judge a moth

"judge a moth by the beauty of its candle" - rumi

exhausted by sandwiches

angela sent me this photo of my nephew william this weekend, with the caption "Totally asleep at lunch."

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!

tallahassee trip

on the way to tallahassee last week, we passed this corner with two brand new drug stores. walgreens vs. cvs. there were no other stores of any kind around either of them. don't companies do research before building anymore? insane.

a little farther down the road we stopped at a chick-fil-a. the other half of the restaurant was called "Dwarf House." apparently there are a few of them in the area. it seemed like a denny's. again, insane.

friday morning we went downtown to the veteran's day parade. we saw the famu marching 100. the rattlers. i cried and cried when the floats of the families of kids who died in wars rode by. they had banners with the kids' names and pictures on them. good lord. there were many higher points like this fun "high five a vet" guy.

also strawberries were eaten by adorable little girls in sherpa jackets with polar bear ears attached.

later in the weekend i shucked 60+ of the most delicious oysters you could imagine. salty and cold and fresh. eli and nacho were very interested in this process. so interested in fact that after some of the oysters were dredged and fried and the peanut oil was dumped in the pine straw, nachodoggy the nitwit ate the pine straw and dirt and threw up brown shit all over kevin's mom's white carpet at 6am. good times!

finally, there was a birthday party for a really sweet 3 year old girl whose favorite color is YELLOW.

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.)

smoked mussels halloween

we had no trick-or-treaters last night. 

which is good since we had no candy. 

we agreed if any trick or treaters showed up we would put a handful of smoked mussels in their bag. 

can you imagine a worse treat than smoked mussels? weird color. weird smell. weird texture. full of crap. their smoky fish oil would get all over the candy in your bag. 

my late great grandfather named flops ran out of candy one halloween and put a meatball wrapped in paper towels into the kids bags, pulling out some of their candy to give to the next kid as he did so.

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.

blood

my 33 year old brother chris had pulmonary embolisms on saturday. that means blood clots in the tissue between his heart and lungs.

he was in africa for two weeks for business and took a 20 hour flight back to the US last week. he closed on his first real house friday afternoon. he had chest pain friday and it was getting worse throughout saturday, and thought he pulled a muscle or cracked a rib. then he couldn't breathe and finally went to the hospital. he's lucky he didn't trow a seven.

he's expected to make a full recovery and be home later this week. and into their new home this weekend.

the picture above is from 1984 when my 33 year old mother was in the hospital for the exact same thing. my dad took us to the spring carnival by himself and we had our faces painted.

you never know when you'll want to grate cheese so it's good to have a rusted antique grater hanging on the wall.

whirlwind of fun

the past week has been a veritable fun-a-palooza.

started with seeing the trey pistachio band at thomas wolfe auditorium. ripping! dance party! covered gorillaz 'clint eastwood' which has been in my head ever since.

continued the next night with all kinds of smoked meat and cheese in bite size portions at curate tapas bar with a table full of fun folks. the porron was a medieval device whereby you pour lemon beer all over your face and clothes. then onto louis ck show, again at thomas wolfe auditorium. which i noticed is having ceiling issues but is still a beautiful venue.

kevin's parents and their sweet ebony bitch rose came for a few days this week and we toured the biltmore house. i've been in asheville for over 4 years and never been down there. it was pretty spectacular. highlights were the hand-tooled leather wallpaper in one room, the cantilevered staircases, and the ridiculous view. the winery was also fun, because hey! free wine!

on to tupelo honey with the fried green tomatoes over goat cheese grits under strips of fresh basil. my mouth waters still. 

spent time yesterday at the grovewood gallery at the grove park inn. when i saw 95% of the things in there i said "i LOVE that!" these chairs were amazing. the lamps! the benches! everything is handmade and so unique. if i had unlimited budget and an empty house, i'd go there first.

then i sold a t-shirt for $120 today. one t-shirt. i was kind of kidding with the price, but some lucky girl in pennsylvania was not. i was sad to see it go but hope it has a new fun life.

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

2 tvs

i realized last night that some television brings me feelings of peace; some television brings me feelings of agitation.

baseball and golf bring peace.

nature shows about cheetahs and polar bears bring me peace.

my inner landscape is flowing and free and soothed while watching.

99% of commercials, the news, bill maher, pro football, hyper-dramatic reality shows based on nothing but the drama between idiots bring me great agitation. i find myself talking back to the tv. out loud. twisted inside. in actual clenched physical pain watching these nitwits and the sensory overload of their mindless, shallow violence. 

maybe i'm too critical or empathetic, but the pain i feel is real and toxic.

don't even get me started on entourage. is this the best we can do? as a culture, this is what we choose to glorify? money, drugs, and pornography?  it's maddening!

bring on the peaceful easy tv.