Hope everyone had a great 4th of July. Sid wasn’t a huge fan of the fireworks, but luckily they subsided by midnight so we could get some shut-eye.

As promised, we have footage of Sid taking a dip…

But first, a little more about our trip to Delmonte Lake. Before actually going into the water, Sid got to ride on a paddle boat which included a hand-held umbrella to keep him cool.

I’m not sure if he even realized that he was riding on an actual boat – he seemed pretty excited just watching the wake from the rudder.

We also got to spend lots of time relaxing and playing potato catch.

Sid’s favorite hang-out spot was definitely the kitchen. I think he was hoping that he might procure an extra snack or two from one of the other people staying at the house that aren’t as accustomed to his “manipulate-the-humans-by-cuteness-to-get-treats” skills.

And now for what you’ve all been waiting for…THE SWIMMING!

I’m so proud of my little pug! He did so well in the water! I guess pugs do have more in common with the walrus than just the face. Unfortunately, I don’t have any footage from the next day when he did some more swimming and actually did a few laps WITHOUT his neon-green floatie. He didn’t seem to have any problems swimming without the floatie – so maybe they exist not so much for the dog’s sake but for the over-protective paranoid human’s sake.

Sid had a great time at the lake house and he would like to thank our friends Anna & Andrew for taking him on such a fun adventure!

Sid and I had a fun, relaxing, and simultaneously exciting weekend at a friend’s lake cottage near Burlington, Wisconsin. The drive up was really easy as Burlington is only about an hour and a half from Pug Slope HQ.

Sid enjoyed the car ride up and insisted on sitting right against the door with his arm on the armrest.

The cottage is right on a little lake called Delmonte Lake, so Sid had the opportunity to partake in some aquatic activities.

As usual, he was mesmerized by the water and stood around for a while just repetitively pawing at the surface. I think he was trying to reach the rocks at the bottom of the lake. I had to explain to him that they were in fact ROCKS and not apples, or gigantic venison treats.

Apparently he didn’t believe me and he just kept on reaching. Sid is the ultimate optimist.

Coming up next – SID GOES SWIMMING!

Let me start by saying that most of the time my dad is an okay dude, but he can also be a total bozo. Well, this weekend he must have been in bozo-mode because somehow he only managed to snap TWO photos of all the crazy adventures that occurred. So you’ll have to use your imagination to fill in the rest. Actually that might be better because in your imagination there’s like unlimited baby carrots, so you go ahead and imagine that first. OMP, all those baby carrots! Ok, now back to imagining the weekend adventures of Sid the Pug.

Here’s what went down:

First, my dad got a rental car because we were going to be visiting my dad’s sister in the ‘burbs (it was her B-day this weekend). I love me a good road trip and this one, while not quite on par with a multi-day cross-country journey (which I’ve done TWICE now) this was still pretty fun.

In order to prevent my luxurious fawn pug fur from getting all over the black interior of the car, dad made me ride in my travel bag – which I didn’t mind one bit. I’ve ridden practically everywhere in that thing (buses, planes, trains, and even IKEA – more about that last one in a minute). It’s a little tricky getting your head propped up in the most ideal way (why there is no bolster inside the bag is beyond my comprehension), but after attempting like 15 different positions I found one that worked.

When we arrived in the ‘burbs, I got to go for a long walk with dad and my grandma in Bemis Woods. The weather was amazing – there was snow on the ground, the sun was shining brightly, and the temperature was mild. Even though we hiked for like an hour and a half, bozo only managed to get one photo:

After the hike, I took a nap while dad, my aunt, and everyone else all went out to dinner. I was a little ticked that they didn’t bring me along so I took a poop inside the house (that’ll learn ’em not to bring me home leftovers!).

Dad and I started on our journey home but made a quick detour at a huge building called IKEA. I’m actually kinda glad there aren’t any photos from this place because it was WEIRD and kinda freaked me out! They don’t technically allow dogs inside so my dad thought he’d be covert and bring me inside in my travel bag since I guess it looks just like some normal bag that humans carry around their human junk in.

There must have been thousands of people inside this place. The mesh panels on my travel bag obscured my vision a bit, but I could still see all the people slowly walking in a line together through a maze of chairs, beds, and giant wooden things named “TOBO” and “LIATORP”. The people were so busy looking at all that stuff that no one even noticed that there was a pug in their presence! Thank goodness dad knew exactly what he was picking up so we zipped through there pretty quickly.

I was happy to get back in the car, unzip the lid of my travel bag, and perch my head up top for a nice relaxing snooze on the ride home.

So, in the midst of moving into our new headquarters, the Pug Slope team traveled upstate for a long weekend in the Thousand Islands region of the St. Lawrence River with Sid’s Grammy Grace, Great Grammy Nanny, Uncle Jay, and Aunt Chiho.

