GLEE Inside the Music: I Am Beautiful

LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL AND SO AM I!

TODAY WE SEE OUR FIRST CLOWN! GUINEA PIGS DEFINITELY IN THE CITY!

Dear Readers,

Today is a bright, sunny Saturday morning wherein we actually observed a clown stroll by on the street below us.
A Real Clown! Strolling. Down the street. Walking down the sidewalk. This is going to be an interesting place to
view humanity at its most eccentric, methinks! The sun comes out and so do the Clowns. You humans never fail
to fascinate!

love,
YumYum

Really, a clown?!

"MOM! CAN WE BE CLOWNS, TOO?"

"Honey, they don't make clown shoes tiny enough for your little piggie feet and little piggie toes, I'm sorry."

"MAKE US SOME?!"

"You know I can't sew, or cobble, or whatever."

"O.K. then, we'll figure something out. The Mahals and I WANT TO BE CLOWNS!"

"Well, YumYum, you do that, sweetheart, and let me know how it all works out."

"Oh, you'll know! Wait until we get a little car to pack our little clownSelves into: YOU'LL KNOW, MAKE NO MISTAKE,
MOM...YOU. WILL. KNOW!"

WE DON'T LIVE HERE ANYMORE, BUT IT'S ALRIGHT NOW, ALMOST, WELL, IT WILL BE SOON!

Dear Readers,

It is bedtime for me and the Mahals, who have been busily chasing one another around their newly cleaned cage,
so now their newly clean litter is all over mom's floor and they are simply scurrying through their fresh hay with
their long toenails, and Taj has gotten so frisky (un-neutered in spring) that he not only moves their very large
Pigloo across their cage, bringing in so many toys that Raj has to sleep either around the toys or outside the Pigloo,
but now Taj is actually tumping the entire Pigloo over on its side! Who knows how he does that or why, but they
are definitely overdo for a Runabout, no doubt!

Lots to share about our new life but mom has just played with us, held me (she thinks now that I am neutered
there is hope I may become a calm, meditational "lap pig" (NOT!) and then she let me have the run of the place,
not just the bedroom but the whole apartment which was really fun! I quite enjoyed it. Too bad she won't let
the Mahals out with me but her hand is finally healing and...she said "only one pig at a time, if that pig is you!"
How rude! And I behaved on her lap, let her brush me (my fur is still falling out?!) and she even played with
my top-notch, counted the swirls on me to see if I was what they call "show quality" which I am not since none
of my swirls are even, match on both sides, and have regular patterns: WELL, DUH! I AM YUM-YUM, AND
RUFUSE TO EVER BE CLASSIFIED AS REGULAR! Geez, mom. She just did it for fun to show off that she
knew some of the "show standards" for Abyssinian guinea pigs: SHOW OFF! Like, who cares, mom? N.o.b.o.d.y.

As soon as she finds her cameras, we'll start posting photos of our new dwelling...mom still hasn't finished MOVING
yet, but Sunday is the deadline, mover is coming, and it is going to happen whether it breaks her heart or not.

We don't care because this new space has no places mom feels would be dangerous to us so, to reiterate:

WE TAKING OVER ONCE MOVE COMPLETE AND WATCH MOM TRY TO GET US BACK IN OUR CAGES EVER
AGAIN!

GONNA BE GOOD TIMES. FOR US, ANYWAY!

YumYum and Mahals out to hatch plans for a guinea pig coup of the new apartment! (sssshhhh! we only speak of
it in hushed tones.)

YUM-YUM OUT
AND SOON TO BE ALL ABOUT!

Sweet dreams, readers!

THE BRIGHT THING IN THE SKY RETURNED TODAY!

YouTube - Good Day Sunshine

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY...WHEN IS IT?

Dear Mom,

 We may be little guinea pigs but this is one of our favorite songs from one of our favorite movies (not that you remind us AT ALL of Joon) but we want you to have this song as our "Mother's Day" present,
just change the lyrics to "We would be the guinea pigs who would walk 5,ooo miles to..." whatever, OK?

Because we would.

Even if our feet are very little.

Which, they are.

The Mahals purred to this song when I played it to them: True!

love,

YumYum and Raj and Taj Mahal who would walk 10,000 miles in our little feet, for you.

The Proclaimers, The theme song of Benny ...

YUM-YUM AS A WEE LAD long ago...

i spy with my little eye
our windows full of Bright-Light Sky
no marsh, no Beaver, just deep hues
once Sun decides it's time to choose
to say Good Night, sweet guinea pigs
inside your brand new City digs
we will adjust it's true, yet still,
so hard without snow covered hill
we eat, we play, we popcorn, too
but once night falls, it's true: we're blue
we wait for our nocturnal friends
to fly and croak, for their sound sends
us all to sleep in nature's peace
now Yummy has a brand-new lease
on learning sounds not heard before
while mom lies sleeping on the floor
it's different here without the bats
and mom may need to buy us hats
but Life is Kind and God is Good
so sweet dreams, you new neighborhood!

