Knives

A couple years ago, when a couple of dear friends of mine asked me what they could get me as a gift, I mentioned that I really needed a good set of knives. They picked up some knives for me…from the dollar store. I still love them anyway.

The problem with the dollar store knives is that the blades are so flimsy, they are really quite dangerous at times to use. Provided, of course, they will cut through anything. So here I am, a couple years later, and I could still use a good set of knives.

Ian and I headed out early this afternoon to do some shopping. I was going to purchase a couple new cookie sheets, as my last ones were ruined when my oven wouldn’t turn off.

The Prime Outlet Mall in Niagara Falls has a Corningware outlet, so we decided to hit there and then go see his grandparents. Of course, they rearranged the mall so it took me 20 minutes to find the Corningware outlet, but once we found it, it was completely worth it.

They were havin’ a sale. Lucky, lucky us.

All their Pyrex and Baker’s Secret bakeware was 30% off. I picked up two insulated cookie sheets, a pizza pan and a little frying pan for under $30. And then, as we were leaving, I spotted another sign.

Selected 12, 14 and 15-piece Chicago Cutlery knife sets were on sale. Regularly priced at $159.99, they were selling them for $59.99.

Sold!

Lucky, lucky me.

Pat Oliphant

Pat Oliphant sure does have a great way of looking at things!

Posted on my yahoo homepage on 4/25/09

Harry's Spaghetti Sauce

My sister emailed me and asked if I had a good sauce recipe from fresh tomatos. "You're kidding," I reply. "You don't need me. You need an Italian!" I did my best, however, and emailed her back:

Soooo, I spoke to a real live Italian for you. I said, How do you make sauce from tomatos? He said, How do YOU make sauce from tomatos? I said, yeah. He said, Heard of Prego? Everybody gotta be a smart***. :D

I told him no, really, my sister has a garden and she's growing tomatos. She wants to can a good sauce. Humph, he says. Like he doesn't quite believe me, but he'll humor me anyway. Here it is:

He says, I don't do no measurements. Everything is to taste. Gotta taste it as you go, okay? Suuuure, I say.

Ok. Take your tomatos, blanch 'em and peel 'em. Then smoosh 'em up with your hands, just git yer hands in there and smoosh 'em up. To which I reply, Eeeuuu.

Then, in a big, big pan, saute up in EVOO (that would be olive oil to us ordinary, non-Italian folk) some basil, oregano, parsley, a hot pepper, onion, and garlic. Do it on low heat so everything gets tender, but don't let your garlic get black. Then throw in the smooshed up tomatos. Fresh tomatos are watery, so you're going to need a big ole can of paste, and maybe a can of puree to thicken it up. Add in some mustard (squeeze the bottle once all the way around the pan), hot sauce to taste, some sugar. Throw in some pork neck bones. It's gotta have pork, no matter what. That's what gives it richer flavor. Add parmesean cheese and stir, parmesean cheese and stir, parmesean cheese and stir. Lots of parmesean.

You've got to keep an eye on it all the time. Listen. (He must have noticed my eyes glazing over.) All The Time. It's got to be on low, low heat, like one or two. If you walk away, it'll burn. You gotta stay right there and stir often. How long? I ask. Oh, at least five or six hours, he says, I start my sauce early in the morning and cook it right up til we eat, he says. The longer you cook it, the better it tastes.

I say, just can the blanched/peeled tomatos.

Prego is $3.49 a jar and takes about 2 minutes in the microwave.

Still not feelin' good...

Just a Little Bug

Why is it called 'a bug'? "A bug" sounds so...innocuous. Nothing really..."just a little bug". Meanwhile, I'm wondering how much a person can vomit before the stomach lining comes up, too.

And even better yet, I shared it with Ian!

We won't be at work or school today. Heck, we're barely among the living.

Hamlet 2

What else do you do when you don't feel up to doing anything? Lie around and watch movies, of course!

A friend of mine recommended Hamlet 2, saying it was the funniest movie he had seen in a long time. Here is the synopsis from http://www.blockbuster.com/:

"Steve Coogan stars in the comedy Hamlet 2, which follows a drama teacher who tries to put together a production of "Hamlet 2" to rescue his high-school theater department. Catherine Keener co-stars in the Andrew Fleming-helmed production. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide."

Unfortunately, it just wasn't my cup of tea. Perhaps I am too much of a Shakespeare aficionado, or perhaps nothing is really funny when I'm sick. I watched a solid 3/4 of the movie and couldn't find a reason to laugh. There is something for everyone, though, and I may check it out again when I recover.

International Space Station

How the International Space Station comes together:

http://i.usatoday.net/tech/graphics/iss_timeline/flash.htm

Fascinating!

Floride Treatment!

Gotta keep those pearly whites protected!

Ian Gets his Green Belt

Sensei Andrew instructing...

Tying on the new green belt...Leading the class in exercise...

Sensei said Ian is the youngest green belt he has awarded. He worked hard for it!

Silliness

Cheeburger Cheeburger has a clown that makes balloon things one night a week.

Drug Makers, Hospitals Raise Prices

The headline in the Marketplace section of the Wall Street Journal today is,

"Drug Makers, Hospitals Raise Prices"

followed by the sub-headline,

"Double-Digit Increases in Pharmaceutical, Other Costs Come as Washington Gears Up for a Fight".

Are you KIDDING me?

