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No not that new era. That one is pretty cool though and we spent much of the morning watching the speeches, parades and fashion evaluations. I would have liked to have stayed up to watch it live but alas, the Gods have decided to gift me a cold and it just didn’t happen.
Regardless, we’ve come to a new era in casa des holmespun.
Enter the Era of “Gizmo, No!”
I know it really quite shocking but it’s time as he’s become a little piece of work. Actually, he’s been a piece of work from day one when he refused to sleep in the little bed I made him and instead demanded to sleep under the covers. That should have been my first clue that I was dealing with a small, furry Napoleon. Alas, I’m blond so it’s taken me four years to figure this out.
Now, you’ll note that Gizmo knows basic commands like “sit” “get down” and “Just let me eat my half without the guilt! You’ll get yours” but as of late he’s taken to the darling habit of verbalizing his demands. It’s important to mention that most of his one sided conversations have been occurring at 3am.
Perhaps it’s also important to mention that this is the dog that knows how to get out of his crate (he’s mastered zippers), how to get into a refrigerator and requires us to put baby locks on all cabinets containing food. Yes, it’s a mandatory as he began helping himself to whatever he’d like out of the fridge in NYC and would then munch the afternoon away on the couch. Try getting cottage cheese and tofu out of a couch fabric.
So in all reality we’re not dealing with a normal dog. We’re dealing with a two year old child that just happens to inhabit a dog’s body.
While he’s always listened to me, the addition of T to the household was not a smooth one. The battles over who got to sit next to me were endless and no, one on each side never seemed to work for either T or Gremlin (I’m dealing with a jealous bunch). Thus as T and I plan on expanding our family this year with a new addition (another dog. sorry mom.) it’s time for the little price to enter charm school bootcamp.
Gone are the days of warbling for hours. The days of trying to sit in Mommy’s lap while she eats and the days of leisure. Ok, maybe the days of leisure continue but the manners lessons are actually starting to help a bit.
I guess we shall see but as we’re starting to visit animal shelters for potential siblings he needs to be on his top behavior. Hopefully we’ll find him the sibling he’s never really wanted but will grow to love soon.
Following weeks of blood tests and paperwork, Santa Claws has been approved for a trip home this Christmas season and will be allowed to re-enter Japan in January without quarantine.
As Japan is rabies free, there are some hoops to jump through to import animals but if you read the instructions, it’s really not that bad. A well traveled little dog, the gremlin’s first trip abroad wasn’t very well chronicled as it involved a flurry of paperwork followed immediately by six months of hard time at his grandparents house. I say hard time because he gave my mother’s couch a hard time as he dug a hole in it.
He’s a vengeful little beast sometimes.
Regardless, my good friends at the animal quarantine unit in Narita airport have cleared the gremlin for departure and have agreed to welcome him back two weeks later. This is all good and well though which leaves me only with one concern: Will the gremlin behave for 10 hours in a bag under a seat?
Now, it’s arguable that he will as he’s done so once before and being a seasoned travel veteran (having flown the new york to seattle route a few times) he’s used to it. That said, it’s been a year and a half since he’s had a long trip in the bag and I’m a little worried as he’s begun chewing holes through said bag. He also has begun to figure out how zippers work and how he can escape from them.
Thus, I need to apologize in advance to those passengers flying from Tokyo to Seattle in a few weeks. Should chaos break loose and a small dog suddenly appear at your feet or in your lap begging (or um…just eating it without asking first) for the mediocre airline food you are being served just offer him a bite of chicken and give a shout to the blonde woman crawling under the seats cursing at him.
Afterall, how could you refuse this face?
Keeping with the topic of lots of people in small spaces and offering travel suggestions, I offer you part of our latest adventures:
The Catacombs of Paris.
-I guess I’ll warn you now there will be pictures of skulls and bones, it might make you squirm but Halloween is coming so it seemed moderately appropriate timing.-
(My second warning in a week, look at me being all risque!)
As we were in Paris and had seen all of the main sights during our week in the city of lights, T and I decided to go a bit off of the beaten path to the Montparnasse area to see the catacombs of Paris. The simple concept of the catacombs alone is enough to elict a Halloween like feel alone so feel free to be rather surprised that chickens #1 and #2 were so excited to see them.
After many stairs and dark corridors, we made it to the underground resting place for an estimated six million people.
Perhaps a little background?
The Catacombs gather the remainders of approximately six million Parisian, transferred between the end from 18e century and the middle from the 19e century, progressively of the closing of the cemeteries for reason of insalubrity. Along a labyrinth of obscure galleries and narrow corridors , the visitor discovers the bones laid out in a “romantico-macabre” decoration. Pillars, bells of subsidence or bath of feet of the quarrymen evoke the origin of the places, the limestone quarries, while sharpening the curiosity of the visitor. This underground museum restores the history of Parisian and invites to a voyage out of time.
