Friday Guy Day in Denver

Last Friday when we were in Denver...

The Lady and some of her friends with white fur - Ms. Joni, Ms. Becca, and Ms. Cindy -wanted to go shopping at a special store where you buy the fancy sticks and string that they like to use to make stuff.  Ms. Becca is just learning how to play with sticks and strings.  She went along to look at all of the pretty string and because she likes to hang around with The Lady, Ms. Cindy, and Ms. Joni.

Mr. Guy, Mr. Scott F (Ms. Joni’s brother) and Mr. Scott G (Ms. Cindy’s Mr. Guy) don’t know how to play with sticks and string and they don't have any interest in learning. The boys would all much rather play with trains. Since I am a boy, I spent my day with them.  I think that a little blue and orange furry monster with sticks and string might be a disaster.  I like it when Ms. Joni and The Lady work their magic with the string and I end up with sweaters and hats that are already made!

I knew a little bit about trains. I had been on the light rail train at home in Dallas. It was a big train, not the size of a toy.  When Mr. Guy told me that we were going to go see trains, I thought they were going to be too big for this little monster to play with. Mr. Guy explained that he and the Mr. Scotts like to play with model trains. Model trains are trains that look just like the big trains but are much smaller.  Mr. Guy says he doesn't have any of these little model trains anymore. He did when he was younger. The Mr. Scotts told me that they belong to model railroad clubs where they live. I got a bit confused.  Railroads?  I thought that we were talking about trains!  Mr Guy explained that trains are the individual cars and the railroad is everything having to do with trains - all the train cars and the track put together in one big package. He said its like when the ladies play with their sticks and strings it is called knitting. Knitting means the sticks, the string, the pattern, and the playing with the sticks and strings!  I think I now understand.

So while the ladies looked at string, we guys went to the Colorado Railroad Museum.  I was a little confused again. I didn’t have my dictionary to look up words and I wasn't sure what a museum was. So Mr. Guy told me that a museum is a place where people keep special things that they don’t want to be damaged, or that they want lots of people to be able to see. The museum is a place where things are kept safe when they get old or can't be used anymore.

An art museum has art in it and a science museum has science things in it. I asked if that meant our house was a museum because we have lots of art and things on the walls and The Lady says that there are science experiments in the refrigerator. Mr. Guy said not really because we do not preserve our stuff so that lots of people can come see it. He said that our house may be kind of a private museum for us and our friends.  But, not a science museum.  No one wants to see the experiments in our refrigerator.

Mr Guy told me that the railroad museum has lots of train cars - old ones and newer ones - and special ones that people might not get to see unless they visit the museum. I understand better now...things in a museum are there so that lots and lots of people can see them, even little blue and orange monsters!

W were on our way!  Mr. Guy, the Mr. Scotts and I headed to the train museum. The first thing we did was walk to find the bus that would take us to the station to wait for a real train that we rode to the museum! That was a lot of ways of transportation already!

I have to say that Mr Guy is not as good at picture taking as The Lady but he did his best.

The Lady and her girlfriends were shopping in Denver.  We went all the way to another city. It is called Golden. Golden did not look very golden to me, but Mr Guy said it got its name because they dig up lots of gold there. I wondered if we would get any gold.  In case you are wondering...we did not.

When we got off of the train, Mr Scott G thought there was a button we could push to get us to the museum. He said someone had told him about this button.  I wasn't sure about that...a magic button? Mr Guy explained that it was supposed to be a button to let someone know that we were there to visit the museum.  I sort of understood this idea to be like our doorbell at home, but we never found any button, magic or otherwise. We did, however, see a green van and the man inside agreed to take us to the Visitors Center, for free!  I thought that maybe this was a  magic man driving a magic van.  Nothing is ever free!  Nope.  Our train tickets allowed us to ride in the magic green van.  Though I guess that means that the van was not really free because we had to buy tickets to ride the train.  It just felt free and maybe a little bit magic.

The van took us to the Golden Visitor's center...not a golden visitor's center, and not the train museum. We looked around there a little. There was a big statue of a bear.

Mr Guy told me that there are lots of bears in the woods near Golden, but that the bears rarely ever come into town. I was glad to hear that because this was a very big statue of a very scary looking bear.  Mr Guy said that the real bears are the same size as the statue!  I did not want to meet one of them!

