roller derby

this weekend the WFTDA (women's flat track derby association) held a tournament at the civic center downtown asheville.

my old friend A-lisa from your favorite kickball team, the san diego kitshickers, is now a member of the chicago roller derby team, the windy city rollers. she goes by 'sargentina' and her job is to kick ass, and she is really good at it. she was an all-star from day one on the kitshickers, and nothing is different on the windy city rollers. 

last i saw alisa, (right) she was ho-downing, now she's downing ho's

i got to hang out with her for a couple of days, and pouncey was allowed to sleep outside of his crate for one night and snuggle with her. he fell in love and will never be the same!

pouncey drooling over sargentina's playing card

windy city had to finish 1st, 2nd, or 3rd this weekend in order to make it to the championships in november. they lost in a white knuckle heartbreaker saturday, but last night they squeaked by minnesota to clinch the 3rd spot!

it was really mind-blowing and exciting watching their bout. these women are extremely intense. extremely agile. extremely powerful. the score is constantly changing, as they get a point for each player that their 'jammer' passes on her trips around the track. it's pretty confusing for a new fan, but very exciting. i can't believe the small amount of padding that they wear, considering the speed they're moving and the concreteness of the floor.

i wouldn't want to try to break that line!

 it's always great to see old friends, especially when they're doing interesting things!

a week in colorado

i have been to colorado and i have seen some glorious things.

kevin's parents' neighbors have two bernese mountain dog littermates. poppy (upside down female) and barney (side eye male). they are extremely snuggly and sweet. i spent a lot of time squeezing them. they will grow to 100-120 lbs, and only live 7-8 years, but good lord they are awesome animals!

my late great grandfather 'flops' once went to a bernese mountain dog convention at the hotel near his house in rhode island and was also wow-ed by their adorableness and continued to talk about bernese mountain dogs as often as he could, which was often.

a big highlight of the trip was a 30 mile bike ride on the rio grande trail from aspen down to carbondale with a stop for lunch at woody creek tavern. the walls are plastered with polaroids and old memorabilia, much of it associated with local legend hunter s. thompson who used to eat (drink) there every day. the carpet is cheetah print. there are oversized christmas ornaments hanging from the low ceiling. the ice water is free. the salad is organic. the place was packed with bicyclists.

another highlight of the trip was walking a sweet munchkin down to her first grade classroom. she took us on a tour of her 100 year old elementary school building and it was so cool to see her interacting with all the kids and teachers. i may be biased, but i think she's a superstar in training!

all in all, it was a wonderful trip, though it's always great to be home!

happy birthday QUISSY!

today is my brother's birthday. much has changed in the 30 years since this photo was taken. now quissy has 2.75 chirruns of his own. no more short jogging shorts, no more kangaroos and tube socks. his hair looks about the same. 

maybe the birthday fairy will bring him he-man snake mountain with creepy microphone! 

at the bare minimum, i am sure he will get an italian feast from vincent's out of the day. 

reading is FUNdamental

i have always loved reading. i remember being 3 and reading about a gem-encrusted crown in the childcraft encyclopedia. i read all the nancy drew books before 3rd grade. i would check out the maximum allowed on my library card and my mom's at the same time and chain-read them until i was done. same with anne of green gables, the baby sitter's club, and sweet valley high.

the textbooks in school when i was growing up had incredible covers. they inspired curiosity!  compared to the bland computer-generated covers of today, they are vibrant and interesting. all hand done.

these are all houghton mifflin reading book covers from the late 70's. my earliest classroom shelves were full of these. i was transfixed!

 this 'secrets' one i particularly remember because they were left over on a back shelf from an earlier year and i had to ask my teacher if i could take one home with me and read it. she said yes. i mean who wouldn't want to read 'secrets' with a cover like that?!

all this started when i saw this "windchimes" book at a second-hand store today and my mind was awash in a flood of cedar hill elementary school book covers.

the covers today do not hold a candle.

From Houghton Mifflin

stretched pouncey

nothing wrong with this dog's enthusiasm level!

how do i pounce thee? let me pounce the ways

like a yellow bat out of hell



like the kangaROOS shoes logo

with all four feet a-flyin'



my! what big teeth you have!



CHOMP! CHOMP! snorfle snorfle! pete rose slide!

 



(hola! do not forget about us! we are still here and looking cute!)

