5 signs your relationship is over

1. He texts to say he can't hang out because he needs to do his laundry
2. He invites you to gay trivia night and knows all the answers
3. You find the mix cd you made him in the backseat of his car...on the floor
4. He knows what "social cards" are and orders a box of 250
5. He doesn't think Seinfeld is a funny show

Whitewater

Had a blast on our staff whitewater trip yesterday!  Thanks to our awesome guide, Sandy from Blue Heron Whitewater, no one fell out of the raft and there were smiles all around.  Hayley and I were the guests of honor (it was our goodbye trip) so we got to sit up front and get soaked.

The trip was a great reminder that what we do everyday at RiverLink is important and necessary.  It wasn't too long ago that no one wanted to get anywhere near the French Broad because it was so polluted-- now there are at least 5 outfitters making a living off rafting it!

Update!

Standing on a shrimp boat at the Atlanta Aquarium

Sorry for the delay---twas on a road trip with my best friend, Andrea Medaas!  Together we traveled the height of America* (Georgia--> N.Carolina--> Pennsylvania--> New York--> Ontario--> Ohio). 

We drove a total of 1900 miles last week!  It was pretty exhausting but definitely worth it. Along the way we: gained atleast 10 pounds, lost a friend (matt from texas ran away from us in the distillery district), hung out with a crazy brit, and saw baby belugas.

Andrea is now in Chicago and I'm back in NC for my last month of RiverLink.  It's always sad to say goodbye, but thinking about how we'll be driving through Italy in 2013 makes it a little easier.

*In order for this statement to be true, I've taken the liberty of substituting Florida with Ontario.

Cute Attack!

My brother and sister-in-law (or Jason and Susie as they're known) are raising 4 kitties.  This one (rat tail?) posed for a picture in between naps and feeding.  I've never liked cats, but looking at that little face kind of makes me want one...or four.

dancing, music, art, and the French Broad River

Yesterday night was the inaugural performance at the RiverLink Sculpture and Performance Plaza.  The space is right on the river and (besides the train) is an ideal spot for a performance.  Molly Rose Freeman worked for months painting the mural you see in the photo, Garth Grimball choreographed and starred in the dance and music by Michael Libramento was played live at the venue.

...and it was great!

Campsite

We had the job of planting trees marinated in manure

cold andddddddd soggy

Project Conserve spent the afternoon in Etowah building the first campsite for the French Broad River Paddle Trail today.











When we found out we would be meeting at Misty Meadow Lane for the project, we thought the day would be full of marshmallow islands and rainbow bridges, but boooooy were we wrong.

ha! perfect.

Fresh picked

Tis the start of summer and our garden is bursting with fruit!  Each day we pick about two bowls full of strawberries.  The only way to use them up before they go bad is to incorporate strawberry into everything-- strawberry ice cream, strawberry cereal, strawberry pasta?--but still there are plenty left over.   I think it might be time to take up jam-making.

ONE YEAR FRIENDVERSARY

One year ago yesterday, Zach Nichols and I became fast friends when he moved in next door to me at the ole Cradle-o-Forestry.  He sent this delightful boutique of flowers yesterday to mark the occasion!

Now I know I've been friends with people for longer than a year before, yet this is the first time I can recall getting a friendversary flower arrangement. There's just something not right about that.

Yesterday

I went up to Grandfather Mountain (about 2 hours northeast of Asheville) yesterday for a Project Conserve program.  After a very long and exhausting weekend, I was happy to have a day out of the office on Monday.  We had a relaxing hike along the Profile Trail and  a less relaxing trek along the mile high swinging bridge. 

Mile high swinging bridge

Only 3 months left in these mountains.  :(

bored black bear in captivity

RiverLink Earth Day

Decorating rain sticks at RiverLink Earth Day

Happy belated earth day everybody!   RiverLink had their own celebration on Saturday afternoon.  We had a craft table (manned by yours truly), a rain barrel clinic and electronics recycling.  The event was pretty well attended and, according to the number crunching done today, a successful fundraiser!   

