happy birthday DAD

that's the ticket, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

hope your day is fantastic, full of shrimp sales and healing herniated disks and kisses from your favorite son henry!

hooker :)

hooker :), originally uploaded by skippy haha.

last name of people who used to live here

flu shot

flu shot, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

anybody else worry about having live activated flu virus in the lobby of the grocery store?

http://www.harristeeter.com/in_our_stores/departments/pharmacy/flu_shot_clinics/details.aspx

they had FluMist - nasal spray - of live attenutated influenza vaccine - and you know not all the virus is going up their noses, some escapes to the air in the lobby. so i hope nobody under the age of 2, or over the age of 49, or pregnant goes in the grocery store lobby, as it's not recommended for them to breathe FluMist.


is this weird? this is weird.

he lives in my neighborhood

longhorn in the neighborhood, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

some cows and bulls and goats live across the street. the fences don't look sturdy enough to stop them.

crowd

crowd, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

had a wild weekend including a beautiful wedding in high point where i had hush puppies and lost my camera and favorite flip flops (while sober) and saw widespread panic & the allman brothers with warren haynes and derek trucks (while not sober).

please stand by - help is on the way

please stand by - help is on the way, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

fairyland cat

fairyland cat, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

this reminds me of my grandma Drezza, and her love of cats.

north rim grand canyon insane kid climbing down

north rim grand canyon insane kid climbing down, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

this kid was making my hands sweat

warning mountain lion danger FIGHT BACK!

back from a great week in utah and colorado! national parks kick ass!

here's a mountain lion warning sign from arches, near moab, utah.

it was so dry the highway signs were cracked

delicate arch

looking up from under delicate arch

bryce canyon, menage a rocks

north rim grand canyon veranda

aspens and prescribed burn on the road out of the north rim, grand canyon arizona

double rainbow into colorado river in southeast utah

i met a fine 11 year old bitch named rose who would make a splendid girlfriend for holden!

Bryce canyon lovely hope this posts

Bryce canyon lovely hope this posts, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

going out west

holdenacho, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

i'm going away today for a week to colorado & utah. i've never been to utah & am looking forward to seeing the aspens & the red dirt. the dogs will be holding down the fort.

squished copperhead

squished copperhead, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

this is the second copperhead snake i've seen in the past 2 days. the first one was alive and twice as big and sunning itself on a tiny (two feet by three feet) sand beach at the lake. we all jumped down on the sand to see the sunset & i turned around i saw it sitting there with its head up moving around & gasped like in cartoons and said "i really think that is a copperhead and we should get out of here as soon as possible" while trying to climb a tree trunk and digging my fingernails into the skin of my own arm and the arm of my companion who amazingly managed to get the dog turned around and out of there by jumping back up over the copperhead back to the trail where we followed without any of us being bitten.

neighborhood theatre

neighborhood theatre, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

nothing like a weekend of kind folks and rock n roll to forget about unpacking.

tea leaf green forever!

moved

gasperson , originally uploaded by skippy haha.

i moved! yesterday. two nice kids showed up in this gasperson moving truck at 730 AM, put all my boxes on there, drove it to charlotte and unloaded and were gone by noon. it was amazingly smooth and i would highly recommend gasperson for anybody who needs to move. i HOPE AND EXPECT i will be back in asheville by next summer but until then i am thrilled to be here in a nice house with all kinds of insulation, and am looking forward to escaping boxtown and seeing tea leaf green in charlotte and charleston this weekend.

stone mountain nc

stone mountain nc, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

went to stone mountain, north carolina last week. wikipedia tells me it was formed about 400 million years ago (when fish started developing legs).

"It rises sharply over 600 feet (183 m) above the surrounding terrain. The mountain, which has an elevation of 2,305 feet (706 m) above sea level, is known for its barren sides and distinctive brown-gray color, and can be seen for miles. The mountain offers some of the best rock climbing in North Carolina, and the park's creeks and streams feature excellent brook trout fishing.

