And what are YOU going as?
(Thanks, Michelle!)
[UPDATE: The goat’s name is EE, pronounced “E.E.”]
October, 2010:
Highway 50: There’s Snow in Them Thar Hills!
You thought I died, didn’t you. DIDN’T YOU?
You wish. Then you could come over here and steal my blog posts and awesome million dollar advertising campaigns like soldiers stealing shoes off dead men in war. Well, this blogosphere is a war of sorts and the competition for eyeballs is cut throat so I don’t even blame you.
But the truth of the matter is I have a writing gig for realz (as in, for actual money) and if I can’t can’t chew gum and walk at the same time, what makes you think I can blog and write for realz at the same time? Also, I am on vacation in Lake Tahoe (internet robbers don’t get excited, I left my husband and killer doberman pinscher [how do you spell pinscher? why do I think there is an “s” in there?] at home)
So anyway, driving to South Lake Tahoe isn’t bad as long as you don’t do it on a Friday night with the rest of the world, and you don’t do it during ski season, and you don’t do it during a snowstorm, and you don’t do it when chains are required. Highway 50 often parallels the American River so I jumped out at one point to take a picture for you.
At least I think that’s the American River, how would I know? Does this look like the American River to you? Here’s another shot looking down river. Now does it look like the American River?
Oh, who cares. My point is that it’s pretty. And I pulled over just for YOU. God knows you’ve pulled over for me enough times to catch that perfect goat shot.
Highway 50 is a very pretty drive in general, winding through the El Dorado National Forest and about eleventy million pine trees.
You can click to enlarge any of these photos.
Somewhere along this curvy pine tree-laden road is the small town of Kyburz. How small is it you ask?
I was supposed to leave for Tahoe on Sunday, but I had to wait until Monday because the ONE DAY I planned to drive up there, which requires that you climb a 7,000 foot high mountain in your car, SOMEBODY (not me) decided that it would rain like mad with 120 MPH wind gusts. And I’m glad I didn’t drive up on Sunday because it also did this!
It was about the time I saw this snow that I realized I’d forgotten to pack a jacket. And since I’m not one to turn around and go back home if I’m more than 100 yards from my house, you can bet I wasn’t going to do it at the 87 mile point either. I thought, well, maybe it’s not that cold. I mean the sun is out and the storm is gone, surely we’ll go back to being our warm seventy-degree something selves, right? I checked my dashboard.
Yikes! I don’t suppose anybody knows an inexpensive jacket shop at the BEGINNING of winter in this ski resort town?
Goat Thing of the Day: Killers and Job Stealers
Since most of the news about goats this week is bad - they are either evil killers or destroying America - let’s begin with something cute and cuddly and nice that Rene sent in. These photos were taken at Brookdale Farms in Hollis, NH. Imagine cute cuddly music playing in the background. Let’s celebrate these caprine creatures before we cower in fear of them, shall we?
And now on to the nastiness that has taken over this country of late.
One nasty goat in Olympic National Park in Washington actually killed a guy, did you hear about this? (Many people sent this in, too many to count and thank, actually.) An aggressive mountain goat gored a man and then stared down anybody who tried to help him. ACK!
In response to this story, Buzzfeed provides a list of 14 Goats that want to kill you.
(Image from Buzzfeed. Thanks, Thomas!)
In other news, it’s festival season in Nepal, India, and as we learn from Brian Smith in his blog, Mr. Smith goes to Kathmandu, “it’s not a good time to be a goat in Nepal” right now.
(image from Mr. Smith Goes to Kathmandu. Thanks Barbara!)
Did you catch Stephen Colbert’s story last week about how goats are destroying America because they are taking jobs away from landscapers? Goat haters also complained that goats leave little things behind too, making for messy clean-up. I tried to tell the lovely people over at Comedy Central that Nanny Goats in Panties was the perfect solution to keep those goat berries at bay, but they have yet to respond with an exclusive interview. Here’s the video…
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c |
| People Destroying America- Goats Steal Landscaping Jobs | |
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And now back to the fuzzy soft cuddly stuff. Meet Pasqualina (owned by Michelle of Goat Berries). Pasqualina is Miss April in the 2011 Nanny Goats in Panties calendar.
