Where did i put the dog's booties?!

I don't own a decent winter scarf, i don't have a pair of gloves that match, and i have no idea where the snow shovel is...but the dog has a winter coat and bright red booties...somewhere...i guess i probably should look for the booties and coat when i get home...

Ok, you caught me...i know where the coat is, and the booties got chewed up probably about 3 minutes after this picture was taken...this was just an excuse to post a picture of my cute dog on my blog...pathetic huh?

Ok, you really caught me...this picture was taken just after my son did his own laundrey for the first time...look how clean the bottom of his jeans are!

Learning to float

It's been over a year now since my grandmother passed away, and i've found that i've just now learned how to float. One year ago i was in shock which seems really weird since my grandma was 98 and a half, and honestly, c'mon now...why would that be a shock?
But have you've ever known anyone that you thought would be around forever, even if common sense dictates otherwise?

Well, that was my grandma.

I've had friends that didn't live long enough, and friends that died too soon...and yet the death that really got me was the one where my grandma lived to be 98 and a half.

Wow, i guess you can't pick and choose your grief, can you? And grief can be sneaky too...it's weird how it sneaks up when you least expect it, like the Christmas card section at Walgreens when it hits you that you have one less Christmas card to send this year, or the song Amazing Grace at church when it hits you that it was grandmas favorite hymn.

Someone once told me that grieving was a lot like learning to float in a lake. When you first try to lay back on the water you sink...alot...but then, after you hit the bottom a few times you kind of get the hang of it. Once in a while though you get hit by a big wave, and you lose your balance and you sink again, and again...until, you accept that ever so often there's going to be a big wave that maybe you can't handle (like a birthday anniversary or death aniversary), but for the most part, if you just relax, you can float above the water.

Tooting someone elses (horn) blog site!

I dare you to not to look at this photo and not smile!
This photo is funny to me for the simple fact that our building has a mouse problem...opps...mice cuz if there's more then one it's mice...my bad...and one scared the heck out of our Terry Love one late night during his request show...(of course Terry leaves the light down low-mood lighting he calls it) and apparently Mr. Mouse liked it too(!)...the rumor is the mouse hopped on the studio counter to request Ben by Michael Jackson.

This next photo absolutely warms my heart and not just because i love turtles. It's a picture of something experts say is impossible. It's a picture of an orphan who needed a mother, and found a surrogate or sorts in a 125 year old turtle that experts say is not "capable" of emotion or love. And yet, that's not what you see in this photo.

These pictures come from a website called Letsbefriends and you can find it on the web at http://www.letsbefriends.blogspot.com/ and i gotta tell you, on bad days or depressing days or any day the news is so horrible that i'm not sure i should even venture out of the house because i'm so discouraged with the human race down and can't have a beer til later day, this is the site i check out to reaffirm my faith in mankind...or maybe "animal kind!" It just seems the animals have a better take on love, kindness and compassion then anything i ever saw on CNN, Jerry Springer, or even Dr. Phil.

These are the kind of pictures you will find on the Letsbefriends website, and i gotta tell you, it's an upper for the brain, the kind of "oh my gosh isn't that cute" without the aftertaste of yuck. You'll find all these pictures on the website with explanations about the circumstances of how these animals ended up together. The doe in this picture is an orphan and the dog is mothering her/him.

Then again, i can't explain this one.

Neither do they...

doesn't matter...

isn't it sweet?...

um....

here's hoping the tiger doesn't wake up and go "i smell bacon..."

A Tornado of fire in our own back yard

Several years ago my husband and i visited San Diego and i asked him "why can't we move here" to which he replied "mudslides, earthquakes, and fires"...
I just thought he was trying to be funny until this past weekend when we got a frantic call from his mother. We had worried about her trip to Israel the week before. Turns out she was safer there. She had just gotten back from a tour of the Holy Land that Friday night, only to get a knock on her door early Monday morning from the police telling her to grab her keys and purse and get out now! She spent two days at a shelter in Miramar not knowing if she had a home anymore, and thank God, she was spared. Unfortunately, many of her neighbors were not. Many of the survivors said the fires looked like tornados.

There's this park about 10 miles south of Sturgeon Bay called Tornado Park and i use to drive by it alot in the 80's when i dated a guy from there. I use to wonder why it was called that so one day i brought a sack lunch and pulled over. It didn't take me very long to lose my appetite. The tornado the park refers to is of fire, and back in the 80's i had trouble wrapping my mind around that ..."a tornado of fire, what the heck would that look like?" Well, thanks to the California fires, now we all know what a "tornado of fire" looks like."

