Stoutpup

It’s Day 3 of being unemployed and I decided to check out the The Frye Museum. This is something I have wanted to do for a while since the R. Crumb exhibit (that I foolishly did not see) and after my visit today, I was mad at myself for not going sooner. But oh well. No regrets. I went specifically to see Dario Robleto: Alloy of Love. I loved this exhibit. Much of the artist’s work involves melting and/or pulverizing an original material and reconstituting it into something new different.

Here’s an excerpt from the Frye Museum website about the exhibit:

…The resulting artworks are much more than just the sum of their constituent parts or factual interpretations of particular events and personalities; rather, they are sincere and emotional meditations on love, loss, spirituality, and ultimately, healing.

It seemed very appropriate for my week. After the show I walked over to Bimbos Cantina for some nachos and to finish the book my mother gave me called:Good Dog. Stay. by Anna Quindlen.

I only teared up once while reading this, but it brought up a couple of things I had been thinking of with regards to Mazzy. 1.) That we made the right choice by not keeping her alive for our sake, but to let her go with dignity that she may suffer no more pain and 2.) Like many dog owners, I am a projector of feelings to my pets.

I sometimes say to Corey, “Lucy looks sad today.” To which he will reply, “She always looks sad. She’s a bulldog.” Then I will say, “Yeah, but today she looks REALLY sad.”

I have been feeling like the dog and cat do not know how to deal with Mazzy being gone. Lucy has been laying in weird places. She’s seemed a little despondent and not her wiggly self. And the cat is really super needy all over us. Almost annoyingly so. When I read Good Dog. Stay. I thought, well that’s probably it, I’m just projecting my feelings about this to Lucy and Deezy. But I can’t be sure, so I spent the afternoon with Lucy in the park just looking up at the clouds, Lucy at my side. She seemed to cheer up after that.

A lot of things happened here at Stoutpup last week. A few days before we embarked on our trip to Wyoming and before the loss of our beloved Mazzy, I was also laid off from my job. I wish I could say it was for something exciting like getting dooced but I don’t write about work because that’s not the kind of blog this is. Work doesn’t deserve a spot on the fun pages of Stoutpup.

Anyway, today is my second day of unemployment - my first day was spent having lunch and drinking pinot gris at my mother’s house and then meeting my father for dinner in the evening. I felt lucky that I got to see both my parents on the same day - that hasn’t happened since my brother’s wedding four years ago. At dinner dad told Corey and I that he felt lucky about his recent bicycle accident in which he was struck by a vehicle and sent to the hospital unconscious. How could that be lucky? most people would ask.

Dad said he felt lucky because the truck that hit him, struck his rear tire and not his body side - on. He felt lucky the truck came two seconds later than it could have sparing him serious injury or death. I hate thinking too much about this, but I will say that my dad’s words resonated with me because all week long I had been thinking how lucky I was, despite the job and dear old Mazzygirl.

Being back home in Cheyenne during the most difficult time I’ve had in 10 years made things bearable. I was so lucky to be surrounded by my immediate and extended family all in one place for 4 days. I was so lucky to be immersed in such love and kindness, forgiveness and comfort at a time when I could have been under the covers crying my eyes out for days, cursing life. I was lucky to dance and laugh the night away with my sister at my cousin’s wedding instead of drinking myself silly in my apartment from sadness. More than once through this trip I thought to myself, we are so damn lucky we sold that house in Tacoma in the worst housing market because now we’re not stuck in a town that has no job opportunities for art and media. We are so lucky to live in the best city in the Pacific Northwest. And I haven’t stopped thinking about how lucky I am to have grown up with my cousins three blocks away where I have lasting memories and strong bonds, even after 16 years of not returning home. And how lucky I am to have grown up with grandparents and aunts and uncles around me. That doesn’t happen for kids as often as it used to.