Walking through stacks of bones as tall, if not taller than myself certainly was an eery experience though it mostly make me wonder who I was looking at. Perhaps to find a bit of humanity in the dark piles of bones that wound on for what seemed like forever?
Anyways..it was creepy but an interesting experience.
Oh and there were these odd sculptures that seemed a bit random (perhaps to spruce up the joint?)
Ok, so not the most upbeat post. But still if you find yourself in Paris and want to see something a bit different, it is worth the few euros to go.
Still a bit skeeved? Would a dog dressed as a lobster for Halloween cheer you up? You’ll note he’s trying to eat the costume while still wearing it.
Setting: The Living Room
Time: Last Night
Scene: T emerges from the kitchen with a graham cracker.
M: Hey, can I have one?
T: This is the last one.
M: Wait, what?
T: This is the last cracker.
M: You ate the entire box? Without me getting one?
T: *Looks Guilty*
M: But…but…that one box cost $10.50!!!! (an import good bought at the special expat store in the special expat neighborhood I hate going to, but that is a different story) and I didn’t get a single cracker?
T: *Breaks half the cracker off* well, here is $.25 worth?
- Gizmo jumps into M’s lap and promptly swipes half of her half a cracker-
T: um…well, now it’s about $.10 worth.
He’s been holding out on me…I will admit he’s got a pretty good poker face.
It seems Gizmo has a new love in his life. It’s not his new dog walker.
Nor is it the socks that he steals from the laundry.
It’s an affection he didn’t really ever expect nor plan on admitting to.
It’s…well…he’s just…fallen…for…
His father.
It was rather unexpected.
And he was a little unsure of it at first.
He’s come to accept it though. I think they’ll be just fine.
He would still prefer I didn’t share this particular turn of events though…I think they’d like some privacy.
Today’s little adventure started out innocently enough but quickly spiraled downward into a special version of hell one can only find in Japan. Odaiba as it stands today was built upon swampy landfill twenty years ago and little has changed since.
We should have known it was going to be bad when one of the first things we saw were people having a picnic on a cardboard box outside a convenience store…sporting orange mullets. While I don’t really know the word for guido is in Japanese, but today we discovered their equivalent of Coney Island.
Seriously, you know it is going to be odd when you lay eyes on this.
Oh yes. Yes, it is…Lady Liberty herself.
We thought a wide angle view would add some perspective. Just past the Rainbow Bridge in the middle of the picture is Tokyo Tower in case you thought we were fooling around.
So what did we find in Odaiba? People, lots of them. Of the choices available we opted for the mall over the water park and the amusement park figuring we would avoid the crowds and enjoy the air conditioning. While the air-con did its job, the crowds wandered aimlessly as if they’d never set foot inside a shopping mall.
“Wow, an entire store devoted to women’s shoes!?!”
“A staircase that moves up and down!”
Initially this is a bit irritating and M and I usually do our best to take things in stride, but after twenty minutes we almost dared people to take us on. At one point I had to lower my shoulder with no room to move and ended up plowing through someone like a linebacker.
Making matters worse we also found a few familiar stores from back home like J.Crew, GAP, Brooks Brothers, and ToyRUs hoping to find something to make this trip worthwhile; yet managed to find nothing. Aside from being ridiculously overpriced, dresses in Japan are shapeless potato-sacks that flatter no one. When M showed me one she thought held promise, I had to tell her the sad truth. “Sweetie you’re a beautiful girl, why would you even consider wearing this?”
So before we stayed long enough to be tempted burn any money, knock down a few kids, or punch some bumpkins in the face we decided to flee with what little sanity we had left to visit Tennozu Isle.
M was kind enough to take me to the factory store of one of her clients through work and let me shop for shoes knowing this was as good a chance as any to finally put my curiosity to rest. For ages I’ve been jealous that she gets all of the fun clients, while I get to help sell shampoo and toilet cleaners! At any rate I went home a happy camper with a few pairs of shoes and a yoga mat all on sale.
Feeling good and figuring we couldn’t be that far from home we decided to try walking up the river, yet really weren’t sure how to get there. In Tokyo, nothing is terribly far, but the layout of the city is less than…logical?
So sometimes you can get hopelessly lost and sometimes you can accidentally find the train station that’s only ten minutes walk from the house. Today we lucked out and after an impromptu photoshoot with this noisy little critter, not to mention a pitstop at Starbucks, we made it home safe and sound.
Gizmo’s delicacy of choice this time of year!
Seriously within the next two weeks the cicadas will start to die off and if it’s anything like last summer, Gizzy will spend the majority of his evening walk crunching and munching his way through the streets of Tokyo devouring each and every cicada in sight. Meanwhile I’ll make sure that M stays at home as she can’t stand the sight and sound of watching her little boy have bug wings sticking out of his mouth. I on the other hand find it hysterical as he eats them like potato chips!