5,000, please!

Get it while it's hot!  I just placed an order for 5,000 of these puppies (ie static stickers). 

The more you know.

My boss handed me this today after he found it in his office.  Apparently, not too long ago, there was a preacher named Robert E. Harris that would ride around Asheville on horseback spreading the gospel.  He was a Circuit Rider, the name given to traveling preachers during the 18th and 19th century.  Harris carried a bible and handed out religious pamphlets (like the one above) to everyone he met.  He is believed to have been the last Circuit Rider in the United States. I find the whole thing very fascinating.  If you do too, read more here.  The story of Robert E. Harris was big enough to make the LA Times in 1992.

Fitz & the Tantrums

Ella and I just saw Fitz & the Tantrums perform at the Orange Peel tonight.  It was an amazingly fun show and a great way to start off the week.  If you ever get a chance to see them live, it's a must!  They aren't just talented musicians, they are phenomenal PERFORMERS.  Worth all $5 I spent on the ticket.  It won't be long 'til they are selling out every show.  They are VH1's  "You Outta Know" artist for April and were just on Jay Leno April 5th.  The recognition is well deserved!  

Thanks for the dance party!

Crowd shot taken by Mr. Fitz.  Can you find me?

Poster Design

I just entered a poster design contest for an upcoming Asheville event--The Mountain Sports Festival.  I don't think the winner is chosen based on the number of votes it gets, but you can vote for my design here (if you want).

Career Day

Would you believe it that I was a speaker at the Jones Elementary Career Day today?  If someone would have told me a year ago that I would be talking to our future generation about jobs in science, I would have told ya you're crazy!  That being said--I think I'm a natural.  I managed to talk a couple dozen kindergartner's into a career in soil conservation.

Peer Training

Just had one of my favorite days in Western North Carolina.  As part of peer training, a requirement of AmeriCorps, the 30 of us traveled down to Polk County to learn about small agricultural farming.  The highlight was when we hand fed corn cobs to the bison at the Nelon Knoll Farm and Jerry (owner) gave us each a pound of buffalo meat (!).  If you're interested in finding out more, check out their website.  They're good people!

edit, edit, edit

Tired of hearing about the WaterRich logo?  Good news--I think we are nearing completion!  Everyone on staff is on the same page. Now all I have to do is show it to the RiverLink Board tomorrow and pray they don't have suggestions :)

and we have a winner!

give or take some font changes and formatting.

The "water in the bank" logo didn't go over so well...

...and so the search continues.

Saluda, NC



Discussion


Ella, Claire and I traveled 35 miles south yesterday to see Pearson's Falls in Saluda, NC.  We also visited downtown Saluda, a happening spot with a main street of about 6 shops--4 of which were closed on Sunday.  However, the ones that were open made it worth it.  I got an amazing rootbeer float at an antique store with bottled IBC rootbeer and homemade ice cream.  

Pearson's Falls



The falls were also worth the drive---as you can see!

Have you seen this?

it's great.

WaterRICH

RiverLink recently received a grant from the Clean Water Management Trust Fund to design and write a Stormwater Management Guide for the Common Home.  The program will be called WaterRICH, with the RICH being an acronym for Reuse, Infiltration and Conservation in the Home.

Last week Nancy asked me if I'd create the logo for this program.  Here's my first design: "It's water in the bank".  I'll post more as I have them.  I'm going to make a couple different options and we will vote with the board in March.

via samantha lewis and in honor of valentine's day :)

Malawi!

Andrea Medaas (Best Friend for all eternity) sent me the most amazing birthday/Christmas gift today--a box full of African treasures from her time in Malawi.  Naturally, I put them on, one by one, as I was opening them. Unfortunately, this picture doesn't show everything.  I guess you'll just have to visit me in Asheville to see the rest.  INCENTIVE. 

Wiggily waggily

After one week away, the office cutie pie is back!  Mona was up to her usual tail waggin' and treat eatin' today.  What a good dog!

