things i've learned about baseball

1. when people hang the "K" signs after a strike out - frontwards K's mean they went down swinging; backwards K's mean they went down looking. 

2. home plate umpires put their hands on the catcher's back! so they know which way the guy is moving. 

photo via umpire-empire.com

pouncey gets in front of it

happy mother's day!

thanks for cutting my pancakes at mcdonald's!

pouncey has a twin

one family at the rv park where pouncey was born last year kept one of his puppy brothers, in addition to their mother blizzard. 

they named the puppy duke. i am choosing to believe it's after the bush's beans talking dog duke, and not after that crappy school in durham.

the park has a facebook page and they occasionally post pictures of duke.

poUNCey or duke? hard to tell!

this absolutely makes my day. i "like" all the pictures, and make comments, it's really the only page on facebook i go to, and i go there way too often. it's to the point kevin is hinting that i am stalking them. 

i think the dogs may have identical DNA - they even share have mirrior image tongue spots.

this is duke, click to see pouncey's tongue spot

it makes me so happy to see pictures of pouncey's twin having a nice little life over in waynesville. 

Nacho & Pouncey or Blizzard and Duke?

do you think it's natural to be fascinated by your pet's twin?

happy happy!

keeping with tradition, yesterday was the most beautiful weather day of the year! 75 and sunny!

had a great walk with pouncey & kevin.

went downtown & had malaga paella and mojitos at chorizo. muy delicioso!



went to a friend's house and saw the cutest little miniboots. laughing laughing laughing with awesome people.
 
we all went to the civic center and saw bob dylan! behold the splendor!

 

it was a great day!

time flies...

...when you're taking oatmeal baths every 3 hours! 

my case of poison ivy is definitely on its way out the door.

as somebody who doesn't like to take baths, this whole oatmeal bath thing has been a real eye-opener. they work!  i feel like a blueberry floating in a bowl of cream of wheat, but they work!

they have me in good enough shape to avoid steriods and still enjoy today! the weather is lovely, i plan on working this morning, going for an afternoon hike with pounceters, going to dinner downtown, and then going to see dawes and bob dylan at the civic center tonight with calvin my love, and my two best girlfriends lindsay and michelle!

if you're lucky and you know it, clap your hands! (clap clap)

pouncey sucks pillows

pouncey sucks.

he sucks on his bed. he gets a corner in his mouth and sucks on it. sometimes he falls asleep with his bed in his mouth.

we always say 'pouncey, stop sucking on grammie's bed' (the bed was a christmas present from grammie), but the sucking doesn't stop.

he isn't chewing or shredding it, he is just sucking on it. for long periods of time.

i just googled "dog sucks on pillow' and the conventional wisdom seems to be that dogs who are taken from their mothers too soon may suck on pillows. like sucking thumbs. a security thing.

pouncey was taken from his mother at 5-6 weeks since she was too old to make enough milk for all the puppies.

and now he sucks on his bed instead. 

poison ivy

i am covered in poison ivy. all over my torso. ALL OVER my torso. itchy blisters. increasing intensity. appeared on monday, they are still getting worse 4 days later.

spent a half hour pulling weeds last weekend and will now spend the next 2 weeks in pure unadulterated urushiol hell.

the first time in my life i got poison ivy was last year after doing yard work. i've hiked and camped all over in and out of the woods for 36 years in shorts and short sleeves and never got poison ivy a single time. as soon as yard work entered the picture last year i've been plagued to some degree.

 i am politely recusing myself from doing any yardwork for the rest of my life.

i will plant food in the garden, and tend to the plants, but i am never pulling weeds again. chopping down unspecified jungle growth is not happening again. absolutely is not worth it.

i love doing yard work. i love making the yard look nice. i love watching the progress. i love how immediate the gratification is.

i cannot live 6 months of every year in itchy pain.

i have a friend tyler in california who told me a few years ago he could not move to asheville because of the poison ivy. at the time i thought he was kind of nutty. now i understand. all this beautiful bountiful natural wonder with hidden shiny red blistering biting side effects.

kevin is calling me 'bubble boy' and i feel like a whining, complaining wuss, but god DAMN this shit is terrible.

