Category: T-shirts

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A Month of Me – Day 15

Since we had a big adventure yesterday, today we stayed home, but I still got to do some new stuff.  First, I got to wear one of my new t-shirts that we got at Target a few weeks ago.  The Lady picked this one out because she likes the guy on the front.  Well, its not really the guy that she likes, she likes how he is built.  Wait, I don’t think that sounds right either.  I give up.  The guy on my shirt is a Lego guy.  I found out today that The Lady has lots of Lego guys.  Some even look like the guy on my shirt…if you get all of their parts in the right places.  They are astronauts, people who go to outer space.

Mr. Guy told me that when he was growing up, people flew in rockets into space all the time. He remembers when a guy named Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon for the first time. That was way back in 1969.  That was a long time ago!  I’ve seen the moon when I have been outside at night in my backyard and it does not look big enough for a rocket ship and a man to stand on.  Mr Guy says the moon is really a long way away.   Really it is big.  It took three whole days for Astronaut Armstrong and his friend Astronaut Buzz Aldrin to get to the moon. That is why it looks so small from here! Mr Guy even got to meet an Astronaut once. That was Astronaut Alan Shepard. Astronaut Shepard was the first American to go into space.  He went to the moon once too! Astronaut Shepard wrote a book about his life and was in Dallas signing copies of it for people. This is how Mr. Guy got to meet an astronaut.  He went and got a copy of his book!  Mr. Guy read some of it to me tonight.  He says that over the summer maybe we can read the whole thing together!


I wonder if the guy on my shirt is Mr. Armstrong or Mr. Shepard.
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A Month of Me – Day 14

Saturdays are usually chore day at our house because its the only day that Mr. Guy and The Lady have to clean and do laundry and buy groceries.  Today was different.  Since The Lady is all done with school, she can do all of those things on Monday.  So, today wasn’t chore day; it was adventure day!  That made me happy so I decided to wear my “happy” shirt.  And it is yellow!!!  In all of my wondering this week about how my blue and orange fur would look with the color yellow, I forgot that I already had something yellow!  I don’t think it crashes clashes.  Yellow is a happy color just like my shirt says.  It makes me happy and going on adventures with The Lady and Mr. Guy makes me happy!  Today I am a happy little monster!


Lots of times when we go on adventures that require flying on an airplane, we have to get up very early.  No airplanes today.  We weren’t going too far from our house so we went in the car and we didn’t have to get up until eight o’clock!  This little monster got lots of sleep last night!  We were going to a place called Heritage Homestead to meet some special friends of The Lady and Mr. Guy.  It took us about an hour and a half to drive there.  

The first thing we did was eat lunch.  The restaurant was super busy so we had to eat sort of quickly.  The Lady did not take time to take any pictures at lunch, but Mr. Guy and I did share a piece of orange cake.  I think it was made of carrots.  After lunch, we went to see all of the fun stuff.  Heritage Homestead is a craft village where people make all kinds of things.  
The first thing we saw was a blacksmith.

It was kind of scary watching the blacksmith.  He put pieces of metal into a big fire.  The metal got so hot that it turned bright orange.  That may be one kind of orange that I don’t like!  The blacksmith guy liked it though.  While the metal was orange, the blacksmith guy used his tools to twist and turn and fold the hot metal into hooks and all kinds of neat things.  I liked watching him, but I don’t think I would want to work with the metal and the fire.  I would be scared that my fur would catch on fire, and I don’t think it would turn more orange if it did.
Next we went to the gristmill.  I didn’t know anything about gristmills, but there were people working there who explained what a gristmill is.  They take grains and grind them to make flour.  
I liked this place because it was about making food.  I like food!  I like to make it and I like to eat it.
We bought some oats for our breakfasts.
The next place we went was to the fiber building.  That was a place where they had lots of sticks and string.  The people there twisted the sticks and string just like the blacksmith did except they did not use any fire.  The Lady knows how to twist string with sticks.  This place had string in lots of colors.  
Hey look!  They have string that has blue and orange and yellow all at the same time!  It matches me!
I have an idea!  The Lady can get some of this string and use her sticks to make me a hat!  I bet she can make a hat with some air holes for my horns!  I bet our friend Ms. Joni would like this place.  She is one of The Lady’s friends who likes to play with sticks and string.  I think you should come visit us in Texas, Ms. Joni.  Or, maybe we can find a string store when we see you this summer in Pittsburgh. If The Lady won’t make me a hat with air holes for my horns, will you?
I learned that some of the string comes from plants and some of it comes from animals like these.
I think that they should be called string monsters, but they are called sheep.  That doesn’t make any sense.  They were fuzzy, but they didn’t have any colorful sheep like make the string at the string shop.  I want to see a fuzzy rainbow sheep!
This place did have lots of flowers in all the colors of the rainbow.
Look!  More yellow with lots of orange!  I think that I am beginning to like yellow too!  Not as much as blue and orange, though.
And they had great big shade trees.
Since I don’t have a hat, I sat in the shade of the tree so that my head didn’t get baked.  Mr. Guy was wearing his hat so his head didn’t get baked.  That was OK because I don’t think that hat is the right hat for me. 
The last place we went was to a house where people take mud and make dishes with it.  They put it on a merry-go-round and instead of getting dizzy it becomes a bowl, or a vase, or a cup.  A cup!  They had made lots of cups.  Maybe the Dallas Stars should come here where they could each get their own cup since they didn’t win the big cup.  If they really, really, really, just want one great big cup, they can get one of those here too.
After we saw all of this neat stuff, it was time to say goodbye to our friends and head home.
I had a super fun adventure day!  I saw lots of things that I have never seen before.  I am looking forward to more adventures and more new people on our summer adventures!

