Pupdate #19 (Summer of love)

Hello! Linus and I have been enjoying one of the benefits of living in a destination city: friend visits! Not only is Washington DC much more likely to attract out-of-town guests than Winston-Salem, it is also much more convenient to public transportation. Ergo, our last few weeks have been occupied with friends traveling from up and down the coast to ogle the monuments and coo over Linus.

This week, however, Hotel Megan closed its doors for maintenance and I have been busy washing sheets and replacing stolen ashtrays (just kidding, guys!).

One of our guests, Linus's Aunt Katieberry,* lived in Vietnam for several years. I used the fact that one of the featured cultures was the Mekong River to persuade her to visit in time for the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. THEN she found out that one of her acquaintances was one of the translators for the Festival! We all experienced the cultural opportunities in different ways: I admired the silk weavers,



Katie revisited the happy days of her Southeast Asian sojourn, and Linus ate a chopstick.

We walked further down the Mall with Katieberry, who'd never been to DC before, and got a classic hippie picture of her with her puppy nephew:

A quick swing to the north took us to the White House, simultaneously the highlight and nadir of New York Liberal Katie's trip.

KATIE: Damn you for destroying my country!
LINUS: Who is this crazy lady and why is she holding my leash? Please don't arrest me.

Afterwards, Katie wrote some very nice things about her trip. All I have to say is, the world would be a better place if everyone performed Child's Pose more often.

PS. Sorry the pictures are being weird. Blogger and Flickr are either feuding, or conspiring against me. And I left all my HTML brains at work today.
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*I can only call her that behind her back!

Pupdate #18 (Have puppy, will pedal!)

Linus and I are both sturdy walkers and we have found a lot to explore in the three-mile radius surrounding our neighborhood. A girl and her puppy can only go so far on foot, however, and DC is a big and exciting place. We could be having even MORE fun if we were more mobile. So in order to overcome this challenge and fulfill a long-held dream,* two weeks ago I purchased a Burley trailer from the friendly folks at Capitol Hill Bikes.

Linus doesn't love it yet--our rides are punctuated by a persistent whine that ranges from "Hey, pay attention to me" to "I am an entire litter of HELPLESS PUPPIES being SKINNED ALIVE" (a sound guaranteed to draw attention from all in hearing range). But I have determined that this trailer is the key to infinite adventure--doggy happy hours! parks! camping trips!--and so, he will LEARN to love it. The Puppy-Mommy has spoken.

Here he is in the trailer, looking deceptively happy:

And here is a suitably patriotic picture of him meditating on the wonders of representative democracy:

Hope y'all had a fantastic Fourth!

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* And by "long-held," I mean, "Conceived about a day after I traded my car for a three-quarters-dead puppy."