You can purchase the calendar at the NGIP Merch Store. Be sure to enter promo code FALLCALENDAR and get 25% off.
UPDATE: Use promo code 2011CALENDAR and get 30% off! (until 11/3).
Mushrooms? Blech. But YOU Go Ahead.
Smashburger, located out in BFE (aka Citrus Heights) had eluded me until recently when I went out with my ladies lunch club, oddly called Ladies Who Lunch (if you want to join this exclusive club there’s a ten page application, and some family members get a huge discount on the dues in order to encourage membership, while other family members have to pay a steep fee in order to discourage it - this means YOU, Aunt Bertha).
Anyway, have you ever been to Smashburger? It a big bright clean friendly place. I think their ceilings are 75 feet high. Or something like that. Big ass billboards bedeck the walls.
Now, I don’ t know about you, but I’m a tomato snob and if your tomatoes are not red, ripe, and flavorful, I am not interested and since 99.999999% of the time, your tomatoes are indeed NOT red, ripe and flavorful, I will not waste either of our precious time asking for them. Luckily, Smashburger’s menu is not only diverse, but also flexible.
I don’t want all the fancy stuff on my cheeseburger. I just want ketchup, mustard, and pickles and that’s pretty much it. None of that “special sauce” for me. Of course, bacon is a given on any burger (or sandwich, or pancake breakfast, or ice cream sundae, or shoes), but as this was my first time, I wanted to try a simple cheeseburger.
And some fries. I think all burger joints should be judged by their fries. I mean, let’s face it, if you met a cool guy who was a great conversationalist and a big hit at parties, would you hang out with him as much if his wife were a shrew? Exactly. Anyway, if the cheese is melted and not burnt, they get extra points, so this burger of mine was a smash hit! (Get it? Smash hit, because…the place is called….oh, never mind)
Now, I embrace burger diversity. You can have whatever you want on your burger and I will not judge. Two ladies in our party ordered the Mushroom Swiss Burger, which, gag me with a spoon, but I’m not the one who has to eat it, so they could knock themselves out with that slimy snail-like raw oysterish fungi on their burger. What I will applaud, however, was one of their alternatives to french fries: fried pickles.
FYI: fried pickles = awesome. They brought us various dipping sauces for the fried pickles, or the sweet potato fries, I forgot which, but I tried it and yum!
Meanwhile, another member of our party tried the Buffalo Smashchicken and thought it delicious.
They even have salads and fried asparagus spears. I just wish they were closer to my home. Instead, because they are in Citrus Heights and Folsom, a couple of the outer-lying villages surrounding Sacramento, I have to pack a rucksack, camping gear and the like, just so I can try a dang burger.
Have you ever tried Smashburger? Did you have to drive or take a plane to get there? And what did you think of the place?
I’m now down to one last burger chain to try and that’s Sonic Burger. Wherever THEY are. I see the commercials, but I’ve never run across one in this city. Personally, I think they’re made up. Someone is yanking our chain trying to get us excited about a fictitious burger. I’m sure of it. When I finally do locate one, they’d better not have shrews for fries.
NGIP Calendar Giveaway
Hey, guess what! The Broken Teepee blog is giving away a 2011 Nanny Goats in Panties Calendar, so run over there and enter her “Tricks and Treats Giveaway”.
Goat Thing of the Day: Goat Art
A creamsicle goat painted by Erin of The Gluten-Free Illustrator.
This image is for sale in Erin’s Etsy Shop.
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Alert NGIP reader Connie, of The Young and Relentless, stumbled on this piece of art and snapped a pic at a flower shop in Lakewood, Colorado.
Marnie Jones of Brays of Our Lives took this next photo.
Gardenhome Spring (foreground) is Miss March in the NGIP 2011 Calendar, which can be purchased in the NGIP Merch Store. Be sure and enter FALLCALENDAR as the promo code to get 25% off.