This week, though an end to an era in some respects, has also spawned new beginnings. A new marriage for my cousin and family, rekindled family bonds, and a new life for me. I vow to not let life pass me by anymore, and to focus on the things that matter, family, friends, love, and enjoying my time here on earth.

So today I took myself to the Seattle Art Museum - something I never seem to have time to do. I chronicled it in these photos. I saw the Impressionism exhibit I’d been dying to see. Job schmob — I’ll do that next week. It brought me back to my art school days and it was another good familiar feeling, but being carefree out on the town I was also filled a very inspirational exciting feeling. The type of feeling you get as a fifth grader when you know that you might run into you know who at lunchtime or in the hall. Just maybe something exciting is waiting around the corner…

In keeping with our western theme for the month, I thought it would be appropriate to post this picture taken yesterday of Corey and Lucy at this famous landmark in Seattle’s Georgetown neighborhood. The giant hat and boots are featured on RoadsideAmerica.com, a site that you will find other such oversized curious objects as Tucson’s Giant Ax Wielding Man on the corner of Stone and Glenn and Tacoma’s Giant Coffee Pot, World Famous Bob’s Java Jive.

It is 87 degrees in Seattle. It is so damn hot. Lucy is practically melting, but we have lots of fans in here, gel packs from the freezer to cool dog bellies and of course ice cubes, Lucy’s favorite low calorie treat. Cube cube! Anyway, Stoutpup is getting ready for the Wild West. Here’s a picture of us trying to cool off on the way home from Barking Lounge. We stopped at Uptown Espresso, my new favorite place to drink iced coffee and blog once we get our new computer.

Lucy’s Sour Mug made it into CityDog Magazine. I happened to be wearing my Lucy’s Diner T-Shirt on this day. We picked up our copy of CityDog Magazine from South Lake Union’s own fabulous Urban Beast, but if you live in anywhere else in Western Washington, Oregon, Idaho or northern California you might be able to pick one up at a pet store, newsstand or bookstore in your area.

Lucy and I were approached by pet photographer Jamie Pflughoeft on this particularly warm day in Cascade Park. I think it was the first Sunny day of the season. Weren’t we lucky!

CityDog Magazine’s 3rd Annual Cover Dog Model Search is under way and I think Lucy is going to give it a shot.

This weekend Lucy and I went to Mom’s house in Lynnwood for another family weekend. Dawn was in town and it was really fun and we ate tacos and lots of cupcakes and played in the field with the Bulldogs, Lucy and Winston. The two dogs are pals now after their third or fourth time together and it’s fun to watch them trotting along the field side by side. They always want what the other has, and here’s a picture of Winston hiding in the bathroom corner after taking Lucy’s ring toy. Three’s company so we were definitely missing Miss Cookieblanca from the Bulldog Trifecta this weekend!

Hey people, here’s another reason to leash your dogs in public places and keep track of their crap. Read the article >>

Last night was Hoegaarden Beer Night at the downstairs bar. Buy a Hoegaarden take the glass home! I met Corey there after work and we had a few Hoegaardens and dinner.

Pretty sweet deal because we already love this beer and now we have a set of glasses from which to drink it with two of our closest friends. I have been pronouncing the name of this beer wrong since the first time I ever drank one which luckily has only been like 4 months ago. It’s pronounced /huːɡɑrdən/.

I know you love your dog. I see you in the park throwing your tennis ball to and fro — your adorable and smart puppy chasing and retrieving every time. I see the way that you look lovingly at that beautiful sloppy mouthed mutt. He’s a good dog! I can see that. You may even think it unfair to leash such a well-behaved creature on such a sunny day as today – even though signs explicitly indicating dogs must be leashed are clearly posted at my park and majority of Public Parks In Seattle.

