nachos on steroids

took nacho for a rabies shot and asked about some supposedly miraculous allergy medicine for dogs that would cost more than groceries and the good doctor gave us some info and gave nacho a steroid shot and he is 98% better.  it should last a month.

the only problem is now he looks like this 

nachodoggy!

florida, alabama, and sinking cars

spent the past few days in tallahassee where the skies were fantastically blue and 82.  had some Apalachicola oysters that were plump and delicious but not salty. i went thrifting and scored some great stuff like a 70's Florida State Seminoles golf shirt. pouncey came with us and got an A+.

went to the FSU student circus. the only animals were humans. the students do not get paid, and do not get class credit, they do it for fun. they were flipping, juggling, twirling, clowning, and balancing all over the place.

watched a really cool documentary last night called 'muscle shoals.' so many awesome albums of the 70's - 80's were recorded in that little town. rolling stones, bob seger, bob dylan, percy sledge, on and on. the archival footage of aretha franklin in her 20's was worth the watch alone. if you like southern rock, or any rock, or any music at all, this movie is a must see. i found myself often covered in goose bumps and occasionally tears.

if you want to read something absolutely terrifying but also full of good information - How to Escape from a Sinking Car

the best i've ever seen 'em

these 5 different trees have made themselves into a little family. from afar they look like 1 tree.

update on the oil pulling - went to the dentist yesterday and the very sweet hygienist i've been going to since 2007 said my teeth were 'the best i've ever seen 'em.' i haven't had any head cold symptoms in 4 months now. i am keeping it up! 

i've been spending a huge amount of time the past 2 months getting a skippyhaha.com website together where i can sell my vintage clothing.  it will take me months plural for me to load all 1200 items into the new site, but slowly but surely i am getting there and i hope to have it done by june. the site is live now and open for business, but i want to get everything up there before really publicizing it. but i like how it turned out and it is getting there!

dealer decal begone!

buying a new car is fun! until you get home and see they've permanently affixed a stupid dealer decal advertisement to your trunk. 

luckily, these can be removed! pretty easily!

first, we washed that part of the car.

next, we sprayed turtle wax adhesive remover - made especially for cars - and peeled off what we could.  a lot was left.




next, we got an extension cord and a hair dryer and heated up the decal for a couple of minutes.

the heat made the remaining decal much easier to peel off.

next we peeled the decal into fun new words: VD HARLOT USA

finally, we sprayed some more adhesive remover, and wiped it clean.

just like new!

sorry south boulevard subaru, we don't love you that much.

regal pouncey approves.

where my oil pullers at?

just kidding, i don't think that anybody who reads here is an oil puller. but you never know!

i first heard of this practice - oil pulling - a few years ago on a facebook for hippies site called "tribe," where a lot of alternative thinkers would post questions and solutions, most with a decidedly natural bent.  i was looking for carcinogen-free toothpaste recommendations and saw a post about oil pulling. it was interesting but i did not try it.

fast forward to last fall when i was becoming aware of the wonders of coconut oil. i was fighting a cold and there was a recommendation i saw online for mixing coconut oil with eucalyptus oil and putting it on the bottom of your feet to clear sinuses. it seemed like a better (less malodorous) idea than the bowls of chopped onions i put around the house last year. the same thread mentioned oil pulling. several commenters chimed in with anecdotes of oil pulling easing everything from tooth decay to rheumatoid arthritis - head colds, blood sugar stability, cramps, asthma, back pain, skin problems, the works.

i bought a jar of unrefined cold pressed virgin coconut oil and was happy with how it plus eucalyptus helped my cold. 

i figured the ancient Ayurvedic practice of oil pulling might be worth a shot.

basically you put a tablespoonful of oil (unrefined coconut or sesame seem to be the most popular) in your mouth and swish it around for 10-20 minutes, first thing in the morning on an empty stomach.  i floss my teeth beforehand so the space between my teeth is bigger. after swishing through your teeth, you spit it out in a jar or trash can *NOT DOWN THE DRAIN* and rinse with warm salt water and then brush your teeth as usual.

it supposedly works like an intense mouth wash - the coconut oil is anti-viral, anti-fungal, anti-bacterial, and it collects all your mouth germs and then you spit them out.

