I need a dog!

You know that saying "My biological clock is ticking"?  Mine is, but not for babies...well, maybe for babies...but not right now!!  Actually, what my "biological clock is ticking" for is a dog.  Yes, a cute, slobbery, loving dog who wants nothing more than for me to love and spoil it.

So I've found this website: http://www.puggle.org/rescue.asp.

I want a puggle.  Actually, I want a golden retriever--I've grown up with retrievers and I will stand by belief that they are the best dogs.  Second goes to puggles (a spectacular mix between a pug and a beagle).

But as much as I would love to have a cute, slobbery puggle, I simple cannot afford the expenses that usually come with doggies...or babies for that matter.  But I can look, right??  So back to the site; not only is it based on puggles, but you can rescue one!!   I get the best of both worlds!!  I'll let you know if I decide to get one...sometime in the future :)

Look how cute they are!!!!!!  This is Frankie and Max, 5 year old brother and sister who are in need of a family who can give them more attention.  If you are interested, please contact Brian K., in Braintree, MA (781)-356-0317. 

Dear Mr. Trump

Dear Mr. Trump,

Thanks for making our president take time out of his schedule to answer your conspiracy theories and for making intentionally divisive comments regarding his birth origin.  Your comments, masked in racism, are a spectacular indicator of who you are as a person...someone who should not be running as the future face of The United States of America.

We were supposed to go camping...and we did!

I'm sorry this is so late...but I realized that I really didn't take many pictures of us doing camping stuff (and I'm so upset that I didn't!).  A couple weeks ago, five of us (Bruce, Taylor H, Leah, Handsome Taylor and myself) left on a camping trip into Cherokee.  Don't worry, all five returned safely.  :)  We decided on Indian Creek Campground http://www.indiancreekcampground.com/, a fabulous campground for tent-ers and rv-ers alike!  I wanted to camp in early April before it started getting warm at night and I will admit, the weather was perfect...the bugs were not.

Bruce, packing up the truck to head out!  Yay!

Bruce, beginning to set up our 9-person tent--don't worry, Leah and I helped!   Oh, and that "9-person" tent really only sleeps 5-6 comfortably.

Our beautiful campsite complete with Kojak, the wolf-dog.  He kept the scary things away at night!

This trillium is for Chrissy McAllister...and bio-block! 

Our second campsite...just in case we (or the dog) needed more room.

Riverfront property!

Bruce cleaned his fish in this spot :(  I shouldn't have watched that...

This is the "bear-slide".  A year or so ago, a couple was camping out in our spot (tent) and it was raining pretty hard...well, in the middle of the night they hear a huge crash which turned out to be a frightened bear who literally slid all the way down the mountain into their tent!  Luckily, he wasn't hungry and quickly tried to climb back up.  I was hoping for a bear too :)

The fire that Leah and I started!  No gasoline required!

While cleaning breakfast dishes, Taylor H or Handsome Taylor (I don't remember which one) dropped the plate into the river.  This is them trying to fish it out (and it was freezing!!!).

The rash I got from spraying 98.1% deet onto my bare, sensitive skin.  It itched like crazy!!!  Note to self: do not spray deet near sunglasses, watch faces, sensitive necks, or food.  

Saturday, in the park...

Bam and I went to the NC Agriculture Center this past Saturday.  Why, you ask?  Dogs, dogs, and more dogs.  I love doggies, possibly more than anything, and this was like dog heaven for me!  The Ag Center was hosting a dog agility show!  Big dogs, little dogs, fast dogs, slow dogs, any dogs!  So I took some pictures...and some videos... :)  Enjoy!

Happy Easter!

I spent Easter with my grandparents in Asheville.  The weather could not have been more perfect!  I went to church with my grandmother, and then went to grab a quick lunch at one of my favorite spots, GreenLife (similar to Whole Foods, Earth Fare, or Trader Joes).  It was delicious!  When we got home, I proceeded to plant my tomatoes and beans (yay!) and enjoyed the warm weather.  Bam, my grandmother, cooked us the most wonderful turkey I have ever yet to feast upon with homemade mashed potatoes, sesame green beans and orange cheesecake!  Stuffed beyond capacity, I was.  I didn't get pictures of the food--sorry, scarfed it down too fast!  Hope everyone else had a wonderful Easter!

My beautiful church 

Codilicious!!

My choco Easter bunny that Handsome Taylor's mom got for me...Tay left it in the sun on his ride over and, well, it deflated.  Chocolate is still yummy!

Called the glass doctor and he fixed my panes!

Living in Charlotte took its toll, especially on my car.  Poor Subaru.  I did everything I could to protect you from the horrible highways and byways, but sadly, I-77 left its mark.  Turns out, those nasty little pebbles that are thrown into your windshield by evil truckers are covered by insurance...well, my insurance at least.  Windshield repair guy to the rescue!  Wahoo!!