And that's why i almost lost my lunch that day. I realized that i was standing on sacred ground. Some 60 people burned to death on the spot i was eating my lunch. The park is quite close to what once was a village called Williamsonville where some 77 men, women and kids called home. On that October day back in 1871, the Chicago fire was in full swing and there was a fire brewing across the bay as well. But being that this was 1871, there was no tv or radio to warn the villagers of what was coming...and it became a worst case scenerio for these families. The fire jumped the the bay of Green Bay and surrounded the villagers who took refuge on this spot near Brussels, and literally burned them alive. Seven of the villagers hid inside the well that is pictured above, and only five of them survived.

So the next time you visit Door County, pull over and pay your respects to the lost souls of Tornado Park, and say a prayer for the California families as well.

Cindy note: If you'd like more information on Tornado Park, this is the website i'd recommend. These pictures are also from this website;
http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/geolwisc/weather/tornmpk.htm

The picture of the fire is from the KNX1070 news radio website. Some of the pictures on their website are absolutely shocking.

Ellen, Mutts, and missed opportunities

Please, please, please...Ellen, mutts, can't we just get along?!

This much we know for sure. Last weekend the folks at Mutts and mom's called Ellen Degeneres and asked her how the "mutt" they placed at her home was doing. Ellen said she had fed the dog to crocodile, opps, i mean a snake, uh, i mean a family with two kids under 15!

Which was horrible, simply horrible, as Ellen and her partner had signed papers stating that if they couldn't keep the dog, they had to give it back.

Cut and dried.
Maybe.

It sounds like Ellen's producer got snippy with the owners from Mutts and Moms and they got snippy back. Ellen gets emotional on the air and the Mutts and Moms declare that they are not gonna take any crap from anyone. Then the owners of Mutts and moms get death threats and they start crying. And Ellen takes two days off from her show to recover.

All for the love of a little dog named Kibbles, Triscuits or Cheeseits or something i don't remember...here's what i know:

Last year over 14 THOUSAND animals came to Milwaukee's animal control center and over 40 percent of those got put down...put to sleep...what a waste! What i mean to say is, if your looking for an excuse to cry over something, cry about that!

Personally, i thought it was a huge missed opportunity for everyone...imagine this, the owners of Mutts and Moms comes on Ellen's show...they explain why they do the rules the way they do...Ellen apologizes...then the owners make an exception and check out the new family and EVERYONE IS HAPPY!!! Think about that for a moment, if everyone had taken a chill pill last week, the only problem Mutts and Moms would be having today is what to do with all the money in donations everyone would have sent them!

Pretty cool idea don't you think?! While your mulling that one over excuse me while i work out this Iraq war situation and what to make for supper....

Ps...this mutt pictured above is named Recco...i got his picture from www.dogsindanger.com According to the website he has 6 days before he gets put to sleep...if you want to cry, cry for him. Better yet, he needs a home. Ellen?

One more thing...Milwaukee's animal control shelter is holding an Open House tomorrow and they're offering a rabies vaccination for 7 bucks and a microchip for 10...(414) 421-8881.

One year later...

I still feel the same way...

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Why the Amish are better then you and me...
OK...just me then...

Your probably better then me too, because there is just NO WAY i could have been that forgiving if someone had shot ten little girls in my community (and five of them died!) No way!

I would have been madder then heck and i would have been on the tube and radio letting everyone know it!
You probably have heard how the Amish in Pennsylvania, on hearing that a local milkman-madman had shot and killed some of their neighbors, daughters and friends, promptly forgave him and lent their support to his widow and children.

Wow!

What's wilder...that their forgiveness made major headlines...shows you how rare something like that is...And i'm a little ashamed too...not at the fact that they can forgive and i, probably not as much...but the fact that i always sort of, well, while i didn't think i was better then them i certainly didn't understand how they could stubbornly cling to the 1800's while the rest of us went wizzing by them in 2006...

My son and i were driving towards Iowa one freezing January Sunday morning on Highway 18 when we passed several of the Wisconsin Amish on their way towards church...i had the heat blaring and the radio on and they were huddled together in open air wagons with blankets...my son had never seen Amish before and simply couldn't believe that they didn't have cars, and television and PS 2's..."they don't want to live in our world" i told him then...and today, who can blame them? But the fact that they can forgive and continue to love after all that has happened to them...well, i'm not even in their league.

