Having a night of glamor without the team.

Last night, the team had to stay home when I went to Karl and Deb's for dinner and hopefully did not howl. I can't even grammarize that right now. Have at it. I taught the dogs that neat and funny trick to all start howling together and sometimes they think, hey, let's do it when there is NO ONE HOME so the neighbors think the green house with the paint falling off of it has been overrun by rabid javelinas. This is led by Otterpop, who always has to have the last word. A loud and long lasting last word.


Let's just say that really a lot of bottles of wine were opened, and then I got into a fight with her. This is pluckyfluff. The nation's foremost handspun yarn spinning yarn spinner and someone you don't really want to reckon with. We had a good reason though. She loved the movie Into the Wild and I think you know how I felt about that movie, right down to those ugly ass film titles that still give me nightmares sometimes to an Eddie Vedder soundtrack.


At some point I think it is possible I started seeing things in doubles.


That's when the fun just begins, right?


Luckily instead of dreaming about those horrible film titles and mountain cam Sean Penn shots, I had dreams of nice things.


Like these.


But then I got woken up by a spitting headache and a dog standing on top of my hair licking my forehead and I believe that I may have invited a whole lot of people over for a garden party today and I have an unplastered office and no garden and dirty things everywhere and the paint is all falling off my house and I believe that I may have said I would cook things. And my car had a sleepover at the dinner party. It is a glamorous lifestyle indeed, but someone's got to do it.

The Ruby slippers all make sense now.

Here you go. Something nice to do. Go to see the Broadway Musical Wicked! With many people in red holiday sweaters and dresses with beads on them at the swanky deco theater on Hollywood Blvd, the Pantages! Leave a pack of howling dogs loaded up with tennis after tiring them out on the Long Beach Dog Beach (inside the cones only!) with the relatives and off you go!

Having a penchant for Broadway Musicals, it is of course possible this play is dorky? I don't know. My taste is questionable at best. In some circles, the breaking into song and dance numbers at every twist and turn of life is considered wrong. i find it super however! And lots of lighting and costumes and flying actors in monkey suits with wings. The songs, maybe not so much. Many songs of sort of a Celine Dion-y kind of vibe to them with little dances but we don't mind that due to the pagentry of it all. Also the idea, so FABULOUS! Think Legally Blonde meets PETA meets government coverup story meets Wizard of Oz. RIGHT??? Who woulda thunk it?

The Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the good are in college together (big song and dance!), boyfriend issues at the party (big song and dance!), PETA type saving of the animals (big song and dance!), the evil Governor (big song and dance!), the heiress (big song and dance!), the whole Wizard Ease on Down the Road business (big song and dance!)...

Then before you know it, the whole Wizard of Oz story makes perfect sense without having to actually deal with any Wizard of Oz crap, happy ending and then you try to find something good to eat in West Hollywood at 10pm on a Sunday night that isn't Pinks Hot Dogs or some Entourage featured cool kid club. How much do we love LA? Thanks actors and set designers and producers! I am sorry I made wicked fun of you all in high school when you were in the band and doing your little plays and I was smoking a cigarette outside and scowling at you! And now you even know where the good margartias are in West Hollywood at 10pm on Sunday night and I don't.

Great dog trick!

If I do it just right, I can get the 3 small dogs (this trick doesn't work for Timmy because he is deaf as a stapler) to start howling all together. This is a very popular trick with my neighbors and husband I am sure. Because they don't exactly howl like, you were probably just picturing, dog howling. Like coyote or a husky. No. Not team small dog. Otterpop starts, with her kind of whiney, sing-a-long voice. Gustavo is next, with a shrill, sputtering monkey sound mostly heard in dark rainforest jungles where you also find giant snakes. Ruby finishes it off, with an even higher, shriller, shrieking ear splitting harmony, perhaps the sound of a tortured baby. When you get all 3 going together, being little ego hogs, they raise the volume, and the overall effect is somewhere between horrific and chilling, like a drunken, off key singer is murdering babies and monkeys deep in the jungle and there is no way out. Great Trick!