"Drug makers increased prices on drugs like ... the leukemia pill Sprycel by more than 20% in the first quarter from a year earlier ... HCA, Inc. said Tuesday it expects to report higher revenue for the first quarter even though it had fewer hospitals and its admissions declined. It also said its income before taxes had nearly doubled. ... "These kinds of price increases are way out of line with what's being experienced in the rest of the economy," said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA. ... Drug companies have increased prices agressively in recent months ... to wring sales out of products before any health-care cost-cutting efforts eat into profits."

Nice.

Imagine the brainstorm for that one.

"Hey, everybody! The economy is suffering, everybody seems to be down on their luck, people are having a hard time making their bills and paying their mortgages, what can we do to help?"

"I know! Let's raise the cost of their meds!"

Michael said... Kick 'em while they're down. And people ridicule me when I say we live in a fascist state. Harrrumph!!!

Good thing I like eggs!

His Highness, the Artist, loves to color eggs. It's fun, but what a mess! :D

The speckled egg. Obviously from a speckled chicken.

Let me pick which one you should eat first!

Bunny Loot.


How do you get this stuff off your hands?

It doesn't work that way...

I was speaking with a friend of mine the other day and had a really difficult time getting a message through.

She believes that the reason our country is in such financial difficulty is because we "keep giving money away", and we should just stop it, starting with the auto makers. I tried to tell her, it just doesn't work that way.

Let's say we let 'The Big 3' sink. That's hundreds of thousands of people who lose their jobs, hundreds of thousands more who lose their pensions or suffer income cuts. These people land on unemployment and would not make enough to keep their homes, so foreclosures go up. Banks would be faced with a ton of bad debt and property they can't get rid of, and they would fail. More people would be out of work and without benefits. These same hundreds of thousands of people would not be spending money, buying luxury items like cars or cell phones, perhaps not even able to pay their utilities or get groceries, so more and more businesses would fail. More people out of work, more people not spending, more people on unemployment or in welfare lines. Taxes would increase because who is going to support all these people who are on unemployment and working? The ones who still have jobs. Of course, those that still have jobs would be faced with higher taxes and higher prices for things, so they also will spend less, donate less to charitable organizations, and more businesses would fail, and more people would be out of work...it goes on.

And while this is all oversimplified, you can't just say "let them sink" without affecting everyone, absolutely everyone. It works the same for helping other countries; our country's economy is inextricable from that of others. We do not operate in a vacuum.

She claims our President has broken all his promises - didn't he promise to get us out of this economy mess and didn't he promise to bring our boys home? Yes, he did, but things like that don't happen overnight. Instant gratification just isn't going to happen. She thinks that all President Obama has to do is make a phone call and everything will be okay. I just can't get it through...IT DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY. Immediately withdrawing our troops and immediately withdrawing all aid to other countries would start a war, at the very least.

Speaking with someone who has their mind made up is incredibly frustrating. I still say, give President Obama a chance. He hasn't even been in office three full months.

Michael said... You cannot reason with an ideologue. And you cannot pry them away from the poison tit of right wing hate radio,where their every prejudice is validated. Better to spend your time with folks who are open to life and love.

Ethics

I have started my first 'real' course at WGU, "Ethical Situations in Business". Ethics have always interested me for at least two reasons that immediately come to mind.

First, I work in the legal field. Lawyers are required to take so many ethics CLE courses every two years. And sad to say, there are SO many unethical lawyers...the very nature of the business seems to offer opportunities for unethical behavior.

Second, I had a very strict upbringing. My parents always saw things in black and white, with no gray area between. It has taken me years to learn that life is not really like that. There are many shades of gray, and sometimes just having sound moral principles isn't enough.

AIG Outrage

Compliments of Obiwan in Seattle. My brother is an amazing web surfer. :D

Check this out - it's eleven minutes long, but well worth it.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Education Without Boundaries

I just finished my first course at Western Governors University called Education Without Boundaries, and let me say I was nothing less than impressed.

WGU offers a TON of resources for the on-line student. Unlike ECC, I have a mentor. She is a real, live person who will be with me every step of the way as I complete my BS in Finance, and she is my first "who ya' gonna call" if I run into a jam.

The library is on-line, but if I need to, I can have books (with the exception of textbooks) shipped to my home to use. I will have access to full-text articles and just about everything I need for research. I am a member of the Accounting and Finance on-line community, which includes facilitators and other students, just like me, to go to for assistance or support, or to give assistance or support. There are chat rooms that can be used for on-line study groups. And on almost every page, there is a link to a live chat with an on-line mentor for immediate assistance.

This 'place' is amazing! I think I have been given every possible tool I can think of to succeed. Wish me luck!

I'm just not ready yet.

So here are Ian and I, quietly sitting at a table at Toni Pepperoni's, eating pizza and quietly discussing getting a computer repaired (yes, my 8-year-old and I discuss such things), when in walked two little girls from his school. . . .

. . . and they Screamed that awful girl-scream and jumped up and down waving their arms and yelling . . . .

"Ian's here! Oh My God! Oh My God! Ian's here! Look Mom! Oh My God! It's Ian!"

Their father looked at them like they had just landed, and a guy at a table next to ours said, "What? Did the Jonas Brothers just walk in?" Lots of laughter. Ian turned Beet Red and quietly said,

"Boy. It's sure hard to eat when girls are looking at you."

I'm not ready for this!

Melania said...
this is fabulous!!!! I guess we aren't too far behind. Perhaps you should be thrilled that Ian is a well liked boy!

Jeff said...
:) "every girl's crazy for a sharp dressed man" I am sure his majesty will soon sing a different tune... Poor Calvin :)

School is In Session

I had my orientation yesterday, my business community orientation today, and I just finished my first 'module' (out of 8) in my first course, "Education Without Boundaries".

Off and running!