Available for Adoption
My name is Patch and that’s Spot on the right. We are approximately six month old stray puppy sisters that were found and taken in by a local couple. The vet thinks our parents might have been a Black Lab and a Pointer, and she thinks we will grow to approximately 50 pounds. We are on medicine to prevent heartworms, fleas, and ticks, and have already gotten our first series of shots. We are both playful and loving, and very receptive to people and children (not to mention CUTE!) We are learning basic obedience commands and to be housebroken. We can walk well on a leash together and we already know how to sit! Our foster mom says we will be easy to train, because we respond well to human voices. We love being together, but we understand that we might have to find two different homes, and we’re okay with that. If you or anyone you know is searching for a loving companion (or two!), please contact our foster parents and arrange to come see us in person. We’d love to meet you!
get ready for some knee slappin!
…but you can’t see it here, you have to click once more to check out my old blog, where i posted the results of my celebrity lookalike comparison. i had technical difficulties posting it here, but i can promise you, checking this one out is worth it!
links for those who can’t sleep
or be productive in the middle of the night.
fun little 3d rotating drawing/visual app
magnetic poetry onscreen
extremely belated wedding photos
for anyone who was not able to be there, or to see the pictures, here are some (okay, lots) from george. maybe it’s lame to still not have the professional pix ready to go by late june, but we haven’t even gotten prints made for ourselves yet, so i expect no admonishings from any of you! enjoy!
george’s wedding photos
there’s no excuse
that i can think of anyway, for waiting so long to blog again. i shouldn’t think of it so much as an obligation, because i think that makes me more likely to procrastinate! the thing is, it isn’t an obligation, merely something that i enjoy, so why must i force myself to do it? who knows…anyway, it’s a good way to document our lives.
i suppose the last week has been busy, although for me it’s extremely difficult to remember anything beyond about two days ago. i do know that on tuesday i went with 3 of the new AIRs to glendale shoals.
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update:
it’s now friday, and i still haven’t finished this blog which i started on monday. i guess i’ll have to skip everything from then up until now. today was the spark parade downtown, which consisted of giant puppets made by kids from the boys & girls club over the last week. kris neely, brent glenn, and others from wofford, converse, and the b&g club made this event possible, and of course our AIRs went down and participated in some of the puppet making as well. they also rode their beautiful orange bikes in the parade). a professional puppeteer named beth nixon came to facilitate the puppet making, which took place in the gym at wofford. i have to say, this was awesome. the puppets were incredible! all of the kids were smiling and looked so proud…a lot of people turned out to cheer them on. they had a few percussionists with them who provided some sounds to march to, and i have to say those guys were amazing too. who were they?!! i took heidi down there, and it was a big day for her. she gets tired out pretty quickly, so the walk from home to morgan square wore her out. then when the parade started she didn’t know what to think! the drums sort of scared her, but the funny part was when the llama and yakalo (yak/buffalo combo, according to someone!) came by, and she started howling at them! that was hilarious.
anyway, i was glad to see so many people show up to support such a great effort by all these organizations that were invovled. we’ve got some creative kids in this town, and some great adults dedicating their time to supporting them. spartanburg’s future is getting brighter all the time. thanks to everyone for an awesome show!
here is a quick snippet from wofford media about the spark project:
“The parade is the first offering of SPARK!, a new collaboration between Converse College and Wofford College designed to inspire dynamic and creative collaborations among local college students to be shared with the community. “
i wish i had pictures, but unfortunately i discovered my phone in the bottom of the washing machine basin yesterday as i was removing clothes from it. i feel so completely out of touch right now, it’s really strange. so if you called me and can’t get me, that’s why. or if you haven’t heard from me and you were supposed to, that’s why. or if you never hear from me again, it’s because you haven’t emailed me your phone number, and i don’t have it anymore. anyway if that happens, it’s your fault anyway, so too bad. by the way, could you all email me your phone numbers? hopefully i’ll be back up and running again soon.
