Quite a Weekend

Saturday morning we all drove to Manassas to attend the Northern Virginia Pug Owners April Meetup. Actually, it was an offshoot of the Northern Virginia group, made up of people who don't want to drive all the way into Arlington just for a pug party. There were 6 humans and 4 pugs in attendance. We met at the Petsmart and just sat down on the floor and let the pugs sniff each other for about an hour while we discussed grooming rituals, sleeping arrangements, and costume ideas. Pickles LOVED her new friends Otis (12 year old fawn male who is graying and going blind), Sairhe (2 year old fawn female who is a little shy), and Beaker (6 month old black male with a lot of energy.) I think she and Beaker got along the best since they were the closest in age and temperament. All us owners decided to have next month's meeting at one of the dog parks in Northern Virginia. There's one that has separate areas for big dogs and dogs under 25 pounds. Sairhe's owner said that she's been to the Arlington meetup and there are normally over 40 pugs there! In one backyard! Can you imagine? I might have to make the trip next month just to see that!

Sunday afternoon we drove to Charlottesville to a barbecue at Tim's friends Mr. and Ms. Gappy's house. (We left Pickles at home this time.) It was alright when just the four of us were there, even when Mr. Gappy (who I will from now on be referring to as "Bobblehead" because of his oversized head)'s mother showed up. But then all his "friends" from the wine store where he works part time started arriving and he went through a total personality change. Not ALL of them were bad, there were a few nice people there, but MOST of them were completely pretentious. They kept trying to one-up everyone else with their knowledge of obscure wines, coffee, beers, cheeses, films, and music. I admit to being an indie music snob. I quit listening to The Donnas when they went mainstream. I know who Stephen Malkmus is. But I did NOT get involved in the conversation because you just can't win. I don't need to PROVE to total strangers that I know more obscure bands than they do. But that's what they were doing with each other and it was sad. I did agree with the one down-to-earth guy there when he said he thought the greatest film ever made was The Big Lebowski (I am the walrus.) Then one of the indie wine snobs started waxing poetic about some documentary he saw about pet cemeteries. See what I'm talking about?

What kind of barbecue serves 10 different kinds of imported beers, 5 different types of wine, 8 different cheeses but no cheddar for the hamburgers, and no sodas?

Bobblehead did that thing again where he kept using big words without really understanding the meaning. He even said "bloody recipe" but it sounded so awkward that it was totally obvious that he had to think about inserting it into the conversation to impress his indie wine snob friends.

Final Scores: Pug Party - 8.5, Pretentious Wine Snob Barbecue - 3.