I love dogs. In fact I love dogs so much I have two of my own. You may have spotted me walking them in the park trying to get them to do their business before and after work and on my lunch hour. I’m sure you saw me, because your dog came lumbering towards me and stuck its nose up my dog’s butt to get a good sniff. Lucy didn’t like that. She was at the park for a purpose – to do her business. But your dog was so distracting – so interested in playing “off leash” with my leashed dog, Lucy forgot what her original reason was for being out at the park at that time. You caused such chaos during my 5-minute window of time to get my dogs to do their thing, that my 5 minutes became 15 minutes.

“Is your dog friendly?” You ask. Why, yes, she is. But THAT’S NOT THE POINT. Leash laws are there for a reason. I found an article that you might like to read in the archives of The Seattle Times. I just had to look it up because I saw a printout of it posted in Seward Park this past weekend. Here it is >>

Dogs are unpredictable. They are animals. Why don’t you get it? What if your dog bites my dog in the park because yours is doing something illegal like BEING OFF LEASH? I will sue your ass and your dog’s ass too. Hey is that your dog wandering off near the play area – dogs don’t like their tails pulled by curious children!

It amazes me that when I am at the park across the street and someone’s loose dog comes up and starts acting aggressive with one of my leashed dogs, the owner will say, “Oh, it’s the leash thing.” You’re damn right it is. Off Leash Dog in combination with On Leash Dog causes tension in the form of aggression and dominance. Read some Cesar, people, and kindly put your lovely dog on a leash.

Be responsible. Don’t ruin it for us all. We like our parks where we are free to walk our dogs or sit and read a book with our canine companions by our side. And we don’t want that privilege taken away because of your silly sense of entitlement and penchant for breaking the rules. Go to the Off Leash dog park. We may even see you there, we like it there too. We can watch our dogs can play together.

PS. Don’t forget to pick up your dog’s poop. I know you’re really busy chatting with the other Off Leash dog mommies and daddies while your canines run around out of your eyesight and shit everywhere, but I’m really tired of picking up after you and your Off Leash dog in my on leash park. Have a nice day!

Yesterday we went to Bainbridge Vineyard and Winery for a bit of wine tasting and wine education. We started the afternoon by riding over on the Puyallup. I just love ferry rides. It was such a beautiful day outside, even the bunch of super obnoxious college girls screeching and singing stupid songs on the deck next to us didn’t spoil the mood. We arrived at the winery just in time to join the 2 o clock tour. Bainbridge Winery is a small vineyard on the island and on of the two “real” wineries located there. That being said, the grapes are grown there, and the wine is produced and bottled at the winery. It does not import its grapes like many new “wineries” do these days.

The Vineyard and Winery is owned and run by Gerard and Jo Ann Bentryn. They’ve been growing grapes on the island for 30 years. I am so glad we ended up at this particular winery. Google picked it for us, but I had actually read about it in Seattle Magazine previously. We learned about how grapes are grown in the different regions and climates and we’ll carry this information with us next time we are driving through somewhere and see a vineyard with high-climbing vines versus low horizontal outstretched “arms”. Normally I find the tasting part of a wine tour to be the most fun, but really this tour was truly fascinating — with lots of history of the region and how the land was attained.

After the hour-long tour was over we went back to the tasting room. $3 will get you four tastes. We ended up buying 6 bottles of our favorite and will save these for special occasions. Gerard Bentryn says that one needs only to pay $10.00 for a bottle of wine that tastes acceptable for drinking with meals etc., and if you pay more than that — then you’re a sucker! Because unless the bottle says “grown, produced, and bottled by” the wine could be bottled 300 miles away from where it’s grapes were grown - even if it’s the best wine you’re ever tasted - it has less meaning. After hearing all Gerard had to say yesterday I really began to understand what he meant about his process of making wine and farming in general. I walked away thinking it’s a lot about integrity.

“Wine is Sex, a Vineyard is love and commitment.” That’s what Gerard says.

It’s appropriate that I am writing this post on Memorial Day because Gerard Bentryn, a noble man of extreme integrity, is also an Army veteran who is proud to have served his country but remains against war. I am happy to have visited his winery this weekend and look forward to returning - and of course drinking the wine.