tonight a great band is playing the showroom: hot club of cowtown. this should be an awesome show, and i hope to see a lot of people out for it. following that we will be wishing sarah happy birthday and eating cake! only a few weeks and already two AIR birthdays gone by. oh, and yesterday was betsy’s birthday too, so happy birthday betsy! i guess we all keep getting older, and it helps me to see so many other people doing it before i turn 30 next month. alix has been looking pretty good the past week, so maybe it’s not so bad =]
plans are still in the works for the thirtieth, and by still in the works, i mean non existent. we have talked about planning something for weeks, but never actually get around to it. at first i was thinking a trip. camping maybe. or the beach. then i thought maybe something simpler, with more people. bowling? i love bowling! or the skating rink! the last skating party i went to was a big bust though… in the end i bet it’ll be me and brad sitting in our backyard and talking about how it’s too hot to have a fire. if we don’t plan something soon, i’m sure it will be. i guess there’s always glendale shoals…i can never get tired of it.
speaking of glendale shoals…it finally happened: i got poison ivy. having gone my entire life and never had it before, i seriously wondered if i was really allergic, considering that i’ve been an outdoorsy person for years and encountered it numerous times. apparently i got it last week at glendale though, because it’s on practically the only place on my entire body that i cannot reach to scratch, which is the direct center of my back. there would be no way to get it there unless i had on my bathing suit at the time, which pretty much eliminates all other possibilities besides the river that is really a creek but that i still call a river. god, it ITCHES!!!!!!!
tomorrow is the music camp extravaganza, which i am really really really really really really super looking forward to! belleville outfit will be there, along with the greencards, shane pruitt band, and more! we’ll be out there to camp and just generally revel around and dance. it should be a really good time. i love the music camp, i love music, i love camping, and i love to dance, so what more could i ask for?! can’t wait!
anyway, i lost some photos with the loss of the cell phone, so there is no evidence now (to my knowledge) of brad and i in our 7os clothing at alix’s party, or anything else that might’ve happened only one time ever in the past week (like sarah sprawled out on the rocks with mulberry juice all over her face). well, who’s to say alix won’t have another seventies party? maybe when she’s seventy? it’s a scary thought that we’ll all be that old (hopefully) one day, but it’s also kind of cool. i hope i still know alix, and tons of other friends by the time i/we are that age. i wonder what all could happen in the meanwhile…
hopefully i’ll be back soon with reports (and pictures, and a new phone) from the weekend. have a good one!
the mulberries taste like mulberries
well, i’m still working on the top ten music list for the purposes of self discovery, sharing, and mixed cd exchange…it’s a lot harder than i thought! and i mean a LOT harder.
in the meanwhile, we went to glendale shoals AGAIN yesterday, with three of the AIRs in tow, patrick, sarah, and jonas. ginna joined us as well, and heidi even came along too. she loves it more and more each time, even though swimming is still not high on her list of priorities, and i have to sort of drag her in. she does adore the rock hopping though, and continues to get more confident each time, even jumping over a ~3 foot section of rapids yesterday! we saw lots and lots of snakes there, which i didn’t share with anyone other than brad, since upon investigation i discovered that no one else likes them, and in fact sarah witt seems quite terrified of them. anyway brad and i still find them infinitely interesting to observe, and they mostly stick to one area, which makes me feel relatively comfortable as to where to swim and where not to. besides, they scatter as quickly as possible the moment they see or sense you anywhere nearby. that’s why it’s so tricky to see them, you have to be so surreptitious or they’ll be out of there before you even get a glimpse! i wish most people understood that, as they are actually really cool animals who have no desire whatsoever to harm you. i do understand though, as i was terrified of snakes for a majority of my life up until the past few years, when i decided to confront that fear. i am even now to the point where i can hold them without fear. however i wouldn’t just pick one up in the wild, it has to with a herpetologist, in a nature center, or the like.
on sunday we bought a couple of inflatable mini boats and took them down to the water. navigating a couple of the rapids was a lot of fun, even though brad tore a hole in the bottom of one of the rafts because some parts of the creek are too shallow for it. you have to sort of push yourself along in the really shallow parts, but once you learn where to go it is such a blast. we discovered a new area to swim also, a little below the upper rapids, but not directly below them, although you can swim there as well. that brings the swimming hole count at glendale up to four, which i am of course thrilled with, since i love to swim. the new area has portions that are deep enough that i can’t touch the bottom, and it’s wide enough to actually swim back and forth a good twenty or so feet, which is amazing. i will definitely be hitting that spot up again, especially during the hottest parts of the summer, since it’s the shadiest of all the swimming areas.