bonus is the lovely trippy layered tiers of half solidified - half liquid coconut oil collected in the jar!

i have been doing this for 2 months now. i can report my mouth feels terrific! i cannot attest to any other health improvements at this point, though i usually have a sore throat/ear pain at least every other week in the winter, and i have not had a hint of either since starting.  considering i spend many hours per week in the germ nest of thrift stores, and we went on a floating petri dish carnival cruise, i am pretty happy.

it seems that western science has proven oil pulling to have a positive effect on oral health, though the other hundreds of benefits have not yet been verified scientifically. i have a baby tooth - a molar that doesn't have an adult molar to push it out - and i would like to keep this baby tooth as long as possible before i need an implant. i am hoping oil pulling will at least help in this endeavor.

i will keep you all updated on this riveting oil pulling journey. i have my 6 month dentist appointment in april and i am interested to see if the hygienist can tell a difference.

at the bare minimum, it serves as a kind of meditation. for 20 minutes every day i am not talking.


as an aside: how great is talenti gelato and sorbetto? the mango is out of this world!

nachos has issues

poor little nachodoggy.

he has allergies.

he has had allergies off and on since we moved from california to north carolina. for a few weeks in the spring, summer, and fall, he licks at his legs to the point that he bites the fur off and he's left with open sores. the vet calls them 'hotspots.'

after reading "some of my best friends are germs" in the new york times last month, i am wondering if he just does not have the microbes needed to deal with southeastern allergens, since he was born and raised in the desert of southern california.

last year the vet prescribed antihistamines which i gave him 2x/day for 2 weeks and did nothing at all whatsoever to relieve his itching.

allergies are the single greatest cause of vet visits in the US. he could be allergic anything - though grass is what i suspect. it could be cleaning products, leather, plastic, wool, carpets, corn, wheat, anything. 

it was so bad last week, he was scratching and licking and biting himself 23 hours a day. he wasn't sleeping. nobody in the house was sleeping. he is not quiet when he is scratching. he slams his feet into the floor. he whimpers. he pants. it's really sad. i tried to empathize and i imagine it feels like poison ivy, but worse, because he doesn't know that itching it spreads it. it got to the point i was thinking his misery was so great the kind thing would be to put him to sleep.

but instead of euthanasia, nacho has been getting oatmeal baths! for humans. the same oatmeal baths that helped my poison ivy. i mix the oatmeal and hot water in a bowl and then dump the bowl into a kiddie pool outside full of cold water. every day, nacho takes an oatmeal bath in a kiddie pool in the driveway.  he loves it.

kevin found this stuff online called dermapaw and figured it's worth a shot. it's all natural and soothing - it looks like a little jar of vaseline. i put it all over nacho's legs and belly at bedtime. and then - the best part - nacho wears socks!

every morning the socks are off, but still - it's pretty cute while it lasts!

i would say his itching has been relieved drastically by these two treatments. after 3 days, it was down about 50%. Today (5 days) it is down about 75%, if not more.  he seems so much more comfortable.

thank you aveeno oatmeal baths and dermapaw!

side note: the title of this is "nachos has issues." this is what kevin's 4 year old niece told us when we were talking about how nacho used to be afraid of small children. she obviously was repeating what somebody had told her, and it was hilarious. the same niece also looked at pouncey and said 'pouncey has a penis.' to which her father responded, 'pouncey DOES have a penis.' kevin & i have adopted both of these phrases - nachos has issues, and pouncey has a penis - into the vernacular. thank you unintentionally hilarious toddlers!

extreme kayaking

saturday morning we went to walmart to buy another kayak.

kevin bought a kayak for himself last weekend, drove up the river a mile or two, and kayaked home. it only took about 30 minutes.

he thought it was easy enough that i would like it too.

i have never been in a kayak. i was wary of the whole thing but after some cajoling and adventure-shaming, off we went with 2 kayaks in the car.

at first it was great. it was a lazy river. not too deep. not too many rocks.

then after less than 10 minutes we came upon rocks and rapids, and i fell out of my kayak.

i was a drowned rat. my kayak was swamped and sinking. the river rocks were slippery. i managed to get to the side, get most of the water out of the kayak, found my paddle and got back in.