(this picture highlights the expansiveness of nacho's gullet. it appears as though he's wearing a 70's ruffle tuxedo shirt at all times. muy fancy!)

the two faces of pouncey

pouncey at play


pouncey at rest

happy birthday MOM!

happy birthday to my wonderful MOM! 

i hope you are wearing your hair in a bouffant today, owing allegiance to no crown, and somebody gives you a ceramic boot full of matchsticks!

celebration time!

Pouncey falls

the shutters of leisure mountain road

there's a road in north asheville/weaverville with the craziest cutest funkiest shutters i've ever seen assembled in one place.

the road is called leisure mountain road.

without further ado, behold the shutters:

we have circles:



we have diamond paddles:



we have traditional paddles:



we have leaves:



we have star trek arrows:



we have stars:



we have primary shapes:



we have slightly unusual shapes:



we have tulips:



we have white diamonds:



we have red diamonds:



last but not least, my personal favorite, we have pine tree moons:



about 3/4 of the houses on the street are currently participating in this ongoing shutterfest.

i bet when they were first built in the 70's they ALL had fun shutters.

way to keep it funky, leisure mountain road!

fresh mullet

had a great time at the beach last week!  we went to the outer banks, where i lived for a summer 15 years ago.

i lived in a house with 3 guys and 3 girls. the guys were lifeguards. the girls worked in restaurants. the restaurant where i worked had a 6 foot iguana in an aquarium. the iguana was named frisco, the restaurant was named frisco's. i was not great at waiting tables. i had nightly nightmares about forgetting food. i think i took it too seriously.

anyway the outer banks are about the same. not much has been built in the past 15 years around nags head, and a lot that i remember has been been left to seed or torn down. some of the awesome old signs from the 50's are still up on hotels.

tortugas is still there. phew.

we tried to catch fish. even used bloodworms.

no luck.

we had more luck flying a kite

and boogie boarding



and touching the eyes of tunas 

it was a great trip!

nachos has issues

poor little nachodoggy.

he has allergies.

he has had allergies off and on since we moved from california to north carolina. for a few weeks in the spring, summer, and fall, he licks at his legs to the point that he bites the fur off and he's left with open sores. the vet calls them 'hotspots.'

after reading "some of my best friends are germs" in the new york times last month, i am wondering if he just does not have the microbes needed to deal with southeastern allergens, since he was born and raised in the desert of southern california.

last year the vet prescribed antihistamines which i gave him 2x/day for 2 weeks and did nothing at all whatsoever to relieve his itching.

allergies are the single greatest cause of vet visits in the US. he could be allergic anything - though grass is what i suspect. it could be cleaning products, leather, plastic, wool, carpets, corn, wheat, anything. 

it was so bad last week, he was scratching and licking and biting himself 23 hours a day. he wasn't sleeping. nobody in the house was sleeping. he is not quiet when he is scratching. he slams his feet into the floor. he whimpers. he pants. it's really sad. i tried to empathize and i imagine it feels like poison ivy, but worse, because he doesn't know that itching it spreads it. it got to the point i was thinking his misery was so great the kind thing would be to put him to sleep.

but instead of euthanasia, nacho has been getting oatmeal baths! for humans. the same oatmeal baths that helped my poison ivy. i mix the oatmeal and hot water in a bowl and then dump the bowl into a kiddie pool outside full of cold water. every day, nacho takes an oatmeal bath in a kiddie pool in the driveway.  he loves it.

kevin found this stuff online called dermapaw and figured it's worth a shot. it's all natural and soothing - it looks like a little jar of vaseline. i put it all over nacho's legs and belly at bedtime. and then - the best part - nacho wears socks!

every morning the socks are off, but still - it's pretty cute while it lasts!

i would say his itching has been relieved drastically by these two treatments. after 3 days, it was down about 50%. Today (5 days) it is down about 75%, if not more.  he seems so much more comfortable.

thank you aveeno oatmeal baths and dermapaw!

side note: the title of this is "nachos has issues." this is what kevin's 4 year old niece told us when we were talking about how nacho used to be afraid of small children. she obviously was repeating what somebody had told her, and it was hilarious. the same niece also looked at pouncey and said 'pouncey has a penis.' to which her father responded, 'pouncey DOES have a penis.' kevin & i have adopted both of these phrases - nachos has issues, and pouncey has a penis - into the vernacular. thank you unintentionally hilarious toddlers!