do i hav 2 moov?

But the weekend itself wasn’t bad. On Saturday we went to the Franklin Institute and saw the Cleopatra exhibit. Two observations:

1) Most of the items on display were items that could have existed during Cleopatra’s reign. Cleopatra “may have used” this bowl.
2) There were placards about that urged us to share our experiences at the exhibit by Tweeting our friends (#Cleopatra), checking in with Foursquare (uh, no) and/or Facebook pages and taking mobile phone photos.

I can take photos? Cool!

Not Cleopatra

Not Cleopatra

Definitely NOT Cleopatra

Flashback!

The best part was a piece of papyrus with Cleopatra’s actual handwriting. She was ordering a tax break for Mark Antony’s friend. (sigh) The more things change…

After we were done with the exhibit, we went to the planetarium to see “The Sky Tonight.” I love the planetarium – I have since I went there on my 3rd grade field trip.

To the north of Leo, you can see the Douchebag Major constellation...

Then we saw the train room…

Come on ride the train, it's the choo-choo train!

Saw the giant pendulum…

Click the picture to learn more about the Foucault Pendulum

And zapped the hell out of each other in the Electricity room. No pictures of that because I was running for my life.

And because it was Space Week, there was a guest of dishonor…

There was a museum guest — a grown man — dressed as a Jedi, light saber and all. I wanted to tell him that the big ComicCon was actually 2 hours north. I mean really, this is a science museum. That was just weird.

Many thanks to Groupon for letting us snag tickets for half-price, too.

Here’s their “report card” from their last stay.

None of this surprises me. Max (I can’t believe he’s 7-8 years old already!) loves to be pet and snuggled. He’s my lap dog. Ollie (I wonder if he answered at all to “Oliver” while there since he never hears it at home.) will fetch and fetch until he drops over from exhaustion. Fetching is his job.

I also love the “I was a little messy” part. Atta boys. You trash that hotel room.

They were playing with the stuffed frog next to my feet when I snapped this one.

September marked Ollie’s 2-year-mark with us, and like magic something went off in his brain and he realized there’s a life above him. So now if I’ll be sitting on my chair he’ll walk over, put his two front paws on my chair and get completely excited about seeing what’s on my desk. Weird little dog.

It’s hard to believe that Max is 7 or 8 now and the only sign he shows of slowing down is that he lies down more. Otherwise he’s scheming ways to swipe the cat food without us looking or engaged in knock-down, drag-out, face-eating brawls with Ollie. He’s smaller than Ollie but he holds his own!

walkwalkwalkwalkwalkwalkwalk

Dreams:

1) giGANTic zit in my face and I had to go to work because I had no mire sick days left.

2) World of Warcraft is launching a new dungeon soon. That part is true. In my dream we got to tour the new dungeon. There were souvenir maps, placards indicating where the bad guys would be, and cake & coffee.

Ollie savors it:

• 2 shots
• a thermometer up his rear
• being told he’s overweight (By two pound. My vet is a weight freak)

…he wanted no part of having his nails clipped. So he started to slightly bare his teeth. That’s what he does when he’s displeased. Or if you put a Dorito near his nose.

“He’s getting snarly! Time for the hat*!” the technician chirped. Five years ago, I’d have said, “No, wait, I’ll hold him. He won’t bite.”

But no…I am just the worst dog mom ever, because I laughed and reached for the camera.

I'm going to pee on your bed for this.

Moments after this he was happily peeing in their parking lot and right now he’s curled at my feet so I guess he’s forgiven me.

*Hat? Back in my day, they called those things muzzles. But hats sound cuter, I suppose.

u r not going 2 put this on ur blog, rite mom?

(Yes, my cat is huge.)

Knight Park, Collingswood

And people say New Jersey isn’t pretty.

Max has gone through a lot. He was picked up as a stray when I came across him at the Animal Orphanage. Shortly after he came home, he bit me twice. Hard. He hated anybody who wasn’t white and was really skittish around kids. He’d shake if you held up a stick or broom or anything that you could beat him with. We worked and worked the kinks out with lots of love and treats, and he turned into my little cuddlebug. He loves and licks people of all colors and sizes. He moved from the first apartment, to the house, then moved to this apartment with me. He put up with me leaving him with BvP for the first 8 months, then taking him to live with me last February. He adjusted to a new guy and a new puppy. Max is a champ.

Last year, we got Ollie. Ollie was from a cocker spaniel breeder in Pottstown. His birth was completely planned for and welcomed. He lived his first 2 months in a lovely suburban home with a big yard and lots of furry friends to play with. Then he came to live with us, and found some new furry friends, and an apartment with lots of activity, people, toys and two lovely parks in walking distance. He’s completely loving, trusting and outgoing with EVERYONE and with the exception of the neutering has never had a sad day in his short life. And he’s still a puppy, which makes him clumsy and adorable and overly enthusiastic about everything.

That, along with his floppy ears, soft curly fur and instantly recognizable breed, draws people to him. They’ll pet him in the elevator, in the lobby, and during walks. We get people approaching us in the park asking about him and asking to pet him. He loves the attention and responds in kind with licks, grunts and the occasional trickle of excitement-pee. Which people STILL think is adorable.

Max loves pets and attention but is far past the ga-ga crazy puppy “LOVE ME!” stage. His fur is brown and black and wiry, not soft and curly and inviting like Ollie’s. Problem is, many of the adults who pet Ollie completely ignore Max. This is not a problem with children…they tend to love and pet both dogs. But teens and adults will pet Ollie, ask about his breed, and ask if he’s a good dog. Max’ll sniff their shoes and hands cautiously, but he usually gets the shaft. Then he’ll shuffle back to my feet and sit there, patiently waiting for the Ollie love-fest to end.

This breaks my heart and short of seeming like an overbearing parent (“Make sure you pet Max too!”) I have no idea what do. WM and I just pet Max ourselves and tell him he’s a good boy.

NB: The post title comes from Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s two daughters. Zahara was adopted from Ethiopia…had a shitty start but lucked into a charmed life with two loving parents and pretty much any luxury she could ever want. Shiloh, her little sister, was born into this Hollywood lifestyle and is regularly dubbed America’s most beautiful baby. While the Jolie-Pitts show equal attention to both girls – at least in photos – Shiloh is fawned over more by everyone else.