service dog puppy live cam

the cutest site on the internet:

Misty's Pups - Nursery Cam

Meet Misty's litter of future service puppies. These five Labrador Retriever pups were born on December 28th and have already begun very important work — helping to heal the invisible wounds of our Nation’s Combat Veterans. Recovering Service Members at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and the National Intrepid Center of Excellence in Bethesda, MD are engaged in the critical task of socializing the pups through puppy petting. The litter will spend the next two years lifting the spirits of Wounded Warriors and giving them a therapeutic and purposeful mission. By volunteering to train the pups through the Warrior Canine Connection program, these Warriors will both address their symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress and prepare the pups for future lives as service dogs for their disabled comrades.

8 days in havana cuba

if it seems i have been off the map lately, it's true. i spent 8 days in havana, cuba, where US cell phones and credit cards do not work, and the internet is sparse and difficult to access.



it was the first time since 1994 that i have gone an entire week without checking email. slightly refreshing, slightly alienating.

kevin's dad has wanted to go to cuba for decades, and online research led him to a cuban arts and culture tour run by a US college professor, they booked it, invited us along, and there we were 2 days after christmas in the miami airport boarding an unmarked charter plane for a communist country.



the weather was endlessly perfecto. 70-80 degrees and not a drop of rain.

the air was deplorable. many of the cars driving around the streets are from the 40's and 50's and have no catalytic converters, the newer cars and buses were just as bad, and the smell of carbon monoxide exhaust was omnipresent and overpowering. everything was covered in a dingy gray film.


we were on a tour (and tourbus) with 20 other americans. the group tour thing can be tough, especially for people used to having control, but we really lucked out and everybody was flexible and positive and intelligent. the bus was newer and comfortable, though it smelled of stale cigarettes and urinal cakes. i may be overly sensitive to air quality. i would not recommend an extended trip to havana to anybody with respiratory illness.

potable water. our tour bus in the background.

we were told not to drink the water, or eat produce washed in the water. for somebody who would be thrilled to have salad and only salad to eat every day, this was a challenge. most of my meals were chicken and rice, most of my vitamins came from the peppermint in the mojitos.

the buildings are made of concrete because it is cheap and resistant to hurricanes. many buildings are in ruins. the ones not in ruins are painted vibrantly and kept neat. the streets are treated like a garbage can. littering was rampant. there were also many street cleaners so it didn't accumulate, but it's still jarring to see people throwing trash on the ground 4 feet from a dumpster.



the people in havana are not aggressive or hostile. i did not see one person who seemed strung out on drugs. didn't even catch a whiff of weed. (sad face). seems like rum, rum, rum is the drug of choice. 

the street dogs were awesome.



more stories and photos to come.

(found this cuban woman's blog last night: http://www.desdecuba.com/generationy/ which speaks out against the human rights violations, repression, and censorship cubans are experiencing under the castro regime. not surprisingly, we were exposed to very little of this sentiment on our state-sponsored tour.)

my thoughts on the instagram uproar

haha get it? 

"my" thoughts?

my thoughts are jeff tweedy's thoughts. 

 i agree with them.

i relate to them.

i enjoy them.

i appreciate that he shared them.

it sucks to have intellectual property taken, without credit, without permission.

but it's kind of flattering that anybody is even interested at all. 

wnc debt law

is it possible for a bankruptcy lawyer's website to be welcoming, warm, and comforting? 

you decide!

check out WNCDebtLaw.com - law offices of kevin j. radey - asheville bankruptcy lawyer

now featuring new video! 

new video featuring some of my photos! 

folks in western north carolina who are struggling with your bills - pretty much everybody - this website is a place for you to get help.

instagram lately

i'm skippyhaha on instagram. it's a quick fun way to post photos from your phone with editing filters that make them look like they were taken by a disposable camera with sand inside. i can dig it. 

here are some recent ones: 

 

found at goodwill - why can't congress act like this? 

 

fireworks please

watch dogs

fat boy junior - 32 lbs of puppy

first act of defiance: pouncey shredded toilet paper on his bed

 

the daily puppy!

Guess who is the featured puppy on The Daily Puppy Today!

POUNCEY!

The comments are cracking me the hell up.

Please go to the site and give him 11 biscuits! 

Contains milk but milk is not an ingredient.

feathery fireworks

not sure why i didn't post this in july, but here it is 6 months later.

catch the feeling! (shoulder thrust)

i am in love with this skyland auto girl. if i saw her on the street i would be completely starstruck and ask for her autograph.

she's been doing these car commercials for the past couple of years at least. she matches her outfits to whatever major holiday is going on. she ends almost every one with "catch the feeling!" and does a jaunty little shoulder thrust.

it's amazing.

local commercials are unbelievable around here. almost as good as flea market montgomery.

it's just like, it's just like, a mini-mall! hey hey!

skiphappy?

I got a check (side note: I glady accept checks!) in the mail yesterday and the memo said "Shirts from Skiphappy." 

I love this misprint!

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.

Mechanics lunches bottom shelf

if your car has the sturdiness of a golf cart (2005 prius) and you park too close to the curb and you try to turn the wheel without moving far enough from the curb, you may crack an axle, bend an undercarriage, and break a tire in fewer than 2 seconds. 

this may ruin your day.

this may also bring you to the waiting chairs at an autobody shop where the bottom of one of the drinks for sale coolers is reserved for mystery tupperware and half-drunk gatorades belonging to the employees.

Crazy Critters and the Downtown Asheville Hurricane of Vintage T-shirts

(originally posted at Skippy Haha Vintage blog)

I recently went downtown Asheville with a hamper of my finest Skippy Haha Vintage t-shirts.

Alli Marshall of Asheville StreetStyle had arranged for local rock band The Critters to meet up and shoot a video for their song "Visions of Light."

The rough concept was for them to try on a shirt, come through the Flat Iron, show the camera, go around back and try on another shirt, ad infinitum, until the hamper was empty. Something sped-up and lighthearted like the intro to the Monkees TV show.

What actually happened was, as the Mountain Xpress said - total mayhem. It was a hurricane of t-shirts, a t-shirt-ornado. No one could have been prepared for the energy and enthusiasm displayed by those Critters. 

Here is the video, expertly edited by Steve Shanafelt of the Mountain Xpress. You can see me at the end, as shirts are being flung into the trees of Wall Street, silently screaming in my head "AAAAACKKK! My precious heirlooms! Save my precious heirlooms!" 

No really, it was fun. Really fun. It was all over in under 10 minutes. I came home and washed all the shirts.

Mountain Xpress article here

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.

bus stop removal notice

 

as if a bus stop removal notice weren't ghetto enough, it is affixed with duct tape. way to go asheville transit. 

globular truth & wisdom

"from time to time, the world does change."

i bought a sweet new globe and i love this insert that came with it - so true. and it's a great program replogle is running -- if, no WHEN, the world does change, i can get in touch with them and they will sell me a new globe for 50% off.

i have learned a lot already by studying the globe. i had no idea australia was so far from the UK. opposite side of the earth. must have been hell on those debtors.

also, the pacific ocean is not small. 

pomegranates

it's 6500 miles from chile to asheville. how fresh can they be?

before - after

pretty effective way to advertise, here. never saw anything like this before.

My Potato Project; The Importance of "Organic"

which potato would you rather eat?

fresh death

the houston astros uniforms used to be incredible. orange and gold 'comet trails' - the height of awesomeness.

now they are awful. they look like eastern bloc prison uniforms. could not be blander.

wtf?