’t have orange horns like me, but he does have an orange nose.  I think that those things make us a lot a like.

Nicky has a person to hold him and take care of him like Mr. Guy does me.  His name is Mr. Tony.


Mr. Tony is a friend of Mr. Guy and The Lady.

Even though there were lots of things in Avenue Q that I did not understand, I had a great time tonight.  It was fun to see monsters sing and dance on the stage.  I feel honored to have met my first star.  And, it is fascinating to think about the idea of one day being an actor just like Nicky.
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Monster Travels!

 

This is Ms. Megan.  She took care of us while we were at the cabin in Asheville.  I especially like her because she gave The Lady and Mr. Guy laundry soap to wash my shirts (and some of theirs too) so that I would be a clean monster as we travelled home.  I really liked staying at the cabins; there were all kinds of things for little blue and orange furry monsters to do.  Mr. Guy and The Lady seemed very happy there too.

Getting home to Dallas was another story…

We had to check out of our cabin at noon and our airplane did not leave until evening.  We decided to play a few games before we left. 


 The Lady has always liked to play skee ball.  She thought that I might like it too so she showed me how to play.  I liked the orange balls and the game was fun too.  After I practiced a few times, I asked Mr. Guy to play a game with me.


He did pretty well.  Then it was my turn.

I had some beginner’s luck.


I learned about being a good sport.  Even though my number was higher than Mr. Guy’s, he still played well and we both had fun.  And fun is what it is all about!  Next time, Mr. Guy’s number might be bigger than mine.  And that will be OK.  It is just a game.

We both played hard so we needed a little rest before our big travel day.


I sure like cuddling with Mr. Guy.  I’m glad that he did not get mad because my skee ball numbers were bigger than his.  Winning a game is not nearly as important as having someone to nap with in a hammock!  

After our rest, The Lady took one more picture of us before we left the cabins for good.


I hope we get to come back here again!

All of the game playing and picture taking made me hungry.  The Lady said that there was a place in North Carolina that she liked to go when she was in school here.  She told Mr. Guy that it was not the healthiest food, but it would bring back some silly memories for her so he said, “Let’s go.”  So, we went to Hardees for lunch.  The Lady said that she really liked their sausage biscuits, but it was lunchtime when we went so she could not get one.  she said that they also had pretty good hamburgers.

When we walked in the door, I saw this sign.


This was puzzling to a furry monster.  North Carolina is not the southwest. Texas is the southwest.  I like tacos, but I wasn’t so sure about these tacos.  Mr. Guy said you have to be careful about Mexican food when you are not really in the southwest.  We ordered hamburgers.  I decided that I could wait until I get back to Texas to eat tacos.


Even though it was early, after lunch we decided to head to the airport.  That was OK.  I like to sit in airports and watch the people, especially when they stop and talk to me.  We got to the airport and then the real adventure began…

Our first flight from Asheville to Charlotte was delayed by three hours.  That meant we would miss our next flight from Charlotte to Dallas.  Uh oh!  After a lot of pushing buttons on the computer, the airlines lady said that they would just call a driver to take us by van to Charlotte so that we would be there in time to leave for Dallas.  We sat and waited to see if anyone else needed to ride in the van with us.


Then the airplane lady said that they were wrong.  The plane to Charlotte was leaving only one hour late so now we could fly on it rather than ride in the van so she gave us a new ticket.  I felt bad for the van man who came and was waiting there to help people and then we didn’t need him.  Mr. Guy and I told him thank you for his willingness to help us.

After we got our new tickets, we went through the weird place where they make Mr. Guy put me in a bucket and go through the scary tunnel all by myself.  I don’t like that!  They take pictures of me, but they are not like the one’s that The Lady takes.  These pictures make me look black and white instead of blue and orange.  The Lady said that they are looking at my insides.  I don’t know why they are doing that!  I am always so happy when Mr. Guy picks me up at the other end of the tunnel!  Ms. Linda told me that there is light at the end of the tunnel.  So far, she is right!  But the airplane lady was wrong…now our plane was leaving another hour late!  I don’t know how to tell time, but that is not my job.  I think people who make airplane schedules should know how clocks and hours and schedules work!

They told us that we would still get to Charlotte in time to get to the plane home to Dallas.  Our plane left even later because it ran into some birds and they got tangled in the engines.  I did not want to hear anymore about that.  It sounded very yucky to me!  We finally got to Charlotte.  All of the people on the plane with us had to hurry to get to other planes.  We got to ride on one of the funny airport cars.  I didn’t know that they would take us for a ride.  Usually they just honk and nearly run us over!  Even with riding through the airport, we didn’t make it in time to catch our plane.  

