Then Who is Little Jack Horner?

I was lying on the couch earlier and think i got bit by a spider. I mentioned this to H to which she replied “ok, Little Bo Peep”.

I’m not opposed to sheep but after pondering for a few minutes I called her out on exactly what she meant by that.

H: “Didn’t she get bit by a spider that sat down beside her?”

W: “Umm…No. I am pretty sure that was Little Miss Muffet who sat on her tuffet eating porridge”.

Turns out Nursery Rhymes are not our strong suit. If we have a kid, there’s a fairly good chance they’ll be reciting a tale of Old Mother Hubbard losing her lamb and living in a shoe.

PS. I just asked H to name me another nursery rhyme and she started to quote Run DMC. Mother Goose she’s not.

Update from H: 1) I think someone besides Rev Run has said “hey diddle diddle”; 2) W thought Little Jack Horner also ate curds and whey, when i insist that he stuck his thumb into a blueberry pie or something

The Gooch

Last Wednesday our puppy  had an appointment with the head trainer at a swanky doggy day care facility in the 80s. This is the same spot, in fact, where we proudly watched her pee on a rubber floor and wrestle with 2 month old $3000 purebreads, every Sunday AM, before graduating from puppy kindergarten 18 months ago. So we saddled up the whole team and headed back to our old stomping grounds.

hope Carmen, the Italian greyhound who dropped out of class, didn't end up addicted to crystal meth

hope Carmen, the Italian greyhound who dropped out of class, didn’t end up addicted to crystal meth

The puppy’s been having some behavioral issues and we figured, with both of us unemployed, now seemed as good a time as any to drop $150 on a dog therapy session. Not exactly sure this is what President Obama had in mind when extending the government’s unemployment benefits.

Our other dog is also no stranger to our very own canine Dr Melfi sessions as we needed to bring in an expert early on, to help us navigate the H-Will-Dog love triangle. Try casually telling your buddies on a Sunday afternoon – “no thanks, you guys can finish off the beer. I’ll catch what happened in the second half of the Giants game on the news later. I need to run off to a dog training lesson with my new girlfriend now”.

So, after an hour of detailing Puppy’s behavior and watching our trainer take copious notes, we were presented with the full analysis. “She’s a big bully. and she likes it.”

Basically – our sweet puppy is the Gooch (from Diff’rent Strokes fame). She sees weaker dogs and precedes to give them the equivalent of a doggie wedgie. She harasses puny poodles for their doggie lunch money and stuffs wimpy Pomeranians in their lockers.

How about that? We thought we had a heartwarming story of a Caribbean rescue. Turns out we have a giant dog that many of our friends are scared of, our parents don’t want to babysit and that stars in her very own doggie version of Mean Girls. Oh yeah – and she’s a crotch sniffer…

Update from H: I summarize it as spending $150 to be told although my dog won’t kill another dog, she will stuff one in a locker and take its lunch money.

W also didn’t mention that we originally called in the trainer because our lovable Dog wouldn’t allow W to so much hold my hand, forget any funny business.

Pickles and swine flu!

Last week we went to an Oktoberfest event at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.  It was pretty cool being in the BBG after official hours.  It featured several stations of  craft beer, paired with artisanal cheeses and specialty pickles.  It was all properly dignified and filled with people who were impressed they knew about the event.  I likened it to being in a real life Stuff White People Like post.

It was nice, though kinda felt like attending a work-friend wedding at which you don’t know any other people and the cocktail hour is weak (hmmm guess we’re having cheese for dinner…).  It was the first time they had such a thing, and they underestimated the amount of booze 200 people can put down.  There was also not much more than a toothpick with which to grab your pickles from the platter.  In the case of some of the smaller, slimier pickles and the pickled green beans, people started to just reach into the bowl  (try picking up a pickled green bean in a vat of brine with a toothpick and then you judge).  That being said, I’m expecting the swine flu to hit me at any second. I’m not usually of  hypochondriac germophobe nature, but I don’t know hipsters’ handwashing habits.

However the highlight for me was viewing the photos of the event on Metromix.

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I am so happy this passing moment of time was captured. I know the beer and cheese is disappearing, and I am visibly worried. HURRY UP AND TAKE YOUR F’N CHEESE! That is W behind me, wanting to know what the hold up is as well

Next stop, New York Social Diary!

White board it

We lifted a white board from a previous employer (really, am I afraid to say which one in fears that they will send a repo man?).  At first I questioned what the hey it would ever be used for and where it would be kept.  But I quickly realized it would be used for brainstorming, of course.  And it’s best to not mount it anyway, so you can relocate it to wherever said brainstorming would take place!*

Is there anything as gratifying as checking something off of the white board?  This photo was taken after a day trip upstate.  Note the first item, a visit to Bed Stuy, ended up being a really bad idea (at least I don't have to hear about Will's dream of buying a cheap brownstone anymore)

Is there anything as gratifying as checking something off of the white board? This photo was taken after a day trip upstate– I sent the pic to my friend who we met for coffee so she could see what she helped us accomplish. Note that the first item on the list , a visit to Bed Stuy, ended up being a really bad idea  and is so noted (at least I don’t have to hear about W’s dream of buying a cheap brownstone anymore)

Just a couple days ago W was lying in his hammock when he exclaimed out of nowhere, “Why bother with an aerobed?  Let’s put guests on the hammock!”  I stopped what I was doing and ran inside.  Glad the white board isn’t mounted!

Note that I don’t think the shopping list has any business being white board material, and that it was W’s doing.  Funny enough, I had a single post it note up in the kitchen to be used for this purpose, but W started writing big projects on it.  So the list was kinda ended up looking like:

  • Milk
  • Eggs
  • Butter
  • Rearrange furniture in living room
  • cereal
  • bread
  • organize bins in basement

To mock him I started adding things like “plan for retirement.”  I just find it ironic that with the big idea white board he’s adding tactical to-dos.  It did end up proving to be a good prop when I walked out the door with the white board when going to Pathmark yesterday.

* I later remembered that when working at Forrester we were sold on our new “dynamic” office. “The walls will be made of white boards for impromptu idea generation!”  “If an idea is sparked, you can move the walls around to corner off your small working group until project completion!”  “It will be a veritable hotbed of creativity!”  In actuality, the movable walls were just giant cumbersome panels and if you wanted to slide any over you needed to give the facilities department 2 weeks notice and then suffer their wrath.