Remembering an uncle who raised seahorses (still miss you Uncle Bob)

It's hard to believe my uncle, Robert (Bob) Falt has been gone a year.

He actually passed away a year ago yesterday (September 9, 2006), but i actually didn't get the news until the next day, right before i went to an appearance at the Milwaukee County Zoo...which was somewhat appropiate. My uncle loved animals...he bought a puppy 4 months before his death...how optimistic was that?!

My mom (his sister) and i visited him at his new apartment in Tucson, Arizona last April...after he defiantly checked himself out of a nursing home he had been staying in (he suffered terribly from poor health due to diabetes). Yet, about 6 months before he died, he decided he wasn't going to spend whatever time he had left in a home and out he went...ironically, he did bring one thing home from the nursing home...a new love for small dogs...because up til then, my uncle who could keep anything alive, including real live seahorses (in his basement no less!) was a big dog lover. He was also a smoker which prompted my mom to make a deal with him...stop smoking and we will get you a puppy, because that's what you do for someone whose dying...you get him a puppy, right?!

So basically, my mom and my uncle pored over the newspaper ads looking for shiatzu's (which was the nursing home mascot at the place he stayed at). I was the killjoy who kept questioning my mom (in private of course) "what the heck are you doing, he's gonna have a dog peeing all over the place while he's suffering from cigarette withdrawal..."

No one listened to me of course, and one day after we got to Tuscon, we ended up with a puppy named Buddy...who totally ignored my mom and me and went straight to my uncle like he was a big chew toy...which unfortunately, he was...my uncle had no feeling on his feet and legs and i kept begging him to wear socks and slippers so the dog wouldn't chew on him...but, my uncle just smiled at me and told me to quit sassing him and let him enjoy his dog...which i finally did.

We later found out that Buddy was at his side with him when he died, and that he brought my uncle an incredible amount of happiness at the end of his life. I did mention he raised seahorses didn't i?

Last year i bought some bearded german iris's which i planted in his honor but they didn't bloom this year(no surprise, i suck at gardening), so i did something else i thought i'd never do...and no it wasn't seahorses...they don't even sell those anymore because their almost impossible to keep alive...i thought i'd start small...a goldfish. That's right, a single solitary goldfish...i think i actually kept one alive for 3 days once...but, today in memory of my uncle Bob, i'm going to attempt to do something i've never been able to do in my life...raise a goldfish. I thought i'd start small, work my way up...
a goldfish this year, maybe a shark or electric eel next year...just kidding...i think i'll probably have my hands full with the goldfish. I named him Buddy. I don't think my uncle would mind.

Things i learned at the Wisconsin State Fair

Things i learned at the Wisconsin State Fair:

1. Herb Kohl's 25 cent flavored milk and hot buttered popcorn do not mix ever...however;
2. Hot buttered popcorn at the fair is always worth a potential gallbladder attack provided i remembered my Rolaids...oh shoot!

3. While giving the kids who make your fresh lemonade drink a tip doesn't necessarily ensure the good Karma the tip jar implies...it does insure that no one will spit in your lemonade.

4. If you find a penny and pick it up, all day long you'll find good luck only works if it's heads, not tails...at least that's what the mystic who offered to guess my weight for 3 bucks told me...(i offered him six bucks not to.)

5. That while an article in the Shepards Express may claim that cream puffs are over- rated, the extra 5 pounds on my gut from eating them last week says otherwise!

And last, but certainly not least; (according to the memo i got from my boss...)

6. Never, ever, call creampuffs the crack cocaine of the bakery world...even it's true...
....."why yes officer, that really is powder sugar on my face..."

Michael Vick sucks!...

Michael Vick SUCKS!

There, i said it...ok? Don't give me this crap on "it's how they do it in the hood or wherever and/or it's a cultural thing" because that is BULLSH#*!!!

OK?

Because the day that dogfighting is simply a CULTURAL THING...then we as a nation are in a big MORAL CRISIS! And here is the scarey part...according to a friend of mine who works for MPS (and shall remain nameless because well, she works for MPS)...most of her students can't figure out what the fuss is all about...dogfighting is entertainment to them...and just hearing that scares the heck out of me.

The idea that is ok for one dog to rip another to death...with one dog screaming in pain as a bunch of morally DEAD pieces of crap cheer this on and consider it entertainment?

