Fuzzco

With the addition of Corey and our temporary office buddy, Gog the dog, we’ve got 4 reds in the office these days. Thank you Squire, as always, for the snappy pics.

Oh and P.S. Happy Valentine’s Day.

Please join Enough Pie for a lecture by Mike Lydon of The Street Plans Collaborative on Tactical Urbanism: a lighter, quicker, cheaper approach to improving urban spaces through collaborative efforts.  Tactical urbanism seeks to create lasting change from short-term, low-risk community driven projects such as temporary parks, guerrilla crosswalks and streating, just to name a few.

Enough Pie is a non-profit supporting creative placemaking on the Upper Peninsula through creative programming, community development initiatives and tactical urbanism projects. The lecture will also serve as their official launch, so join the Enough Pie team to learn more about their mission and exciting opportunities to become involved.

The lecture will be hosted on Thursday, January 10th at 7pm at Stage Presence Event Rentals warehouse, located at 2201 Mechanic Street. Free parking, restrooms will be provided. The event is free and open to the public.

For more information about the event, please visit http://www.facebook.com/events/303996083053533/ or check out their website www.enoughpie.org.

If you have any questions about the event, say hello to Enough Pie on Twitter @EnoughPie or drop them a line at info@enoughpie.org.

We’ve been loving our subscription to Kinfolk.  It’s a beautiful, thoughtful magazine that reminds us to slow down and enjoy the world around us. The sixth issue features a recipe and photographs by our good friend Olivia Rae James. Helen and Josh’s courtyard and our own Blake Suarez make a cameo in the article. We recommend you try Olivia’s recipe for Truffle Cauliflower soup. We’ve been lucky to have had it and it’s amazing!

We went sailing in the Charleston Harbor yesterday courtesy of the Charlie Club with our friends Tim and Elise. We tried to feel the changes in the wind as they hit our face and the pull of the carpet of water beneath us. I don’t think any of us are meant for a boat but hanging out down below was pretty cool.

If you applied for the Creative Director or Marketer positions on our site Wednesday or Thursday morning we did not get your application. We would be so honored if you’d reapply. Our apologies. Here is a cute picture of Brother that hopefully eases the pain.

Last week Josh and Helen went on a fact-finding mission to NYC. Some highlights:

The compound that is Stumptown, The Ace Hotel, John Dory, Opening Ceremony, and Project No. 8 is incredible. It’s hard NOT to want to go there every day. We found ourselves there quite often for coffee, oysters and lounging.

When in Brooklyn we went to Blue Bottle Coffee, Cafe Collette, Walter Foods and Maison Premier.

We saw friends.

We went out for drinks with the Bitters Man, BT Parsons.

Josh played chess.

We captured an NYPD Blue-per. (What you can’t see too well is the river of blue paint that spilled from a massive bucket.)

We witnessed another blooper of a deadlier kind.

Then we ate and ate and ate. Some of our favorites were Peels, Cafe Gitane, John Dory, Esca, and The Dutch.

We demoed our new project management software.

We got inspired by bathrooms.

Next week we will be in San Francisco. Hit us up if you want to hang out!

The company celebrated a year’s hard work at the Grocery back in January. Everyone in their best, drinking and dancing and tasting foods.

The following day we had a party which included partaking in something between killing zombies and playing pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey.

Colorado was beautiful and totally distracting and great. Some highlights and happenings:

•  Mason farted 1202 times
•  we learned how to ski on the bunny hill
•  some of us skied quite well
•  Helen’s knee played like a bird’s neck twisting all the way around
•  one of us did not like skiing
•  most of us LOVED skiing
•  Josh was excellent at the pizza
•  we ate almond butter out of a ketchup packet
•  we wore six layers of clothes and packed in like sardines for snowy road trips
•  we spent quality time on our phones
•  we had brunch
•  we had brunch
•  we had brunch
•  we slept on a couch
•  we made fires
•  Kristen made a mean breakfast
•  our toes froze
•  we plunged hot hands packets into our shoes
•  we wore pretty much the same thing the whole time
•  we made coffee
•  we drank coffee
•  we didn’t shower regularly
•  we learned about trailer parks
•  we hugged Anya
•  we liked Boulder
•  we liked Denver
•  we liked Kevin
•  we liked Kevin’s girlfriend Lynner
•  we liked the snow
•  we spent a lot of money on jerkie
•  we did photo shoots
•  we took photos with our phones
•  we posed for photos
•  we got car sick
•  we drank good beer
•  we soaked in a hot spring
•  we soaked with old naked people in a hot spring
•  we soaked with old naked people in a hot spring for hours
•  we took buses
•  we went to the mall
•  we drank nyquil and went to bed before 10 at night
•  we watched movies
•  we slept at a hotel in Steamboat with a Swiss guy that Mason made friends with that talked a lot and then called us late at night to see if we were smoking because his alarm went off, but we weren’t we were just “burning incense”
•  we slept at a hotel in a scary neighborhood in Denver
•  we walked in parks through snow
•  we ate snow off of the ground many, many times
•  we wondered about strange noises at night in the trailer park
•  we had to secure our hotel door because it was a two way door and our side wouldn’t lock, so we secured it with the nightstand and a metal luggage rack
•  we tried on pink cowboy hats
•  we tried on denim jackets
•  we ate sushi in landlocked colorado
•  we ate thai food and vietnamese green mango salads
•  we ate a lot of eggs
•  we saw horses roll around on the ground
•  we saw horses wearing blankets