She hikes again!

I went on my first hike since moving to Asheville today and boy was it nice to be back in the woods.  It was also QUITE apparent that I'm not in the same physical shape I was in 6 months ago. 

Donor Party

RiverLink had its annual Donor Party last night.  We had a great turn-out and a nice spread of food, but the highlight of the night had to be working the name tag table.  These were two of the greatest names I heard all night--Bubbles Marlowe and Lemie Lentz.  They are right up there with Electa Coe.  Who names their kid Brittany when there are names like Lemie around?!

Long live the post office!

As a big proponent of the snail mail letter and pen palin', I was sad to find out that many people have stopped sending mail in favor of its cheaper cousin--email.  However, my faith in the world was restored when I read this article--find out why snail mail is far from dead!

heading home

Saying hello to the year of the rabbit..

Year of the Rabbit from Frater on Vimeo.

The internet is back up in Egypt today.

 

Four days ago, the Egyptian government shut down the internet.  The graph above shows the internet activity on January 28th (the day the internet stopped) compared with the previous days. People were up in arms about this shutdown (which is to be expected, considering that so much of our day-to-day lives depend on it- such as the maintenance of this charming blog) But it's funny to think back 17 years ago when most of the world didn't even know what the internet was.

Wired had an interesting article about the crisis in Egypt this morning. Even with Mubarak's speech yesterday and the internet being restored today, it doesn't look like the situation is any closer to being peaceful and under control.

Bill Murray Praises Sofia Coppola at the National Board of Review Gala

"I want the best for her because she’s a lady, she acts like a lady. The women in her movies are ladies, they have strength and they have power and they’re strong. Even the pole dancers in this movie had enough of themselves to call the lead actor a moron, as all you women should call your men this evening – pole or not."

Sophia's latest movie, Somewhere, is out in theaters now, but hasn't made it to Asheville yet (surprisingly!).  I guess I'll have to wait or drive to Charlotte to see it.

A Jane Seabrook illustration

A very hipster brunch



a file folder full of breakfast



graphically designed



a drawer for your eating utensils



The best birthday present a girl could ask for...

...Andrea and Laura visit Victoria Falls in Zambia.  (I didn't even know I was there!)  It's one of the 7 natural wonders of the world, ya know?

Video

It's fantastic how many people call us up and want to volunteer, spread the word, or give money to RiverLink, because they believe so strongly in our mission to revitalize the French Broad River.  A few weeks ago, I got a call from Sabrina Nizzi, an independent video ethnographer who wanted to film someone from RiverLink about our accomplishments and upcoming projects.  I put her in touch with Karen and the rest...is this video!

Winter Warmer Beer Festival

I know you were all hoping to see photos of me emptying spit buckets at the Asheville Winter Warmer Beer Festival.  Unfortunately (and luckily) that wasn't caught on camera. 

For more photos visit the RiverLink flickr page at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/57962806@N06/

RiverLink's fancy new t-shirt

...so you can tell the world that you value a clean French Broad River!

"we gotta do this more on the regular, stop making these days holidays"

Riverlink and UNCA volunteers help clear out Ross Creek off Kenilworth Rd yesterday as part of MLK Day of Service. Meanwhile in west Asheville, Americorps and the Burton Street Community Association clean up Smith Mill Creek. 

Four RiverLink employees working two different clean-ups (all in the same news clip!)

fun with mirrors

Sunday Morning

+

Postcards from around the world

Updates!

Hey, so here's a website I just rediscovered--perhaps, you'd like to rediscover it too.

It's my portfolio!

Crazy Heart

Bad Blake: I don't remember the last time I saw someone blush.
Jean: I can't help it if my capillaries are close to the skin.

snow, snow, snow

We got HIT by the big winter storm of the south yesterday.  Luckily, it doesn't seem like we have it as bad as Atlanta or Greenville--no freezing rain, just lots of fluffy white snow.  This is what we're working with... what do you think, 6 inches?