under the rocks and stones

there is water underground

same as it ever was, same as it ever was, same as it ever was, same as it ever was

sweetness!

cock clock

i wonder how many suicides are caused at least partially by the '60 minutes' stopwatch ticking.

it must be the most depressing sound on all of TV.

just listen as click click by click click your weekend disappears.

now have a fantastic monday!

chris birthday age 5

happy birthday to my brother chris. quissy. crick-a-fuh. bucky. the most even-keeled, patient, calm, thoughtful, energetic and enthusiastic person i know!

i hope your crown doesn't have glue dripping down it.

look at those outer banks

hurricane irene seems to be headed right for the outer banks.

when i look at this map, i can't believe the outer banks even exist at all anymore. they look so fragile and tenuous out there in their tiny string of sand.

i lived in kill devil hills for the summer of 1997. i waited tables at a restaurant named after an iguana.

good luck east coast.

sweet mountain cabin for sale

my friends lindsay and josh are selling their super cute little mountain lodge in south asheville.

new roof! new A/C! new hardwood floors! so much more!

it is just so cozy and homey and NICE.

check out the listing details here.

you know you want to buy a house from people who look like this, imagine the good vibes that permeate the structure:

el chapala, mexican for great value

i have frogged about el chapala before, but think the value of the tacos a la parilla warrants another post.

$7 for combination #11 - 1 beef burrito, 1 chicken taco, 1 chicken enchilada

$4 for a 34 oz (34 oz!) mug of dos equis (this is 10 oz free)

FREE HOT baskets of nachos and carafes of salsa

$4 for refried beans and rice (least value on table)

***BEST VALUE ON THE TABLE***

$2 for chicken 'tacos a la parilla' - bowl of fresh pico de gallo, two hot corn tortillas, and hot grilled chicken. for $2! $2! i want my $2!

stylized

reminds me of pacific northwest native indian art.

willie!

i just got back from fantastically fun family vacation to kiawah island, south carolina.

my nephew will is the cutest sweetest little kid. he is only 15 months old and he is already 3 feet tall. he has a wide-footed sturdy walking stance and gets around pretty well.

he likes to rest his feet on the table while he eats. he is very dextrous with a fork.

he chased two little girls in bikinis down the beach.

he loves to turn light switches off and on, and watch the lights. he likes reading books and studying objects.

he is very analytical and calm and wise already. and has fantastic hair.

he is good at throwing and kicking (dribbling) balls.

his favorite word is 'more!' he says it like 'mmmmaw.'

he also likes pulling hair. sometimes he throws up on airplanes.

he went out to a 2 hour dinner and didn't make a peep.

i think he will be an engineer. and a heart breaker.

plate of love

you can really tell somebody loves you when they cut your roasted red pepper into the shape of a heart.

i am a lucky dog! or more accurately a lucky bitch!

friday

yesterday i ran my left pinky toe as hard as i could into a concrete step.

i get no sympathy from a person whose pinky toes are permanently in this position, i'm told i don't need it and i kind of agree.

i killed a small black widow spider. on the freakin couch.

i wore a skirt for a dress. not outside the house.

i saw gilian welch & david rawlings. 

my soul was stirred. there was banjo but it was low, slow & sincere & i liked it.

it was dangerously hot in the orange peel until we weaseled our way under the giant ceiling fan. dangerously hot. 

i'll fly away!

scene: lying on the couch watching tv

happy birthday MOM

i hope you have a fantastic day! thank you for making my lunch every day (and dinner and breakfast) and driving me around everywhere for the first 17 years of my life!

and i wish you saved all your clothes from the 70s - 80s. you were always pretty stylin!

good use for the money section

and they're off

my money's on the chocolate dog. 

5 minutes after eating the leftover prime rib

you may remember nachodoggy won a contest a couple weeks ago for $25 gift card to outback.

we went last night and used it. that place is not great. it is not cheap! a (small) glass of wine was $7. to add 3 super-SUPER-measly dry shrimp (size of a poker chip) to your steak was $4. a salad was $12, and the dressing choices were ranch, bleu cheese, 1000 island, and bleu cheese vinaigrette.

anyway we had a gift card and it was nacho who won the contest so we brought home a few bites of prime rib and sweet potato for him to eat. he shared with his brown bro eli.

then they wrestled for 20 minutes. nacho's head was inside eli's mouth for 15 of those minutes.

leo!

everybody's favorite shar pei - golden retriever is here for the weekend.

reo red panda!

he is even clownier than nacho, if that is possible.

he snorfles.

he snuggles.

he also is 'marking' the furniture. not sure how to get him to stop doing that.

his breed is golden pei, so what do i expect.

he also doesn't eat much. i just don't understand dogs that don't eat much. my dogs are obsessive vacuum eaters. reo gets top of the line newman's own wet food and looks at it just like 'eh, not hungry,' takes a bite and walks away.

mufasa & smashley

kinda strange names, but i hope those kids make it.

seen in the ladies' room at the thirsty purple monk. after a highly overpriced and underwhelming dinner at a mexican place downtown with a name that rhymes with dimones, we walked over to the thirsty monk, which happened to be in medias celebratus of belgium's independence, with discount beers.

how fortunate!

yessss

when you bank says no, champion says yessssss.

crazy basil

shit's going berserkus.

pesto recipes, anyone?

i walk funny

i'm pigeon toed. but probably not as pigeon toed as i would have been had my feet not been stuck in shoes attached to a bar hanging on my crib for the first year of my life.

i hated this bar and broke the wood on my crib by banging my feet against it trying to escape.

this medieval contraption is called a Denis Browne bar, and may or may not have something to do with my lifelong propensity for flight rather than fight.