ginna’s microbiology professor told her he wouldn’t go swimming in lawson’s fork under any circumstances, nor would he kayak there. he then said that he doesn’t know how to kayak, which i think had a little something to do with it. it’s true that the water there is somewhat polluted, and that bacteria levels are high. most of the town is unaware of this though, since the warning signs are posted above the dam, where almost no one goes. anyway, brad and i have gone there for years and suffered no ill effects from doing so, and there are always numerous other people out there enjoying the water as well, every time we go. i think the reason i’m not too worried about it is that i never, under any circumstances, put my head underneath the water. i wouldn’t want that water in my lungs or ears, or digestive system, but i feel like wading around above the water level is relatively safe. hopefully i won’t eat my words one day, although it might make ginna feel good if i did. thanks for the heads up ginna!
anytime an outing to glendale shoals is in order, so is picking mulberries from the giant tree by the dam. yesterday i picked a full tupperware container, and last night i made a mulberry cobbler with it. it was absolutely scrumptious, and a new way to enjoy an old favorite, although nothing is more satisfying than simply eating them right then and there as you pick them. there is something infinitely wonderous about being able to eat directly from nature, and i feel the beauty in it every single time we pick. it really
south carolina summers
…come so early. this morning’s paper reported that we hit a record 98 degrees yesterday, the highest temperature in spartanburg on any june 7th in the past. it seems to be the trend, year after year…it gets hotter and hotter, earlier and earlier. so i say “global warming, schlobal warming,” right?
anyway, to combat the heat, most south carolinians will do just about anything, and we are of course no exception. abe and tob were getting ready to head off to alaska yesterday, but tob had some loose ends to tie up at work, so abe and i spent the afternoon together. after laying around complaining about the heat for at least an hour, and being completely unsatisfied by any form of either indoor or outdoor entertainment currently available to us, we decided to seek out some relief from the miserable steambath that is a south carolina summer. we trekked over to the dollar store to check out their array of gear to help keep your summer cool, and after enduring my promising stories of the positive experience chrissy and i had with our family swim center (circa 2003?) abe relented and bought one, forgoing his true wishes for the 6″ deep shark kiddie pool with a sprinkler mouth. i convinced him that a foot deep and 12 feet long kiddie pool would in fact offer up plenty more water to keep us cool, and that if we really needed a sprinkler, we could always hook a separate one up to the hose and let it rain down on us. i really wasn’t too keen on keeping the water running anyway, since the family swim center takes up enough as it is, and i try, even in this insanity inducing heat, to maintain some sense of conservation.
so we journeyed back to the boys’ house and proceeded to blow up the pool and put it in the front yard. we had to rig a system for holding the hose up because it wouldn’t quite reach the level spot for the pool, and that was pretty fun to experiment with. it consisted of two mic stands and and vice grip, and after some creative maneuvering, we finally got it to work. see the photos for evidence of this outstanding ingenuity. that’s what we are, you know? so ingenious, i tell you what.
well, i’ll let you see the rest for yourself. we sat in that thing for at least two hours, and for us the misery subsided for the hottest part of the day. i found it funny though, that despite our desperate attempts to wave at people and spread some pre-summer cheer, not a single person driving down their street waved back at us! i suppose they thought we were out of our minds, two adults laying in a kiddie pool in the front yard (and of course drinking the poor man’s requisite coors light in a can), but i guarantee you we were a lot cooler than them, both temperature-wise and in that sense of cool that you long to be in high school. well, i like to think of it that way anyway.
today’s adventures in pre-summertime attempts to avoid this sweltering heat have yet to be determined, but if anything nearly as awesome as this happens, i’ll be sure to let you know.
a good old herald journal welcome
to the new hub-bub AIRs in this morning’s paper.
