skewering shrimp pierre

these shrimp are HUGE. they're under 8's which means there are 8 or fewer per pound. they are like mini lobster tails.

they were marinated over night in the simple and delicious shrimp pierre recipe.

recipe here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/skippyhaha/4655632269/

OM NOM NOM

the sun, a dog, a mail truck & thunder

65 degrees.
heavenly.

batshit crazy

has the whole world gone batshit crazy this week or is it just me? full moon fever!

1 love

i read nick hornby's "high fidelity" this week. it's just as good as the movie, and the movie is excellent.

"The Beatles were bubblegum cards and Help at the Saturday morning cinema and toy plastic guitars and singing `Yellow Submarine' at the top of my voice in the back row of the coach on school trips. They belong to me, not to me and Laura, or me and Charlie, or me and Alison Ashworth, and though they'll make me feel something, they won't make me feel anything bad."

i feel this way about james mcmurtry. and tea leaf green. and surprise me mr. davis. and the wood brothers. and billy joel (don't judge!). and dozens of other bands and artists who have recorded music that i have listened to obsessively at one time or another. 

1 yummy inedible sample

i order more nuts than i care to admit from nutsonline.com

their peanuts are cheap & shipping isn't too much when you buy a bunch of them

they usually send a little sample of something extra which i usually appreciate. chocolate covered sunflower seeds, goji berries, walnuts...something like that.

yesterday this was the "1 Yummy Sample" in the box. look at the list - i don't think there is one edible ingredient. they look like gummy cough drops.

mochi rice cakes? not fit for human consumption. if i were in the movie 9 to 5, i would give these to my boss to poison him to death.

valentines

in the spirit of valentine's day, here's a picture of my 3 valentines at the river yesterday.

oh photo, how do i love thee? let me count the ways:

1. nacho is hopping the wrong way
2. eli is making a beeline as fast and strong as he can for the stick
3. kevin throws sticks without looking spastic
4. while eating an apple
5. it was warm enough to not wear a jacket
6. the river was clean and flowing
7. spring is right around the corner

smithsonian polar bears show

there's an awesome special on tv this week called polar bears on thin ice.

i have no idea how the cameramen could get so close to the polar bears, seals, walruses, greenland sharks, without being attacked but the footage is incredible.

one mama polar bear has triplet cubs, which is unusual, they normally only have 1 or 2 pups at a time. there isn't enough food for all three, so there's one 'frail pup' who is half the size of his brothers and still pink and rides on his mama piggyback style and squeals and whines. it's the cutest thing i've ever seen on tv.

eventually they say that the frail cub dies, but i think the cameraman stuffed him in his backpack, sent him to oxnard california, and then i bought him and named him nacho.

check out the video here:




more on the show here: polar bear: living on thin ice

go heels!

classic college jeopardy. blind girl from dartmouth tells the truth about coach k:

pets with heads on pillows

new flickr group alert!

group pool here: pets with heads on pillows

slide show here: slide show


other groups i made in the past:

• sad fans
• spilled food
• eating while driving
• he may pork her

burned eats

speaking of alton brown...his suggestion to grill chicken thighs on high heat to sear them and then move them to low heat might need a little tweaking

nacho and eli like them this way though.

free shirts, ligers

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

john is a long-time vintage t-shirt lover, and has a sweet blog where he documents his sweet life in seattle. he compares skippy haha vintage with the montgomery flea market - it's just like, it's just like, a mini-mall! mega fun! 

check out his post here.

is this a good idea?

half animal hospital; half restaurant/pub

link roundup

here are some things i'm loving on the internet recently:

• kid D is seriously psychic: dream about girl with cancer; girl really has cancer

• lydia see's lost & found boot

• tyler blue's journey as a writer

• the bugg blog cries in the lunchroom, remembers grandma

• jay archibald's latest project, kaleidoscopic fine art set to music - "scope aesthetic":

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

snow hidden drive

ahhhh, it's a marshmallow world in the winter,
when the snow comes to cover the ground.
it's the time for play, it's a whipped cream day,
i wait for it the whole year round!


i must disagree with the author of this song.

the world is covered in fluffy bird shit and hassle. dreaming of a beach hut in ecuador.

anybody who thinks that asheville has a temperate climate and mild winters is dead wrong. looking at yet another week of sub-freezing temperatures and continuing snow accumulations. i predict a spike in the sale of 4WD cars. my glorified golf cart of a 6 year old prius is useless.

at least i have a giant pot of jambalaya and some snuggledogs.

stay warm! stay cheerful! the world is your snowball just for a song, get out and roll it along!

(yeah right)

standing offer for free t-shirts (while supplies last)

do you have a blog?

do you post more than 12 times a year?

do you like old t-shirts?

if you answered yes to all of those questions, and would like a *FREE* vintage t-shirt from the skippy haha vintage shop, pick one out and email me. i'll send it to you on the house if you promise to post a picture of the shirt with a link to the etsy shop.

i know blogging is a thankless job and i appreciate the time you take to entertain the faceless masses. 

*some restrictions apply: you're not getting the 1979 keith moon the kids are alright shirt from the who. or any shirt that's more than $30. probably. exceptions can be made on a case by case basis. i'm the judge of those cases.

road to shambala

everyone is lucky, everyone is kind

epsom salt paw soak

nacho came rushing up to me, trying to jump in my lap, licking his paw and running in circles. after some bending and twisting i was able to see what looked like a giant zit in between his paw pads. he had licked it so much it was soaked and pink. he was limping and sad.

i dissolved some epsom salt in warm water and he put his paw in the bowl for a few minutes. i dried off his paw and put antibacterial ointment on the spot. i did this every 4 hours or so and by the next day it was a scab. the next day it was gone.

just a tip.

