Friday Funnies

One of the pleasant spring surprises for the wife and I has been the HBO show Veep. Holy shit is it funny. That it stars Julia Louis-Dreyfuss as a foul-mouthed vice president is precious, and that it costars Buster from Arrested Development and a grown-up Anna Chlumsky (which was bizarre to see and also made me feel quite old, thank you "My Girl") is also hilarious. The bit characters like Josh the moron from POTUS' office and a one-liner machine in the role of Selina's secretary, we just love this show. It's full of f-bombs and wildly inappropriate jokes all jammed into a solid 28 minutes every Sunday. It's a must-see.

Cobblings from My Memories

I recently stumbled across this photo on my phone. Upon first glance, you'd assume this was taken in a bathroom from a hotel. More specifically, a Hampton Inn. That's what it says right there on the towel, right?

Well you'd be wrong. That towel is in my bathroom back home in Louisville. And it's not alone. There's probably 10 or so more towels exactly like that, from hotels all over this great land of ours (more specifically, the route between Louisville and New Jersey).

I don't know how to describe it other than to say my family loved taking mementos from our vacations. My father's favorite thing was taking hotel towels. I'm not saying we were the Bonnie and Clyde family of Kentucky. No gunplay or violence. For one damn reason or another, we ended up with a whole washroom filled with towels from vacation hotels. There's no better explanation than that.

Once on a trip to Florida my dad convinced me to steal a dinner plate from a restaurant just because it was shaped like a fish and I thought it was cool. I don't think I have that plate anymore, but I'll always remember how funny it was to be talked into stealing dinnerware from a seafood restaurant when I was 20 years old. That's the weird things we did on our family vacations. Malice or ill will was never part of it, and we didn't go into vacations thinking we'd snatch a towel.

It'd just happen. You're a family of five crammed into a hotel room and when you wake up to leave everything just gets thrown into luggage and the occasional towel made it in. It started happening so often that we all got a chuckle out of it, and I'll always be secretly convinced my dad did it on purpose as a joke. That was the kind of guy he was, teasing my mom when we returned home, "Don't throw away that towel that's a remembrance of our trip!" Mom would roll her eyes, fold it up and toss it on the basement shelf with the 15 other ones. Good times.

My Dog Oliver

While my other dog Klondike may be anti-camera, things are vastly different with our youngest dog, Oliver. He's a young pup, just under three years old, and he's an attention hog.

Petting on Klondike are you? No sir, just until I fly over and wiggle my way into that space. Doing something else other than paying attention to me? Oh no you don't. Wanna take my picture? Sure, where do I stand?

Some of these photos you can just tell that he's a ham. A big, stuffed ham. What a goober.

The guys in my fantasy football league poke fun at me regularly because I am the proud owner of two poodles, but to hell with them. Many times I'm sure those poodles are smarter than they are (I did win the title for the second time in three years, after all), and Oliver is the best at knowing right when to rush over and plop his enormous paws on you and make you pet him on those days when work or life is just trying to make things miserable. It's awesome.

My Dog Klondike

Last summer when at the dog store buying food, a photographer was doing free portraits of dogs to try and drum up business for herself as a budding photog (sadly she did a great job but I can't find her info). Being the natural opportunistic taker of free services, the wife jumped right on board and got both our dogs some time in front of the camera.

First up is Klondike, and this slideshow is a feat of strength, believe me. I wasn't there at the photo shoot, but I know Klondike. Ever since the wife got him when he was a puppy 13 years ago, he has hated the camera. Doesn't matter whether it's a Polaroid, high-end digital or just some dinky cell phone camera, that dog has always known when he's getting his picture taken and he runs like the wind the other direction. It's actually quite hilarious as it's always been a battle of wills to see if we can trick him before he catches on.

While she doesn't show up in these photos, apparently in several the wife is either holding him steady (hence the closeups) or is within inches of him distracting him (hence Klondike never actually looking in the camera). It's good stuff, and I just couldn't resist showing off my cool dog. He's getting late in his years, but he's still the same dog (that first photo is how he gets me every time when he wants a treat or some extra attention), and it's awesome.