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A Month of Me – Day 7

Today was much better than yesterday!  Mr. Guy and The Lady did not have to go anywhere until this evening.  We spent all morning sitting on the patio drinking coffee and watching the birds and the squirrels.  Some of those squirrels have as much fur as I do!  None of us needed fur today because it was eighty-five degrees at our house.  I was hot!  I told Mr. Guy that maybe he should take me to the fur cutting shop so that I won’t get so hot when summer really gets here.  He said that he didn’t that that was a good idea because my fur protects me from the sun.  If I got my fur cut off I would have to put sun cream all over me like The Lady does or I will become a red monster instead of a blue and orange monster.  I wouldn’t like that.  I would like to have a hat to protect me from the sun like Mr. Guy has, but my horns make it hard for me to find a hat that fits.  I guess I will just keep my fur.  

Since we were spending the day outside, I put on my “Dirt Shirt” that Ms. Michele gave me when we visited her in Delaware.  It is one of my favorite shirts!  Every time I wear it, I remember our visits.

This afternoon we checked on all of the plants and flowers in our yard.  I didn’t know that we had so many.  It felt like we were at the park.  Lots of our flowers are blue and orange! 

 It makes me happy to look around and see my favorite colors everywhere!  Blue and orange make The Lady happy too.

We also planted a new bluish purple flower.  One of The Lady’s students gave it to her.


Mr. Guy said that it needed to go in our butter flies garden.  I was confused.  I didn’t know that butter could fly!  The Lady had lots of butter out last night while she was making all that bread.  It didn’t fly.  It stayed right on the counter where she put it until it was time to go in the big whirly machine.  Maybe that’s when it flies.  The whirly machine makes it go round and round.  The Lady explained that we were not talking about flying butter, but insects that are called butterflies.  She said that they have pretty colors on their wings and that some of them are even blue and orange.  I hope that these butterfly things like our flowers and will come stay in our garden.  I would like to see one of them.

Mr. Guy picked me up to show me a pretty white flower.  I can’t remember its name…something about magazines and oil, I think.


It is on a big bush.  Mr. Guy also showed me all the baby flowers that have not been born yet.  He said that in a few days they will be born and the bush will have lots more of these pretty white flowers all over it.

After we were done investigating the garden, Mr. Guy and I had to rest!  Playing in the dirt is hard work!


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A Month of Me – Day 3


It is only three days into the month of me May and already I know that this will be my favorite month ever!  Not only is The Lady helping me write every day, but she is taking a picture of me every day for her May Capture Your 365 prompts.  The best part is that she is in some of the pictures with me!!!  Her prompt today was “What Represents Me.”  Well, what represents her.  I told her that what I think represents her best is blue and orange  Those are her favorite colors…and mine, too!  She agreed that the fact that we both like blue and orange is a good thing, but that the prompt meant a little more than that.  We started talking about good things.

Blue and orange and T-shirts are good things, I said.  She said loving people, making people smile, and sharing your things were all good.  Then I started to understand.  Hugs are good.  Giving food and T-shirts to people who don’t have clothing and meals is good.  To not have hate in your heart is good.  Then The Lady remembered my shirt… This is not a new one, but she thought it would be perfect for today’s photo about what represents her.  

I know that she makes my world good.  And, Mr. Guy, The Lady and I believe that there is much good in the world even though it is sometimes hard to see.  And, we do our best to be a part of that good.

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A Month of Me – Day 2

This little monster had a big surprise today!  When Mr. Guy and The Lady got home from school, they said that they needed to go to the store to get a few things and that I could go.  I asked if this store would be a disappointment like the stores in the airport last week.  Mr. Guy said he was sure that they would have the things that were on his shopping list and that they might even have a shirt for me.  He promised me that we could look.  This trip was sounding pretty good now.

