Caesar is King...

Because with a laugh like this, why wouldn't Caesar be king?

Pompey Gets Crafty

Pompey wonders if the yellow yarn would provide a nice accent to his golden eyes.

The Antics of Octavian

Octavian considers the tactical advantages of mailing himself to his enemy's doorstep.

Shake your Bon-Bon!

A few weeks ago, Andrew and I had a delightful afternoon enjoying a traditional Japanese Bon Festival at our local Japanese shopping center.

It was liking being swept away to Japan- there were traditional games, yummy festival foods, and even women wearing traditional yukatas (click here to see information on yukatas!) Since I couldn't take all of you wonderful readers to the festival with me, I thought I would bring the festival to you with a photo journey!

Enjoy!

The front of the Japanese Shopping Center

Booths lined the sides of the shopping center, and people milled about, looking at all the delicious offerings. There was takoyaki, yakisoba, cotton candy, iced coffee, and many other treats. Some vendors were selling fun festival masks featuring Hello Kitty, Doraemon, and Pokemon!

In the center of the shopping center's parking lot, a stage had been set up. Traditional dances were being performed, as well as awesome Japanese Drum songs.

Women were wearing lovely, traditional yukatas. It has become my goal to buy one for the festival next year! They are so beautiful and seems so comfortable and elegant.

Andre proved to be an expert at the traditional "scooping" games at Japanese festivals.

In the "scooping" games, you are giving a very small paddle, covered with a thin paper covering that dissolves in water. The object of the game is to scoop objects out of the water without ripping your paper net. Goldfish Scooping is extremely popular at Japanese festivals (yes, you scoop live goldfish!), but Andrew decided to try the Toy Scooping because we couldn't take a goldfish home with us. He wound up winning two bouncing balls and an adorable Hello Kitty figurine!

Also at the festival was a book vendor, selling books and magazines for a fantastic price! Granted, all the books and magazines were in Japanese, but that didn't stop me from buying a few....

More Books!!!

Here's Andrew tries his hand at another game. Your goal was to shot suction arrows at a target. If you landed in the center, you got the grand prize- a Nintendo Wii! Andrew didn't win that, but he did get some awesome snack prizes.

This was one of the ultra yummy treats Andrew won. They were biscuit cookies, filled with a cookie and rice crunch filling, shaped like mushrooms. They didn't last long- Andrew and I devoured them and determined that we would definitely be making these a regular purchase!

Another one of Andrew's prizes- Japanese soda! It's called Ramune, and it is surprisingly sweet and tangy. The bottle also has a surprise for the unwary...

Look closely, very closely. Yes, there is a marble is the bottle! There's no danger of swallowing it, but its presences in the bottle makes a little game out of drinking the soda. You have to hold the bottle in just the right way, otherwise the marble blocks the bottle's opening!

All of our snacking made us very hungry, so we decided to hit the food vendors!

Yum! It's yakisoba!

Andrew enjoyed the extremely tangy taste of the yakisoba- I liked the slight crunch of the noodles!

Well, that's it! Keep an eye out for a Bon festival near you- they are lots and lots of fun!

The King of the Flop

Octavian, my fluffy Ragdoll, is hereby crowned the King of the Flop. He has mastered flopping in the most irresistibly cute ways. Camera happy person that I am, I take lots and lots of pictures of Sir Octavian flopping, so I decided to share some floppy cuteness with you, Dear Readers! See if you can resist the fluffy cuteness!

The Night Time Musings of Andrew

When you live with someone, you find out all sorts of weird quirks and ticks that you might not otherwise know if you just saw them on a day-to-day basis. Naturally, that’s been true of Andrew and I.

Now, I’m sure I have some very weird quirks that Andrew could tell you all about- perhaps my tendency to make up ridiculous songs at the spur of the moment out of sheer boredom- but Andrew has one strange quirk that nearly shocked me out of my skin the first time I encountered it.

Andrew talks in his sleep.

So, I know a lot of people talk in their sleep, but when Andrew talks in his sleep, he sounds completely lucid and wide awake. Half the time, what he says even makes sense. He’ll sometime say things like: “What did you think of that CD?” and if I ask him what CD he’s referring to, he’ll give me a response! When he’s like that, I have to look closely at him to see if he is indeed asleep, because he can carry on a complete conversation with me.

Yet, the other half of the time, I am given a glimpse into the very strange world of Andrew’s dreams. I don’t know where he gets the ideas he dreams of, and I don’t know what they mean, but I find his musings strangely fascinating. Whenever possible, I write down what he says, because it amuses me so much. And, since his musings amuse me, I thought they might amuse you, too.

So here on my blog, I will share the, ahem, wisdom of Andrew's Night Time Musings.

Up for today's contemplation is this gem of wisdom:

"This was already used for the wringer. Now there's no need for the Volvo."

What this means, I don't know, but enjoy!

Witty and the Temporary Dog

Over the weekend, Andrew and I took a little house hunting jaunt. We didn't actually travel far from our current abode- we had found a house that was just around the corner from where we are currently living that we wanted to look at. So we arranged a viewing and took a little stroll through the neighborhood.

