paradise gardens

it was lovely, it was surreal and it was delightful. i never fully realized just how much Howard Finster's art has influenced my aesthetic. i felt like i was at home in the garden and thoroughly enjoyed meeting Howard's grandson Andy and talking with him about his Grandad. read more about the garden here and please visit if you can.

wanna be ruler of the galaxy...

the idea of athens, ga always brings the B-52s to mind. can't help it, i love me some poppy, quirky tunes. i can't tell you much about athens as our visit was really about seeing and old friend and making a new one. it was warm and muggy, muggy, muggy. the buildings are super nifty and the eats are swanky cool.we arrived saturday night and parked ourselves in our tiny motel room to catch up with photo editing and writing. sunday morning we walked on over to Grit for a nifty breakfast with Dusty and Bob. we laughed, we giggle-gaggled, ate our eats and caught up on our lives.then we were off to the headquarters to check out D & Bs nifty loft. on the way we jumped, jumped, jumped. we also stopped into the co-op for something cold, cold, cold to drink and continued on our way as Bob gave us a walking tour of their neighborhood.hanging out with my friends felt like home, we share a similar decorating style though i am more prone to um...clutter. we also speak the same language...as in a weird connectedness based on where and how we grew up. ya gotta love the eighties!it was ridiculously joyful to hang with you my friends, you were missed!

girlie camping with {p}style & a giveaway

have you heard of the pstyle? okay now, i didn't invent this at all but i am soooo glad someone did. mr. a-go-go and i camp out and hike enough that we find ourselves in many places that offer no facilities for those times when you gotta go-go.we all know that the menfolk have it easy and if yer not shy, we womanfolk can um...hunker down and do the deed when we have to but why hunker down? i kid you not. it is completely possible and ridiculously easy to go-go while standing with the aid of this magic device.

i know the name sounds kinda ridiculous. pstyle? really? it's not even shaped like a P but when you use it, you won't need to remove a stitch of clothing, i promise. i'm not a salesperson for the pstyle. i have no affiliation with krista's cups, i just really love being able to go-go when i need to with no spillage or mooning involved. i gifted the hikers in my life each with one (it comes in six colors) and all have found it to be most awesome. the mama a-go-go especially sings its praises along with me.a couple of months ago we were hiking and found that somehow we were without my beloved pstyle. i really had to go-go and there were no facilities to be seen. there were however a lot of people milling about and i am not the most graceful hunkerer. we did have a similar gadget hiding out in Rodney so i grabbed that and lumbered off into the field as far as i could go. it was a disaster. i'll spare you the details but it has been decided that i need to own another pstyle to keep in the car as sometimes the adventure bag (more on that later) is not along for the ride.so far, we have camped in five states and gone on numerous hikes. and sice we're really good at keeping hydrated my handy dandy pstyle has seen a lot of action. a lot. and each time i use it, i am delighted that it exists, de-light-ed. i've used it on hikes, on walks, in icky gross porta-whatchits and in the middle of the night after crawling out of our day-glo tent. it is handy and simple and easy to clean and i keep it in its very own carry-all...a silicone pencil bag i picked up at target for two smackeroos.so here is my question to you. do you need a pstyle? if you hike or love outdoor concerts or the ren-faire or the beach it would seriously come in handy. and since i am just about married to mine i contacted the awesome krista of krista's cups and now i have a handful for giveaway. if you think yer a pstyle kinda gal, leave a comment here and share with me yer almost most dismal story in which you could have used a pstyle. i'll give y'all a week to comment then we'll select a winner or two...

seriously, it rocks...though, if you choose to wrestle it out in the middle of a wind storm in the desert don't fault me...just saying.

**oh and i've used something VERY similar to the FUD and it was a disaster for me...um, there was overflow...not fun, i have never had overflow the with the style. as long as you get the placement right yer good. just practice at home a few times sans skivvies, etc and then work yer way up. i totally used mine in the middle of a poppy field with nothing to hide behind and from a distance you couldn't even tell what i was doing unless of course you were a seasoned styler. :)

two sara(h)s in tennessee

we had two internet friends to visit in tennessee... sarah in memphis and sara in nashville...memphis was put first stop and i wish we had had more time to stay.

i met both sara(h)s about seven or eight years ago when i stumbled across an awesome website called nervousness. it's not an easy thing describing nervousness to a non-nervous person but let me just say it brought artists together and was a pre-cursor to the sites we know as social networking sites. in fact, a half dozen of our visits on this trip will be too people i met through nervousness. though the site as we know has been gone for quite a few years, our friendships have lasted and i am so excited to meet my friends face to face!hanging out with sarah in memphis was like visiting an old friend. both visits were like that. she cooked up a most delicious dinner and then took us out for cupcakes, amazing cupcakes in the cutest little shop ever. i need to go back and bring my camera next time. drats!the next day we hit Graceland and the Rock and Soul Museum. we lunched at The Arcade which was fantastic and for dinner we had Memphis BBQ. just before we drove off (with classic southern snacks, thank you Sarah & Larry!) for Jackson, we jumped!after an overnight in Jackson, we hit Nashville for a shortened visit with Sara. we lunched on super yummy indian food and then hit The Parthenon for more jump shots and sno-kones. after hugs and squeezes we were off for a glamorous hour or two hanging out at the laundromat and then a swanky visit to I Dream of Weenie, more about that later. we love our Sara(h)s and were so happy hanging out in Tennessee.

