Dog Day Afternoon

We went to my college friend Jeff's house in the Catskills this weekend for a little mountain air and gourmet treatment. (Picture it: two gay men - with Italian mothers - working in the food industry. I'm not sure I've been fed so well over a weekend in my life. And the presentation! I can't begin to tell you.) Clio partook while trying out her new travel high chair, which she seemed to like (although she did bang her head into it's metal support bar perhaps one too many times.)


Jeff and his boyfriend Ryan were the consummate hosts, providing luscious bedding, fabulous background music, over-the-top stories, and the above-mentioned spread. As if that weren't enough, Ryan gave Clio a little Brooklyn Industries sweatshirt in case we hadn't packed appropriately for the cool mountain nights (we hadn't).


Not only was she toasty warm, but we discovered that she really looks like a redhead in a nice, deep plum color. Ryan and Jeff also engaged their youngest guest with noisemakers, sharing tambourines and moroccas for her entertainment,




And letting her roll around on the green flokati rug- a gift from Jeff's mom that finally found it's calling.


Admittedly, the weekend was not without it's one, tiny challenge: Gorgeous Gunther LeRoy. Gunther is Jeff's beloved Shiba Inu, and Clio was terrified by his bark. Now, it's true that Gunther looks slightly wolfish, but Clio shouldn't have any context yet to know that that's scary, right? The bark did her in, though. Every time he made a sound she crumpled into tears; highly unusual for Clio, and not really a trait of the good house guests we strive to be.


(Clio also drank all their milk and ate up the hamburger leftovers that should have gone to Gunther- maybe that's why he was barking?)

At any rate, this was only Clio's second canine encounter. The first, with Dave's friends' Heather and David's dog Mystic, was rather benign. The worst trouble there was Clio and Mystic trying to chew on one another's toys.


By the end of this weekend, Clio was at least charmed and fascinated by Gunther... from the safety of The Mommy's arms.


Unfortunately, this all meant that the baby and the dog had to be separated- one could be outside and one in at all times. We practically didn't put Clio down for 24 hours. When we did, is it any wonder that I look worn out, despite our wonderful hosts?

(Believe it or not, this is actually the BEST picture of me in a series of about a dozen. In one, I am way in the background, and if you look closely you can see that my eyes are fully closed; but I'll save that for the archive!)
(Oh, to be fair, this state of exhaustion can hardly be blamed on Gunther, but it does make for a better story.)