nicest beach i've ever seen

i was back in the so-called redneck riviera this week.

i was there last year exactly when the deepwater oil spill started. there were no visible effects whatsoever.

in fact, i said it's the most beautiful beach i've ever been to. i've been to many beaches in

rhode island
long island
palm beach
puerto rico
outer banks
wrighstville
down to
kiawah
key west
los cabos
sea island
nice
marbella
kaikura
bondi
ventura
san diego
santa barbara
santa cruz
kauai
cadaqués

and the powder sugar sand and clear coke bottle glass green water and uncrowdedness of the beach at watersound on the gulf of mexico in the florida panhandle makes it my favorite.

we caught some relatively big fish variously referred to as whiting and ladyfish. saw a shark and some rays. dolphins playing because all dolphins do is play. somebody saw a killer whale but he was only 4 so...

it's a fantastic place to have a fantastic vacation.

i flew back to asheville direct on vision airlines. my ticket cost $59, but if you book early enough fares are $39 one way. the plane had relatively big leather seats, and two rows of three. it left on time and they gave us big bags of pretzels. full size bags like at supermarket cash registers. i was impressed and would fly with them again in a second.

kisses scoobs

if you put your face up to the screen he will licky you.

("i must licky you" asheville police department scandal explanation in mountain xpress)

asheville chainsaw massacre

next on the agenda in the never-ending house rental repair saga: chopping down the half dozen giant dead carolina hemlocks in the back yard.

this involves cutting down the power and cable lines for 3 days.

this involves making me crazy.

thank you wooly adelgid.

i am trying to be flexible and flowing. instead i feel like a scabby bitter clot of anger.

i am thankful for public libraries and their free wi-fi.

please note the paint peeling off the house, bare wood exposed. also the piece of wood the roofers nailed to the clapboard last week and didn't remove.

these tree guys are amazing. they have no fear of heights or falling. or lightning. 10 minutes after this photo was taken a HUGE thunderstorm rolled through. it was already gusting hard and starting to hail at this point. and they were up there in the sky just chopping away.

crazy people lined up down the block for pieces of fried dough at cafe du monde

cafe du monde.

i mean really! they're little donuts! all hours of the day there was a block-long line.
we went at midnight and walked right up.

new orleans

we left the house at 230AM thursday night (or friday morning depending how you count), drove an hour and a half to the greenville, SC amtrak station, and at 5AM boarded the crescent bound for new orleans. i woke up 4 hours later pulling out of the atlanta station.

we had a roomette which was nice because you can lower the seats and put on a bedroll they provide and completely lie down, also can close the door and curtain. there's a toilet in there, which is too close for comfort for me.

in the dining car they sat you with strangers if you didn't have a party of 4. they ran out of things like nobody's business. the service took forever. the coffee was piping hot. the salad had dark green lettuce not just iceberg. the meals were extremely overpriced, but free for those who were traveling in the roomettes.

the train slowed way down through tuscaloosa alabama. there were neighborhoods completely leveled by the tornadoes 2 days before. so many snapped trees and then 100 year old trees on their sides - their red roots unnaturally perpendicular. factories a heap of twisted steel and cinder blocks. people in neon yellow shirts handing out water. old men in their backyards surrounded by shredded belongings watching the train go by. (slide show of the destruction)

there is no open container law in new orleans and no last call. (or seemingly). there's a casino. where you can't take pictures of the blackjack table. you can take bloody marys and walk down by the mississippi river while an old lady plays the pipes on top of the natchez paddle boat, it's so windy the pipe steam cloud is blowing right back in her face.

tipitinas uptown is a legendary venue and i loved seeing two of my alltime favorite bands share the stage there and also some old friends on the dancefloor. the show was supposed to start at 1, but instead doors opened at 2 and it was sunrise when we stumbled out. my time's coming but it's not tonight.

the food at the fairgrounds of jazz fest is worth the price of admission alone. ingested included: giant strawberry lemonade with chunks of real strawberries, chicken fricassee, fried plantains, and 'jama jama' (spinach) from the african food court. to die for. a bowl of shrimp and grits. perfection.