We also saw a dragon!  Well, it was a statue too.   I asked Mr. Guy if dragons and bears were friends and if there were dragons in the woods too.  He assured me that I did not have to worry about meeting a real dragon.

Mr Guy said this dragon was made to honor the president of a special club.  I wondered what kind of president would make people think of a dragon.  I kept that thought to myself.

I was beginning to think that the only train we were going to see was the one that we rode to Golden. Fortunately, Mr Scott F used his phone to call someone named Ooh Bear, who he said would come and give us a ride to the museum. Mr. Guy had just said that bears didn't come into the city and he also said that bears are big and scary.  I wasn't sure why Mr. Scott F called one of them on his cellphone to come get us!  As it turned out, we were lucky.  The Ooh Bear that he called was not a real bear.  He was a man.  I wonder why his mom named him Ooh Bear. Oh well, the Ooh Bear man seemed very nice, though his car was a little small for all five of us. But, he got us to the Colorado Railroad Museum and that was what was important!

When we got there, I saw all of these big boxes and things I did not know about all around.   Mr Guy said that they are trains and that they once carried lots of people and lots of things all over the place. They are what we came to see.

I was very excited because the first thing we did at the museum was buy a new shirt for me!  Ms. Roz sold us my shirt and she agreed to be one of the people in my 100 people project.  She sells tickets and other things at the museum too.

We then headed downstairs. A model railroad club keeps their special train stuff there.  I wasn't really sure what I was going to see. And then...Wow!  They have a whole set up of small trains, just like Mr. Guy and The Mr. Scotts said there would be. I had never seen trains like these before. They were small but looked just like the big ones that were all over outside. Mr Guy told me that the big ones worked just like these little ones except that the little ones were for people who had to pretend with trains rather than work with the big real ones. He said these are the kind of trains that the Mr. Scotts have. Mr Scott G was looking carefully at all the details of the trains.

When we were done inside, we went outside where there were more train cars to see. Mr Guy showed me how some of the cars were for carrying people and some were carrying things. There were also special trains called engines.  The engine is was what makes the train cars full of people and things go. The person who drives the engine is called an engineer.  I pretended that I was the engineer!

There were so many cars to see that Mr Guy and the Mr Scotts just couldn't get pictures of all of them.  Mr Guy tried to take a picture of the two of us outside a caboose, but it didn't really work. He told me that the last car on a train was called a caboose and it was a place for the people who worked on the train to eat and sleep when they were on long trips.

Mr Guy also told me that when he was a little monster like me, his dad worked for the railroad. Mr. Guy's dad did not drive the trains.  He was a lawyer who worked with people who had been hurt while working for the railroad or who had had an accident with a train.  I don't think I would want to be one of those people!

Mr Guy shared that he too had worked on the railroad one summer. He fixed train tracks. Mr. Guy showed me how the train cars at the museum were sitting on metal rails. The rails then sit on a metal plate and that plate sits on a big piece of wood. Mr Guy said those big pieces of wood are called ties. I thought ties were something that you wore around your neck. I certainly wouldn’t want to wear one of those ties. They look heavy.  I bet they would choke me!  Mr Guy explained that they are called ties because they tie the rails together. Big nails, called spikes, hold the plate and the rail on the tie. The rails, ties, and plates are called tracks. Mr Guy told me to look at where the tracks ran off into the distance so I could see how they looked like a path for the train to follow.

The last thing we saw at the museum was called a garden railroad. This was sort of like the little trains inside, but the train was bigger and ran outside in a real garden with pretty plants and flowers.  Mr. Guy explained that trains come in all sizes, from tiny model ones all the way up to the great big real ones. He said there are even some that are little blue and orange monster sized like me! I asked him if we cold get one of those  He said we would not have a place for one that big.  That made me a little sad.  I thought it would be fun to be the engineer on my very own train.

After we had seen everything at the museum, Mr. Scott F called our friend Ooh Bear again to take us back to the visitor center.  The guy who came to get us this time was a different person and in a different car than the first Mr. Ooh Bear!  There are two mothers that named their children Ooh Bear???  I guess it is a Colorado thing. I need to remember to ask Mr Guy or The Lady about that.

