what i will miss

this view.

the buildings in front of the mountains are unc-a.

just past that is the french broad river. it's foggy in the morning.

just past that are some blue ridge mountains.

i can sit in a chair on the porch and watch weather roll in across the valley. here's a spring thunderstorm about 15 minutes away.

*****

what i will not miss:

the mudpit next door. 

there is no progress, there is no plan, it could be the greatest dog run of all time, but instead is a pit of mud. 

the construction vehicles grinding gears and beeping in reverse as dumptruck after dumptruck of dirt is delivered day after day. 

the clouds of mosquitoes from the standing water. 

*****

closing on a house friday. boxing has begun in earnest. movers come one week from today. excitement overload. 

the blow stops here

There are some guys who can return good for evil...Every brave man will think so. He will not want to live by passing on the wrath. A hit B? B hit C? -- we have not enough alphabet to cover the condition. A brave man will try to make the evil stop with him. He shall keep the blow. No man shall get it from him and that is a sublime ambition. 

- saul bellow 'henderson the rain king' 

sublime ambition indeed. keep the blow. return evil with good. don't pass on the wrath. is this humanly possible? even if it's not, it feels good to try. 

carolina vs. nc state: starting 5: smile ratio

all of unc basketball starting 5 headshots are smiling, some broadly.

none of nc state's are.

i wonder if it correlates to player happiness.

i wonder if it correlates to campus happiness.

i wonder if it correlates to player talent.

i wonder if it correlates to photographer's attractiveness.

biscuits

i have heard rumors for years that if the unc tar heels basketball team scores 100 points or more, bojangle's gives out free biscuits the next day.

last night the heels scored 100 against elon.

i googled 'free biscuits bojangles unc' etc. and couldn't find anything official or specific, but we headed down there anyway this morning.

the deal is: carolina scores 100 or more, you get 2 sausage biscuits for $1. not too shabby!

we didn't end up getting the sausage biscuit deal, but we did enjoy scarfing down a country ham and egg biscuit from the comfort of a lovely solarium with a downtown view for less than $3. 

score! 

primary

last week kevin & i celebrated the 3rd anniversary of our first date.

december 10, 2008. wednesday night. i was living in asheville, he was living in charlotte. we met at a bar that neither of us had ever been to in hickory, about halfway between.

we hadn't seen each other for more than 10 years. we were friends in college in chapel hill in the late '90s. 'friends' might be pushing it - the truth is he was friends with my boyfriend, and i was living with his girlfriend. the 4 of us hung out together throughout that year, and i always liked him.

we reconnected through the magic of facebook in november and then decided to meet up for a drink. we ordered hawaiian pizza and didn't touch it. we had beer and eye contact and laughs and sparks and made plans to see each other asap. i drove to charlotte two days later with holden and nacho and stayed for 3 days at his fantastic house on a lake and the rest is history.

i can't say it's luck or destiny or hard work or familiarity or timing or what. we like to do a lot of the same things. our energy levels are about even. he is smart and funny and kind and honest and responsible.  he is curious and adventurous and makes his own health and mental health a relative priority.  i love his hair. i love his smile. i love making him smile. his family is funny and generous and eerily similar to my own, and he has excellent taste in friends.

i don't write about him or love or relationships too much here, maybe thinking sharing will dilute it, or maybe jinx it, or maybe because i know the anonymity of the web has evaporated in the past year or two and i am not comfortable with who is reading. i don't want it to seem like bragging, or sillyfluffy, or gag-inducing. i'm not very social and i'm not very open to the public, and i am glad for this blog to be a creative outlet, but if you're looking for deeply personal stuff, and you're not one of the 2-3 close friends i am able to maintain at any given time, you should probably watch some reality tv instead!

i put the picture of the tee box markers on top since there have been 3 years, which is by far the longest relationship i've been in.

there's been a lot of golden moments, and some blue, and some red. but mainly when i look back, they have been gold.

3 things i'm loving

halloumi is the "cheese that grills." it's from cyprus. people from cyprus are called cypriots. it's made of sheeps' milk.

i have tried every mint tea on the shelf. many are weak. many taste like chlorine. many taste like sewage. this traditional medicinals organic peppermint tea is the best. it's strong and delicious and calms down the entire digestive tract. 

yoga for athletes dvd. not woo-woo spacey. easy to follow. increased strength and flexibility. good times.

also a tip from alton brown. put a tiny bit of salt in with your coffee grounds before brewing.

peanut butter fat calories question

hypothesis: 

if 140 of 180 calories in natural peanut butter (just ground peanuts nothing added, maybe salt) come from fat, and you pour the inch of separated oil off the top upon opening, eating the stuff that's left is the equivalent of eating snow peas. 