We went to Target.


Mr. Guy always carries me when we go places.  I asked him if he feels silly carrying a blue and orange furry monster into public places and he said, “Nope.”  I’m glad because if he felt silly, I would never get to go anywhere and that would be boring and I would never get any new shirts!

When we got inside the store, I got to ride in a big red monster mobile.  It was fun!  Mr. Guy and The Lady drove me around, kind of like the pilot does on the airplane, but with the red monster mobile our wheels stayed on the ground.  This store had all kinds of things for me to look at.  They even had a place especially for taking pictures of little monsters!


This is the Target dog.  It kind of looks like the dogs at our house except this one didn’t have any fur.

Right around the corner from the picture spot were the little monster sized shirts.  As Mr. Guy steered my monster mobile, I could see lots and lots of blue and orange shirts!!  Yep.  No more Big D for this little monster!  Mr. Guy helped me find shirts in my size.

He and The Lady said that I could get more than one new shirt since I am going to have lots of pictures taken this month.  The Lady said that it was easier to buy me a few new shirts than to have to wash my old one’s all the time for my pictures.  This sounded like a good plan to me.  There were some shirts that had my favorite colors, but I didn’t quite understand the picture on the shirt.  Mr. Guy tried to explain it to me, but I still didn’t understand.  


After I picked out my shirts, we went to some other places in the store.  We passed a section of crazy looking contraptions.  The Lady told me that they were for human babies.  To me they looked like they would turn babies into robots or something.


I’m sure glad that Mr. Guy will hold me and carry me and not put me in one of these baby robot makers.  I guess they could maybe be fun, but I am a monster who likes to cuddle and neither Mr. Guy or The Lady would fit in one of these things with me!

One of the reasons that Mr. Guy wanted to come to Target was to get some beard wash.  Beard wash???  
He said that it keeps his fur neat and clean.  I wondered if I needed beard wash since I have lots of fur.  I don’t really have a beard.  Well, maybe I do, but it is all over my body!  Mr. Guy only has fur on his chin.  He doesn’t even have fur on his head!  I think I have more fur than he does, but I didn’t get any beard wash or fur wash.  I hope my fur looks neat and clean!

Then we shopped for a few more things that seemed boring to a little blue and orange furry monster.  I just looked around at all the people while Mr. Guy and the Lady filled the cargo compartment of my monster mobile.  I found lots of people to smile and wave at.  We even saw one of Mr. Guy’s students from his school.


After we paid for my cool new shirts and Mr. Guy and The Lady’s boring other stuff, we went for a treat.  Mr. Guy took us to get frozen yogurt.  The Lady is counting her calories. I don’t know exactly what that means, but she said that she was only having a tiny bit of yogurt with nothing special on it.  Mr. Guy said that she was going to have boring yogurt and that he and I would share.  I was so excited to see that they had blue and orange yogurt!!  Mr. Guy said I could have both of them!  And, he let me get blue and orange dots to put on it.  It was tasty.  I hope that I didn’t get any in my beard.  I mean my fur.  Mr. Guy didn’t offer to share his beard wash with me.


Maybe tomorrow The Lady will take a picture of me in one of my new shirts.

I am certainly enjoying this month of me May!


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The Big D

It has been a long time since I have written a post.  I feel like a bear, a blue and orange bear, who went into hibernation for the winter.   Now that it springtime, I am venturing back into the world.  I think Mr. Guy and The Lady have been hibernating at school!  They always seem to be busy.

Last weekend, The Lady had to be in Chicago for a meeting.  Mr. Guy went along and he said that I could go too.  Yay!  It has been a long time since I have been on a trip.  When The Captain was sick, we went on trips a lot.  Now we don’t go as much.  Sometimes I miss it and sometimes I don’t.  Anyway, I was excited to get to go this time.  I thought Mr. Guy and I would have a great time doing stuff while The Lady was stuck in her meeting.  The weekend didn’t go quite as I had hoped.  I learned another one of those “life lessons” as Mr. Guy calls them.  I learned about disappointment.

Big D is not for Dallas, where we live.  It is for Big Disappointment.

Out flight was very early.  We got up at 2:30 am to be at the airport at 4.  Well, Mr. Guy and The Lady got up.  Not me.  They just scooped me out of my bed half awake to leavet.  I didn’t really wake up until it was time to go through security and Mr. Guy had to send me, all by myself, through that dark tunnel where those TSA guys take pictures of my insides.  I have had to do that lots of times, but it is still scary for a little blue and orange monster!  They saw that my insides were empty!  I had had no breakfast.  Mr. Guy said that we would have breakfast on the plane but he would get us some coffee to share while we waited in the airport.