i only screamed "I HATE THIS!" one time. kevin paddled over to help me and fell out of his kayak. this was helpful.

back in the slightly swamped kayaks,  we headed downriver again. more rapids ahead, kevin yelled "ROCK" and there was nothing i could do (that i knew of) so i let my kayak hit the rock where it flipped me over and out and got stuck.

there are no pitcures of this, but we can assume it looked like this.

the kayak was wrapped around the rock, stuck. i was waist deep in a rapid trying to get it loose. it was not budging. my paddle floated downriver, gone.

i screamed "I CAN'T FUCKING DO THIS!," waded down to where kevin was waiting for me and said "i broke my kayak."

he went back, dislodged the kayak (not broken after all!), stashed it in the woods, gave me the key to his car and paddled his kayak home.

i scrambled out of the woods completely soaking wet,  i passed an older couple of tourists on the trail and as i scurried by she said "oh...OH!" and i said "i fell in the river." she laughed. i cried.

i soppingly walked a mile back to the car and drove home.


 
this is where i left my pants and shoes. 

an hour later a jehova's witness knocked on the door, i'm sure she was thinking the people who live here need some jesus in their life!

pouncey sucks pillows

pouncey sucks.

he sucks on his bed. he gets a corner in his mouth and sucks on it. sometimes he falls asleep with his bed in his mouth.

we always say 'pouncey, stop sucking on grammie's bed' (the bed was a christmas present from grammie), but the sucking doesn't stop.

he isn't chewing or shredding it, he is just sucking on it. for long periods of time.

i just googled "dog sucks on pillow' and the conventional wisdom seems to be that dogs who are taken from their mothers too soon may suck on pillows. like sucking thumbs. a security thing.

pouncey was taken from his mother at 5-6 weeks since she was too old to make enough milk for all the puppies.

and now he sucks on his bed instead. 

dalmatian pouncey

what do you get when you cross a yellow labrador puppy with a black ink pen?

speaking of like a bird on a wing

a small bird (wren? sparrow?) just flew into the glass door next to me. 

it crumpled to the ground, twisted and trembling. 

i thought its beak fell off.

after 5 minutes it wasn't moving, i went to get a broom, and i pushed it with the broom just a little.

it ruffled its feathers and sat up straight. 

it stayed frozen there.

i was pretty sure it was dying and considered putting it out of its misery. smack it with the broom? fling it in the woods? let the dogs get to it?

5 minutes later it up and flew away.

moral: sometimes birds take a little while to gather themselves up after a crash, they are not necessarily dead or dying.

pouncey's darkest hour

this is the last photo of pouncey's gonads.

i called the vet to check on him an 2 hours after he got out of surgery and the receptionist was like "oh yeah he's doin fine, he's back there jumpin all over the place..." so that's good?

they used some kind of medical super glue instead of stitches because he is so bouncy the stitches would not have lasted 1 day. 

he should make a full recovery.  sorry little buddy.

he is also missing 3/4 of his baby seal whiskers. we had a yard fire going this weekend to get rid of dead branches and pouncey chased a tennis ball face first into a fire. i googled it and his whiskers will grow back.

dun dun DUNNNN...dna test results are in!

the official results are in.

pouncey is a full labrador!

despite the fact that he has a black spot on his tongue, and the shape of his head and eyes sometimes resembles a pit bull, 

or a chow chow, 

 

he is 100% floppy droopy goofy lab. 

what breeds make up your dog?

last year kevin's sister did the DNA dog test to figure out what her "lab mix" birdie was really made of.

turns out she is not a labrador retriever whatsoever, but she is a fox terrier and american bull dog. that explains a lot of her behavior. poor little birdie.



after being asked by a man in the woods "is that dog mostly lab with a little pit?" about pouncey, we decided to test all 3 dogs and see if pouncey is in fact a pit bull.

they send you a swab kit, with 2 swabs, you rub each one in between the dog's gum and cheek, send them back, and in 2 weeks your results are ready.



nacho was the control. nacho has his papers. even though he was massively discounted due to his labrador overbite, and looks a little funny, he's a full blooded lab from decoy labs in oxnard california.