(disclaimer: i swear i don't count calories and i definitely don't count fat grams. i look at the food before me and say "did this grow on its own?" if so, i'll eat it. if not i'll say "did somebody i love make this?" if so, i'll eat it. if not i'll say "am i out to eat with somebody i love?" if so i'll eat it. if not i'll say "am i pmsing?" if so i'll eat it.)

honor system

driving down near brevard yesterday morning i spotted this sweet farm stand selling fresh produce. it's hard to see but the sign on the table says "HONOR SYSTEM."

i didn't stop, but wish i had. (...just to steal a bushel of tomatoes!  i kid.)

stool samples on ice

why are there two pieces of poop in an ice-filled styrofoam cooler on the front step, you might ask?

nacho & eli have their yearly checkups today and the vet said we have to bring in a stool sample. 

when kevin & i were talking about the logistics of this ridiculous task (shouldn't the vet do this?) yesterday, i said "i guess i will take them on walks after their breakfast and pick up some poop in a ziploc bag with their name on it. and put it in the refrigerator until the appointment."

he said "NO! not in the refrigerator! you know taste is 75% smell!"

i said "you have to refrigerate it so the parasites don't die, i will put the bags inside a tupperware which i will then throw away" 

he said "can't you put it in one of the extra styrofoam coolers in the basement?"

and so it was done.

smiles!

smiling is the facial expression that lets you inhale the most air because it gets your upper lip out of the way

 

do men with bushy mustaches take in less oxygen or inhale more forcefully? 

i love my brain

i am glad i'm not bald because my head is lumpy and soft. thank god i have hair to cover it. it's like it never hardened when i was a baby. or else i am slowly growing devil horns on the back. i've tried googling 'soft skull adult' etc. and can't find anything. i should probably ask a neurologist or something. in the mean time i should probably wear a helmet 24/7.

but, instead, i have decided i don't really want to wear a helmet ever again. i don't need that big of a rush that sports requiring helmets give a person. i fell off my mountain bike 15 years ago and dislocated my shoulder and decided i don't need to do that anymore. i don't miss skiing or want to learn to snowboard. i don't really want to do intense whitewater rafting. i don't want to jump out of a plane again. never say never, but i think i'm done with helmets. 

i love my brain!

crazy basil

shit's going berserkus.

pesto recipes, anyone?

google plus one

there's a new button on the "share away" bar at the bottom of every post here. it's for google plus one. onto whose bandwagon i jumped last week. less jumped, more limped. if you are also using such technology, please enjoy.

congratulations! nacho!

every month or so we get a light magazine full of local asheville coupons. on the back page of the last one was a contest asking you to find "mr. moon" the (asheville tourists single A baseball team's new mascot) hidden in one of the ads inside. email your answer to enter the contest.

nacho doggy found mr. moon and emailed and won the contest!

4 free tickets to mccormick field to see any tourists home game

$25 at outback. tax tip beer not included. 

the contest and the coupon book were done by tim at muse graphics, and to him nachodoggy say 'gracias amigo!'

My Potato Project; The Importance of "Organic"

which potato would you rather eat?

winky

a fish will not eat another fish's eyeball on a hook as bait.

our unbelievable fishing streak (first cast teddy caught 2 on the double hook of the one line) was disrupted after an unfortunate unhooking incident (we threw all the fish back) in which one fish (winky) left an eyeball dangling on one hook of a 2-hook rig. even with good bait (sand fleas/shrimp) on the bottom hook, the fish did not bite this line again until the eyeball was removed.

comments

it has come to my attention that the comments were not working on this blog, and for that i have much sorrow.

i hate typing out a whole comment, getting the courage to hit 'submit' and then...nothing...

it sucks!

i changed the way comments are handled and did test anonymous comments from firefox and internet explorer and i think they're all working now.

my test comment was supposed to say 'test' but instead said 'teat.'

so that's good.

sorry for the trouble, let me know if it's not working for you, and thank you for trying!

window seat app

(CECT-6 phone by Daniel Christensen)

my cell phone is a walkie talkie.

some of you however may have a more modern device. something more like...how you say...smartphone?

if you have one of these phones that downloads apps - you should definitely try out WindowSeat.

Track your flight without GPS or a network connection. WindowSeat gives you a better view of where you’re flying, when you’ll arrive, and what’s below you, all while you’re offline.

super cool! right?

and our friend phil is heavily involved in this sweet invention. props!

http://www.windowseatapp.com/

rondettes

one of the most random things about asheville is the colony of rondette houses up on the mountain close to downtown.

this is from the april 1969 issue of popular mechanics, where they showed you how to build your own rondette.

these things are still standing. they're not in the best shape. not sure a flat roof is a great idea for a temperate rain forest, many of them have makeshift tarps on the roof.

rondettes are not to be confused with weaver chicken rondelets, which i used to eat out of the toaster oven growing up. i seem to recall a layer of cheese under the breading.

burned eats

speaking of alton brown...his suggestion to grill chicken thighs on high heat to sear them and then move them to low heat might need a little tweaking

nacho and eli like them this way though.