Dog Bites Man

due to internet woes, WTF Wednesday is postponed until next week. 

in its stead please enjoy this video of sugarchunks biting kevin in the arm yesterday.

Friend Promotion Friday: Up the Ladder Painting & Power Washing

Hello and welcome to Friend Promotion Friday!

Self-promotion may be hard and awkward, but friend promotion is easy and fun.

My friend Justin Kaiser does a fantastic job with indoor and outdoor painting at Up the Ladder Painting and Pressure Washing Co.  

After 4 years of dog claws and puddles, you could say our deck needed major attention. 

Nacho has been gone for 2 years now and look how bad it was already back then.

Justin is an excellent communicator who is honest, direct, and very reasonable about pricing and time.

We had some storms the first few days and he was able to continue sanding and painting through the rain by creating an ingenious "tarp city." 

Our deck was particularly challenging as its cracks were filled with pounds of dog fur. Justin removed all of this!

After a ton of sanding, two coats of paint, and a massive ladder and tarp operation, here is Justin applying the finishing touches.

It looks brand new, we can't believe it.  Our chipped, buckled, mildewy deck feels smooth and looks fantastic - our expectations were greatly exceeded!

Justin is also very friendly and tidy and wonderful with pets. If you are in the Asheville area and have a deck or house that needs some freshening, call Justin at Up the Ladder Painting and Power Washing!

wonderful with pets

Please keep in mind the vast majority of these friends are hustling to pay for their own health insurance. Supporting their businesses helps in many far-reaching positive ways. 

Friend Promotion Friday: WNC Debt Law

Hello and welcome to the inaugural edition of Friend Promotion Friday!

Self-promotion may be hard and awkward, but friend promotion is easy and fun. 

The first friend(s) I'd like to promote are Asheville bankruptcy lawyer - WNC Debt Law - The Law Offices of Kevin J Radey. 

If you are in Western North Carolina and are having trouble paying your bills, WNC Debt Law can help. 

Kevin Radey has been my live-in boyfriend and joint tenant with right of survivorship for the past 8 years, and I can guarantee there is nobody out there more dedicated to protecting the rights of consumer debtors in the face of big banks.  The majority of his clients find themselves in his office after medical bills, job loss, and divorce.  He is hell bent on making sure debtors are treated fairly. Kevin has a huge heart, and is compassionate and relentless in his pursuit of achieving the best results for his clients.  He works with bankruptcy and student loan cases. 

Michelle Rogers is Kevin's assistant, and she has been a dear, dear friend to me for the past 9 years. She is extremely positive and friendly and and excellent communicator who helps clients collect their documents and makes sure their cases run smoothly.

You don't have to take it from me, check out their Google reviews. Keep in mind how uncomfortable it might be for clients to have their public Google accounts associated with a personal bankruptcy, and see how intent they are on expressing gratitude anyway. 

I am going to try to put photos in these Friend Promotion Friday posts of the friends wearing Skippy Haha Vintage t-shirts. Luckily, Kevin wears nothing but SHV t-shirts, and Michelle did some modeling for me back in the day. 

 

I sincerely hope nobody reading this needs their services, but if you do, there is no better office to call. 

 

WTF Wednesday: Dog Braces, March for Bernie, Love Poems

Ellohay, Wednesday! Ellohay, WTF!

Ellohay, Wesley, the golden retriever with braces!

"Michigan Golden Retriever Gets Braces" (the pup's dad is a "doggie dentist" - how conveeeeeenient). Incidentally, Nacho still has 2 of the top 4 google image results for "labrador overbite" and also "labrador overbite"- luckily Nacho didn't have any problems eating like Wesley had. (Thank you Ted for pointing out this story.)

Moving on to a Hallmark book from 1980 called "Since You Came Along." 

It's full of frosted photos and fruity love poems. 

Hello to life!

Also matching outfits in common.

The fun side of me!

Last but not least, you may not know by watching TV, but thousands of people in as many as 70 cities marched this weekend to support Bernie Sanders and his plans for Campaign Finance Reform, Medicare For All, $15 Minimum Wage, End Fracking,  Stop Endless War in the Middle East, Take Marijuana Off the Federal List of Outlawed Drugs, Racial Justice, and Free Public College Tuition, among dozens of other progressive issues his campaign champions. 

The revolution is alive and well, and may not be televised, but will be posted. 

Great video of drumming for Bernie in Asheville. 

So when the corporate media and biased pundits tell you that Bernie Sanders has no shot at the nomination, give them the Sugarhoney eye roll. 

As with all wtf wednesdays, there are no answers, only questions leading to more questions.

For more vintage wtf wonders (for sale), click here: vintage wtf

New WTF this week:

• 60s Cricket the Sport 3D Tee 
• 80s Chains of Love Taz Bon Jovi T-shirt
• 80s Louisiana Flute Society T-shirt 
• 80s Jingle Bells 3D Xmas Sweatshirt
• 90s Money out My Butt T-shirt
• 80s Dave the King Wilson Elvis Tee
• 90s Cocker Spaniel T-shirt
• 70s Baby Boy Dot Matrix Photo T-shirt
• 80s I Love Juggling T-shirt

the difference

between pouncey and sug - summarized in one frame.