any poison ivy cures, natural or unnatural, lay em on me. i would much rather the rash hurt than itch. i can handle pain, it's the itchiness that is waking me up at night and generally driving me batty. 2+ weeks is a long harsh payment for 30 minutes of yard work.

jesus of puppies

we are still working on the trick where he turns this water into wine

spinart by kevin

for some fun arts &crafts, take a paper towel, pens and magic markers, and a lazy susan. add water and spin!

inside the skippy haha vintage warehouse

new post today on my vintage blog with photos of where and how i keep all the vintage clothing:

A Look Inside the Skippy Haha Vintage Warehouse

rainbows!

this is fuzzy

i was cleaning my only pair of glasses yesterday and they snapped in half. 

no combination of pipe cleaners, twist ties, scotch tape, and/or medical tape could get them back together again.

i called the eye doctor where i had been only one time in september of 2010 for these glasses, and they had no open appointments all week, but were so kind as to come in and open the store 15 minutes early for me this morning. how nice is that!?

they did the whole eye exam at 815AM, everything is fine, and i picked out new glasses, and also prescription sunglasses for the first time.  they put a rush on the glasses which should be ready tomorrow. 

until then, everything's slightly hazy, computing is giving me a headache, and i can't see the wrinkles on faces.

i recommend envision eyecare on charlotte street. flexible friendly people, great choice of frames!

seriously this dog

very watchful

happy birthday ELI doggy!

happy 9th birthday to everybody's favorite choco-mutt, eli!

even though he is a mutt, we let him come inside when it is raining. or snowing.

just kidding! the birthday otterhound is snuggled on the couch pillows right now. snoozing while he waits for a walk in the woods and some meat.

pouncey at the insane asylum

for those following along at home with the pouncey calendar - it's time to flip to april!

you may notice this picture, of pouncey 7 weeks old in front of a crumbling building.

that building is the old VA hospital.

it has been closed since the 60's, though they used it in the 80s-90s as a halloween haunted house.

i've been told that it is still standing because it's full of asbestos and the cost to properly demolish is prohibitive.

more information and photos: abandoned places livejournal

the new VA hospital is functioning across the street.

easter walk in the woods

easter bunny

three balls

howling wolf pouncey

getting ready for the full moon tomorrow night.

yes, wolves like to sit on couches.

It is good.

haven't tried it but i like the recommendation. i like the backwards N. i like the phone booth.

pouncey's birthday burger party

nachodoggy say what is this i smelling? 

 

ground meat on a grill!



party! yeah! burger party! yeah!



grrr grr tug o stick



hop through a meadow!

recent publicity

pouncey was ranked the #6 cutest dog in the whole entire world in 2012 by the daily puppy.

 

#1 labrador retriever! Daily Puppy Top 100 Puppies of 2012.

also nacho was on the front page of the mountain xpress for doing his snowbunny ski jump.

Storify: Western North Carolina gets a snow day By Caitlin Byrd on 03/06/2013


eli the mutt is cute too.

happy birthday POUNCEY!

to the dog affectionately referred to as:

pounce-ters
pounce-to-pounce
pouncey de leon
pounce diggity
sir pounce-a-lot
pantsy
pansy
bouncy
jumpy
puppysnuggs

woooo hoooo! it's pouncey's birthday! he made it! one whole year! he has eaten a few magazines, 1 pair of shoes, a piece of the gutter off the house, corners from a few pillows, buttons from a handful of shorts. nothing major.

he has learned all of his tricks, and is working hard on a new one for when people come to the door. instead of barking and trampling, he gets on his bed and stays until i say 'okay.' then he pounces at me full steam for a piece of bacon.  



from his first day when he was just barely hatched and probably still blind, til today when he snuggles nacho's butt for a nap, he has been a real joy!

happy birthday pouncey puppy!

the tow truck driver made me cry

got in the car this morning at 730 AM, excited to get to 2 local thrift stores early when the first racks came out and the aisles would not be clogged with nit wits and their shopping carts.

