worry wart

don't press the red one, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

well i went back to the dermatologist this morning, and he was not concerned in the least about the spot on my shoulder, he said it was not basal cell tumor or cancerous and it's just a skin growth and he shot it with liquid nitrogen for 30 seconds or so and sent me home. said stay out of the sun and come back in a couple years.
it's really hard for me to trust doctors. but he was very confident. but i still don't fully believe him.

soup is always greener

there's a grocery store that's a chain of two stores, one in asheville and one 4 hours away in chattanooga tennessee, both publish their soups du jour online in a different tab of the same website so it is easy to compare the two every day.

the other place's soups always sound so much better.

compare -

Greenlife Chattanooga:

• Parmesan Artichoke Chicken
• Mushroom Kale Soup
• Tofu with Lemongrass
• Shellfish Pesto
• Chipotle Chicken Chili
• Parsnip Tomato
• Roasted Red Pepper with Spinach and Cheddar

vs.

Greenlife Asheville:

• Vegan Asian Peanut
• Smoky Corn Chowder
• Vegan Split Pea
• Chicken Noodle
• Creamy Tomato
• Spicy Dal

no contest, right?

insect update

i have moved away from a black widow's nest to a new house that i found holds a couple little black widows of its own, but nothing like the last spider's den.

the newest form of wildlife to plague my existence however is the amazing jumping spider, also known as the camel cricket or the cave cricket. it looks like a nice big thick bodied and legged spider but it JUMPS. 2 feet in the air from a standstill. i have killed three in my bathroom this week. i killed two with a flyswatter and i made nacho kill one. from a sound sleep in another room he rushed to my aid hearing "nacho! nacho! get him! get him nacho! he's jumping! right there! nacho get him! jumping!" and the friendly polar bear cub batted at the cave cricket with his paw and off came a couple cave cricket legs and nacho looked at me like 'this is not food' and that was pretty much the end. i realize the wallpaper looks like a butterfly bamboo forest but it is not acceptable place for jumping insects to live.

DITLOA reception

there was a reception tonight for the DITLOA (day in the life of asheville) photo project from april.

the pack library downtown hung the shots in their glass hallway windows, and tonight the photographers brought snacks and family and mingled and looked at the photos.

i picked 'family walk' to be printed, and one of the judges picked 'clothesline' to be printed also, so i have two hanging up there.

i am proud of myself for going to the reception. i went by myself and i didn't know (in real life) anybody who was going , though i avidly read some of their websites and might be 'contacts' on flickr. there was no liquor, during daylight hours, could be kind of intense in a room full of 60 people all with cameras, as one who greatly avoids being photographed. so it was kind of a scary uncomfortable thing that afterwards i am very glad i did. it was excellent and kind of surreal to see these creative talented people in 3-D.

i met in real life

ashvegas
the latest and greatest up to dated regularly on asheville

zenography & honeytoo
wondrous photography

hangover journals
funniest perspective

rocketman & heart mommy
in a space suit

gritgoods
looking so familiar

mogmismo and amy

edgy mama
hip parenting tales

and they were all just plain lovely

my dates with destiny were gone in no time flat

if you are downtown, walk into the library and look at all the photos - they're captivating and offer a hundred new reasons to love asheville

wild turkeys

wild turkey, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

there's a pair of turkeys on the loose in north asheville, last i saw they were flying from yard to yard making guttural squawks and scaring the crap out of dogs.

logistics

logistics, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

amjam stages

amjam stages, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

asheville music jamboree was this weekend, and it rocccccked! here's a night view from the best campsite of the festival, clear sound lines to both stages and a nice lake in between.

more amjam photos here on flickr

and then? and then?

abandoned drive thru, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

no and then

basal cell incompetence

i'm pretty sure i have a basal cell tumor on my shoulder. i finally did esearch on it & matched pictures and have myself 98% convinced. this is upsetting because i went to have moles checked out by a licensed dermatologist in april. i didn't point this one out specifically but he did look at it among all the others and said fine. but he didn't feel it and he must not have really looked at it because it's a basal cell tumor. i should have told him this one felt different & if you'll notice is not flat and brown like the others, i will spare photos of it because honestly it makes my insides twist in sickly green to think about it. i'm going to call the crap dermatologist tomorrow & get it taken off asap.

out of it

tried to be a good green soldier & walked to the post office this morning and forgot my wallet so couldn't buy postage to mail the box i'd lugged, and so lugged it back home got my wallet & drove it all back to the post office.

walking through alleys lined with trees where all the 17 year cicada mating is going on it was like super high pitched police sirens were going off way in the distance or echoing through a cave miles away, a wild experience.

morning whiz

morning whiz
Originally uploaded by skippy haha

tildes and umlauts

this site has tables of keyboard shortcuts for all the letters with accents and cedillas you could imagine. to type a tilde, you hold down Alt and type the numbers 0241, release the Alt and voilà!
ñ

neighbor's quote

"sorry about that...i'd just woken...and boken."

end of the night

end of the night, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

the aerogarden is trucking right along, the greens are sprouting from every pod. another couple weeks & it'll be harvest time.

