Edgy Mama

Faces of Asheville is a rocking photography project created by the uber-adorable and talented Jenny Bowen. Jen needs 100 more portraits of Asheville folks–those who call AV home, for whatever deep, spiritual reason–by the end of March. So sign up and show up. It takes about 10 to 15 minutes. And you might end up in a book. I did it. zen did it. Fliss did it. I’m taking the kidlings and the Dorkie Poo next week for portraits. Join us?

I wrote a satirical piece on greening your wedding for Mountain Xpress’ green wedding guide this week. The rest of the guide has some truly good advice and lots of local contacts.

Isn’t it great that I’m finally getting paid to be a smarta**?

Today’s Edgy Mama column for Mt. Xpress is all about dental trauma. When I told my pediatric dentist that I’d written about him and my boy’s reaction to him, he posited the theory that no one really likes having their face messed with. Since much of our experience of the world comes via mouth, nose, and eyes, this theory makes sense to me!

Finally, I’m getting photo uploads to work consistently! Hurrah! This is an out take from a shoot I did recently at French Broad Chocolate Lounge. Pictured is their “Quintessential” Chocolate Cake. I have yet to taste it. I have, however, orgasmically downed a couple cups of their liquid truffles: 4 ounces of melted chocolate ganache with added spices. The cayenne/cinnamon sipping chocolate rocks my world.

This week’s been about work and family, family and work. And some fun.

E-spouse’s brother, his wife, and their four-year-old twins were in town from the Boston area for the week. Adorable cousin time. Fun-family-filled evenings for all of us. Followed, of course, by diarrhea and vomiting for two out of the four kids. Another day in the life of parenting and germs.

Otherwise, I’ve continued to be obsessed with the article I’m writing for Mountain Xpress. I’m almost done, though it’s still not perfect. Articles never are, but I can still try, can’t I? Look for it on March 5.

Also, still working out glitches on the Wordpress transfer. My Blue Puzzle has been puzzling out some of the transfer problems. Another friend told me he recently transferred a blog to Wordpress, and the first 95% of the work was easy. It was the 5% of tweaking that took tons of time and energy.

Also attended the Asheville Art Museum’s opening and announcement of their upcoming smArt Speak Distinguished Artist series, featuring visits from Guerrilla Girls, Art Spigelman, and (gasp) Christo. The party was fun and brought home to me again that I’m not very cool, especially when compared to all these artistically dressed folks. I heard I was seen on the TV news running my mouth at the party.

In other news, Day in the Life of Asheville will happen again this spring, Saturday, April 19, to be exact. If you’re a fotog and like to shoot up our town, please participate. It’s always a learning experience. And lots of fun! Great meeting, guys and girls. Thanks for coming out and volunteering to help with the process. On my gallery page, you can check out my shots from DILOA’s 2007 spring and fall editions.

Happy Sunday!

I’m still struggling with Wordpress. When the file transfer took place, none of my photos transferred. So now there are all this random posts that make no sense. Like one that just says, “Biscy celebrates the season.” Whatever.

That said, I’ve discovered another fun way to waste time on-line. It’s called Good Reads. It’s a fun, easy way to create a database of books you’ve read, are reading, and plan to read. And you can keep up with reviews and recommendations from other readers. Don’t you want to become my reading buddy?

That would be me. Check out this week’s Edgy Mama Mt. X column. All about refereeing sibling battles.

The highlight of this past week was probably going to my boy’s “author celebration.” The kindergarteners got to sit, one by one, in the “big” rocking chair. Then each “read” his or her “small moment” story while showing off the accompanying illustrations. My boy wrote about going to a birthday part at Chuck E. Cheese. He drew a rocking picture of the huge animatronic mouse that looks suspiciously like our current President. Poor kid never gets to go to places like Chuck E. Cheese because his parents are haters, so this was one of the highlights of his year.

All the kids were so pleased with themselves and their stories. Adorable!

The lowlight of the past week was probably my bi-annual mammogram. Actually, it was better than in the past, because the technician used this foam pad under my boobs, which definitely eased the discomfort. Still, there’s nothing like getting your breasts flattened between two moving metal plates. The technician told me it used to be much worse for women, because it was difficult to control the plates and they would just keep smushing and smushing, and the tech would have to run over and release the poor woman’s boob. Ouch!

In other news, I had my hair cut and colored this week. I got some wispy bangs cut, which I think I like–I kind of look like a teenager with crow’s feet. The stylist layered my hair a bit too much, which means that, unless I dry it straight, I get that 80s big hair look. Even more like an old teenager. Scary.

Oh, and both the boy and I woke up with drainage and a low-level cough today. Please let it not be the flu. I’m in the middle of writing a huge (cover) story for Mountain X. And we have family from Boston coming in town this week. Pray for us.

So how was your week? Any exciting reports?

P.S. I rarely link to my business profiles for the AC-T because the newspaper breaks the links after a couple of weeks, but here’s today’s profile on the French Broad Chocolate Lounge, which I think some of you chocophiles will enjoy.

Forget flowers and romance. For me, Valentine’s Day is all about good dark chocolate.

I have no clue why chocolate is synonomous with VD for many of us, and though I Googled it madly, I could only find stats (such as: while 75% of chocolate purchases are made by women all year long, during the days before Valentine’s Day, 75% of the chocolate purchases are made by men. Over $1 billion of chocolate is purchased for Valentine’s Day).

My unconfirmed guess is that chocolate is considered an aphrodisiac, so it makes sense to give some to your lover on the day we celebrate love. Thank God the tradition isn’t to gift oysters.

Luckily, here in Asheville, we are blessed with many options for chocolate gorging. In fact, I plan to eat only chocolate on VD, supplemented, perhaps, by a fruity Belgian beer.

Here’s my diet plan for the day: breakfast: liquid truffle at French Broad Chocolate Lounge (4-ounces of spiced, melted ganache–can you say orgasmic?); lunch: The Chocolate Fetish–a box of mixed truffles; snack: spoonfuls of UlliMama’s raw chocolate; dinner: Lake Champlain Five-Star Nut & Fruit Bar (my only non-local choice); dessert: a selection of Rum and Vodka-infused chocolates from Euromarket.

What are your chocolate plans for VD?