i'd climb a tree for a date with you

i love dates. 

this is no secret. 

i try to eat one a day at least. i eat them plain. i stuff them with peanut butter. or cashews. or goat cheese. 

i bring them with me to almost every potluck i attend. medjool dates are so sweet and smooth. if you don't like them, i bet you've never tried them.

my friend betsy is trying to use all the extra food in her pantry, and had a half bag of dates and featured my 'recipe' on her awesome betsylife blog last week. 

if you close your eyes and chew long enough, these things taste just like the old hostess funny bones. 

twin towers march 1998

this photo isn't black and white, it was a cloudy day.

this was also new york in '98, but on a much more sunny day.

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!

colorado for labor day

i spent the past 5 days in colorado, and it was glorious.

on the first day kevin's brother teddy took us on a hike to diamond lake - which is not a dammed river, but a true mountain lake. good lord there's a difference.

we had great lunch and beer in boulder and listened to a barefoot hippie play classical piano in the middle pearl street.

we went to breckenridge and hung out with kevin's parents and his incredibly cute niece and nephew, piper and jack, for the weekend.

this is an actual conversation i had with piper:

(after hearing that rose, the 13 year old black lab bed hog climbed on piper's air mattress and slept with her all night, eventually pushing piper's legs off the bed)

me: it was cold last night, so rose was probably keeping you warm, and you were keeping her warm.

piper: yes, and she was keeping my heart warm!

i walked around the astonishingly beautiful breckenridge golf course and witnessed kevin's dad chip in from out of a bunker that was over his head. it was incredible!

i played no fewer than 50 games of hullabaloo.

we went to the phish show sunday night. it was my 3rd time seeing them and BY FAR the best. there was much platypus slapping and dance party USA. one strange coincidence was that they covered for the first time 'the way it goes' - gillian welch's new song that we heard her play (better) a few weeks ago at the orange peel. but cool of them to try! the whole night was a blast.

we flew back across the country on monday straight into a tropical storm and other than a few in-air and on-runway delays, we got home close to schedule. this lady was rolling this girl around the charlotte airport like so. not sure of the safety implications here. 

i hope your labor day was labor-free and even 1/10 as much fun as mine.

under the rocks and stones

there is water underground

same as it ever was, same as it ever was, same as it ever was, same as it ever was

sweetness!

cock clock

i wonder how many suicides are caused at least partially by the '60 minutes' stopwatch ticking.

it must be the most depressing sound on all of TV.

just listen as click click by click click your weekend disappears.

now have a fantastic monday!

chris birthday age 5

happy birthday to my brother chris. quissy. crick-a-fuh. bucky. the most even-keeled, patient, calm, thoughtful, energetic and enthusiastic person i know!

i hope your crown doesn't have glue dripping down it.

look at those outer banks

hurricane irene seems to be headed right for the outer banks.

when i look at this map, i can't believe the outer banks even exist at all anymore. they look so fragile and tenuous out there in their tiny string of sand.

i lived in kill devil hills for the summer of 1997. i waited tables at a restaurant named after an iguana.

good luck east coast.

sweet mountain cabin for sale

my friends lindsay and josh are selling their super cute little mountain lodge in south asheville.

new roof! new A/C! new hardwood floors! so much more!

it is just so cozy and homey and NICE.

check out the listing details here.

you know you want to buy a house from people who look like this, imagine the good vibes that permeate the structure:

el chapala, mexican for great value

i have frogged about el chapala before, but think the value of the tacos a la parilla warrants another post.

$7 for combination #11 - 1 beef burrito, 1 chicken taco, 1 chicken enchilada

$4 for a 34 oz (34 oz!) mug of dos equis (this is 10 oz free)

FREE HOT baskets of nachos and carafes of salsa

$4 for refried beans and rice (least value on table)

***BEST VALUE ON THE TABLE***

$2 for chicken 'tacos a la parilla' - bowl of fresh pico de gallo, two hot corn tortillas, and hot grilled chicken. for $2! $2! i want my $2!

stylized

reminds me of pacific northwest native indian art.