Now we had to spend a night in a hotel.  I thought that would be fun, but The Lady said that it would not be because we did not have any PJ’s or clean clothes for the next day.  Uh oh!  Fortunately I had been a neat monster and hadn’t spilled anything on my shirt.  

We finally got to a hotel and went to sleep.  It was very late and I was very tired!  

Ms. Linda read on Facebook that we were going to be in Charlotte all day so she came and got us and we all went to lunch together.  That was fun and I was a happy monster that I got to see her again!  After lunch, she took us back to the airport.  We had a lot of time to sit and watch the people.


Mr. Guy helped me play games on his phone.


We played together so that we didn’t have to worry about each other’s numbers.


Then we watched more people.


And finally it was time to get on the plane and fly home.  I slept in Mr. Guy’s lap the whole way home. 

 I liked Asheville a lot, but I am a little tired of airports.  I have had a great adventure and met lots of really nice people on this trip!  But, I have to say, it is nice to be home in my very own monster bed!
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My 100 People Project – #16


Yesterday The Lady and Mr. Guy met one of The Lady’s picture taking friends, Ms. Sherry.  She is part of Capture Your 365, just like Ms. Peggy and Ms. Michele.  There sure are a lot of these people with cameras all over the place!  Ms. Sherry had to drive three hours just to see us.  That was very nice of her.  We all walked around Biltmore Village for a little while and then we had lunch at a Mexican restaurant  I guess Mr. Guy and The Lady have been away from Texas for too long and had to have some “home cooking.”

Ms. Sherry and The Lady talked about camera stuff and taking pictures.  They were saying things like aperture and zoom and f-stop and ISO and cropping and white balance.  I had no idea what they were talking about!  It is a good thing that I am a handsome little monster, more suited for in front of the camera than behind it!  Ms. Sherry was nice enough to be in front of the camera with me!  Thank you!

Oh, and by the way, she is another one of those teacher people.  Is everyone either a teacher person or a picture taker or both???

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The Blue Ridge Parkway

I did not get anything written yesterday because we had a big day and I was tired when we got back to our cabin. Now that I am nice and rested,  I want to tell you about my adventure yesterday. The Lady’s friend, Mr. Rusty came to visit. They went to college together at East Carolina University. Blue and orange furry monsters don’t go to school, so I was not sure what college really meant. The Lady said when humans are growing they go to school to learn stuff. I know The Lady and Mr. Guy both still go to school but now they teach school instead of learn stuff. So do Ms. Linda and Ms. Linda’s Guy! Mr. Rusty is a school librarian so he works in a school too!  He takes care of all the books and teaches the children to love those books! Wow, I guess I don’t need to go to school. I have all these teacher people around me to help me learn about all kinds of new things! 

Mr. Rusty said he would take us for a ride to see part of the Blue Ridge Parkway. I didn’t know what that was, but since it was called the “Blue” Ridge Parkway, I was sure that I would like it.. He told me that it is a very long road that goes through North Carolina and into another state called Virginia. We were only going to see a little of it. Mr. Rusty promised me that I  would see real mountains! They are the Blue Ridge Mountains. That seemed like a good name to me. I had already seen some mountains from far away, but Mr. Rusty said we would go up into the mountains and maybe I would get to stand on a mountain!

We left in the morning after breakfast. Mr. Rusty drove. He has lived in North Carolina his whole life, so that seemed like a good idea since he probably knew where he was going. We went a little way from our cabin and then got on the parkway. At first there were lots of trees. I have never seen so many trees in one place! Mr. Rusty said as we went further, there would be places along the way where we could look at the mountains as well as the trees.

We drove a little more and then stopped.  Then I saw them! Great big mountains.  


Wow!  I was confused about one thing though.  There were signs everywhere that talked about how many feet the mountains had.  


Mountains have feet??  The Lady explained that these were not feet to walk on, but were a way to tell how tall the mountains are.  She told me that we could figure out how many feet tall I am too, but we need something to measure me.  That will have to wait until we get home to Dallas.

Anyway, the further we went, the more feet the mountains grew.  It is a good thing that they don’t need socks and shoes for all of their feet!  



The mountain with the most number of feet was Mt. Mitchell. It has 6684 feet and is the tallest mountain east of the Mississippi River.  We drove as far as we could…


…and then we walked the rest of the way to the very top.  Mr. Rusty and The Lady went all the way to the very top.  Mr. Guy stopped and said he could not make it that far. The Lady and Mr. Rusty took me to the top and took pictures.   Since Mr. Rusty is my new friend,  I figured the picture of us at the summit would be a good picture of him for my project.  


They were headed back down when Mr. Guy suddenly appeared.  

I also had my picture taken with Mr. Guy because, well, I always have my picture taken with Mr. Guy.  


