I bought the pillow to help decorate my spartan little apartment the year of my divorce. At the time you never could have convinced me all of the love that would eventually surround it.
2007
Me, puppy Ollie, Max
2016
Ollie
2018
Murphy
Thursday’s post about World of Warcraft was auto-scheduled, and I’m glad because after YET ANOTHER school shooting on Wednesday, I wouldn’t have known what to write. Well, I know what has to be written, but that one’s going to take some time.
Apologies for the design weirdness here over the last week. I updated colors and apparently I had hard-coded some css SOMEWHERE (don’t do that) and had to find it to fix things.
In the meantime, it’s time for the Friday 5 – this week’s theme is DOG because it is the Chinese Year of the Dog. Here at the house on Literary Lane, EVERY year is the year of the dog. Let’s get to it!
1. What doglike traits do you possess?
Feed me regularly and I’ll love you forever.
My little gentleman, Mickey.
2. What’s your favorite dog movie?
I avoid dog movies like the plague because more often than not the dog dies. So no, I never saw Marley & Me. A heartwarming tale of a dog’s life from puppyhood to death? Nah. I live that. It’s also why I don’t watch This is Us. I get worked up enough about real relatives dying – I can’t emotionally invest in a fake person’s relatives too.
Mom’s dog, Chip.
3. When did you last have a hot dog?
Thursday, February 1, at work. I had relish, yellow mustard (something I used to hate as a kid but now I enjoy it), and onions. On a potato roll. With chips. I love hot dogs – I had a hot dog and fries almost every day of my high school life.
Max, forever my little defender. Almost 2 years and I still cry.
4. Who is (or was) a good celebrity dog?
The team of Moose and Enzo, who played Eddie Crane on Frasier. You can train dogs to do any sort of physical tricks, but Eddie Crane had moods and attitude. I think Frasier is due for a rewatch — wonder how it holds up?
Ollie, King of the Mood Swing and Number One Cuddle Buddy.
5. What are you doing for chow this weekend
This President’s Day Weekend, WM is at his Mom’s in Michigan while I hold down the fort. When he’s going I usually cook myself one garlicky shrimp dinner (he likes neither of those) but otherwise I eat like feral teenager with money.
Murphy didn’t take Max’s place. He’s creating his own.
***
I’m off on Monday! I have a three day weekend yawning ahead of me and I have a stack of books to dive into. Thanks, most presidents. No, not THAT one.
Here I am on “puppy leave” which is actually a bunch of my vacation days that I’ve been accruing year to year. Murphy isn’t ready for workday crating (aka bathroom confinement) just yet. He’s working through some GI issues. Hopefully Friday. ACTUALLY I hope our office goes into business continuity mode on Friday, since the NFL draft has closed a bunch of streets around my office and snarled traffic. Then I’d work from home Monday as usual and start leaving him on Tuesday. We are working hard on “oh hey look we always come home no need to freak out!”
I wish I could say I’m lounging around eating bonbons, but it’s a pretty busy time at work. Therefore I’m working from home half of each day so I can call into meetings that won’t wait just because I have a puppy trying to suicide himself on my power cords. Today I’ll be online this afternoon; tomorrow I’ll work the morning. Friday? I can’t even think about it.
I forgot how much work puppies are.
Speaking of puppies, I was going through old pictures and my heart exploded in both joy and sadness at the same time.
October, 2007
Look at young, healthy Max and baby Ollie!
April, 2017
Look at old, dozy Ollie and baby Murphy!
Can you even? I can’t. I’m trying to hard not to bleed out from the thousands of tiny tooth holes punched into my arms and legs from an enthusiastic teether.
After ‘work’ I’m going to change my clothes for the first time since Monday morning and go to dinner and shopping with Mom.