Category: 100 People

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The Biltmore Part 2 and People #6-#8 of My 100 People Project

Today was a very interesting day. The Lady and Mr. Guy helped me put on my special fancy clothes, at least that’s what they called them. Mr. Guy helped with a funny shirt that had these pointy things that he called a collar.    I thought collars were something that you used to decorate a dog.And then came the vest. The Lady tied a blue and orange bow tie and put that around my neck too. I wasn’t sure that I was going to be able to breathe, but Mr. Guy said that he used to wear a bow tie to work and he was still here and breathing so he thought that I would be just fine.  We were going somewhere special. I thought it might have to do with The Lady and Mr. Guy’s  anniversary. I knew it was today. But I was a little surprised because we were supposed to be going to get my new shirt, too. Why did I need my fancy clothes when I knew that I was going to get a new comfortable shirt?

We went to McDonald’s for breakfast. This was the big surprise. Mr. Guy had read that this MacDonald’s was special. It was made to look like the Biltmore. All of the people who work there were supposed to be all dressed up, just like they were at the Biltmore.  Mr. Guy thought that if I went in all dressed up too, we could get some fun pictures.  But, no one was dressed up! All of the workers had on comfy shirts, like I wished that I did.  The MacDonald’s was really nice. There was even a piano that played itself. 

We have a piano at home that The Lady plays. This piano did not seem to be much fun since it did not need a person to play it.  Music is for people and blue and orange furry monsters to enjoy making and hearing.

I think Mr. Guy was disappointed.  We just ate breakfast and left.  

The Lady said that I looked dapper in my fancy clothes.  I think that means something nice.

We went back to the Biltmore. I didn’t think there could be more to see there. We spent all day yesterday looking. and there was more!  A lot more!  There are big gardens full of flowers, and shrubs, and bees, and butterflies. The Lady wanted to take pictures of the flowers. While she did that, Mr. Guy and I watched people. We just relaxed.  I think a lot of people watched us, too.


I did like looking at a few of the blue and orange flowers.

When The Lady had all her pictures taken, we went into a shop they have at the Conservatory.  (There is another one of those big words!). I thought this would be when I got my shirt!  As we were going in two people asked about me. They had never seen  a blue and orange furry monster! We found out they are from Texas, just like us, but they live in Houston, not Dallas. Their names are Marcus and Tami. They agreed to take a picture with me.  

My 100 People Project is moving right along because of all the nice people that I am meeting.

But, I still did not have my new shirt.  I was trying not to be a grouchy monster.  It was Mr. Guy and the Lady’s anniversary and I was fairly sure that they did not want to spend it with a grouchy monster.  We then went up to another part of Biltmore. I just cannot believe how big this place is. Here we saw some stuff about farming. Mr. Guy told me farming is how people grow their food. We sat on a thing called a tractor. Mr. Guy said it is used to help prepare the land to grow food. 

Then we went into a shop there.  It was called the Mercantile.  It was in there that I finally got my new shirt. I was a little surprised though; it is not blue or orange, it is pink. I was not sure about the pink. I was not sure I would match my fur; and I was not sure that it fit my personality.  I thought pink was a color for girls, not blue and orange boy monsters.  I had to think hard, because this was the only shirt in my size anywhere in this great big place.  I either got a pink shirt, or no shirt.. I tried it on and decided that it was ok.  I don’t want all of my shirts to be pink, but this one will work.

What made it even more OK was that the lady who sold us my shirt was from Dallas! Her name is Norma. She and her husband moved to North Carolina to be near their son. But she knew all the places we go in Texas! It was fun to meet another person from Texas.  The Lady asked Norma  if she wanted to have her picture taken! Norma was excited and said “yes!”  She even got her friend into the picture too. His name is Doc and he is the blacksmith at the Biltmore. I learned a blacksmith makes things with metal.  

We took our picture. I gave them my cards thanking them for being people #7 and #8. Doc gave me his card, too!

After all of that, I was a hot and tired monster.  We stopped and Cedric’s Tavern for lunch.  Cedric is the name of a great big dog called a Saint Bernard that George Vanderbilt had.  There is a statue of the dog in front of the tavern.  I did notice that Cedric was not wearing a pointy collar thing.  Dog collars look more comfortable than fancy monster collars!

After lunch, we stopped for more quick picture in the sunflowers.  They were great big, like everything else here.  