He always carries me and holds me tight.  He makes me feel safe.




After all the walking, we were very hungry.  On the way down the mountain, we stopped at a place for lunch! The folks there were really nice. Greg took our order and brought us our food.  He had a great smile and seemed like such a happy person.  It makes me happy to see happy people.  He wanted to know all about me.  I then asked him if he would have his picture taken with me and become part of my 100 People Project.  He was excited about that!  


The Lady took my picture with him and then his friend Emily came over too.  She also wanted to be in the picture.  


She has a pretty smile too.  Greg and Emily look like they have fun working together and feeding all of the hungry people. So, I added two people to my project at lunch!

After we ate, Mr. Guy took me outside for a different look at the mountains, but all I saw was clouds.  We were sitting in the clouds!!


I also got another new shirt, one from Mt. Mitchell! YAY!!!  I was a very happy blue and orange furry monster.

After lunch we drove some more and saw some more mountains, but they didn’t have as many feet.  





We were headed to Linville Falls.   This is a place where water falls out of the rocks.  We had to hike to the place to see this falling water.  Mr. Guy went part of the way and then he waited while Mr. Rusty and The Lady went to the top of the falls.  It was kind of scary being up so high.  I found out that Mr. Rusty and The Lady were kind of scared up there too!    The Lady carried me and tried to take a picture of me and the falls.  It didn’t work so well.  I was smiling, but she was nervous.


We were all getting tired by the time we left the falls.  We took a different road, a faster one back to our cabin.  Mr. Rusty grilled some steaks for dinner and The Lady made some vegetables.  And then we all went to bed.  Well, I went to bed; I don’t really know what all of the grown-ups did.  I did get to sleep in my new shirt!


That’s all!
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Friends, Roomies, and Crafts(wo)men

So what have I learned lately?  Vacations are fun!  I have been new places, seen new things, and met new people.  All of this has been very exciting for a little blue and orange furry monster!

After our day of painting on Saturday, we had a “cabin day” on Sunday.  We stayed at home and slept a little later, had a relaxed breakfast on the deck, read, colored, played games, went for a walk, and just enjoyed the mountain air.  I thought that I might be a bored little monster, but nope; it was a very peaceful and refreshing day.

Yesterday, The Lady’s college roommate and her husband came to spend the night with us.  The Lady and Ms. Linda have been friends for 36 years.  That is more years than I have monster toes and fingers so it must be a very, very long time!  They had lots to talk about.  Mr. Guy and Ms. Linda’s Guy teach the same stuff to middle school monsters kids, so they had a lot to talk about too.  Ms. Linda had told The Lady that she was excited to meet me.  That made me smile.   The Lady has some really nice friends!

Last night,  Ms. Linda’s Guy went down to the pond to throw a string in the water.  He said that there were critters in the water and that they would bite his string and then he would use the stick that the string was attached to to pull them out of the water.

Ms. Linda’s Guy tried to teach me how to play with the stick and string, but I was not very good at it, so we all just sat and watched while he kept throwing the string in the pond.  I never saw any critters bite it.  That seemed to be okay with him.  We all enjoyed our evening down by the pond.

This morning there was lots of rain and thunder.  We were going to go for a long ride to see the mountains, but plans were changed because of the stormy weather.   We went to the Folk Art Center instead.  I saw lots of things that people made with their hands – furniture, quilts, musical instruments, jewelry, toys, clothing, pottery, all kinds of stuff.  The artists there were very talented.

I met two of the artists, Susan and Debbie.  Debbie makes serigraphs and linoprints.  Her works are very pretty.  Debbie let me hold one of the brushes that she uses for her work.  She also agreed to be part of my 100 People Project.

The Lady and Mr. Guy bought two if her prints.  This one is my favorite because it has lots of blue!

If you would like to see more of Debbie’s beautiful works of art, visit her website.

I also got to talk to Susan.  Susan is a basket weaver.  She had a very cool backpack basket that would have been perfect for Mr. Guy to carry this blue and orange furry monster around, but Mr. Guy and The Lady would not buy it for me.  That made me a little sad, but then I decided that I like it when people carry me in their arms.  Ms. Linda carried me a lot today.  Anyway, Mr. Guy and The Lady decided that they would buy a different basket, but when they went back to get it, it was gone.  Someone else bought it.  The Lady was disappointed, but Susan said that she would make one special for The Lady.  and maybe it could even have some blue in it.  It is very nice of Susan to make a special basket for us.  Once she is done, she will mail it to us in Texas.  A package in the mail!  I like to get packages in the mail.  I promise that I will show you our basket when it gets to Texas.

Susan also had her picture taken with me!

