A Cool, Rainy, Parenthetical Sunday

[lagilman]

Friday I acquired CutePuppy (or, as Gardner Dozois corrected, the Puppy acquired me) for a puppy-sitting weekend. On Saturday I took her to the Union Square Greenmarket with 0eris0. Puppy was torn between being VERY! EXCITED! and overwhelmed by the overstimulation [smells! dogs! smells! people! OMG!], but she did well and mostly remembered her training. She also handled the subway like a trooper. I acquired veggie greens, and pheasant sausage, and sparkling cider, and merguez. Nom. I resisted the fresh-cut irises, but only just, and only after staring longingly for several minutes.

Puppy tucked back in the apartment, we then made several successful thrift store raids [a pair of never-before-worn jeans for $15? A linen/cotton Talbots blouse for $6? Score! And the money goes to Housing Works, so even better.].

We also checked out MXco, a - obviously - Mexican cafe on the UES which has gotten mixed reviews. I have to say, the portions were perfectly sized (as opposed to the "overflow the plate" theory still popular at too many places), the food was well-prepared, the dessert we split was excellent (molten cake the way it should be, with lots of cocoa and not so much sugar), and the tab for the UES was damned reasonable. And they serve good teas, not Lipton crap, which puts them in my good graces. Is it good Mexican? No, not really. But for NYC (where you can get amazing Cuban, Southwestern and Spanish, but not so much Mexican), it wasn't bad. And as "spicy-tasty food," it was pretty good.

Then the guy came buy, packed me and CutePuppy up, and we went back to my apartment where another experiment in group living (2 humans, 2 cats, 1 dog and 1 squeaky toy) was attempted. As I said on Twitter, this was either a sitcom or the start of a horror novel. As we all survived the night, I guess it was a sitcom.

(despite the local place being out of anchovies for the spinach-and-anchovies pizza. Yes, we both like anchovies on our pizza. A Sign, I say... also probably a sign that yes, it was a sitcom. We made do with spinach and sausage.)

And now G. is off to Austin for the week, and the animals have gone back to bed. I'm eating leftover pizza, drinking coffee, listening to the rain, and waiting for the brain to kick in so I can get back to work before I have to return the puppy....

Comments

[mevennen.livejournal.com]

Pizza should have anchovies. T disagrees.

[djonn]

The above-the-cut line about returning the puppy gave me the brief mental image of a puppy library, where one could check out a puppy for the weekend.

Now I think I want someone to start one....

[lagilman]

That's pretty much my life, as most of the time CutePuppy is with her Actual Owners, my folks. I only get custody when they're away overnight.

[djonn]

Some days ago I was in a grocery checkout line with a chain-pizza delivery driver who was buying a tin of anchovies, because the customer had ordered anchovies on his pizza but they'd been left off the pie.

I hope he got an enormous tip out of that one....

[threeoutside.livejournal.com]

They already have. It's called FlexPetz (I think that's spelled right.) It's in NYC, and if you Google it, maybe that'll turn it up.

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

How did the cats feel about the Puppy? or the lack of anchovies?

[lagilman]

Pandora disappeared for The Duration. Boomer was mostly nonplussed, to the point of companionably touching noses once or twice, but when she got too frisky for him, he retreated to the bookcase and grandly Ignored Her. Also, they kept trying to eat each others' food.

Once she left, Pandora re-emerged, and Boomer insisted on chin-marking me from head to toe, so I'd remember who I really belonged to.

[firynze.livejournal.com]

Pheasant sausage, you say? DO WANT.

[firynze.livejournal.com]

My version of this involves going to the local animal shelter and volunteering as a dog walker from time to time. Gets my puppy/doggie fix in, without actually having to figure out how to HAVE a dog...