Ripping My Heart Out

I love animals. 

I have a dog and a cat and my brother's cat lives with us too. I keep them safe and healthy and wish I could do that for all. I can't but what I can do is give to organizations that further my cause in a bigger way. My company matches my donations so all the better.

So yesterday I am in the kitchen and I start to open my mail. I have a letter from one of the local organizations that I donate to. They have sent me a picture of this very cute little dog with big, beautiful eyes. As I look at the picture I noticed something written at the bottom that reads something like "The biggest contributor to the death of companion animals is not disease but euthanasia". I then look closer at the picture and see there is someone putting a needle in the little leg of this beautiful pup.  I'm looking at his very last minute of life. I start to cry.

I then get angry. Pretty pissed off. I do not need an organization to rip my heart out and play on my emotions to get me to send them money. I sent them a donation last year simply because I think they do such important work in our community.  I made a decision when I moved to Asheville to contribute all my donations to our local organizations. I like local in pretty much everything I do, buy, eat, drink... Now I see that this organization has subscribe to the same belief that I have seen with alot of the national organizations. If you can shock your donors, prey on their love of animals, they will send you money. I use to get and still do, envelopes with pictures of starving and abused horses, chained dogs, and malnourished kittens. My husband, being the wonderful person he is, intercepts these mailings before I see them and puts them in the recycle bin. At least this local organization was kind enough to enclose the picture INSIDE the envelope. 

So my first reaction is to tell them I don't appreciate their tactics and stop my donations. Why give to an organization that has offended me. There's lots of really worthwhile organizations here in Asheville that I could help. But I really believe in this organization's work. It aligns with my beliefs, and my dollar makes a big difference. Maybe I should just suck it up and send in my donation. I don't know. What would you do? I'd really like to know.

Thank You Asheville 2008

Well here it is the last day of 2008. This was my first full year of living in Asheville. It was an ubergreat year for me and I would like to say "Thanks!" to everyone and everything here in Asheville that made my year so wonderful.

To John for sharing this great place with me.
To Christine Kane for writing such a beautiful song.
To Asheville for showing me how to be real.
To Terry, Zach, Kelcie, Jake and everyone at the Rootbar for soooo many great memories and taking in 2 escapees from Fla (yikes!).
To all the breweries in Asheville for putting out great beer.
To Pisgah Brewing for your Endless Summer. I LOVE your beer.
To the farmers in our area for providing us with tasty, organic, wholesome food.

To Asheville for voting Obama and helping in turning North Carolina blue!
To all those that spent countless hours standing up against Parkside. You are what makes Asheville so special.
To all the Asheville bloggers for keeping me up on current events and happenings in Asheville.

To Now You See Them for always putting on a great show. I love your energy and your music and Diesel!
To Nikki Talley for playing 3 straight hours at The Beacon Pub.
To bus 29, for all the rides into and back from town.

To the waitresses at Cornerstones (especially Megan) who make our Sunday morning breakfasts so enjoyable.
To East Village Grill for your food and being so great with my Mom.
To Newbridge produce stand. Thank you for your great selection and always friendly welcome.
To Asheville Pizza and Brew for providing such a great place to see a movie.

To The Fine Arts Theatre, ditto.
To the mountains, woods and rivers for providing us with so much beauty.

To the turkeys roaming around who always make me smile.

To the black bear. You were awesome.

To our house (a very, very, very fine house!) for taking in all our friends and family over the year who have come to visit us and play some Rootball.

 

To Asheville, I love you.

Peace.

Buy Local

To those of you who live here in Asheville, I'm sure you have seen the "Buy Local" bumper stickers. Buying local is a big part of this town. We have so many great artists, shops, restaurants and breweries. The good people of Asheville know the importance of buying local. Two great articles in Mountain Xpress by Dan Clere, "Why Buy Local?" and Edgy Mama, "Buying local for your kids" highlight the positives of buying local. So before you head out to the mall for all that holiday shopping,  think instead of finding those great local shops. 

I know here in Asheville anything I could get at a mall store I can find at a locally owned business. Clothes, jewelry, chocolates, books, computers, you name it. I have friends and family that love getting "anything Asheville". Not only can I get something unique to Asheville, my dollars stay in Asheville, I'm helping out a neighbor and I get to meet new people who will remember me when I come back in. 

So think local. Support your community and neighbors.  

A Reformed Miller-Lite Drinker in Asheville

I confess. I grew up drinking Miller-Lite. Its just what my friends and I drank. That is up until a year and a half ago when I moved to Asheville. I am born again. Not in the religious sense although I think beer drinking here in Asheville is rather spiritual and moving. Nope, I have discovered the local Asheville beer scene. Between the local music scene and the local breweries, I think I have died and gone to heaven.
My husband and I are into all things local. We love everything Asheville has to offer. Especially the breweries. Asheville has become one of the premier spots in the south for craft brews. So we started to sample the beers. Being from an American Pilsner background, I have gravitated towards the Goldens/Blondes/Pilsners. First it was French Broad's Goldenrod Pilsner, then Pisgah's Endless Summer, the Asheville Pizza and Brew's Rocket Girl and the Wedge's Pilsner. All great beers but I CRAVE Pisgah's Endless Summer. My drink of choice every Saturday night when we go out.
I was thinking the other day that although I love the local brews, I have pretty much stuck with these beers. What kind of fan of the breweries am I if I don't expand my horizons and try the other styles of beer? So Saturday night I had my first Cold Mountain from Highland Brewing. Pretty good stuff. Not a beer I could drink all night but I found myself ordering another one Sunday evening. My husband has been trying the IPA's and they are very tasty indeed.
I have known people who are wine connoisseurs. I think I would someday like to be an Asheville beer connoisseur. That would be pretty cool. So I am starting my Asheville Beer education. Every week I will try a different brew from one of the local breweries. Anybody have any suggestions of what I should try next?