old timers playing the blues and some mardi gras indians. sunday morning. can you beat it? no.

as a last hurrah, later that night mr. b's had the best dining experience of my life. perfect service and timing and not too stuffy and awesome AWESOME food.

the floor of the blue nile has the arabic patterned tile. waiting for the show to start a man asked us "did they find his body?" which is how i found out they killed bin laden. the hippie next to me said super sarcastic "a trillion in war debt and how many thousands killed? mission accomplished! yay america! are the troops on their way home?" i tend to agree. watching teenagers rejoice in front of the white house on tv later i didn't feel like celebrating and i didn't feel any safer.

the train left new orleans at 7am. we got to the station in a cab whose driver had lived in the city for 4 days and had to plug the train station into the gps. he moved to new orleans from charlotte where his wife and kids still live because he couldn't find work in charlotte.

we got back to greenville at 1130 monday night, back home at 1. we got mooned in mississippi.

nacho would not get up when i was making the bed

wait your turno

i love this time of year!

it's warm. and green. and gold. and growing.

we are taking a train from south carolina to louisiana for jazzfest this weekend.

ALO and Tea Leaf Green are playing a show at Tipitina's that starts at 1AM on my birthday.

i can barely wait my turno!

bunnicide

i hope everybunny had a most wonderful easter.

blood drops

yesterday i thought nacho was dying.

he has been throwing up the past few days. nothing new. he has a sensitive stomach and combined with being a counter-surfer, he throws up often.

then i saw a big drop of dark blood on top of the stairs. and there were big drops of blood going down all the stairs.

i was convinced nacho ate a roofing nail and was throwing up blood.

then eli solved the mystery. he went over to a 'seed' on the floor and sniffed it and looked at us. he was telling us not to worry, it was just an engorged tick the size of a grape.

then we saw another giant tick carcass next to the blood drops on the stairs.

then the dogs got frontline flea and tick medicine.

cure for tantrums?

check out kid D's brilliant new idea to stop her daughter's fits:

i love technology

perhaps perhaps perhaps

what a strange word, i don't think i have ever used it in real life

hourglass arrow

kind of risque for a golf course, no?

free shirts, tiddys

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

the sweet and hilarious tiddy ferguson featured a skippy haha vintage t-shirt on her blog this weekend.

she also listed some amazing facebook status updates from her friends and gave a blow-by-blow account of laser hair removal. this is what the internet is all about!

AND she has a dog named nacho! her nacho also likes to sleep with his head on pillows.

check out her super fun blog - thanks, tiddy!

gazebo roof nacho snout

creeping green

blue ridge parkway spring

This mug will never spill or be knocked over by wagging tails.

found at the goodwill in tallahassee. i'm keeping it. it also features springer spaniel and german shorthaired pointer. it weighs about 4 lbs. with copyright 1984.

look what i got!

so damn proud

escape to florida

we went to tallahassee last week to escape the roofing that is going on here.

we hung out with fambly, ate tons of great food, went to shell oyster bar, a florida state vs unc baseball game, leon sinks (not spinks) where kevin got a tick bite and chigger bites and nacho and eli swam in sinkholes.

while we were at the baseball game, nacho and eli got up on the counter and ate 7 of rose's arthritis pills and a half bag of dog treats.

it was great to go down there and chill while the banging was going on here at home. it's going worse than i expected, and i expected hell.

the 4 roofers arrive at 730 am, and leave between 5 and 630 pm, taking an hour for lunch. the rest of the day is drilling and banging, with enough force that pictures fall off the wall.

they are about halfway done, and it has been 2 weeks.

no brag just fact

classic line, highly repeatable, by walter brennan in 'the guns of will sonnett'

brought to my attention by DAD

pig dog

i've never seen a dog wallow like this dog likes to wallow. he's like a divining rod - heads straight for the water, any water, and sprawls his goofy self out.

vote for kid D in OSU creativity challenge

far be it from me to skew the oh-so-pure democratic process, but if you have a minute and a mouse, please click this link, scroll down to the bottom and vote for Jennifer "JJ" Smith who would like to set a world record for the biggest blood drive.