Because the mountain is the best example of a monadnock in massive granite in North Carolina it was designated a National Natural Landmark in May 1974"

here's nacholden up there on the light side of the moon.

and here are scores of swooping birds

and here are the pups on the way home

nacho hopped in a bin

nacho hopped in a bin, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

he was very graceful and cool as a cucumber and rode in this bucket for an hour or so, making himself pretty comfortable.

i love this animal.

new look faith lift

new look faith lift, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

god has a lisp?

blueberry picking

went blueberry picking this weekend on the blue ridge parkway. there were tons of ripe berries, and tons of not-yet-ripe berries. it was fun...with a purpose. (i used to get Highlights magazine in elementary school, and the tagline was "Fun with a Purpose" and for a while i thought it was 'Fun with a Porpoise')


check out our loot!

if this is your house

sweet place, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

you have made it.

my friend was housesitting/dogsitting at this place last week, and it's on top of a mountain near weaverville and it's fantastic. huge porches looking over green meadows, designed and built by one of the owners, exceedingly comfortable and homey inside - they win.

stop drop & roll

stop drop & roll, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

how can you be so sure?

mixed signals

mixed signals, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

a cardboard box from organic apples, filled with uncrushed plastic overpriced tap water bottles and lettuce containers. i think these people should get a thermos and a water filter.

happy birthday quissy

florida2, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

i HOPE AND EXPECT some big things from you this year! have a great day! may no pelicans poop on your head!

go for it

go for it, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

fuck you california

i got my tax return back from the great state of california, except instead of a check they sent me an IOU. due to the state of california's severe cash crisis they are unable to fulfill their financial obligations, and sent me a piece of crap in the mail that i may be able to cash in 6 weeks on october 2, 2009. i would love to send them an IOU instead of real live money out of my pay check every month. what a load of horseshit.

LEGALIZE AND TAX MARIJUANA FOR CHRIST'S SAKE, YOU LAZY, WASTEFUL SACKS!

clunkers

clunkers, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

my friends pete & jen were cash for clunking their minivan the next day & invited everybody to drape themselves all over it after kt's going away dinner tuesday. good freakin times.

grilled runt burgers

grilled runt burgers, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

i hope nacho didn't see this sign and get worried i'm going to grill him

ready for modelfest

ready for modelfest, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

i had some lovely ladies over last week for vintage t-shirt modeling. there were a few rookies but you couldn't tell from the pictures. they were all amazingly efficient and super hott.

i love to dance

i love to dance, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

langhorne slim played at the grey eagle last night and it was super. he was hanging from the rafters doing chin ups, and shaking his hat all over the place. for the last encore he played 'i love to dance' and invited anybody who wanted to up on stage. he's the consummate showman, lovable and genuine and unbelievable at the same time- he reminds me of my brother if my brother had extreme musical ability.

giant maroon hibiscus

giant maroon hibiscus, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

bloom for one day

bloom for one day, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

size of dinnerplates

size of dinnerplates, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

my dog is smarter than your baby

all kinds of evidence here that your pup may have the IQ of a toddler:

Dogs as Smart as 2-year-old Kids

By Jeanna Bryner, Senior Writer

posted: 08 August 2009 02:00 pm ET

The canine IQ test results are in: Even the average dog has the mental abilities of a 2-year-old child.

The finding is based on a language development test, revealing average dogs can learn 165 words (similar to a 2-year-old child), including signals and gestures, and dogs in the top 20 percent in intelligence can learn 250 words.

And the smartest?

Border collies, poodles, and German shepherds, in that order, says Stanley Coren, a canine expert and professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia. Those breeds have been created recently compared with other dog breeds and may be smarter in part because we've trained and bred them to be so, Coren said. The dogs at the top of the pack are on par with a 2.5-year-old.

Better at math and socializing

While dogs ranked with the 2-year-olds in language, they would trump a 3- or 4-year-old in basic arithmetic, Coren found. In terms of social smarts, our drooling furballs fare even better.

