Animals

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July 13, 2009

The anatomy of a wedding.

Posted by Grendel's Mother under Animals, laughter, Love
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First—congratulations to my friends Steve and Sandy who took the plunge, tied the knot, exchanged vows, got hitched, gave up their freedom, etc., etc., in other words, got married this last weekend.

The wedding took place in the town where I grew up so it was nice going back home and seeing old friends again. On Friday I drove to Pennsylvania, dropped the dog off at the rent’s house and headed on over to the rehearsal dinner. After some yummy food and drinks and lots of laughs over fun toasts, we headed on out to Buckley’s Tavern. In this area of the country, bars are called Taverns and there are only about two within a half hour of my folk’s house. My friends made me laugh so hard I actually hurt myself.

On my way home I dodged a couple of deer and a fox and managed not to drive my SUV into a tree. I’ll talk about the back roads of Chester County in another post but let’s just say when you’re not used to the one-lane bridges you’ve got to be on your toes.

So that brings us to Saturday. I slept in, ran some errands, had a lovely lunch with old friends who weren’t going to the wedding, then ran over to the Mendenhall Inn to check in. This place brought back memories. As a kid I went to church across the road and as a teenager was in a serious car wreck in front of the Inn. Okay, time for new memories.

The service was lovely and we all drove back to the Inn (not a Tavern this time) for the reception where we got to eat freshly cooked, very yummy crab cakes. More fun toasts, laughing, dancing, stories, and catching up takes us to the “after party.”

Let me begin by saying that the bartender was really up-tight and went a bit too far when he called for security because of the duck thing. The patron was in fact a trouble-maker but the decapitation of the wooden duck was an accident and it could have happened to any of us. (Not me of course, I just take the photos of all the incriminating stuff.) So party-pooper barkeep closed down early and forced us to go hang out with the security guard on the porch. Thankfully the bride and groom gave us goody bags with little bottles of wine and snacks to get us to that two a.m. hour when we finally called it quits.

That brings us to the wedding breakfast. This is where the parents of the newly married couple are still all smiles and the rest of us dutifully and sincerely thank them for the free booze—I mean the lovely dinner and dancing—through bleary and bloodshot eyes. I got to see baby Bubba for the first time which was really nice. But when my friend Amy made him cry I knew it was time to make a hasty retreat.

The drive back to the parent’s house to pick up the dog involved a skirmish with some pugs and another deer. (I kid you not. See photo below.) On my way back to Virginia, I was tempted to stop at the Herr’s factory for a tour but decided to skip it on this trip.

Finally, I must say, the best part of the whole wedding was the time spent with some of the kindest, funniest, loyal, awesome friends a gal could ever have. Blessings to Sandy and Steve and may you live long, loving, pug-free lives together.

Pug punks

 

June 6, 2009

Yakity yak

Posted by Grendel's Mother under Animals, holiday, travel
1 Comment 

As a continuation of the Canterbury Tails series, I thought I’d tell you about Chris, the A/C guy. It seems as if all the contractors, delivery and installment personnel, electricians, cable guys, and plumbers in lower Delaware like to hang out and chat with customers after they’ve completed their job. Or it may just be the view of the ocean that makes people pause. In any case, after Chris got done with his task he and my Mom and I started talking about vacations. I want to share Chris’s story with you in case you were thinking about visiting any animal parks this summer.

So Chris tells us that he took his wife and two young sons to the Shenandoah Valley. His description of their tour through the Virginia Safari Park had us in tears. I can’t do justice to his telling of the story but if you’re thinking about this sort of adventure, here’s what Chris said. “When the wife told me to move the car along faster, that was my cue to slam on the brakes and let the animals come over to the car.” First mistake Chris.

Now the next part involves feeding the animals. I need to take a moment here to say that whoever came up with this idea is either the laziest guy in the world or the cleverest (or both). If you would have told me that we could actually get people to pay for a bucket of feed and then feed the animals themselves, I would have called you an idiot. It seems that we are the idiots because we have all fallen for it. The owner of the park now gets the food paid for by the customers and the guy who has to feed the animals gets someone else to do his dirty work. Genius.

Now back to the story. Chris said, “All the animals in the park knew what the white buckets were.” Yeah, I would think they would. He continued, “There was this big yak sticking his head deep into the car. When I started to move the car forward he just kept on walking with us with his head in the car. So finally I threw the bucket out the window and made a break for it.” Nice. And now he’s left with yak slobber all over his steering wheel and the smell of camel breath in the car that will take weeks to get out.

So what are your plans for this summer? Any safari takers out there?

By the way, this is a true story and this video is not of Chris and his family. So it would seem that this happens quite often to unsuspecting tourists. Now you know. Good luck.

 

May 14, 2009

Peek-a-boo

Posted by Grendel's Mother under Animals
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My great-uncle Pete lived in Dayton, Ohio near the Wright family. Milton Wright, father of Orville and Wilbur, gave him the nickname Peek. Now don’t get the wrong idea, he wasn’t a weirdo, but when Pete was little he used to go up to the Wright’s house and peek through the kitchen window to see if anyone was home and wanted to come out and play.

 It seems that Grendel has adopted that family trait. After his buddy Elwood (the dog who lives two houses down) decided he was done playing, Grendel started sniffing around. Poor Winston. Winston is the cat who just moved in next door. All Winston wanted to do was stay in his house behind the glass door and look at the birds outside. He didn’t want to come out and play with Grendel.

Come out and play.

Come out and play.

Grendel seems to think that everyone likes him and doesn’t mind his big nose in their face or his weapon of a tail banging against their leg. He should know better. The cats he lives with smack him on a regular basis for no reason in particular.

I guess I can’t blame him really. I’ve been cooped up so long that I’ve been asking all my friends and neighbors to come out and play with me. I think it’s time to develop some new hobbies. Give me some ideas people! Otherwise, you may see my dog looking through your front door.

 

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