vote for JJ - http://courses.msis.okstate.edu/fall2010/msis5643/Team17/poll.aspx

you can vote once a day now until saturday april 9. you don't have to register or give your email address or anything. simple.

good friend, good cause!

nacho had a little lamb

happy birthday eli vs the bears

today eli turns 7. he's a good boy.

he had a big weekend. this photo is a reenactment of what happened.

he was off-leash on a quiet mountain road around 11AM. all of a sudden, he bounded down the side of the hill off the road, ears up. there were two tiny bear cubs and a giant mama bear.

right there.

the bear cubs scooted up the tree, the mama bear held her ground.

eli got within a foot or two of the mama.

the 4 people on the road started screaming "ELI! ELI! ELI COME! COME! COME HERE ELI!"

eli turned around and came back. we kept walking. we were 15 feet from the bears. it was freakin crazy.

scaffolding

you'd think they might be painting the house, but no. just replacing the mossy roof. the flaking paint will continue to flake, until something major happens like a wall caves in.

also, the refrigerator broke today. the freezer is at absolute zero. a bottle of vodka is frozen solid. i didn't think alcohol could freeze completely but i was wrong. rock hard vodka. the refrigerator is a balmy 40ish degrees.

maintenance takes forever.

were there ever any question as to why the ceiling caved in

moss grows fat on a steep pitched roof

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!

father daughter dance (1984)

i went to cedar hill elementary school for kindergarten through second grade. every year they had a 'father daughter dance' and i went both years. i think i wore this same blue velvet vest get-up both years. this picture is the second year and the get-up barely fits. i have a muffin top. or as my dad would say 'it's not fat, it's extended stomach...really...it's hard." i love my giant corsage and the rope bracelet i wore for YEARS until it was so nasty it had to be cut off.

i remember the dance being FUN. dancing in the school cafeteria. at night. to the go-go's and 'the boy from new york city.' and doing the thing where you hold your dad's hands and he flings you under his legs and then you go flying up in the air.

those wicker thrones are called peacock chairs. i found & scanned this photo to add to the listing of a peacock chair wall-hanging i'm selling on etsy.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/65561177/vintage-80s-peacock-chair-wicker-throne

satchel paige's incredible business card

saw an episode of 'auction kings' last night with one of satchel paige's old business cards. he printed this on the back:

1. Avoid fried meats which angry up the blood.
2. If you stomach disputes you, lie down and pacify it with cool thoughts.
3. Keep the juices flowing by jangling around gently as you move.
4. Go very light on the vices, such as carrying on in society. The social ramble ain't restful.
5. Avoid running at all times.
6. Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you.

i googled it & found he called this "How to Keep Young."
pretty fucking badass!

so glad we're renting

western north carolina got a major rain/snow storm this weekend that dumped inches of rain in one day.

the living room ceiling sprouted lovely new water damage.

i feel badly for the people who own this house. they had to replace the entire HVAC last year for us (because it was spewing carbon monoxide and wouldn't heat above 60 degrees), and now it looks like they'll need to replace the roof.

there are 8 huge old dead hemlocks in the back yard that need to be removed too. the wooly adelgid killed them sometime in the past 5 years. if they take these dead trees and their roots out, and don't plant something major in their place, however, the yard will be barren and i believe this house will slide down the hill in the next decade.

home ownership is not cheap. especially ownership of 100 year old homes built into the side of hills.

window seat app

(CECT-6 phone by Daniel Christensen)

my cell phone is a walkie talkie.

some of you however may have a more modern device. something more like...how you say...smartphone?

if you have one of these phones that downloads apps - you should definitely try out WindowSeat.

Track your flight without GPS or a network connection. WindowSeat gives you a better view of where you’re flying, when you’ll arrive, and what’s below you, all while you’re offline.

super cool! right?

and our friend phil is heavily involved in this sweet invention. props!

http://www.windowseatapp.com/

eat the puppy

i would eat that dog's head in one bite.

WTF ingles?