It was a lovely day- blue sky, bright sun, cool breeze- and we were enjoying ourselves. As we got nearer to the house we were going to see, Andrew and I began craning our necks to get a better look at the house. I was so absorbed in contemplating the brick and vinyl siding we were approaching, that when Andrew suddenly called out, "Witty! Look out!" and pointed in front of us, I was completely startled.

I followed the line of Andrew's arm to see what he was pointing at. There, bounding towards us in great enthusiastic leaps, was a dog- a big, black and white dog. I froze. I like dogs, but big leaping and bounding dogs scare me. I braced myself for an attack. Would the dog jump on me? Would it bite me? Would it pin me to the ground and slobber all over my face? I shuddered as these thoughts whipped through my mind. Yet, to my utter surprise, the dog did none of these things!

As soon as the dog got within the vicinity of my feet, it suddenly stopped, dropped and flopped at my feet! The dog gave us what could best be described as a doggie grin as she offered her belly to us for rubbing and scratching. Andrew and I looked at each other. "Well," I said. "I guess she's friendly." Then we took her up on her invitation and gave her a good belly rub.

When we finished lavishing her with attention, we continued on our walk, but quickly realized we were not on the walk alone anymore. Our new doggie friend followed us! We tried to shoo her away, urge her to go home, but she stubbornly stuck with us, grinning at us, her new found friends. We discovered that she was a really, really friendly dog. Whenever we passed by another person on our walk, she would run up to them, say hi, then run back to us. More worrisome, she liked to run up and say hi to passing cars.

While we really did like the dog, we were beginning to worry. Where was this friendly dog's home? Were her owners missing her? Since we couldn't get her home on her own, we decided that we would lead her home. We looked for a tag on her collar and discovered that her home was right next door to the very house we were going to look at! Serendipity!

We quickly steered the dog towards her house, and brought her up to her owners' front porch and rang the bell. And rang the bell. And rang the bell. And rang the bell. There was no answer. There were cars in the driveway, but no one answered the door. We looked at the dog. Maybe she would stay on her porch? We looked at her, "Stay!" we ordered, then we rushed next door to meet our realtor.

The dog followed us. Our realtor, a dog lover herself, was both amused and worried. The dog was very sweet and friendly, but really shouldn't have been roaming outside alone. As we all proceeded to look at the house, the dog once again began to follow us! She would keep sneaking in the open front door and we'd have to shoo her back out. Then she would run around to the back of the house and peek in through the patio doors, whining a little when she couldn't reach us. The entire time we were in the house, the dog stayed nearby.

By the time we were finished, we were really worried about the dog. Once more, we walked over to her home, rang the doorbell repeatedly, but received no answer. So we decided to see if we could put her in her backyard. We managed to open her yard's gate and shoo her in, but she popped right back out through a hole she had dug under the fence! So, at least we now knew how she got out the first time.

So, what do you do with a too friendly dog on a bright and warm summer's day? Well, we did the

only thing we could think of- we bid farewell to our realtor and took the dog home with us! She followed us willingly and eagerly all the way back to our house. We felt a bit like dog nappers, but what could we do? Images of this sweet dog being hit by a car kept running through our head. There was no way we could leave the dog behind- besides, she would have followed us anyway!

So, we took her home, and immediately set her up with a bowl of water and a dish of dog food (generously donated by a kind neighbor!). Then we called her owners and left what was probably the strangest message ever:

"Hello! We have your dog. She followed us home. We think she escaped your yard. We're happy to watch her until you get back. Give us a call!"

Then we sat and watched the dog. Since I had never had a dog before, I was fascinated by her. I found her to be extremely affectionate and great company! She loved to sit beside me with her head on my lap and be petted. She was quite the charmer.

Andrew and I contemplated where her owners could be. As we thought about this, it began to dawn on us that perhaps the friendly dog was home alone. Maybe her owners were on vacation, and she was being watched by a dog sitter. That dog sitter surely wouldn't check phone messages, would they? And what panic might set in when the sitter realized the dog was gone?

We realized that we should probably run back to the house and leave a note on the door.

So, we wrote up a quick note, and Andrew made a mad dash back to the house while I stayed with the dog. Despite my and Andrew's worry with the situation, the dog was just happy to be with people. It was like she had complete faith in us that we would see her home to her owners safely.

It was on Andrew's mad dash back to the dog owners' house that he actually ran into the dog's owners. They were quite surprised to see the tall, lanky man striding up to their house, paper clutched in his hand. I imagine it was a strange conversation as he explained that we had their dog. They were completely shocked that their dog was gone! Apparently, this was only the second time in the six years they had their dog that she had gotten out of the yard. They were extremely grateful that we took her in, because with her trusting and friendly nature, she could have all too easily gotten hurt.

So Andrew, together with the dog's owners, walked home once more. The dog, upon seeing her owners, trotted up to them like nothing was amiss, just that same sweet grin on her face. For the dog, it was just another fun filled, exciting day! Andrew and I said our goodbyes to the dog, and owners and dog went on their merry way, happy to be together.

Meanwhile, I now suddenly long for a dog of my own. Surely a dog could get a long with the Triumvirate of cats, right? Right?

Sigh....