"The social life of dogs is much more complex, much more like human teenagers at that stage, interested in who is moving up in the pack and who is sleeping with who and that sort of thing," Coren told LiveScience.

Coren, who has written more than a half-dozen books on dogs and dog behavior, will present an overview of various studies on dog smarts at the American Psychological Association's annual meeting in Toronto.

"We all want insight into how our furry companions think, and we want to understand the silly, quirky and apparently irrational behaviors [that] Lassie or Rover demonstrate," Coren said. "Their stunning flashes of brilliance and creativity are reminders that they may not be Einsteins but are sure closer to humans than we thought."

Math test

To get inside the noggin of man's best friend, scientists are modifying tests for dogs that were originally developed to measure skills in children.

Here's one: In an arithmetic test, dogs watch as one treat and then another treat are lowered down behind a screen. When the screen gets lifted, the dogs, if they get arithmetic (1+1=2), will expect to see two treats. (For toddlers, other objects would be used.)

But say the scientist swipes one of the treats, or adds another so the end result is one, or three treats, respectively. "Now we're giving him the wrong equation which is 1+1=1, or 1+1=3," Coren said. Sure enough, studies show the dogs get it. "The dog acts surprised and stares at it for a longer period of time, just like a human kid would," he said.

These studies suggest dogs have a basic understanding of arithmetic, and they can count to four or five.

Basic emotions

Other studies Coren notes have found that dogs show spatial problem-solving skills. For instance, they can locate valued items, such as treats, find better routes in the environment, such as the fastest way to a favorite chair, and figure out how to operate latches and simple machines.

Like human toddlers, dogs also show some basic emotions, such as happiness, anger and disgust. But more complex emotions, such as guilt, are not in a dog's toolbox. (What humans once thought was guilt was found to be doggy fear, Coren noted.)

And while dogs know whether they're being treated fairly, they don't grasp the concept of equity. Coren recalls a study in which dogs get a treat for "giving a paw."

When one dog gets a treat and the other doesn't, the unrewarded dog stops performing the trick and avoids making eye contact with the trainer. But if one dog, say, gets rewarded with a juicy steak while the other snags a measly piece of bread, on average the dogs don't care about the inequality of the treats.

Top dogs

To find out which dogs had the top school smarts, Coren collected data from more than 200 dog obedience judges from the United States and Canada.

He found the top dogs, in order of their doggy IQ are:

1. Border collies
2. Poodles
3. German shepherds
4. Golden retrievers
5. Dobermans
6. Shetland sheepdogs
7. Labrador retrievers

At the bottom of the intelligence barrel, Coren would include many of the hounds, such as the bassett hound and the Afghan hound, along with the bulldog, beagle and basenji (a hunting dog).

"It's important to note that these breeds which don't do as well tend to be considerably older breeds," he said. "They were developed when the task of a hound was to find something by smell or sight." These dogs might fare better on tests of so-called instinctive intelligence, which measure how well dogs do what they are bred to do.

"The dogs that are the brightest dogs in terms of school learning ability tend to be the dogs that are much more recently developed," Coren said. He added that there's a "high probability that we've been breeding dogs so they're more responsive to human beings and human signals." So the most recently bred dogs would be more human-friendly and rank higher on school smarts.

Many of these smarty-pants are also the most popular pets. "We like dogs that understand us," Coren said.

We also love the beagle, which made it to the top 10 list of most popular dog breeds in 2008 by the American Kennel Club. That's because they are so sweet and socialable, Coren said. "Sometimes people love the dumb blonde," Coren said.

And sometimes the dim-wits make better pets. While a smart dog will figure out everything you want it to know, your super pet will also learn everything it can get away with, Coren warns.

http://www.livescience.com/animals/090808-smart-dogs.html

nacho's nose

nacho's nose, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

if you stick your nose in another dog's bowl while he is eating, expect that other dog to bite your nose.

value village

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parenting in a thrift store involves lots of threats and bribes and little eye contact