Beer, fist fights, foot-long hot dogs, pretzels and an arts and crafts hour. One of those probably doesn’t match up, but it can, and does in our world. Last year the Fuzzcos drove north, to the Charleston Convention Center, to watch the South Carolina Stingrays smart the Gwinnett Gladiators, with an epic 3-2 win. I’ve been archiving photos from my iPhone and came across some beauties, which prove a unity of arts and crafts and pure testosterone.

For most of us, this was our first Stingrays game, but Mason and I already knew we were their biggest fans; we just didn’t have jerseys.

Step 1 to Becoming a Number 1 Fan: The Template Study

Mason cutting, oh-so-delicately, our blue felt base

Fast-forward all the cutting, and add lightning and jewels for electricity. (We would have sewn everything, but hot glue saves time)

Three minutes into the game and a fist fight electrifies our lightning and jewels.

N1SFFL (Number 1 Stingray Fans For Lyfe)

Two weekends back we celebrated the double Birthday of Fuzzcohort ,Caleb Yarian, and friend of the Fuzz, Josh Walker, with an overnight trip to Ridgeville, SC. Here we played old-world yard games like badminton or horse shoes and  killed targets with a .22 rifle. While we remained well aware that guns don’t kill people, we were extremely mindful not to start the heavy drinking until all ammo had been spent.

(Above: Kristen the Teacher demonstrates to the group how not to hold the target.)

(Above: Dulaan kills this target / pose with the .22 rifle. Yay! Bulls-eye!)

(Above: This Luger is obviously too deadly gangster to shoot. But in truth, its too dirty, and nobody dares to put their fingerprints on it.)

Ammo spent, we left the woods to visit Duke’s BBQ. Duke’s is a weekend only, all-you-care-to-eat-but-beware-big-eyes buffet. It is good all the way down and if you should decide to visit, make sure to b.y.o. spoon, b.y.o. cash, and see the business card shelf:

(Above: We aren’t sure what “honey doin’” is, but we like it.)

(Above: Post Duke’s real-country-store digestion session.)

(Above: Most who play rail-chicken die, but win. The few who survive mourn during a back-o-the-truck, back-o-the-woods ride home.)

Upon our return, the celebration of life takes place with heavy drinking, interrupted only by a tour of Neighbor Tommy’s 40 years-in-the-making taxidermy shop. The inquisitive city-folk in us fired more questions at him than bullets at the range, and however parched we were for answer-juice, we could not drain him. For his brain-fountain of knowledge proved to be a never-ending gusher. Learning ensued:

Neighbor Tommy tells us: squirrels are among the most difficult woodland creatures to stuff (probably too squirrelly). As well are fish, due to the painting process required which involves layer after layer of translucent paints.

Neighbor Tommy tells us: pets are out of the question (why shouldn’t we enjoy Brother’s lovable face forever?). You see, the prefabricated forms used with the popular game (deer, snakes, moose, etc.) don’t exist for our cuddly domestics. One alternative to form stretching is to use of wet wood pulp, creating a moldable paste. The process is pretty straight forward, however the anatomical structure becomes questionable looking even for the most seasoned taxidermists such as Neighbor Tommy.

Know-How Tommy tells us: about a wolf pack attacking a buffalo at an animal stuff-off competition (or something). Unfortunately, I was absent taking photos and missed most of this seemingly titillating story. Fortunately, the unrelated shots remain:

(Above: We didn’t ask any questions about this little guy.)

Tell-All Tommy keeps animals with beating hearts as well. Plenty of chickens, two roosters, a bunch of chicks that were a total surprise to him, pheasants, large quantities of high-quality quail, and a duck that thinks of himself as a rooster. He also fosters two glorious deer who live in a fence built for a tennis court, but hardly ever play tennis. Blake and I wandered beyond this and into the woods where we found two old school buses. They must have been there for a long time because all around were grown-ass trees, making any attempt at a tow-away escape futile.

Later, back at the country house, awkward, haunting things took place which our memories have replaced with dark, but happy voids. In the morning, we ate 1000 tiny chicken eggs and walked to the pond where the legendary white catfish lives. Catch him and you get a wish, for he is a catwish!

(Above: Helen sacrifices her body to build a bridge to Catwish Pond.)

Believe it or not, Helen noodles the catwish out, and not taking the myth seriously, squanders all infinite possibilities by wishing for a pair of XL boys long-johns in place of pants “with red stripes!”. Regardless of her disbelief, her wish came true. And we laughed. And it was at her and not with her and it was good.

(Above: Helen’s new pants and our tired dogs.)

The end.