Oh How I Love Asheville!

Peace Asheville

Peace Asheville. JJ Big Paws.

Its That Time Again

So we used to live in Florida. Yes I know, we are "those" people who moved up here to torment you long standing citizens of Asheville. Trust me, we're not all bad. Actually we have several people here in Asheville that really like us. We sure like Asheville. Anyways, I still work for the same company I did when I lived in Florida. A friend of mine at work, who we call the company meteorologist, sends out hurricane updates. She's a hoot. So for the past week I have been getting updates on Gustav and Hanna. Oh the memories...
The year before we moved we were hit with Hurricane Wilma. Category 3 when it hit us. Not fun and quite scary. We didn't have power for 12 days. We actually came up here to Asheville a week into it just to get away and remember how nice it is to turn on a switch and have light. I don't miss hurricane season in Florida. It used to be kinda neat when hurricane season came around and you watched the tracks of hurricanes and hoped that the company would shut down for a day or two just on the threat of one coming close. But then Florida had 5 in one season, and it wasn't neat anymore.
So now I sit up here in these beautiful mountains of North Carolina and read the emails with the latest hurricane and its latest track. "T" (as I will call her) has a way of presenting the information on these storms in an entertaining manner and I really look forward to her updates. (She should blog, she'd be really good at it.) So now instead of wondering when I should start bringing in everything from the outside and pull close those shutters, I send my greetings and actually hope we get a little piece of the storm to relieve us from this drought. Oh the joys of Asheville!

Asheville Music

We had a very close friend in town last week. On Saturday, we headed over to the Biltmore Art Festival. Between our indecision on which painting to buy and the heat, we decided the best decision was to head over to the French Broad Brewery to cool off. We were lucky enough to catch Nikki Talley. Another in a long list of great musicians in the Asheville area.
My first introduction to the Asheville music scene was Christine Kane. I actually found her before moving here through her website. She is still my favorite. But since arriving, I have been fortunate to see alot of great bands and singers. Chuck Beattie has introduced me to the Blues. Rafe Hollister jams with an eclectic mix of bluegrass, country and rock and Nikki's lyrics and voice just mesmerize. What is great about the music scene here is all the original music. Cover songs are ok for background music but give me someone that has the guts to get up on stage and open themselves and their thoughts up to strangers.  I'll listen every time.
I can't wait for another Saturday night out in Asheville. So much music, so many venues.

What's "local"?

Since moving to Asheville, I have tried to be as much a "localvore" as possible. My husband and I haven't eaten at a national chain restaurant since we moved here. Asheville has great restaurants and there's no need to go anywhere but to a local restaurant. We try and buy our groceries from local farms and vendors. However, the other day we stopped by our local produce stand to get some great fruit. The fruit was marked "local" which we thought may have meant South Carolina. To me, South Carolina is a stretch when defining local  but when we asked we found out the fruit was from Florida! The owner's definition of "local" is the east coast. 

I felt betrayed. 

In the past the produce was marked "Weaverville", "Hendersonville", "South Carolina".  Now "local" means it could be shipped 800 miles! Will I stop shopping there? Well, I will go to the tailgate markets first and when I do go there I will surely ask where the produce is from. But the stand is still locally owned and I feel its better to buy from them than Ingles.

What's your definition of local?

Discovering Spring

This is my first spring in 30 years.
The last time I saw a spring I was 15 years old and had other things on my mind than watching nature wake up from a long winter.
I have lived in Florida for 30 years. You didn't much notice spring. As a gardener you noticed the impatients getting leggy and maybe Home Depot was starting to sell some summer flowers. But that was it.
I now live in Asheville NC. My paradise. My husband and I dreamed about living here for the last 10 years. Every morning now, I look for what has changed from the day before. New growth on our trees. Beautiful pinks and reds. More flowers sprouting up. Bumble bees and the sounds of birds. The hostas growing. A turkey walking past my window. It is all so beautiful! It is all so inspiring!

A New Asheville design

JJ Big Paws has created a new design in the
Asheville line: Asheville. Hot Bands. Cool Brews. New type that looks great on any color tee-shirt.
Asheville, NC has such great and talented bands. Bands local to Asheville and regional bands from Greenville to Knoxville. Fantastic venues to hear the tunes. Couple that with the local brews and you have an unbeatable combination that makes Asheville so unique. We have several local breweries in Asheville that serve up some tasty brews!
Our intention was to make a design that was as hot as the music scene and as cool as the local brews.

The Asheville Design Line at JJ Big Paws

The Asheville line. 

Funky Asheville, Uber Cool Asheville. I created these designs to fit the personality of Asheville. 

I love Asheville. I have been visiting Asheville for the past 10 years and moved up to Asheville in the summer of 2007. The people, the music, the mountains. I don't think I ever want to leave. I created a website that I just started up and is going through growing pains but have a look around, LivinAsheville.com. We have another blog there about life in Asheville. 

Anyways, getting back to the designs! The Asheville line has the 4 designs you see here. You can get these designs on everything from shirts, bumper stickers, caps, magnets, etc. There are some great shirt styles, my favorite are the black long sleeve tees. The baseball jerseys and the ladies tank tops are also big sellers. 

You can see all the merchandise at JJ Big Paws. 

Also check out our Squidoo page: Asheville T-Shirts at JJ Big Paws design.