JOY'S COUSIN, HOPE

Hello again everybody! In case you didn't already know today is Friday, guess what? Today is Friday. And that means it's me, Dutch. I suppose I'm Dutch on all the other days too. But I only get to be me here on Fridays.

Anywho. Reading about everyone's joy last week made me very warm and pink inside. Pug will never admit to feeling pink, but I know he felt it too.

Now that I'm 10, I like to thing about things. Big lifey things. Like joy. And joy's cousin, hope. Google says hope is when you want something to happen or be true and think that it could happen or be true. I don't know about you, but I hope all the time.

The thing about hope is it's a bit like a trip to the dogfood store. Sometimes there's a bucket full of cookies on the counter and the lady behind the thing gives you many, many tasty things to eat. Sometimes the bucket has nothing but crumbs, or there is no lady (or no bucket!) and you don't even get crumbs. 

Hope won't make crumbs any less crummy, but it will make going to the dogfood store extremely exciting. Every. Single. Time.

That's why I think hope is just as big a thing as joy. You never know when life's going to give you cookies or crumbs or nothing at all. But hope will keep going back to the bucket again and again, even when the checkstand is closed.


Love + Fuzzies,

Dutch

PS: I won't think so much next week. Dying to show you my a-maz-ing new sweater!!

NOE SO CUTE

So we finally got some rain. Not really enough to need raincoats or fix the drought, but more than enough for me. My human says the best thing about bad stuff like rain is it makes the good stuff (like rainbows) seem even better. 

Silly human.

ME: can't we just skip the rain part and buy some rainbows?
HUMAN: you can't buy a rainbow, Pug.
ME: can too.
HUMAN: let me guess, on the internet?

Duh. Of course you can't buy rainbows on the internet. But you can totally buy them at a store down the street from us called Noe So Cute. The little dude and his mom who own it are supernice, it's totally dog-friendly and always open. 

Kinda like the internet, but better.

Dutch says Noe So Cute is more like a stand than a store, but whatever. They sell stuff. All sorts of stuff. Stuff places like amazon.com doesn't even know exists.

Like crossword hints:

 

 Untied knots:

 And whatever this is (something Dutch??):

And get this - practically everything at Noe So Cute is only FIVE cents. Well, except for Sunday crossword hints, shaves and haircuts. You know how many things you can buy five cents on the internet? Zero.

The only thing that could make Noe So Cute more awesome is if they sold bacon. You know how much bacon you could buy if it only cost FIVE CENTS?!? Hmmm. I wonder if they take special orders?

CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF RAINCOATS

I know rain clouds probably don't seem like a big deal. Especially if you live on the Other, Middle or Bottom Coasts and outside your window it looks like this:

But when you live in San Francisco and it's warm enough to wear nothing on your butts in January and you haven't seen rain since... I don't even know when... I guess even a few little rain clouds are a big deal. 

At least that's what the weather people say. Of course they don't have to pee in it or wear goofy raincoats. Ok, I guess they wear raincoats. But they don't have to pee AND wear the coats at the same time. I'm pretty sure they'd hate rain as much as I do if they had to do that. 

I've only been around snow once and I was having way too much fun to think about peeing, but it seems like peeing in snow would be kinda cool. I know you're not supposed to eat yellow snow, but is it any fun to make it? 

Can someone from the cold coasts fill me in? Feeling kinda left out :(

ALMOST WORDLESS, ALMOST WEDNESDAY

If you've been here awhile, you probably know I suck at Wordless Wednesdays. It's true. Everyone makes it seem soooo easy, but every time I try to do one it ends up being at least a little wordy. Sometimes a lot wordy.

But when I saw today's picture I knew you'd know *exactly* what I was thinking - words or no words. But since I always have something to say, I thought it might be weird to suddenly say nothing. And...

See what I mean?

Then I came up with the genius idea of being almost wordless on almost Wednesday (aka, Tuesday). It was actually Dutch's idea, but it's still pretty genius. I think it might almost really work!

BUTT WEATHER

what? it's not food!

I know I just talked about the weather like last week. But it's being so weird I have to talk about it again. Besides, if you live somewhere that's not as tropical as San Francisco, seeing some butts might warm you up. 

My human is a little freaked out about taking pictures of naked dudes, so it's not the greatest butt picture ever. But hopefully it makes you feel warm inside:

I know from experience that butt weather = picnics. If you don't know, picnic is just a fancy human word for eating food on the ground. Usually at the park or beach. Sometimes on a blanket. Obviously, picnics are awesome. 

In theory, anyway.

Because yesterday on the way to the park my human reminded me how much trouble I'd be in if I tried to eat anyone's ground food. When I pretended not to hear her the first three times, she told me four more times and threatened to take away all future bacon.

HUMAN: if you eat anyone's food, bacon will never pass your lips again.
ME: so... if I don't eat any food, I'll get bacon?
HUMAN: nice try.
ME: is that a yes?

Sometimes it's hard to tell if a human is telling you the truth or just saying stuff to get you to do what they want. I wasn't 100% sure if the bacon threat was serious, so I decided not to risk it with the ground food. Luckily I found a pile of stray ice cubes to munch on. I mean, ice isn't technically food. But it's still eatable.

ice cubes = brain freeze

So I ate the ice. And then my brain froze. Uhm, yeah. FACT: just because something's eatable, doesn't mean it won't make your head implode. 

Dutch thought this was kinda funny. My human knows what it's like to have a hurt brain and felt a little bad for me. But not enough to bend the rules about eating other people's ground food. Or give me sympathy bacon.