Did you know that they allow pugs to go on boat tours?  Neither did we!  But as soon as we found out, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to bring Sid on a tour of the mighty St. Lawrence.  Sid insisted on wearing his most nautical apparel, and as we were unpacking after the trip, I discovered that he had kept a “Captain’s Log” of this adventure…

June 23rd, 2012. 1400 hours.  Pops, my first mate, holds me aloft while we wait in line at the port.   From my elevated vantage point, I see that the St. Lawrence river is approx. 3.5 meters above its average level for this time of year. The sun is in my eyes.  Pops did not pack my sunglasses.  Once again consider replacing Pops with a better first mate, but then notice how well our shirts coordinate and remember that he fed me breakfast.

June 23rd, 2012. 1410. On the docks, approaching the gangplank which will lead me onto the vessel, I see that rain is beginning to fall onto the surface of the river.  Since I still don’t buy this whole “depth” thing, I try to walk onto the river.  Pops stops me.  Not sure how I feel about that.

June 23rd, 2012. 1420. After exploring the three decks of this vessel, I’ve determined that deck two – home of the Snack Galley – is the deck on which I’d like to travel.  Popcorn crumbs from earlier excursions line the carpet throughout this awesome deck.  Pops, however, insists on carrying me to the open-air third deck.  I wriggle violently in an attempt to escape back to the popcorn deck, but Pops’s arms are ropey and strong.  Definitely need a new first mate.  Preferably one who’s weak with scurvy.

June 23rd, 2012. 1445.  Escaped Pops’s grip, but was captured by Mom before making it to the popcorn deck.  Oh, yeah – Mom’s here. Mom proceeded to act all mommish.  Asked Mom to please stop embarrassing me while I’m captaining a ship.

June 23rd, 2012.  1532.  Successfully steered ship towards Boldt Castle, only to find out upon disembarking that dogs aren’t allowed on the island.  Attempted to explain to the natives that I’m not a dog, I’m a PUG, but they didn’t care. Tried to explain to the natives that I’m an Internet celebrity, but they didn’t care.  Explained to the natives that I AM THE CAPTAIN OF THIS HERE VESSEL and then ordered them to LET ME ONTO THE ISLAND OR ELSE THEY’D WALK THE PLANK, and they just laughed and scratched my ears.  Posed for a photo with Mom on the top deck instead.  (Still no popcorn)

June 23rd, 2012. 1540.  Back on the open waters.  Mom finally let me stand on the top deck as long as I promised not to jump ship.  Discovered that tongue can be used as a navigational tool.  The wind was traveling south-south-east at 15 knots per hour.  Asked Pops to re-calculate our route using this newly-gained information, but he drew something stupid in his sketchbook instead.  Decided to put ad for new first mate on Craigslist as soon as we were back on land.

June 23rd, 2012. 1630.  Heading back to shore.  Navigating through calm waters.  Still no popcorn.

June 23rd, 2012. 1645.  Mom tells Pops that she needs to use the loo.  Pops says he does too.  The loo is located on deck two…

June 23rd, 2012. 1650.  POPCORN CRUMBS CARPET MONSTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1!!1!111!!!!

June 23rd, 2012.  1700.  Swabbed deck two with my tongue.  Delicious.

Oh my God, you guys.  We have even more cuteness to share from our trip to Chicago.

Two of Brian’s good friends from college, Nate and Angelica, were in northern Indiana visiting family, and they brought along their amazingly precocious and adorable daughter, Kit (duh, what were they gonna do, leave her at home?).  Since we were in the same general region, Brian, Sid and I took a quick road trip into the Hoosier State so we could hang out with them for the afternoon.

This was really epic for a few reasons:

1.  Despite Sid’s gruff demeanor, he loves meeting kids, especially ones that are super cute and are named Kit.  He even picked out a gift to bring for Kit – a little plush pug in a pink camo purse – and wore his coolest black tee-shirt.

2.  This was the first time we got to meet Kit, too. We also wore our coolest clothes, but we forgot about the whole gift thing so we quickly added our names to the present that Sid brought along when he wasn’t looking.

3.  Kit is very smart and she’s an avid reader of Pug Slope.  For real. She dropped the phrase “Sid Vids” about four or five times while we were hanging out and talked in depth about her favorite videos of Sid, which planets she’d like to visit, and her favorite types of trees (coniferous, obviously).

As you can see from the pics, we had a very long, very chilly , but very ADORABLE walk. We then settled in to Kit’s grandparents’ house for some mulled cider, cookies, and play time.  We all had a blast.

Also, just so there’s no confusion, I’d like to point out that Kit is indeed a human child in a bear suit, and not a bear proper.  Sid, of course, is all pug.

I can’t believe it’s already been a year since we packed all of our belongings into a Penske truck and drove from Los Angeles to Brooklyn. This may come as a surprise to you, but Sid is a great traveler.  The cabin of that truck became our cozy little home for about eight days, and Sid was happy as a clam.  Seriously.

We put a rubbermaid container between the two bucket seats and put his bed on top so he could be up at our level.  His water dish sat on the dash between our cup holders, and his Petco safety strap kept him buckled in but gave him a little freedom to move around.

Oh, and we quickly learned that the only way to avoid mass mayhem on the highway was to store his food / treat supply inside the rubbermaid container he was perched upon.  You gotta learn some lessons the hard way.

Click through for a few photos from the first days of our trip:

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