>


pouncey: BALL BALL BALL BALL BALLLLLLL!!

sug: la, la laaaa...doo, doo, doooo...i'm hopping around! pouncey, you get it... wheee!
 

running bear

and we've got to get ourselves back to the gaaaa-aaaa-aaaa-arden!



saw this little fella stopped in a neighbor's driveway yesterday afternoon. it started running from us, through yards, into the woods. 

looked to be young and healthy, about 150 lbs. 

we had an encounter in the yard last week with a bear - i was out there throwing the ball for all 3 dogs around lunchtime, sugarhoney stopped in her tracks and started growling, eli blazed past her directly at a big black bear 20 yards away just over a hill, i started yelling for all dogs to come with me back to the house, they followed me, and the bear walked in the opposite direction.

it's a jungle out there!

happy birthday, sugarhoney!

today is the day our little sugarsnickers turns 1. it's also the day nachodoggy would have turned 12.

we were kind of hoping for a mini-nacho, and she has kind of delivered.

she does a couple things that nacho did, that the other dogs do not do.

she runs right down to the river and swims in circles in the exact same spot nacho used to do it. 

(see nacho swim in circles)

the other dogs wait on the bank until we throw something. nacho and sugar really seem to enjoy swimming, and get in for the joy of swimming.

if she is too hot on a hike, she lies down.

(nacho did the same thing)

of course, she is her own dog. she is so round, it's like she's made out of beach balls. i don't know if it's a female dog thing, but to me she is the shape of the olympic rings.

she is in love with pouncey. she follows him everywhere. she is constantly thinking of new and creative ways to vie for his attention. 

she gets herself uphill from him and lets loose.

she is not afraid to jump on the couch for a snuggle.

she is calm and gentle, she wags her tail when she meets new dogs and people, and she will come, sit, and lie down when she feels like it.

mainly she is just a little skunk who fits in riiiiight there.

happy birthday, sugarchunks! today you will celebrate with a meatball! 

eli is eleven!

happy 11th birthday to eli! aka scoobs, brownie brown brown, and fats brownino.

a more dignified animal you'd be hard-pressed to find.



he will be having sauceless meatballs to celebrate. 



happy birthday you lovable knucklehead!

happy 3rd birthday, pouncey!

yesterday pouncey turned the ripe old age of 3!



21 in dog years. he is slowly but surely turning into a right decent pet - he has calmed down ever so slightly, and is a very patient brother for sugarhoney.

eli had a blast at the party.



the party consisted mainly of pouncey eating salmon. 





happy birthday, pounce-swah, joyeux anniversaire! (upon learning he is the color of a french baguette a few months ago, he instantly developed a french accent and insists on being called pounsoir.)

WTF Wednesday: Air Pollution, Chanel No. 5, Unicorn Farm

Buenos Wednesdays! Buenos WTFs!

First of all, thank you for the stitches sympathy last week - I had them removed Monday and my mousing hand is expected to make a full recovery - hooray!

Now onto some environmental WTFery - approaching the Goodwill in Canton, NC one cannot help but be overwhelmed by the sight of massive towers of smoky steam billowing into the sky. 



It's the Evergreen paper mill and it looks like a third world Fraggle Rock - pipes and rusting buildings and silos seemingly haphazardly connected, spewing foul-smelling dusty smoke, all day every day.



It's really quite a sight, and quite a smell, and quite a load for the lungs - "Haywood County has some of the highest levels of industrial air pollution in the state. It ranks fourth out of 100 counties statewide in toxic air emissions, and third statewide in the level of known carcinogens emitted into the air, according to Environmental Protection Agency emissions data for 2010." Here's some more info from the Smoky Mountain News: 

Canton paper mill seeks state aid in costly air pollution upgrades



I hope they are able to quickly turn this into something more eco-friendly. (not bloody likely).

Moving on! Thriftstore treasures! These were part of a set of 12 bonnet-wearing ceramic girls. Creeptastic.



These old dudes may be recognizable to somebody, but not to me.



I smelled this, and they are lying.  Not at all just like Chanel No. 5.



Here we have a sculpture made by Pouncey and Sugarhoney. 



Took them over a year to whittle this design. 



Last but not least, Unicorn Farm Road. 



As with all wtf wednesdays, there are no answers, only questions leading to more questions.

For more vintage wtf wonders (for sale), click here: vintage wtf

New WTF this week:

• 80s Grumpy Cat Rhinestone Denim Shirt
• 70s Granny Square Afghan Baby Poncho
• 80s Civil War Nut's Wife T-shirt

SNOWDAY!

They called for 5 inches, and we got 5 inches.  The dogs love it!



This is a different kinda snowball.

 
Sunrise on the snowy Swannanoa river.

 
I always dreamed of becoming a white lab.

 
Pouncey will get the ball, no matter what. 

 
Sugarhoney will stalk him on the bank, no matter what. 

 
Something on your nose, E.

 
Snow pounce!

Sugar heart tongue. 

Stay warm, amigos!