YouTube - Keep On The Sunny Side - June Carter Cash

YouTube - Keep On The Sunny Side - June Carter Cash

DEAR YUM-YUM

"Dear Yum-Yum,
Am I half empty or half full?
signed,
restaurant water glass
Fresno, Ca"
***************************************
Dear Restaurant Water Glass,

If you sing the song "Keep On The Sunny Side" you are half full.

If you listen to Fox News Network, you are vacuously empty.
Just shake your pretty, luminous glassy booty. Customers will assume
that the "Big One" is finally hitting California. They will rush
to change the T.V. channel from FOX to a local channel to hear the earthquake news.
NOW: begin singing "The Sunny Side
of Life." The clarity of your transparent vocals will cause
a quiet hush to come over the patrons who will then join you. They shall begin
to smile as they sing along, merrily, I tell thee!
They will order more water so they can sing louder, thus filling you up again.
You will discover that you, dear restaurant water glass, are
no longer half, but completely, full!

Now, please enjoy June Carter Cash and her beautiful song and Know Thyself:
(SEE POST ABOVE US.)
You'll remember who you are.

YumYum on the Sunny Side

"JUST ASK DR. YUM-YUM"

Dear Readers,

Unfortunately, we have not discovered our "city muse" yet because we were inspired creatively by the natural environment of Scudder Pond and are not exactly Inspired here, yet!

Therefore, to wit, heretofore, and forever more, we are adding a new advice column to our blog entitled "Just Ask Dr. YumYum" until we come up with a better name. We will be syndicated momentarily throughout the Universe, as Oprah's people have already called our people.

Why? you ask? What makes Dr. YumYum different from all the other Doctor Advice Shows and Columnists? you ask?

THIS: We will take soul-searching questions from all souls, animate and inanimate, as we believe the Universe is totally alive and that means even rocks suffer and even a garbage can has relationship issues when its very own lid stops fitting correctly...I mean, really, who ya gonna call:  Home Depot, Dr. Phil, or moi?!

People are not the only ones with problems. And we will be the first completely inclusive Advice Column who recognize even coke cans get big OWIES when they are SLURPED DRY, CRUSHED ON THEIR PEOPLES' FOREHEADS, tossed off as litter, AND THEN
run over by cars.

THAT HAS TO HURT.

Life is hard. We are now open for business!

Original?

Maybe.

Maybe not.

Who cares?

What else you got going on?   So, now "Dr. YumYum is Listening"

WE FEEL A LITTLE OUT OF PLACE

Hey, it's me, YumYum, and this is the giraffe mom loved to feed in Seattle when she worked at the zoo, not me, OK?

The city hasn't changed me THAT MUCH  (yet.) We are moved.

OK, only sort of moved:  lots of mom's stuff not here, but who cares? WE ARE MOVED. US PIGGIES
IS IN THE CITY!

Now that we cannot hear, feel, smell, see, touch, and be touched by the marsh, mom has become so disoriented she did a dreadful thing to us.

By accident, of course, but we must, in the interest of full journalistic disclosure, expose her wrong-doing:

It was our first night here without Edwin, maybe that was Sunday night. All the energy efficient windows were closed.

Shut. The condo was not energy efficient, and if you don't believe me take a look at our winter heating bill. But mom at
least knew when it was cold because the wind blew in, she could smell the fragrance of each storm, listen to the melody
of rain or ice pellets dancing off our windows, and we got COLD!

Not anymore...

She was so exhausted and under a warm blanket when the storm came, but we are now removed from the Song of Scudder Pond which Sang to us and Shared her moods, colors, fragrances, and sounds.

What I'm waxing poetically about is that mom slept through a sudden, unpredicted winter storm in May and. She:
FROZE US!

Seriously. When she woke up and came out, did we wheek for breakfast? I DON'T THINK SO! WE WERE CRYOGENICALLY
CONGEALED INTO 3 COLD FURBALLS. It was the worst thing ever, took us hours to defrost, and finally move about, and now my fur is falling out!  Mom thinks I'm shedding but it's the pretty, pretty, swirly fur what froze that falling out now, because it's roots got blocked, I know it.

And now you do, too.

Bad mom: No nature?!  Now she don'know what she doin' and we suffering the consequences. Now she leaves the heat on in our energy-sealed new home and we are, I have to admit, enjoying all the sunlight that came in today, but mom turned into a giraffe instead of a Hip, Urban, Bohemian Artist.  Like a giraffe lost in a zoo instead of wandering at home across the wide, open, grassy African savanna it born on.  Mom and giraffe alike: both of them Confused: Where Home Go?

Except for being near coffee shops, mom lost! We knew she not hip. Now all you know, too.

NOT hip: lost, didn't wake up, froze us in May, now pretty fur falling out!

Giraffe In The City! No eagle, no beaver, no storm smell come over the mountains on us...

One good thing: she plays with me a lot because she so lonely for Beaver and Eagle and swallows and wood ducks and ruddy ducks, and Owl, and Raccon, and Deer, and all our friends and neighbors, especially am and Oboe-san. She really miss am and Oboe-san a lot!

Dark now, sleep, you dear creatures, and we will get to know you who hide in the city by day then come out at night, FIND YOU WE WILL, gazing out our weatherized, energy-efficient windows.

peace out,
YumYum, the Frozen BeastieBoy of Spring