waffle making in jackson

when we aren't camping or couching it with friends, we park our weary selves in sketchy, econo-motels. we're not picky (our budget won't allow it) but we do have two requirements...wifi and breakfast.most places that offer the oft-named "continental breakfast" offer up sorry bowls of some sort of bran cereal with raisins and an assortment of plastic wrapped danishes. sometimes there is a variety of cereal to choose from and sometimes there are powdered donuts. if we're really lucky, there are bananas. but in jackson, tennessee we hit the motherload of econo-breakfasts.

waffles!

not a fried peanut butter sandwich in sight

yup folks, we went to Graceland!what can i say about Graceland? it isn't cheap but it's a hoot. from the moment you put the headphones on until you pull them off it's a hoot.Graceland proper isn't overly large. you only get to tour the first floor and basement of the house but believe me when i say it's enough. from stained glass windows to poodle wallpaper to white monkeys, Elvis' home is a fine example of early seventies decor. you walk through the home at your own pace. pressing the green forward button on my headset control i couldn't help but be amused by the songs chosen as background for each section of the tour. it was very well thought out and delightful for those of us who do love us the king's music.
the jungle room is awesome. all the rooms are. i even thoroughly enjoyed touring the back of the house and office space. especially the swingset. it reminded me of my childhood.after that you get a peek at all the gold records Elvis was awarded. there is an entire hall full of them. it felt a bit willy wonka to me.the final room you enter has a cathedral ceiling that appears to stretch on and on. there is a trio of Las Vegas costumes set in glass and you feel a sense of finality. i got a little weepy. just a little. after all, i'm here mostly as a tribute to my mamos who loved Elvis Presley not unlike how some folk love The Beatles or Oingo Boingo (ahem). i grew up watching Elvis movies. i learned to dance from watching Clambake over and over again and was sorely sad when i found that no one dances like that anymore...well, save for me, even at my old goth club hangouts. Elvis even taught me to swim...sort of. it was his serenade to the young girl who was afraid to slide down the slide in Clambake that convinced me i could do it. no foolin'. i was watching the flick one weekend on Family Film Festival and decided it was time for me to have some CONFIDENCE myself. so, into my bedroom i marched to wrestle myself into my brown and orange swimsuit. after flying down the stairs and down the path to the pool i jumped in without hesitation. i was eight and i owe it all to Elvis.the tour ends with a solemn walk through the meditation garden where Elvis is buried along with other family members. he truly is and was a legend, a true American legend. in celebration of our love of Elvis and to think of him with a smile on our faces, we made a quick pit stop to the front of Graceland where we of course...jumped!

make way for (grown up) ducklings

when we arrived in arkansas, we stopped for a bathroom break at the welcome center near the border. while mr. a-go-go was taking care of business, i poked my head into the air conditioned welcome center and was greeted by a chipper arkansan in ranger-like gear. not only did she give me a warm welcome, but she handed over a very large stack of guide books and maps. after chatting a little and looking at various maps with her, mister poked his head in and we headed off to the buffalo river.after we adventured all over highway 7 we drove off towards Little Rock in search of a motel. as we drove i perused the many guides our welcome wagon had given us and i kept returning to page 105 where a tiny paragraph mentioned something about the Peabody Ducks. this i HAD to see and after much bugging and tiny compromises we came up with a plan. the next morning we would hit the Toltec Mounds and then hurry off to downtown Little Rock to watch the ducks waddle down the red carpet into the fountain. (the ducks began their march in memphis but now each Peabody has their own set)in my head, all i could think of was Make Way for Ducklings and when we got to the Peabody I rushed a young concierge and pressed him for details. sure enough, at 11am everyday, the duckmaster details the origin of the ducks.after an introduction, a mini ceremony of dubbing two young honorary duck masters and the beginning notes of John Philip Sousa's King Cotton March, the Duckmaster and honorary duckmasters hit the elevator to gather the ducks.seeing a crew of ducks bobbing their heads up and down in the shiny glass elevator was probably the best part, most humorous at least. i did however grow teary when the two young boys got their certificates and thought how could would it be for ander & za to be dubbed duck master as well.if you live near a Peabody Hotel, check out the Duck March, it may not be a long march but it is sure to make you smile, ducks are funny.