After we got back to the visitor center, everyone wanted lunch before we loaded back in the not-so-magic green van, and then the train, and then the bus, and then walked back to the hotel.

Mr Guy told me he was sorry he did not get more pictures. I told him that was ok. I had lots of fun and was glad he and the Mr Scotts took me along. I think I had more fun with them than I would have had looking at string with the ladies.

I sure was a tired little monster when we got back to the hotel. I went right to bed and slept all night long.

An Afternoon of Happy People!

We just got home from a weekend trip to Denver.  Before we even left Dallas, I knew it would be a good trip because I met all kinds of happy people in the airport!

Mr. Guy and The Lady wanted some holy donuts for a snack on the airplane.  I'm not exactly sure what makes a donut holy, but they went into a store and asked for holy donuts and the nice lady behind the counter filled a bag with them and gave it to Mr. Guy.  Then the cheerful lady behind the counter asked all about me.  Mr. Guy and The Lady told her about how we travel and meet new people and about my 100 People Project.  She said that sounded like fun and was happy to be #37 of my 100 People!

Ms. Lashanna shared her holy donuts and her smile with us.  What a great start to our trip!  I still don't understand the whole holy donut thing, but if they make everyone cheerful, I guess that's all I need to understand.

After we met Ms. Lashanna, we went to sit at our gate to wait for our airplane.  There we met more happy people!  Ms. Shelby was sitting across from us.  She asked what my name was.  Mr. Guy told her that I was his little blue and orange furry monster, Blueper B.  She said that she had a little monster too.  His name was Baby Ivan.  He didn't look like a monster to me. He was a cute little boy. Ms. Shelby told us that she liked to call him her little monster.  We talked to Ms. Shelby for a long time while she and Baby Ivan ate their lunch and we ate some of our donuts.  Even though Ms. Shelby had some sad things happening in her life, she was still cheerful and smiling.  That made me smile too!

Ms. Shelby said she and Baby Ivan would also love to have their picture taken with me!  I was excited about that, but Baby Ivan wasn't too sure that he wanted me to be that close to his mommy...or maybe it was that close to his chicken nugget.  I think he thought that I might try to eat his chicken nugget.  I wouldn't do that!  Most of the time Mr. Guy and The Lady feed me well.  I don't have to take food from sweet little babies!

There are lots of terrible things going on in the world and sometimes it is hard to smile.  We were lucky to meet all of these nice people.  There was also another lady sitting beside us while we were talking to Ms. Shelby.  That Lady had to leave her house in Florida because of Hurricane Irma, which was on its way close to her home. Her family wanted her way far away from Florida so that she would be safe.  Even though she was facing the unknown of this great big storm, this lady too was cheerful.  I didn't have time to have my picture taken with her.  I do keep thinking about her, hoping that her home is safe and that she is still smiling.

I will probably never see Ms. Lashanna, Ms. Shelby, Baby Ivan, or the nice lady that was sitting next to us ever again, but I will always remember the smiles and happy conversations that we shared for a few minutes in the airport on that day.  The world would be a much better place if everyone made a point to share smiles and kind words every day!

My Third B-Day

We have been celebrating my b-day for the past few days.  My b-day, June 29th, is really my "bring home day" but we also call it my birthday even though I don't think it is the day I was actually born.  Since Mr. Guy and The Lady adopted me instead of hatching me like the human offspring, we just wrapped my birthday and bringing home day into one great big celebration.  That's why it lasts more than one day.

I have lived with Mr. Guy and The Lady for three years.  That seems like a long time.  We have had lots of adventures together.  They asked me what kind of adventure I wanted for my birthday and I couldn't really think of anything special.  Mr. Guy and The Lady suggested that it might be fun for us to go to our city's farmers market on Saturday morning.  That sounded fun.  And then it rained and we couldn't go.  I was not too sad about that because they said that the farmers market happens every Saturday so we can go on another day.

My Saturday turned out to be great anyway.  Do you want to know why?  Because I got a letter!

The mailman usually just brings us his trash.  He puts his trash in the fancy trash box on the curb and then The Lady or Mr. Guy puts it in the big blue trash recycling box and takes it back to the curb.  I don't know how you get a job driving around all day putting your trash in other people's trash boxes and then they have to put it out for the real trash man to come and put it in the great big trash collecting truck.  And they pay you to do this!  

