The time has come!  In just a few short hours Sid will be AIRBORNE.  We’re going to do our best to live-tweet this fiasco – check out our Twitter feed at the bottom-right corner of the blog for pics and witty observations on the day’s events.

The past twenty-four hours have been so awesome that we have TWO exciting topics to explore in today’s post.

First up, Miss Timothy Buttons came over last night with her parents and her brand new red Sherpa travel bag.  Her bag is just like Sid’s, except it’s Timothy-sized.

Yes, the bags are slightly different sizes, but we humans are bozos sometimes, and as soon as Sid and Timothy got inside the bags, we forgot which pug was where.  It’s in situations like these that a pug’s obsessive love of treats comes in handy:

Next, Sid woke up to find this package under the Pug Slope fiber-optic Christmas tree!

At first he thought Santa Pug had visited, but then he read the return address and realized someone even more awesome than Santa sent him this package – PAYTON!!

Sid wanted to open the package as soon as possible, but first he begrudgingly posed for a photo.

Inside the package were two wrapped presents and a little card!  Sid impatiently posed for another photo before unwrapping the gifts.

Seriously, guys. 

OMG, Payton!  An APPLE!  With a WORM!!!

Payton, it’s almost as though you regularly read a blog about Sid or something and know that apples are his FAVORITE things EVER!!

The apple toy was such a home run that Sid didn’t even wait to open the second present before going into full-on apple attack mode.

Sid quickly figured out that the worm comes out of the apple!  It’s like a mini puzzle toy!! He’s loves puzzle toys!!

When Sid finally calmed down from playing with his new BEST TOY EVER, we unwrapped the second present – a tiny Cuz!!!

Sid hasn’t quite figured out how to play with the Cuz yet…perhaps we can get some great photos and video of the amazing Miss Payton teaching Sid how to Cuz it up WHEN THEY HANG OUT NEXT WEEK IN CHICAGO!!!

Sid told me to say thank you SO MUCH to Payton and her parents for such an awesome and thoughtful surprise, and he can’t WAIT to learn how to Cuz from the master!!

Last Sunday, Brian and I went to The Bell House in Brooklyn with Miss Timothy Buttons’ parents to see a live taping of the StarTalk podcast, hosted by our favorite astrophysicist, Neil DeGrasse Tyson.  Joining him on stage were three of our favorite comedians – Eugene Mirman, Kristen Schaal, and John Hodgman – and a REAL LIVE ASTRONAUT!!

John Hodgman, Kristen Schaal, Eugene Mirman, Astronaut Mike Massimino,                    and Neil deGrasse Tyson

The astronaut, Mike Massimino, got to WALK IN SPACE to fix the Hubble telescope.  That means he’s one of a handful of people EVER who’ve been able to LOOK AT EARTH WHILE THEY WERE FLOATING IN SPACE.  And he got to do it TWICE!

Now, Sid, obviously isn’t travelling all the way to the Hubble telescope for a space walk when we take flight on Friday, but considering that it’s probably just as hard for a pug to wrap its mind around simple air travel as it is for a human to wrap its mind around WALKING IN OUTER SPACE, we thought that maybe we should do some advanced aeronautical exercises to prepare Sid for his flight.

So, naturally, we signed Sid up for NASA.

His first training exercise was the “anti-gravity chamber.”  As you can see in the video below, he’s a natural when it comes to floating. And, as you can hear in the video below, zero-gravity makes him a wee bit gassy (listen when he shakes).

We want to start out with a little apology.

We normally like to get at least three to four posts up on the blog every week, but December has been a crazy month.  On top of the aggressive travel-bag training Sid has undertaken in preparation for his big trip on the airplane, I’ve been taking the Greyhound bus back and forth every week to my hometown upstate for a root canal – it was much less expensive than what I would have paid in Brooklyn but required THREE separate appointments with the endodontist.  Brian and Sid have been holding down the fort here at the Pug Slope Headquarters, but the general craziness of the past few weeks means the blog has suffered.

Anyway, my final trip upstate was on Tuesday, and Sid’s Grammy Grace sent me back to Brooklyn with a suitcase full of Christmas presents for her favorite grandpug. One of those presents was a cozy new bed, and we decided Sid could get that present early since we didn’t really have a place to hide it in our super tiny apartment.

Well, as you can see in the video below, Sid was a bit confused over this present.  Overjoyed, elated, and enthusiastically thankful, sure, but still…confused:

Eventually Sid either realized that the bed was indeed A BED and NOT a gigantic fluffy sheet of awesomeness meant to be hiked between his legs, or he thought that he finally hit the jackpot when it comes to sleeping on top of his favorite toys.

Thank you Grammy Grace for this fabulous gift!!

Ever since we left Sid with Fun Aunt Liv for the weekend and his bowels exploded a week later (two completely unrelated incidents), we’ve been a little…um, permissive…as to where Sid sleeps at night. What can we say – It’s nice having a warm pug in the bed now that it’s chillier outside. I’m pretty sure that GUILT and PITY play a huge role in this as well.

But we’ve got to put a stop to this. Now.

“What’s the big deal,” you ask? Why do we not just enjoy the fact that we get eight extra hours to snuggle with the Hooth?

Well, after about a week of sleeping in the big bed, Sid starts to forget who’s in charge here at the Pug Slope Headquarters. And I don’t mean that he starts wandering around aimlessly, looking for a leader. What I mean is that his little pug brain decides that it’s going to dictate the frequency and volume of his meals, and he starts demanding food at all hours of the day.

Here’s a video of Sid – who, bear in mind, had a full breakfast and a gigantic lunchtime treat bone filled with peanut butter, apples, and venison – aggressively hilariously trying to demand that I serve him his dinner at 2:30 in the afternoon.

We’ve created a monster.

Sid dedicates this post to all you lady-pugs out there…