the lights on the dashboard came on, but the engine didn't start, and i could not shift the car into drive, reverse, neutral - nothing. the digital clock was flickering. then i could not turn the car off. this is a potential problem with a battery car. it's a 2005 prius, basically a golf cart with windshield wipers. it was stuck "on" but unable to move in any direction. crazy.

i called the dealer and they thought it needed a new 12 volt battery, a google search confirmed that was probably the problem, and i called a tow truck to bring me and the car to the dealer.

when the tow truck arrived an hour later i asked the guy how he was doing and he said it was the best day of his life.

i thought he was being sarcastic. i said 'oh really, why's that?'

let me say that this was a good ol country boy, probably in his early 50's, bald, scruffy gray beard, a little on the heavy side, cheeks full of chewing tobacco that he was spitting into a mountain dew bottle. 

he said 'i lost my daughter. about 10 years ago. her mama took her from me and i couldn't see her anymore...(me: "oh, i'm sorry...") on the way here i got a call from a girl in oklahoma city. my little girl called me and i got to talk to her for the first time since she was 5 years old. i prayed every single day for this to happen.'

he was crying. i was crying.

turns out she found him through facebook, is about to graduate high school in may, and has a baby boy. she saved all the letters he had ever sent her. he is now saving money to go out there and see her graduate, saying 'that's a big'un...can't miss that."

he dropped me at the dealer, i got a new battery, and went on my merry way. 

pre chomp

chomp

snow froggy

about to leap

 
old school ski trick backscratcher

 

stuck the landing!

pouncey's black dog cafe mascot impression

snow covered mountains stick mouth couch pouncey

twisted tree

it's amazing the lengths life will go to reach the light

locker room at star lanes bowling alley

i bowled for kids sake at 9AM in a lane sponsored by the best asheville bankruptcy lawyer and our good friend and her sweet 'big brothers big sisters' little sister. i am terribly inconsistent at bowling. trying my hardest i can bowl 42, or i can get a string of 5 spares. they were blasting 80's music and we had fun!

dalmatian pouncey

what do you get when you cross a yellow labrador puppy with a black ink pen?

look who's feeling better

speaking of like a bird on a wing

a small bird (wren? sparrow?) just flew into the glass door next to me. 

it crumpled to the ground, twisted and trembling. 

i thought its beak fell off.

after 5 minutes it wasn't moving, i went to get a broom, and i pushed it with the broom just a little.

it ruffled its feathers and sat up straight. 

it stayed frozen there.

i was pretty sure it was dying and considered putting it out of its misery. smack it with the broom? fling it in the woods? let the dogs get to it?

5 minutes later it up and flew away.

moral: sometimes birds take a little while to gather themselves up after a crash, they are not necessarily dead or dying.

let your love flow

this song was #1 the week i was born.

i love everything about this video!

the clothes. the hair. the synchronized strumming. the lyrics. the "country folk song with a disco beat."



the lyrics:

There's a reason for the sunshine in the sky
There's a reason why I'm feelin' so high
Must be the season
When that lovelight shines all around us

So let that feeling grab you deep inside
And send you reeling
Where your love can't hide
And then go stealing through the moonless night
With your lover.

Just let your love flow
Like a mountain stream
And let your love grow
With the smallest of dreams
And let your love show
And you know what I mean
It's the season

Let your love fly
Like a bird on a wing
And let your love bind you
To all living things and
Let your love shine
And you'll know what I mean
That's the reason.

There's a reason for the warm sweet nights
And there's a reason for the candle lights
Must be the season
When those love rites shine all around us

So let that wonder take you into space
And lay you under its loving embrace
Just feel the thunder as it warms your face
You can't hold back.

Just let your love flow
Like a mountain stream
And let your love grow
With the smallest of dreams
And let your love show
And you know what I mean
It's the season

Let your love fly
Like a bird on a wing
And let your love bind you
To all living things and
Let your love shine
And you'll know what I mean
That's the reason.

Just let your love flow
Like a mountain stream
And let your love grow
With the smallest of dreams
And let your love show
And you know what I mean
It's the season

Let your love fly
Like a bird on a wing
And let your love bind you
To all living things and
Let your love shine
And you'll know what I mean

great valentine's day message!