And how did my letter get mixed up with the mailman's trash?

I guess I'm glad that Mr. Guy looks carefully at the mailman's trash before it puts it in the other trash can.  But this also kind of worries me.  If Mr. Guy likes looking through other people's trash every day, he might want to start dumpster diving.  This would make him smell really bad!  I have smelled those dumpsters!  I'm not going to worry about that right now.  Let's get back to happier...and better smelling...things.  My letter!

My friend, Ms. Joni sent me a letter.  Mr. Guy helped me read it.

It was a letter saying happy b-day to me!  I love Ms. Joni!  She always thinks of other people and does nice things for me. And, we have fun together.  It makes me sad that she doesn't live closer to us, but she told me in my letter that she will see me in September.  We are all going to Denver for a meeting of the people with white fur like The Lady and Ms. Joni have.  That is something for this little monster to look forward to!

The Lady also made a special b-day treat for me.  She made blue berry muffins and got me fizzy orange stuff to drink.  It was a perfect blue and orange meal!

For some reason, The Lady lit my muffins on fire.  I thought they were already cooked when she gave them to me.  This was a little confusing, but then I remembered that on your b-day you get one fire stick for each year that you have been alive.  Then you make a wish and use your breath as a fire extinguisher.  If your fire extinguisher works right and you extinguish all of the fire sticks at once, then your wish will come true.  My extinguisher worked, but supposedly if I tell you my wish then it won't come true.  Remembering all of these b-day rules is a lot for this little blue and orange furry monster.

It was perfect that I got three muffins, one for each of my three years.  I had one for me.  One for Mr. Guy.  And, one for The Lady.  Next year I will get four.  Maybe Ms. Joni can come visit me for my b-day and she can have my number four muffin!

After I ate my treat, I got a present from Mr. Guy and The Lady.

It was blue and orange just like me!

Inside the blue and orange was...

...new shirts!

This is one of them.

I guess they got me this one to remind me to help get the trash out of our fancy little trash box on the curb and put it in the big blue trash box.  Okay.  I can do that.  Then I looked at the back of my new shirt.

Keep the trash green?  Maybe this is a shirt that a mailman wears.  He keeps his truck clean by putting his trash in everyone else's boxes and then someone gives him money...which is green.  It's kind of like keeping your room clean and getting an allowance only instead of hiding all of your trash under your bed, you take it to other people's houses.  When I asked The Lady and Mr. Guy if they wanted me to become a mailman, they looked at me funny, like they didn't know what I was talking about.  When I explained why I asked that, they laughed at me...in a nice way.  They said that my new shirt had nothing to do with becoming a mailman.  It was to help remind everyone to keep our earth clean so that all of the plants will stay green and people and little monsters will stay healthy.  I was relieved.  That sounds like a lot more fun than rearranging trash.

I also got another new shirt, but I am not going to show it to you yet.  I want it to be a surprise when I wear it, maybe someplace special.

I had a very happy b-day thanks to lots of people that love me! 

 I hope all of you have a happy day too, even if it's not your b-day.

Albus and Caeruleus

It has been busy, busy, busy at my house lately!  Our friend. Mr. Paul, finished building the shelves in our library which meant that The Lady had to put all of the books away on the new shelves.  That was a lot of work and I couldn't help much because I can only reach the second shelf.  She got everything cleaned up and now we can find all of our books and Mr. Guy and The Lady can read me lots of stories!  It's also a good thing that the library is neat and clean because we have had company!

My friend, Ms. Joni, came all the way from Wisconsin to visit me us!  I think she may like me best, but Ms. Joni is very nice and doesn't let Mr. Guy and The Lady know that.  She also came to help celebrate Mr. Guy's birthday.  Actually, lots of Mr. Guy's friends came to our house to celebrate his birthday. We all had fun.  I hope he did!

My b-day is coming up soon too!   My celebration is a little different though.  We don't know my exact birthday, so we celebrate my b-ringing home-day.  That day we know for sure, June 29!

After Mr. Guy's party, The Lady and Ms. Joni spent lots of time playing with their sticks and string.  They seemed to have lots of fun.  I think their sticks may be magic just like Mr. Sean's that he waved at the Turtle Creek Chorale.  Ms. Joni kept twisting her sticks and her string and like magic, a sock appeared!  The Lady's sticks and string magically made a baby blanket.  I hope there is not magically a baby to go with that blanket.  The canines at my house and I don't think that we need one of those!!!  I'm sure that The Lady is giving that blanket away.