Ms. Linda’s Guy drove us today along the Blue Ridge Parkway.  That was nice of him.  It gave Mr. Guy and The Lady a chance to just look out the windows.  We stopped along the way.  I had to have a picture with Ms. Linda and her Guy.  They may be old friends of The Lady, but they are new friends of me.

I have been a little confused about how to number the people in my project when there are two people in one photo.  The Lady and I have talked about this.  She told me that when people get married, there is something said like “two shall become one.”  It sounds strange to me, but that is what The Lady said and I trust her.  So, I decided that Ms. Linda and her Guy are just one number.  All of this is so confusing for a little monster!  The Lady told me that I just have to trust the process.  I don’t really know what that means, but I said “OK” just to make her feel good.

It was a busy day for me in front of the camera.  Thank you to all of my new friends for helping me with my 100 People Project!

Oh, and Mr. Guy, Ms. Linda, and The Lady worked hard to find me an Asheville T-shirt today while we were out.  It is hard to find orange shirts here so I am getting some new colors.

I am looking forward to more adventures in the next couple of days!

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Blueper B and The Paint Bug

Most days in the life of my family are about me seeing or learning something new, but today, it was about Mr. Guy trying something new.  It was fun for me to watch him try something he had never done before.  He has done lots of lots of things in his life, but he has never painted a picture before.

The Lady likes to do all kinds of creative things.  She plays and writes music; she knits; she writes; and of course, she takes pictures.  The Mr. Guy hasn’t ever found anything creative that he likes to do.  He says that he is not a creative person.  The Lady and I have tried to tell him that everybody is a creative person; he just has to find his means of expression.  I was surprised when Mr. Guy and The Lady said that we were going to go paint today.  Of all the creative things that Mr. Guy might have chosen to explore, painting is not the one that I thought that he would have chosen.  What do I know?  I’m just a little blue and orange furry monster.

After lunch, off we went to a place called the Bier Garden.  Mixing beer and painting didn’t sound like a good thing to me, but again, what do I know?  Mr. Guy said that the beer might help to get his creative juices flowing.

A nice girl named Abbi was the teacher for the class.  I don’t think she knew what she was getting into having Mr. Guy in her class.  She gave Mr. Guy and The Lady some paint and an empty piece of white board.

She said it was called a canvas and was made especially for artists to paint on.  Mr. Guy kind of stared at it like he was really scared.

I told him it would be OK.  He was a grown up and he could paint a pretty picture if he tried and if he didn’t drink too much beer.  (I have never had beer because I am too little, but The Lady says that if you have too much that it can make you feel funny and maybe say or do silly things.)

Before they started, Mr. Guy kept looking at his phone.

 I think maybe he was going to call 911 to come rescue him.  I did not get to paint a picture.  That was OK.  I didn’t want to get paint in my fur.  But, I did get to do something new today too.  The Lady let me use her camera to take pictures of them painting.  Unfortunately, I only took pictures of Mr. Guy because without photos, no one would ever believe that he painted.

Finally they got started working on their paintings.  Mr. Guy seemed to relax a little.  He did a great job painting the background of his picture.  Then it came time to paint a background layer of trees.  Mr. Guy didn’t like that part too much.  He kept saying that what he was painting did not look like trees.  The Lady told him that they were not really supposed to look like trees; they were just kind of texture in the background.  They would give his painting depth.  That was the wrong thing to say because Mr. Guy says that he can’t see depth in pictures.  He still had 911 ready to push on his phone, but he didn’t.  He kept painting…and drinking his beer.

He finished both.  The Lady and I were proud of him for finishing his painting.  He didn’t cry or say any bad words.  This was thanks to his teacher, Abbi.  She did a great job of talking everyone through how to paint a pretty picture.  Abbi was kind, cheerful, and patient.  She is very good at her job!  She is The Paint Bug. 

She does classes like the one we went to today at different places, but not in Texas so if Mr. Guy wants to keep painting, he will have to find a new teacher. Abi also paints custom “critter portraits,” paintings of people’s furry monsters pets.  Maybe Mr. Guy would like her to paint a picture of me; I am not a pet, but I am a critter. 🙂  You can see all the cool stuff that Abbi does by visiting her website: www.paint-bug.com.

The coolest thing that Abbi did, though, was to have her picture taken with me!  I am posting it here, but her friend also took one of us and posted it on her website!  That is exciting!  Abbi is 9 of 100 in my project

I am happy that we all got to try something new today.  I think that I may have played with too many of the buttons on The Lady’s camera.   I hope that she will teach me how to take some pretty photos rather than blurry ones.  Oh well…

Oh, and one more thing…

My friend Stobbsie from Scotland asked to see a picture of my new T-shirt from the Biltmore; you know, the pink one.  Here I am proudly wearing pink!