taters & unions

saw this handmade wooden potato and onion bin at the asheville goodwill today.

i can only assume some nice man (?) made it and engraved it in his woodworking shop about 50 years ago. when he brought it inside, did anybody notice the spelling mistake? did they tell him? it is phonetically correct, i'll give him that.

alton brown ginger ale carrots

alton brown is awesome. he is as passionate as a person can get without being thrown in a straight jacket. it's clear he loves teaching and loves food and is enthusiastic about his work. it's inspiring to watch.

this recipe is easy* and DELICIOUS. i could eat these carrots all day.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/glazed-carrots-recipe/index.html

*disclaimer: i say the recipe is easy, but i've never made them. it seemed easy for kevin to make them. i did help by peeling the carrots.

free shirts, smoky mountains

time for another fun post in the 'free shirts for bloggers' series.

shutterbug shann is a photographer and writer living in central florida where it's warm enough to actually wear a t-shirt this time of year, but it seems her heart is in asheville. she picked out a couple (of my all time favorite) shirts she liked, and i sent her the one from the great smoky national park to remind her of western north carolina until she is able to move back.

read her blog post here. she is right, it looks way better on her than it did on dolly! thanks shannon!

when parents email: movie recommendations

DAD:

"I know you only documentaries but still. Maybe these qualify. Now don’t get me wrong. I’m sure these aren’t the best things you’ve ever seen but a little entertainment isn’t the end of the world right? You’ve probably seen Songcatcher. See it again. You’ve probably never had any interest in Cool Runnings. See it. So there. You have my suggestions of the day. Ciao"

i had not seen either of these movies. thanks to netflix, now i have.

cool runnings was visually stunning. based on a true story. i remember the true story from the mid 80s. the costumes were so 80s and so vibrant. every scene was like a rainbow doing a ballroom dance. the main character's name in the credits is just "Leon." awesome movie.

songcatcher is fascinating! it was filmed 15 miles north of asheville. when i go on hikes, the scenery looks like that. amazing singing. amazing singing. aidan quinn. DEFINITELY rent this movie if you get a chance.

also, if you like this movie, you will love the book "Hands in Harmony" full of striking black and white photos and stories of hard scrabble craftspeople of Appalachia by Tim Barnwell. I rented a house from Tim in 2008 and he is an outstanding photographer and really nice person.

free shirts, pine cone dildos

another delightful entry in the 'free shirts for bloggers' series has arrived.

jason bugg is a western north carolina writer with cute pups that look like nacho and holden. he writes a blog full of honesty and humor. he interviewed kenny rogers last week. he tells a heartwarming story about love, lust, rejection, redemption and sewage shoes at his 8th grade dance. it's good.

here's what he had to say about the cowboy shirt i sent. ignore the parts about glistening scabies and pierced douchebags.

ALO "I LOVE MUSIC" VIDEO

new video from ALO! riding on the head of a giraffe!

made by guadalajara joe!

ALO's robes courtesy of skippy haha vintage!

free shirts, spam, cheers to betsy

in an effort to keep this blog un-spammy, i started a new blog just for the vintage shirts i'm selling.

skippy haha vintage blog

it doesn't mean i'll never post here about shirts, or peanut butter stash safes, or whatever, but i'm going to try to keep them separate.

BUT the bloggers who so kindly took me up on the offer of free shirts in exchange for bloglove will be posted over there and here, because i think they're interesting.

without further ado, it's betsylife!

betsy is awesome. she will make you smile, smile, smile. in real life and on the internets.

she posts daily. super fresh recipes, some simple, some not. all with mouth-watering photos. she's full of tips on cooking and enjoying life in general. she's also an amazing painter. totally inspiring.

back when i lived in san diego, she was one of the most beautiful and creative t-shirt models around - always willing and able to go the distance for the shot, so help her jesus.

she's the first to take me up on the offer of free t-shirts for bloggers.

check out her post here.

thanks so much and cheers, betsy!

fluffy & barney

growing up, i wanted a dog.

my mom never had a dog and didn't want a dog. (this has changed!)

my brother was terrified of dogs after a golden retriever chased him on a soccer field and bit the winter pom pom hat off his head when he was 5.

no dog for me.

when i was 9, instead of a dog, i got a rabbit. he was a white albino with pink eyes and i named him fluffy.

he was cute at first, but as he got older he humped everybody's arms and he would jump in the air and pee, spraying everything. he pooped all over the place. you could hold him, but he would scratch with his claws and pee and poop on you, so he had to be wrapped in a towel.

he was a terrible pet.

as my love for fluffy waned, i stopped cleaning his hutch regularly. eventually my parents drew the line and i wrapped him in a towel and my dad drove me to selmer's pet land and took him inside and 'returned' him. that was the last i heard of fluffy.

i still wanted a dog, and i still was not getting a dog.

instead a little while later after promising i would clean the cage, i went back to selmer's pet land and got a light brown bunny with a white nose and tail.

it was a girl, i named her barney. she was much sweeter than fluffy. she didn't hump and scratch.

in 8th grade my friend erin and i did a science project on peta and testing on rabbits and we brought our rabbits (she had smokey a crazy gray dwarf) into school and they ran around the english classroom. that was the highlight of barney's life.

after a couple years, i started liking boys and stopped cleaning barney's cage. my aunt jojo and uncle tom arranged for barney to go to a farm in massachusetts where i believe she spent her golden years hopping in a pasture.

i still wanted a dog. as soon as i could get one, i got holden. i never stopped cleaning up after holden.

dogs are SO MUCH BETTER pets than rabbits!

obama family snowball fight

P020610PS-0380 Originally uploaded by The White House

this is from last year but it's still pretty damn cute

celebration!

today may or may not be the birthday of somebody special that you know.

if it is, celebrate! get a faith lift!

golden

Watchin' a stretch of road, miles of light explode.
Driftin' off a thing i'd never done before
Watchin' a crowd roll in. out go the lights it begins.
A feelin' in my bones i never felt before...

Mmm... people always told me. that bars are dark and lonely
And talk is often cheap and filled with air.
Sure sometimes they thrill me
But nothin' could ever chill me
Like the way they make the time just disappear

Feelin' you are here again. hot on my skin again.
Feelin good a thing i'd never known before
What does it mean to feel?
Millions of dreams come real
A feelin' in my soul i'd never felt before... mmm...

And you always told me.
No matter how long it holds me if it falls apart
Or makes us millonaires. you'll be right here forever.
We'll go thru this thing together
And on heaven's golden shore we'll lay our heads

- my morning jacket

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zz8qn1_iQ5w = video made to the studio version of the song)

formidable opponent

he will roll doubles all day, drink your margarita, put you on the bar every chance he gets, and then fall asleep when you want a rematch