Dinner on the Kitchen Floor

Dinner on the Kitchen Floor, originally uploaded by NatalieMaynor.

i started a couple new 'groups' on flickr. people can add their photos and it's a mish mash collection from different families and times and places worldwide all with a common theme.

• "Spilled Food" (slideshow)

and

• "Sad Fans" (slideshow)

this is in addition to the one i started last fall "Eating while Driving" (slideshow)

fun with the internetZ!

unbridled

¡HOLA 2011!

A Day in the Life of One Girl: Riding Horses On Thin Ice

You all go over and see Jessica wearing a pink horses t-shirt from the skippy haha etsy shop. She is braving ice cold in short sleeves and wearing bitchin blue shoes. Bonus of heartwarming cute old man stories.

A Day in the Life of One Girl: Riding Horses On Thin Ice: "On Thursday I tried to get some errands done since I had half of the day off. Instead of enjoying my vacation day by doing something fabulou..."

light at the beginning

today isn't the end. it's friday. tomorrow isn't the beginning. it's saturday.

but in the spirit of new years, i will say i had a busy 2010.

i moved from charlotte back to asheville with my love.

holden killed himself. i didn't kill myself. it wasn't as hard as i anticipated. it never is.

my business was dissolved, and i started a new one.

i went to new york a couple times, and to florida a couple times, and to charleston, and to colorado. i hiked a lot. i swam in a mountain waterfall.

i became an aunt. to the cutest happiest little monkey in the world.

i didn't see as much live music as i would like, though i did see neil young and bob dylan and that might be enough right there.

i made my goal and posted more times here than i did in 2009.

i watched a lot of dog whisperer. keep moving forward is the secret. be calm and assertive. and move forward.

whatever you are doing tonight and tomorrow and the rest of your life, i hope you find peace and warmth and good people to share your time with. here's to positive momentum - cheers!

dirty dripping roofcicle

i know it looks like a chamber pot chair. (which my MOM used to have in our family room as a planter. antique one. probably still has it in the house but i can't picture where.)

316 crestwood road in the snow

got a foot of snow in asheville starting on christmas day. it turned into a blizzard and headed northeast. i hope everybody is safe and warm and has power, heat, and water. 

here's where i lived 30 years ago when it was covered in snow. santa used to go there. there was a bunch of kids my age in the neighborhood. it was sweet. good old warwick rhode island.

eli as he was in the cell in his mother's womb

i believe this to be true.

christmas squirrel marshmallow world

murray christmas

i think the cleveland show is pretty damn funny. rollo reminds me of holden (RIP). i love how cleveland pronounces merry and marry like "murray."
i can't stop saying it that way.

MURRAY CHRISTMAS!

when parents text

this is the funniest site i have seen in years.

http://whenparentstext.com/

parents texting with their children.

por ejemplos:

FLASH

Dad: ill send you a FLASH tomorrow

Me: What’s a flash?

Dad: this thing that goes FLASH on the phone

Me: It’s a text, thanks.

*****

PROFILE PIC

Mom: Proud day for you! I changed my facebook picture

Me: to what?

Mom: Gummy bears. LOL!

holiday advice from charles-pierre baudelaire

Always be drunk.
That's it!
The great imperative!
In order not to feel
Time's horrid fardel
bruise your shoulders,
grinding you into the earth,
Get drunk and stay that way.
On what?
On wine, poetry, virtue, whatever.
But get drunk.
And if you sometimes happen to wake up
on the porches of a palace,
in the green grass of a ditch,
in the dismal loneliness of your own room,
your drunkenness gone or disappearing,
ask the wind,
the wave,
the star,
the bird,
the clock,
ask everything that flees,
everything that groans
or rolls
or sings,
everything that speaks,
ask what time it is;
and the wind,
the wave,
the star,
the bird,
the clock
will answer you:
"Time to get drunk!
Don't be martyred slaves of Time,
Get drunk!
Stay drunk!
On wine, virtue, poetry, whatever!"

-Charles-Pierre Baudelaire

wine country

it's noon on a saturday.

you're in an SUV limo with 15 people you just met, going from winery to winery in temecula, california.

you start making out with one of the people in the back seat.

this is the reaction.

my dream

when i think of the most perfect moment i could ever live through, this is it.

shine on

no more tiles in the bag, and this is the message the scrabble gods sent me last night.

here's a video of john cruz singing his song of the same name.

The morning sun comes through the window on your hair
I find your love & spirit everywhere
I may not have that much to give in material things
But what i have is this song & to you i sing

Shine on, shine on let your light fill up this world til' dawn
Shine on, shine on let your light fill up this world til' dawn

All night long i wait for you and you're finally there
I'm amazed at the loving that we both have shared
I may not have that much to give in material things
But what i have i give to you so freely

Shine on, shine on let your light fill up this world til' dawn
Shine on, shine on let your light fill up this world til' dawn.

All night long, i will wait for your fire
All night long, i will wait for your fire
All night long, i will wait for your fire
All night long, i will wait for your fire

Well, the morning sun comes through the window on your hair
I awake to find your spirit everywhere
I know i may not have that much to give in material things
But what i have i give to you so freely

So, shine on, shine on let your light fill up this world til' dawn
Shine on, shine on just let your light fill up this world til' dawn

All night long, i will wait for your fire
All night long, i will wait for your fire
All night long, i will wait for your fire
All night long, i will wait for your fire