from the front page of the Upstate Section:
“…Ellie Pierson, a 27 year old from Hamilton, Ohio, works with insulation, video, and writing…”
insulation??! surely you jest. but no, this type of erroneous information is not only humorous, but also quite commonplace in the herald journal, which continues daily it’s journey into the rubble of modern day print news. yes, i do read it every morning, and if i didn’t i would miss it tremendously, but i can’t deny the fact that at least part of what i would miss is the laughable and sometimes downright enraging misinformation propagated by this paper. after all, i need someone to laugh at, right? it’s just such a great target, the herald. who can resist?
insulation
i hope one of the AIRs goes somewhere with this one.
a new start on old news
a four or five paragraph long post was just eaten up by the wonders of modern technology, and as i am getting ready to go work out (and thankfully get rid of some of the frustrations caused by said eating of post), i will leave you only with the pictures i would’ve posted alongside accompanying lost text.
by the way, i am welcoming myself back to the blogosphere after a notably long absence (over a year since the last post), and tons of things to catch up on, although most of those things will probably never see the light of the screen. meanwhile, enjoy these pictures of heidi at bruster’s last night experiencing her first doggie cone. i swear i am as giddy as any childless woman can be over the cuteness of my dog. she’s a keeper, for sure. not that there was ever any doubt. on my part. ever. i swear.
til next time.
bad things happen when you lie!
so throughout my life as a child, i was apparently a good liar. i remember lying about things, sometimes to get out of trouble, or sometimes just for the hell of it. i’m not sure how long this phase lasted, but i think it was a pretty good while, and i attribute that to the fact that i was good at it. when my parents or someone from day care finally found me out, i was promptly given the facts, ma’am. upon growing up and realizing what a nasty, terrible thing it is to lie, i reflect upon those old days with anguish and regret. i suppose you could chalk it up to childhood, but it’s hard to justify deception in my book. i believe honesty is one of the necessary elements of life, and i hold it in tremendously high regard. this is why i am now pouring out my heart to you…
last night i told a lie. i was caught off guard about something embarrassing, and before my brain even knew what was happening, my mouth was pouring out a big fat one to try and cover it up. i grew anxious as the lie got bigger, fumbling with my words, exhibiting a sweaty brow you could probably spot a mile away. the thing i did realize as i babbled on was that i was doing a terrible job! having not practiced the art of lying for so many years, i am evidently well out of practice. (although i will say that i am very good at it when it’s intended to have a little fun with strangers, like the time i introduced myself to a sales pitcher as brad’s wife on the day i first met brad)
so anyway, here’s my big secret…it’s not a cat scratch, it’s a zit!!!!
there! i said it! i spilled the secret i’ve been guiltily harboring for almost 22 hours now! (*breathe*)
so here’s the thing. when i was a teenager i had severe acne, and recently it has been resurfacing, much to my chagrin. so i had this gargantuan mountainous pepperoni ball on my neck, in a spot where it constantly got rubbed. in an attempt to remedy that situation, i slapped a band-aid on it. little did i realize that wearing a band-aid is actually an invitation for someone to ask you what happened to the place that is now covered by said band-aid! so, there i am chit chatting over some wine with brian and emily, when brian casually asks what has happened to my neck! so why i didn’t just say it was a zit, i have no idea. i guess my sixteen year old mentality and the fear of being ridiculed for the horrible, ghastly, hideous pimple on my neck resurfaced. and quick as that i was churning out a big fat one about my cat scratching me, then immediately realizing this was a bad idea, since starla has no claws. what a complete dumbass i am.
i really have no idea why i lied about it. i’ve been caught in much more embarrassing situations than that before, i can promise you that! i mean come on, who cares if i have a zit? i’m sure no one does, and besides, i’ve got plenty of others to match it anyway! i just didn’t realize i was drawing attention to it by putting a band-aid on it. lesson learned. so here’s my confession, exposed for the entire world to see. i lied! and i’m sorry!
so as a result of telling this lie, i have been nervous and worried over it for the past day, and trying to figure out a way to fix things. after showering this afternoon i decided to peel off the band-aid to check on said pimple. to my horrified eyes, what had appeared? a rash where the band-aid was! and still a huge red mountain that looks nothing at all like a cat scratch!!!! so here i am, paying my dues. and here you are, learning an extremely important lesson on life: BAD THINGS HAPPEN WHEN YOU LIE!!!
(and you should never use a band-aid on a zit!)