The Lady and Ms. Joni also celebrated International Albinism Awareness Day  yesterday, June 13th.  They explained to me that it is a day to share awareness and educate people about albinism, the genetic condition that both The Lady and Ms. Joni have.  It is what makes their fur white and their eyes work not so well.  Apparently sometimes people tease and make fun of people with albinism because their fur and eyes make them stick out in a crowd and people think their are weird or scary.  I have met lots of The Lady's friends with white fur.  They aren't scary at all!  They are all friendly.  When Mr. Guy and I are with them, we stick out and maybe look weird because we have the differently colored fur!  I really don't think it matters what color your fur is.  I like my blue and orange fur, but I also like The Lady's and Ms. Joni's white fur, and Mr. Guy's gray fur.  But, I think I would like them all just as much if they had red fur or green fur or yellow fur or rainbow fur.  It is what is underneath people's and little monster's fur that is important.  It is what is in our hearts that says the most about all of us, not the color of our fur.

I'm happy that The Lady, Ms. Joni, and all of the white-furred people have a special day to tell people about albinism.  And I'm really happy that that day was one of the reasons that Ms. Joni came to visit us!

The word albinism comes from the Latin word albus, which means white.  I wonder if there is a special day for blue and orange-furred little monsters?  Maybe it would be called International Caerilism Awareness Day or maybe it would just be easier to say International Blue Fur Awareness Day.  Actually, it would just be easier to not have to have special days for people and monsters with all of the different colors of fur.  Do you think that that will ever happen?

A Month of Me: Day 31 - Guilty Pleasures

Today is both a happy day and a sad day at the same time.  I am happy that The Lady and I managed to write a post together every day for the whole month of May.  I am sad because this is the last day of May and we probably won't write every single day in any other month.  At least I know we can do it if we want to.  The Lady and I have a deal...we are going to write at least two posts a week and we are going to keep working on my 100 People Project.  Thank you to everyone who has read my posts this month and sent me messages and comments.  I am a happy little monster most of the time and I want to help put smiles on other people's faces as well.

About today's photo...

In some ways, it is a good thing that I don't have to write a post every night this week because I am a very busy little blue and orange furry monster right now.  I have rehearsals this week for my performances with the Turtle Creek Chorale this weekend.  I need to learn my words and practice my notes.  I also need to get better with my fur brush.  All of the men in the chorale wear fancy clothes and brush their fur so it is nice and neat.  I think I need to try and control my shaggy fur while I'm on stage.  I don't want to embarrass Mr. Guy, The Lady, and Mr. Stan, who is helping me with my music.

Learning all of those words and music notes is hard for a little monster who has never done this kind of thing before.  This afternoon, The Lady was busy cleaning the bathroom.  I was studying my score and resting a little before tonight's rehearsal.  Then I realized that all of that studying made me hungry.  I didn't want to interrupt The Lady's swishing of the toilet bowls, scouring of the soap scum in the shower, and scrubbing the dried toothpaste out of the sinks so I figured I'd help myself to a little snack.  Ice cream sounded good to me.  Does it sound good to you?  I dragged a stool over to the freezer and found the ice cream.  There was a container of chocolate and one of vanilla.  Chocolate sounded good.  Vanilla sounded boring.  Right as I was pulling the chocolate container from the freezer, here comes The Lady.  Uh oh!  I'm not supposed to help myself to food in the freezer without permission.  I thought that I might get in a lot of trouble, but The Lady didn't get mad a me.  Whew!  She knew that I was working very hard and that hard works makes little monsters very hungry.  The Lady scooped a ball of ice cream into two bowls, one for each of us.  We ate our ice cream together and talked about how much fun we've had this month with my blog.  She also made sure that my fur did not get chocolaty dirty.  Shaggy is one thing.  Chocolaty ice creamy dirty is another!  If I want to be a star, I certainly couldn't have ice cream in my fur when I went to rehearsal!

So, farewell May and A Month of Me and welcome June and my stage debut...and lots of other special things!

I'll keep you posted!

Monster hugs,
Blueper B