the new kid

we've been dogsitting for this 8 month old 'lab mix' since tuesday. his name is nesta. i think he's lab boxer. his owner said the vet said he's lab collie. i see no collie in this dog.

he's very smart and TOTALLY HOUSEBROKEN which is awesome.

he's snuggly and sleeps on the couch next to humans. he's generally mellow, though he has spent some time attacking eli and nacho's jowls and ankles and ears, and they have shown great patience for the most part.

he has eaten one dustpan handle, one holden figurine, one pound of almonds, and unraveled one spool of dental floss.

he's small and sleek and nimble and next to him, nacho and eli seem like grumpy old hippopotamuses.

fun fact

some people call polar bears ICE BEARS.

sign of the times

as gas prices climb

ceiling chunks keep falling, now with bonus black mold!

the conditions have become, dare i say, untenable. chunks of plaster are falling. damp plaster. covered in mildew and black mold. surgical masks required. at least it's not snowing.

antonyms: mildy, moderately

Main Entry: extremely

Part of Speech: adverb

Definition: greatly, intensely

Synonyms: acutely, almighty, awfully, drastically, exceedingly, exceptionally, excessively, exorbitantly, extraordinarily, highly, hugely, immensely, immoderately, inordinately, intensely, markedly, mortally, notably, over, overly, overmuch, parlous, plenty, powerful, prohibitively, quite, radically, rarely, remarkably, severely, strikingly, surpassingly, terribly, terrifically, to nth degree, too, too much, totally, ultra, uncommonly, unduly, unusually, utterly, very, violently, vitally

Antonyms: mildly, moderately

from: http://thesaurus.com/browse/extremely

3 circling hawks

i think they had their eye on nachodoggy.

unconfirmed big woolly mammoth sighting

while hiking yesterday, we passed a group of kindhearted kids who may or may not have been toking their faces off in the woods. when eli passed, one of the guys said "he's so WOOLLY."

what a great word.

spring is springing

Guilty!

i am crying laughing watching this.

orange peel redux

last time i wrote about the orange peel it was after feeling unfairly violated by security at an ozomatli show two years ago.

i went back last night for the lucinda williams show and am THRILLED to report that entry was smooth and easy and my civil rights remained intact. everybody was friendly and there were no harsh searches or pat downs or anything. it was amazingly refreshing.

lucinda williams. her voice is one in a million. she makes me believe she's had a grizzled life and lived to sing about it. she was on.

she did a 3 song encore. and after that came BACK OUT for one more - cover of buffalo springfield's 'for what it's worth.' she left the stage triumphant yelling 'peace love and revolution.'

the vintage empress in me thinks it was too bad she and her lead guitarist were wearing basically matching blue bandanna style western shirts.

dylan leblanc opened for her. this kid is GOING PLACES. mark my words. 21 years old from shreveport louisiana. looks like townes van zandt. great stage presence. haunting emotional raw voice a la jim james, proficient moving finger style guitar, he'll be back at the orange peel in june opening for the drive-by truckers. don't miss it. his cover of bruce springsteens 'i'm on fire' was imminently memorable and smoldering.

free shirts, road races

aw yeah! another fun post in the 'free shirts for bloggers' series has arrived.

kate parker kicks ass.  my best friend in high school was beth. beth's best friend in college was kate. kate and beth went to wake forest, and i was only an hour and a half away in chapel hill, so i saw them more often than you would think. they came to stay with me one freshman weekend in the age before cell phones and i was unable to meet them and give them shelter because i was underage passed out by 1 PM from everclear jello shots that i made in the dorm kitchen. classy!

anyway kate has two supercute little girls and still finds time to run, bike, and swim all over the southeast. not only does she race sometimes, she wins sometimes. i've seen her wearing medals. her blog is here: kate parker's blog

she also has the most beautiful 13 year old golden retriever and should put more pictures her on her blog.

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!