all my temecula wine glasses are also holding up, as is the glass i have from west point that says "With Pride We Defend USMA 97." i got it 10 years ago at a dance at west point and i drink OJ from it every morning. right up there with meeting Ray Knight and having Tea Leaf Green say happy birthday to me is the Camp Buckner weekend in august 1994 when my bestest girl friends & i went up to west point for a dance with extremely cute older boys in uniforms. no! sleep! til buckner! we all had just graduated high school & were leaving for college in the next couple of weeks & it was just a really exciting time full of freedom and hormones.

the real mccain

waiting for doggot

waiting for doggot, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

just hoping i say the word

rolling hills of labrador

rolling hills of labrador, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

warm snuggly weekend wishes to you all

barack the vote

my brother chris has started a t-shirt company with a few friends called Royal Teaze. their latest shirt is pretty rackin.

rainbow grace

rainbow grace, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

once was lost but now i'm found

a few amazingly recovered shots from last night are here

so high so low

i had a ladies only modelfest here tonight and it was glorious, and then it was terrible, and now it is glorious again. after about 100 photos the nikon d70 camera started showing CHA and FOR instead of the number count, and i ejected and re-inserted the memory card and the battery between every photo and it was not really working and when i tried to view all them on the computer, the files turned into folders with nothing in them and the letters looked like they were written with wingdings. it looked like all was lost. hours of irreplaceable one-of-a-kind inspired beautiful hard work gone poof like that.

but then i went to cardrecovery.com and downloaded their software and they got my photos back! it's a middlemay miracle!

i'm not sure if it's something wrong with the memory card (sandisk ultra II, 1 month old) or with the camera.

yes, i love technology, but not as much as you, you see... but I STILL love technology... always and forever.

now it's past 5am, the roof of my mouth has been chopped by kettlecorn, ive gotten all the chocolate bits out of the trailmix, there are helmets and sombreros on my bed i think it's time to sleep.

mouse eggs!

i just really laughed big reading kid d's story about a moral dilemma and a dead mouse.

reservoir

reservoir, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

asheville's water source, the north fork reservoir, from around craggy gardens on the blue ridge parkway. water levels are up from last year's drought and the yellow-green of spring is starting to spread up through the wintry brown trees.

omnibus & nacho & i went for a walk up there last night, we walked on the trail from the craggy gardens picnic area to the visitors area, then walked down the parkway which was closed to cars, back to the picnic area. we went through a tunnel and saw santa claus riding a bike and the rocks along the side dripping out melting water. we also saw a turkey flying into a tree which could be confused for a bald eagle or a buzzard.

after a storm

after a storm, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

branches down on the grass, a chair blew over, and somebody's yoga mat flew in the yard from who knows where

aerogarden

aerogarden, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

behold my most beloved of birthday presents. i set it up yesterday and in three weeks this should be bursting with leafy salad greens.

happy mother's day

wet iris, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

to all the mothers of all critters may your day be just lovely

nacho maizey & holden

nacho mayzie & holden, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

17 year cicada nymph

17 year cicada nymph, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

bzzzzzz

unca library graduation day

unca library graduation day, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

2 highlights

through the diligent taping and uploading efforts of my friend ben and the wonders of technology, we can now relive time and time again the minute and a half before the encore started when tea leaf steve said happy birthday to me. it is tied for life highlights with this, in 1986, when i met ray knight of the world champion new york mets.

the whole show is here

3 pups

3 pups, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

i get to dogsit for mayzie the golden retriever this weekend! she's so laid back & sweet. holden & nacho are pretty fired up about this. everybody's getting along and sharing.

quirk

the guy in front of me at the post office rode down the street to the building sitting on a skateboard wearing a mexican wrestling mask.

reminder

a message from my brother chris, when he was in 3rd grade:


Mother's Day is a special day,
It's the 11th in the month of May.
It's a time to thank you mother for everything
she gives you.
It's a day for kids and mothers to express
thier feelings with gifts.

flea free

this is how my dogs stay free of fleas without using frontline (if the chemicals are so toxic they're not to touch human skin, why am i supposed to douse my dogs with them 12 times a year?):

1. feed them BARF (bones & raw food diet)
2. once every 2-3 weeks, hose them off
3. lather them up with herbal flea shampoo
4. hose them off
5. pour a quarter cup of apple cider vinegar diluted in a gallon of water over each one
6. when they're dry, and once a day thereafter, squirt some herbal insect repellent on a hard rubber grooming glove and brush them vigorously

it worked last summer and so far so good this year.

nc primary

i think he's less sheisty with money and has taken the high road where the other one has not.

holden got a bath

holden got a bath, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

and then wiggled himself upside down in as much dirt as he could find

peanut butter safes

peanut butter safes, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

the peanut butter & jelly -in-ones are my favorites
i have the process and materials down now

sidewalk lines

sidewalk lines, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

lydia & i aren't sure what these are from. my best guess is acid rain runoff. anybody know?

selling t-shirts

selling t-shirts, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

michelle obama spoke at unca tonight. i didn't see her, i walked through the quad about an hour before it started with the world's friendliest polar bear cub lunging towards other dogs and people and had to get out of there.

birthday greenery

tea leaf green, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

super show in raleigh last night! super people all around on the stage and off! they said happy birthday to me on air! i loooooove them!