google plus one

there's a new button on the "share away" bar at the bottom of every post here. it's for google plus one. onto whose bandwagon i jumped last week. less jumped, more limped. if you are also using such technology, please enjoy.

checkin out the piggies

went to charlotte this weekend for a super fun british open party. here is emmitt, a ridiculously cute nugget of 10 month old sweetness. how awesome are his cheeks? and his hair? and his name?

shady bluff, charlotte's rockingest trio also graced our ears with a noon set.

later i walked around the corner and found these two nutball sisters by themselves frozen and whispering. i said "what are you doing?" and they said "being statues." i said, 'can i take your picture' and they said "YES!" and here we are:

the dog lover - flying henry

an artist named l.a. shepard from ontario canada paints these dog portraits. i think they're spectacular. and her story is particularly moving:

I have been a full time artist, specializing in animal portraiture, since my husband was diagnosed with brain cancer in July 2006. Since he could no longer work, we had to close our wholesale business. At 54 , I needed to find a way to support our family and take care of him 24/7. Luckily, I had my art ability to fall back on, and I have been painting diligently ever since.

this one is especially funny because my furry brother henry looks just like this but refuses to go outside in the snow. my dad shovels him a path in the backyard to do his business.

the dog lover's paintings on etsy: here

congratulations! nacho!

every month or so we get a light magazine full of local asheville coupons. on the back page of the last one was a contest asking you to find "mr. moon" the (asheville tourists single A baseball team's new mascot) hidden in one of the ads inside. email your answer to enter the contest.

nacho doggy found mr. moon and emailed and won the contest!

4 free tickets to mccormick field to see any tourists home game

$25 at outback. tax tip beer not included. 

the contest and the coupon book were done by tim at muse graphics, and to him nachodoggy say 'gracias amigo!'

doggy bunk bed

native area

some parts of the grove park inn golf course are marked with this sign: native area.

as opposed to what?

settler's area?

are they talking about going native like my brother and i did at lion country safari in 1984?

lazy logos

the washington nationals logo looks too much like the walgreens logo.

the amtrak logo looks too much like the bank of america logo.

if you ask me.

july

probably time to switch the calendar from june now that this month is already 1/3 over. yowzas.

i filled this weekend with stuff that white people like.

garage saling, i found 2 70's shirts and a stretch belt that says 'jeans jeans jeans jeans' all over it.

farmers marketing, i got the honey walnut goat cheese and the olive tapenade and the trout jerky.

hiking, i walked with dogs in woods.

eating, i had seared duck breast in blackberry sauce from a strip mall italian restaurant.

drinking, i had white wine out of a box (not bad, tastes like peaches) and tons of peppermint sun tea.

exploring, i drove through an orphanage that has a golf course.

stretching, i did some yoga videos. 'yoga for athletes.' having done no yoga in 10 years, it's coming back slooooowly but feels great. i can totally see how it's addictive, what a rush.

dog-parenting, i yelled at some pups who ruined a salsa celebration by counter-surfing the bag of blue corn chips off the counter. 

all in all, solid A.

the four dogmen of the furpocalypse

one is a dogwoman. (maizey the fluffy golden retriever on the left.)

the more retrivers the merrier!

bus stop removal notice

 

as if a bus stop removal notice weren't ghetto enough, it is affixed with duct tape. way to go asheville transit. 

squirrel tidbits

highlights of this week included:

finding this nut-eating golf-playing squirrel fake-collared sweatshirt at goodwill. he has a rhinestone eye.

going to see a week-old baby. he was probably smaller than this squirrel. the whole time i was there he was sleeping, healthy, and pink.

watching kevin compose an ode to holden on a terrible dented manual typewriter - "The Bowels of Heaven"

ALSO one of the people in the following photo will be doing 5 minutes of stand-up comedy next tuesday july 5 at the magnetic field in asheville's river arts district. (event link here.)

i consider stand up comic to be the scariest job in existence. i would rather change the light bulbs on top of bridges.

happy 4th of july! hope your bombs burst in air.

globular truth & wisdom

"from time to time, the world does change."

i bought a sweet new globe and i love this insert that came with it - so true. and it's a great program replogle is running -- if, no WHEN, the world does change, i can get in touch with them and they will sell me a new globe for 50% off.

i have learned a lot already by studying the globe. i had no idea australia was so far from the UK. opposite side of the earth. must have been hell on those debtors.

also, the pacific ocean is not small. 

do your part!

this was on the ground next to an apartment complex dumpster.

i am the first to agree with "one man's trash is another man's treasure."

i respect the enthusiasm and the sentiment. it's fairly judgy/preachy and greener than thou, however, and i doubt anybody will take heed.

the 'habitat for humanities' bit makes me smile.

pomegranates

it's 6500 miles from chile to asheville. how fresh can they be?

before - after

pretty effective way to advertise, here. never saw anything like this before.

solstice

here it is. the longest day of the year. i am trying my best not to be sad about it (they're only getting darker) and instead to live in the moment and appreciate the fact that it's still light at 9pm, and will be for a couple more weeks.

i am typing amidst a summer squall, it's pouring rain, i hear thunder, and i also see the sun over the valley less than a mile away. dynamic.

baby bonanza

it really seems like every one of my best friends and family has a baby under the age of 3 right now. it's wild how they all have such different personalities and styles, in line with their parents' personalities of course. though they are spread out across the country, i would love to get them all together. especially in like 13 years.

two more tots joined the party this week, and if you ask me they look like tough little cookielets. and perfect prom dates in 2027!

introducing...finley!

and...lucas!

muchos adorables, no?