DNA test - confirmed!

next up, eli. kevin got eli from a litter down the street in charlotte. he doesn't have papers. he was supposed to be all lab, and he pretty much looks like a lab and acts like a lab. but he has a white 'star' on his chest, so something doesn't quite add up.



turns out eli is MOSTLY lab.

but hellloooo otterhound!

please meet elidoggy, our little doberman spaniel. he is happy to be related to his cousin henry the king charles spaniel.

last but not least was pouncey the potential pit bull. unfortunately they were unable to get clear results from pouncey's swabs. they are sending another kit for a re-test.

stay tuned!

latch hook dogs

latch hook nacho






latch hook eli and nacho





latch hook pounce onto the table

rotting watermelon fibonacci

if you cut a watermelon in half and leave it on the counter, this magical design will appear.  

also fruit flies will appear.

no wire hangers!

we have an awesome view from the deck of this house.

up top are blue ridge mountains, down below is the mighty swannanoa river.

betwixt both are 2 big black hanging dangling wires - one power, one cable.

blocking up the scenery breaking my mind.

the cables don't even serve our house, but are the connection for our neighbors.

after many many months of phone calls, engineer visits, arm twisting, scheduling, rescheduling, tree removal, sweet neighbor approval, and heavy machinery - we buried those bitches!

a backhoe dug a 4 foot trench through the yards.

i'd like to ski down this.

they buried the cable in PVC pipe underground.

voila!

swimsuit tragedy

my sweet friend gave me this incredible 70's swimsuit for my birthday.

like a complete idiot, i put it in the microwave for 60 seconds to try and kill any germs one might find in a second-hand swimsuit.

before the 60 seconds were up, an awful burning rubber smell filled the room.

swimsuit = destroyed. stuck together, giant holes, toxic mess.

moral: soap and water will kill germs, you don't have to nuclear radiate them.

pouncey

we found some pups on craigslist last week. they were in waynesville and not from a breeder, two yellow labs in a family 'got together' and had a litter.

we were going to JUST go LOOK at them and MAYBE pick one out, to POSSIBLY bring one home next week. 

but then we got there and that was impossible. 

this is pouncey. 

he is very very calm. he was born on the ides of march. he weighs 14 lbs.

eli and nacho have been very sweet to him and vice versa.  

 

dressers of a feather

could these dressers be any more similar? 

identical size. 3 drawers. top drawer opens with round pulls. bottom drawer pulls are 95% identical. 

 the one on the right was in my bedroom growing up in rhode island, the one on the left in kevin's while he was growing up in tallahassee. 

i was shocked when i went to visit him for the first time in 2008 and saw it. 

i think it's so strange that we both kept them, and ended up with them as adults. 

they're old and scratched and dinged and heavy and his is missing a drawer pull, but they're sturdy as hell and i love them.

new good things

gonna get back on the blog horse from the new house with a list of good things:

1. the internet here is fast and reliable. this may seem like a small deal, but for somebody who had aggravated charter repair visits on a more-than-monthly basis for the last 2 years, this is a Big Deal.

2. the water pressure is awesome. my shower is no longer a clawfoot tub designed for a child. the plastic shower liners do not sweep in and give me unwanted mildewy hugs.

3. kid D's sweet little girl teylor scores a soccer goal.

4. betsy's " great list" - i love this idea. i love her attitude of gratitude. i love her link to our old friend from san diego dr. adam tibble's letter from afghanistan to anderson cooper. 

5. there are surprisingly good restaurants around here in east asheville. who knew? i didn't. east village grille. cafe azalea. pomodoro's (which i mistakenly thought was 1. a chain and 2. like olive garden based on their signs. note to  restauranteurs - be careful of too-slick/clean-looking marketing material!)

6. my biggest t-shirt order of all time came this week: 10 t-shirts to a girl in texas. yee haw!

7. the amaryllis in the photo re-bloomed 1.25 years later. i kept watering it and the leaves kept growing for a year and then a new shoot shot up and now BOOM giant pink flowers towering many feet in the air above the pot.

8. had a couple rugs and couches cleaned today. they look and smell like new, now with 98% less dog fur. thank you five step carpet care

9. eli turned 8 this week. he got a big ball of raw hamburger meat. he enjoyed this. nacho got a miniball. he enjoyed his, too.