We didn’t stay there long because it was so hot.  We then went back to our cabin and this monster had a long cool nap in my comfy new shirt.

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Blueper B at the Biltmore Estate and 3-5 of My 100 People Project

Today was our first whole day in Asheville.  We all slept a little late.  I guess we were tired from traveling yesterday.  Mr. Guy and The Lady planned for us all to go to the Biltmore Estate.  It is a great big place and we had to park and walk a little way!  



As we walked from the parking lot, well I didn’t walk, Mr. Guy told me all about this place. A long time ago, a man named Vanderbilt made a lot of money. He wanted a big house, like a palace. So he had this house built. He took the last part of his name and attached the word “more”. Maybe because he “built more house” than anyone. Mr. Guy said Biltmore is the largest house in the whole country. 


When I saw the house for the first time, it looked like a whole city to me!  I have never seen a house that big.  A little blue and orange furry monster could get lost in the place.  It was pretty, but also a little scary.


The reason it looks like a whole city is because there are lots of rooms and shops and restaurants in that building.  When Mr. Guy told me that there were shops, I got excited because I might get a new shirt.  The Lady and Mr. Guy said that we could go look for a shirt before we did anything else.  Yay!  We went into a shop that had lots of shirts for big monsters and people, but the worker said that they didn’t have any small enough for me.  That made me sad.  The Lady said that we could go look in another shop, a toy shop.  Surely a toy shop will have a little shirt for me because toys are for little people.  Nope.  They didn’t have one either.  I was now one really sad little monster.  But, I did have to smile when I saw some of my “family” at the toy shop.


When I saw them, I decided that it was silly for me to be sad.  True, I did not find a new shirt, but I have Mr. Guy and The Lady to take me places and love me, these guys just hung out in the toy shop all day.  I remember what that felt like.  Not good.  So, I became a happy monster again.

It was then time for us to go inside this great big house.  I was still not so sure about it, especially with things like this on the outside!


We talked and became friends.

The Lady had to put her camera away because they do not allow people to take pictures in this place. Oh well..we walked all around, up and down stairs from the basement to the third floor.  I’m glad Mr. Guy was carrying me, because now I know I would have gotten lost.  The rooms were big.  The ceilings were tall, the windows were huge, and the furniture was big.  I felt as tiny as ant in there.  This house was obviously not meant as a home for little blue and orange furry monsters, but it was kind of fun to look around.

Because the people didn’t let us take our own pictures inside, they had a picture taking person of their own who took our picture.  I thought that was very nice of them.  The Lady told me that we would have to buy their picture.  That didn’t seem right.  Th Lady always takes my picture and most of the time she makes me look handsome.  Why couldn’t she take my picture?  Mr. Guy tried to explain something to me about captive audience and consumerism.  I didn’t understand.  All I know is that they gave us a card and told us we could look at our picture at the end.

I liked the picture that they took because The Lady was in it with Mr. Guy and Me.  She is never in the pictures because she always takes them.  I told Mr. Guy that I wanted this picture of the three of us, so he bought it.  Tomorrow we will get it into my blog. 

There were two girls who took his money.  They were very friendly and asked all about me.  Because they were so nice, I asked if they wanted to be part of my Hundred People Project.  They said yes!  I guess because Mr. Guy bought their picture they thought it would be fun to be in our picture.


I am happy that people are helping me with my Hundred People Project.  I just want to show the world that there are nice people everywhere!

We ate lunch at a restaurant here.  It was yummy!  Ribs, pulled pork, chicken, collard greens, polenta, cole slaw, and pickles.  We were all too full to have dessert, so after lunch we went to the confectionery.  The Lady told me that “confectionery” is just a fancy name for candy shop.  The houses and the words are big here!  I have never seen so much candy!


We each got a little treat to have when we got home.  The lady who worked at the confectionery (I like saying that word!) was friendly too.  We talked to her for a long time and found out that she had lived in Texas!  She told us that she bought her wedding dress in Dallas, where we live.  The world is not such a big place after all.  I’m not sure that I can say the same thing about this house, though.  Her name was Amy and she was more than happy to have a picture taken with me!


Look at her smile!  She made me laugh really hard.  I sure like meeting all of these nice people!

Oh, and I finally got to see the mountains.  I like them because they are blue like me.


Mr. Guy said that if we see that at sunrise or sunset they might look blue and orange, even more like me!