Disappointment #1
At 4am, nothing is open in the Dallas airport.  Not even Starbucks!!  


Mr. Guy and I had to wait until we got on the plane for our coffee.  This made for two grouchy monsters!  Mr. Guy and I grumbled together in our chair until it was time to get on the airplane.  The Lady ignored us both.  She knows that is the best thing to do when we have been awake, well sort of awake, for over an hour and have not had any coffee.  Fortunately, we were not in gym class with the coaches on this flight, we were in the first grade class.  In first grade, you get coffee before the airplane leaves the ground.  Phew!  Mr. Guy and I were happy about that.


I was so not awake when we left my house, that I forgot to put a shirt on.  I was a little embarrassed, but Mr. Guy held me tight so no one would stare at my orange belly fur and he told me that we had some time when we landed in Chicago before we had to head to our hotel; we would find a Chicago shirt for me in the airport.

Disappointment #2
Mr. Guy and The Lady walked all over the terminal, into every store they saw, trying to find a new shirt for me.  There were no shirts sized for little blue and orange monsters anywhere.  This seemed strange to me.  I have gotten lots of my shirts in airport shops.  Oh well, we still had Saturday to find a new shirt somewhere.

Disappointment #3
As it turned out, we did not get to see anything the whole time that we were in Chicago except our hotel.  


The Lady was busy with her meeting, and Mr. Guy found out that he was being given a whole bunch of extra work at school so he had to stay in the hotel room and work, work, work all day long!!  I was sad that I wouldn’t get to see any new places, but I was happy to get to spend the whole day with Mr. Guy.  We got to have breakfast and lunch together and I got to help him make some videos for his monsters at school.  


The day could have been better, but it also could have been worse.  Mr. Guy explained to me that there are times when things don’t go like you want or hope they will.  He told me I just had to look for something positive.  He said that if you look for stuff to make you unhappy, you can always find it.  But, if you look for something to make you happy, you can always find that too.  


I was happy that I got to go with The Lady and Mr. Guy.  I was happy that Mr. Guy and I shared lots of coffee and breakfast and lunch.  And, I was happy that Mr. Guy and The Lady told me that when we went back to the airport to fly home, we could try again to find a new shirt for me.  Oh, and I was happy that I got to nap and watch HGTV while Mr. Guy worked!  


At least I got to look at pictures of Chicago in a book.


Disappointment #4
Still no shirt to be found at the airport.

While we tried again to fins a shirt for me, Mr. Guy found a coloring book for himself and The Lady got a bracelet.  It made me smile that we found something for them. They also got a nice blue bag that I got to ride in.  

I learned that I am just as happy when I help to find a nice surprise for other people as I am when they find them for me!  


While we were waiting for our flight, I saw this strange toy hanging on the wall.  I asked The Lady if we could go play with it.  She said that it was not a toy; it was a pay phone.  


Hmmm…it didn’t look like any phone I had ever seen.  Why did someone hang their phone on the wall?  Silly question.  Because that phone was too big to put in their pocket.  And, it had too many cords and buttons and couldn’t even take pictures!  It looked like some kind of science fiction thing to me!  That was the newest thing, at least to me, that I saw all weekend!!

Then it was time to get on the plane and come home.


Even though I tried to smile and be a big blue and orange furry monster, The Lady knew that I was disappointed.  To make me feel better, she told me that during the month of May, she would include me in all of her daily photos.  That means that we will get to do something fun every single day!    The Lady said that we can post her photos to my blog every day too.  Now I am one happy and excited little monster!  I will have to spend all month brushing my fur so that I look my very best.  Oh, and she said that maybe there will be a new shirt somewhere along the way!  

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A New Shirt!


I got a new shirt!  The problem is that it has been so hot here, that I don’t need, or want, to wear a shirt…or anything else for that matter.  The temperatures have been over a hundred degrees and that makes my fur all hot and soggy.  It is a very yucky feeling!  Because of the heat, we haven’t gone out much.  Mr. Guy and The Lady have been busy getting things organized at home before they both start school in a week or two.  Hopefully we will have another adventure or two before they go back to school.  I will miss having them home with me all day, but I know they need to work.  That is how they earn money to buy me new shirts!

I really like this shirt.  I know that there is good in the world.  I meet good people all the time.  They are nice to me and make me happy.  I hope that I can make people smile and be happy too!

Hopefully it will cool off a little bit and I can get out and continue working on my 100 People Project.      Right now, though, I will be happy at home with Mr. Guy and The Lady.

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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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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.