Demineralize

My hair (since my last blog about my hair) has turned an even brighter shade of green.  I had an interview with the Biltmore Estate about two weeks ago, and I thought I covered the green pretty well.  Not well enough, I guess because my interviewee was explaining proper uniform protocol and then proceeded to mention that my hair can't be green.  At least my hair color didn't stop me from getting hired!  Phew!

Yes, I've tried the purple shampoo, and yes, I've tried apple cider vinegar (which surprisingly turned the green to a blueish color).  So I went to a salon and inquired about what I must do...because, after all, green/blue hair will not suffice while working at the Biltmore.  Apparently there is a mineral wash that people can use (because the stuff in my hair turns out to be mineral build up)...it doesn't just get out the color, but the yucky stuff too that builds up on one's hair such as medication, wax (not the ear kind), and such.  Frankly, it looks like salt, but I didn't want to taste it.

After one wash and rinse, most of the green/blue did manage to come out of my hair!  Yay!  I have one more to do and from here on out, will be washing my hair at various locations that will not dye my hair green.

A bear scare

Last night I awoke to footsteps outside our bedroom window on the porch.  This is not something I like to wake up to.  Over the years, I've become a pretty light sleeper...and Taylor will not wake to a bomb going off.  When I heard the footsteps, I pictured in my mind a giant, grizzly-sized, man-hungry, angry bear.  I forgot temporarily that our trash has been collecting on our porch waiting for Taylor to take to the dumpster.  Bears love trash.

I tried to go back to sleep and I think I actually succeeded for a few minutes until the second set of footsteps came across my acute hearing.  I didn't wake Taylor up.  I didn't grab for his gun...just in case I had to scare the bear off--I have to really say that I would never, ever shoot a bear unless it were literally eating me or someone I love.  I didn't grab for my phone.  I didn't grab for a knife, or a pot, or something to block me with.  No, in my delirium, I grabbed for my camera.  My mom would be so proud.

I snuck out as best I could to the living room area--stealth mode.  I thought that they could see me in the dark much better than I could them.  I dove for the outside light switch.  NO BEAR!  WTF?!  I don't know if I was breathing a sigh of relief or cussing under my breath more, but what did catch my eye was the complete lack of trash in our trash can.  Gone.

I left the outside lights on (you know, just in case...and because I'm scared of the dark), and quietly crawled back into bed.  I don't know how long it took me for my heart rate to go down, but it was sometime after that when I fell back asleep...only to have really scary nightmares about human/bear hybrids sneaking into my house.  Yes, the rest of the night was awful.

When the morning finally came, I showed Handsome Taylor the damage.  And by the way, he was so pissed that I didn't wake him up.  We carefully looked around the yard and found the trash bags scattered throughout.  One however, was missing.  There is a certain spot that the bears like to come into our yard--that is the first picture.  And my guess is that the second picture is where they left.  The rest is garbage.  Ha!

The proposed entrance

The proposed escape

A few littered pieces of trash leading off our deck..

The feast!

The trash is gone, but my camera and Taylor are at the ready when I need to see if there is another bear outside...which I'm sure there will be.  Crossing my fingers for a small, nice, non man-hungry bear this time :)

It lives!!!

I have life in my garden!!  I was so worried that my anti-green thumb would destroy all evidence of life, but my plants persevered!  I have to boast...I am so proud of myself that my plants are growing...even if they aren't exactly in the spot that I thought I planted them in.  My carrots are turning out to be spinach.  That's okay.  I will still love them.

I'm pretty sure that is a spinach...in my carrot section.  

My beautiful garden that is finally done!!  The far right side is the only side as of now that has plants.  The left side will be planted in late April to mid-May!  More pictures to come!!

I'm only a little black raincloud, pay no attention to little me.

Here is this wonderfully beautiful and ominous raincloud that I discovered hovering over the mountains when I walked outside on the deck.  It was a couple of weeks ago (and I apologize for the delay), and I honestly can't remember if it brought on a storm or not, but I couldn't resist not taking a picture.

I'm a natural...green?

I live up in the mountains.  I drink water from a well.  Usually, this water looks, smells, and tastes pretty darn good, but lately the "look" portion hasn't been holding it's own.  I would take a picture of what our bathtub and sink look like...but Taylor scrubbed it with Clorox and vinegar to get the stain out.  My hair, however, is not so fortunate.

We're not sure what is in the water...or the filter...but it's definitely a blue-green color and has taken a liking to my blondest of hairs.

Right after a shower..

It's kind of hard to see the green because of the lighting, but it's there!

I realize that this isn't the best picture...and that my head looks like a fishbowl (Taylor's words), but it was the best I could do.  Back to the hair...the water is slowly turning my hair green!  And not the swimming pool green that I can brag about because I'm a swimmer, but the creepy I don't know what's in my water green.  

Any solutions besides dismantling my entire water filtration system??