While the photo is actually one I took in Cambodia during our honeymoon last year, it is a good indication of the weather around here lately.
Although the ungodly heat and humidity is slowly creeping into Tokyo, it’s been raining for about a month now..mostly on the weekends. We were lucky to not get rained out this past weekend but sadly it looks like the weather this weekend will be pretty dreary.
Now before you mock me for being from Seattle and complaining about the rain, understand that we’re not talking drizzle. Japan doesn’t really seem to do drizzle…when it rains it pours. Poor Gizmo has has a rough month as he’s a bit of a princess who has to be literally dragged out to do his business in the rain. That said, the rain should be ending soon and I’m sure the ungodly heat will be the topic of a blog probably in the middle of August.
But! We are coming up with ways of beating the heat!
In the next month or so we’ll hopefully be taking Samurai lessons and perhaps a cooking class or two in order to keep ourselves off the streets and out of trouble (and the heat). As we’ve done quite a bit of Travel in Japan this year, we’re starting to look for the lesser known areas to visit as well as any pet friendly activities. I’m thinking I may try and convince my boys to rent some camping gear and go with me but I think that may take me at least 12 months to negotiate.
Keeping with the water theme…perhaps a little white water rafting T? Please?
With all of the talk in the news of dungeons and such we decided it was time to venture into the little cave that exists in our own house. It’s really no secret that Gizmo is a bit of a character but with the move to Japan came a new element of his character: the “porn dungeon” (T takes full responsibility for the joke of the name) monger.
We have no real idea what he does in there but there are all sorts of strange noises and every time he exits toys and socks tumble out (and he furiously races to put them all back in immediately)..
Thus, an expose into the dark, secret world of Gizmo.
Poorly lit in the corner, we approach to find the unsuspecting dungeon dweller..
Who knows what naughtiness lurks in such a place?
Clearly we aren’t welcome..
Actually, we already knew that much as the one previous time I tried to retrieve a flip-flop that had been usurped he had a conniption. No growling or anything rather a 8kilo dog trying to push me out of his “room.” It was really surprising how he very clearly was not thrilled with his personal space being invaded…those of you who know my brother can imagine something of similar lines ( HI BUGGER!!).
Needless to say, we were greeted with trepidation.
And when we lifted the cover we discovered something very troubling…
It seems he’s a hoarder.
If you look closely at the above you will find pieces of every stuffed animal Gizmo has ever owned (including the dismembered corpses of both Hillary Clinton and George Bush stuff dolls), a few socks (laundry thief!!!), tennis balls, 2 1/2 rope toys, a kong or two and more. The source of the noise from the PD was also discovered to be a squeaking dragon given to him two Christmases ago. Evidently, he sleeps with all of his worldly possessions.
Some dogs play with their toys, ours hoards his.
In December 2004 I had just moved into my own (very) little apartment in New York’s East Village. Though I had very little space it was the first time I’d ever lived completely alone and being in an “up and coming” area of NYC I found myself in search of some companionship. After weeks of perusing petfinder.com a furry little face caught my eye.
Listed as a beagle (though that’s clearly not all that is going on there), “Buzz” had found himself again homeless and was now in the care of the Might Mutts foundation. As he was adorable, I was pretty sure he’d already been snatched up but still sent an inquiry along. When they responded within the hour that yes, he’s still available wouldyouliketomeethimwhencanyoumeethim? I should have known..alas, I do have “sucker for strays” tattooed on my forehead.
Two nights later I jumped on the train up to the upper west side (I get all my men there) to the vet who had taken “Buzz” in. When I asked to meet Buzz I, again, should have noted the giggling from the receptionists, but I was caught up in the excitement of it all.
It was love at first sight.
The little love whore very literally threw himself into my arms and the rest is history.
On new years eve of ‘04 I returned uptown to pick up my little bundle of furry joy who had been back in the care of the woman who had previously adopted him. This woman, the one with the free flying canaries who thought a bird-dog would be a good addition to her family, very kindly mentioned that the Gizmo was actually a vegan. A Vegan? Canines are carnivorous. Alas, I soon discovered the real reason Gizmo came into my life…he had eaten one of her free flying canaries.
Needless to say, I took him home, offered him some chicken and confirmed that he is not at all interested in the vegan lifestyle.
And while we don’t know for sure when his real birthday is (the vet said he was born in ‘04 given the state of his teeth) it seems only fitting that we celebrate his birth on April Fools Day.
And some birthday photos..
Thrilled to meet his father..who incidentally lived around the corner from the Vet where I picked him up from (we hadn’t met yet though..).
Halloween Humiliation
The avid blogger
And the ultimate humiliation: bath time. 
Is carrying your child when he is overwhelmed by the number of people around and is scared to cross the street.