I had a good day.  I hope that you did too!  Don’t forget to stop and smell the roses…or in a pinch, the petunias!  Speaking of stops we made another stop on the way back. There was one more shop, (there are lots of shops here). A nice lady in there helped find a shirt for me at another shop! They are keeping it for us until tomorrow.


Tomorrow we are going back to the Biltmore to see the gardens, where they have roses, petunias, and lots more flowers.  And, we will get my new shirt! So watch for Part 2 of my trip to the Biltmore tomorrow!

Until then…

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Plastic Eyes


Mister Guy and The Lady like to take me out to see new places, new things, and new people.  Today, I went with them to the eye doctor.   This doctor has been taking care of Mr. Guy’s eyes for over forty years.  That is a long time!  


I learned that people have to take care of their eyes so that they can always see all of these new things as well as possible.  I also learned that my whole family has plastic eyes, but they are all different kinds of plastic eyes!  This was a little confusing to me at first, but I think I understand now.

I have plastic eyes.  I was made that way and my eyes work just fine.  The lady at the eye doctor’s office let me look into a strange machine where she could see my eyes.  


She told me that I have perfect monster eyes.  That’s good!  But, we weren’t at the doctor for me; we were there for Mr. Guy.

A couple of years ago, Mr Guy got his plastic eyes.  He had something called Cadillacs…no wait, cataracts.  Mr. Guy said that when he looked at things everything was cloudy because of the cadillacs on the lenses in his eyes.  He told me that the doctor took out his cloudy lenses and put nice clean new plastic ones in his eyes so that everything would be clear again.  But lately, Mr. Guy said that things have been kind of blurry  That’s why we were at the doctor.  Just so you don’t worry, everything is good now.

The doctor told us that there are some web things that grew in his eyes to hold the new plastic lenses in place, but too much of them grew in Mr. Guy’s eye and covered places that they shouldn’t; so, the doctor used a machine with a laser to get rid of them.   It sounded scary, but Mr. Guy said that it was not scary.   He held me so that I could look at the machine.  At first I wasn’t sure that I wanted to get too close…


…but then I decided that I could be a brave blue and orange furry monster.


This lady came in before the doctor and put lots of drops in Mr. Guy’s eyes. 


Then the doctor came in and used the machine to get rid of Mr Guy’s over grown eye weeds webs..  


 It only took about 45 seconds and he said that it did not hurt.   I’m happy that the doctor did not hurt Mr. Guy.  That would have made me feel sad.  I hope that his blurry eyes are fixed.

The people at the eye doctor’s office were very nice to Mr. Guy, and that is what is important for today.  I don’t think that they have ever had a blue and orange monster with great big plastic eyes in their office before.  They weren’t sure how to treat me.  I had hoped that one of them might want to have a picture taken with me and join my 100 People project, but nope.  They were very serious about their work, which I guess is a good thing if you are there to have your eyes fixed.


I learned today that The Lady also has plastic lenses, but hers are not held in her eyes by overgrown webs; The Lady’s plastic lenses go on her eyes and she puts them in and takes them out every day.  She called them contact lenses.  There sure are a lot of “c” lens words to learn when it comes to understanding eyes!  I hope that because I already have plastic eyes that I won’t have to ever deal with cadillacs, contacts, or cataracts!

All of this new information about the different kinds of plastic eyes today got me thinking…

Like I said earlier, everyone in my family has plastic eyes, but they are all different yet they all do the same thing.  They make it so we each can see.  What is more important, the things that we all have in common, or the things that make us different from one another?  That seems to be an important question about a lot of things these days.  For example, I have blue and orange fur, The Lady has white fur, and Mr. Guy has gray fur.  We all look different, but we aren’t really that different.  We all feel the same things.  Most of the time we all feel happy, but sometimes we are sad.  Sometimes we all feel hungry, or sleepy, or hot, or scared, or full of joy.   Most importantly we all want to feel loved.  It doesn’t matter what color fur we have on the outside, we all have the same feelings on the inside.  I think those inside things that are the same for everybody are much more important than those outside things like fur color and plastic eye type that are different.

What do you think?

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2/100 My 100 People Project


This morning Mr. Guy and The Lady went to see where one of their friends works.  It is a shop that does powder coating.  I did not go out into the work area because it was not the best place for a blue and orange furry monster; I stayed in the office where there was a comfy chair and a computer.  The office belonged to Mr. Jim.  I hope that I did not mess up too many of his papers while he was showing my people around.
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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!”