And yet, people are supporting Michael Vick...saying "innocent til proven guilty" and blahblahblah...ok...i gave OJ the benefit of the doubt...for all i know, he's out looking for the real killer right now on some golf course in Florida...but, the feds found bloody dogs and dead dogs, and dogs with glass embedded in them, and well...i guess the benefit of the doubt ended right there...although, you know, Vick claims that he was renting out the house or loaning out the house and didn't know what was going on so in that case here's where i would be willing to give Vick, that benefit of a doubt;
1. Apologize, you didn't know what was going on at your, um...mansion, and donate a huge sum of money to the humane society or pitbull rescue or some organization like that...

2. Apologize, and howabout a public service announcement saying how bad dogfighting is and, sure, it didn't work for that doctor from Grey's Anatomy but, he's not in as much trouble as you are buddy...

3. Apologize, and volunteer at the humane society or pitbull rescue...offer to walk a couple of the dogs or something, get one of your peeps to pick up the poo...dig what i'm saying brother?...

Right now, at this moment, you, Michael Vick, could influence an entire future generation of kids to STOP dogfighting, but honestly Michael, i don't think you have the (foot) balls!

Fm 106.1...My Adventure at Country Thunder

I guess i could have also titled this why it's never a good thing to meet your idols.
I've been a fan of county radio since 1984 and over the years i've been blessed to meet alot of awesome country singers, but there's always 1 or 2 that your in absolute awe of...and you always think to yourself, "man, i wish i could meet so and so and tell them how much their music has touched me," and well, Lorrie was one of those people. So of course i jumped at the chance to be an emcee at Country Thunder over the weekend and looked forward to the chance to tell Lorrie how much i've enjoyed her tunes. There was another jock there from Chicago who got to do the jumbrotron interview which was probably a good thing since, after i met Lorrie...ok, let's just put it this way...i lost 30 pounds last year, but honestly, i'd have to lose another 50 before i could on the jumbrotron and not look like a monster next to her.
So it got close to the time that Lorrie would be on stage, and i gotta tell you, although i've introduced close to a hundred country stars on stage i have never been this nervous in my life.

I've rehearsed my opening speech probably a hundred times til i know it forward and backwards, all two minutes of it...and then they drive Lorrie up in a golf cart and oh my God, she hasn't aged a year since i've been a fan...and that's about 18 years!

She steps out of the golf cart like i would bounce out of a golf cart, but she does it with about 8 inches of stiletto heels, a dress, and not one hair out of place. I suddenly become very conscience of the fact that i have been out in the sun all day, my eye shadow has now melted down to my chin, and i'm covered in Country Thunder dust...i'm embarrassed to even look at her.

So, now the appointed time comes and just as they're handing me the mike to step out on stage, her manager informs me that we're running late and to cut the intro to 10 seconds...arrrrrgh!!!! I'm not even sure now what i said, perhaps something like "her voice is going to break your heart" ...but Lorrie must have liked it because she stuck her hand out to shake mine and said "thank you" and then here it is; my opportunity to tell Lorrie how much her music has meant to me all these years...so, did i tell her that?

Not exactly.

In a voice about 12 octives above my own i said "i love you Lorrie"...actually, i think i screeched it...all i know was blood was coming out of her ears as she smiled sweetly, took the mike and strutted out on the stage, and i dragged what was left of my dignity off the stage in absolute embarrassment.

I've only been that bad once before...years ago i had the chance to interview Dennis Deyoung, formally of the rock band Styx, the man whose voice was the soundtrack of my entire high school experience...he called me up for a radio interview and every single rational thought and question flew out the window as i asked him the only question that came to mind;"Do you wake up in the morning and go, oh my God i'm Dennis Deyoung?"
He was very nice about it but my husband and kids weren't...for weeks after that they'd taunt me with "hey mom, do you wake up in the morning and go...oh my God, i'm mom and i need to do the laundrey?"....and on and on.....
So maybe i'm not really meant to meet my idols...maybe i'm better off in the future staying behind the mike, and not in front of a country star where i'm liable to embarrass myself with some harebrained compliment that would perplex them and humiliate me and wait, whose coming to Germanfest...Gretchen Wilson?

Game on.

Ps...thank you Kerry for being an awesome boss...i'd say more but then i run the risk of making a fool out of myself...again.

Psps...the above picture of Garth Brooks and me was taken at the Shawno County Fair back in September of 1990...you had to pay 10 bucks to see the Yuppers but Garth was FREE! This was also one of the few times i didn't make an idiot of myself.

Open Pantry has free internet and other things i discovered on my summer vacation....

Isn't this cool...Open Pantry has free internet...well, sortof...i had to buy a cup of coffee, sunflower seeds and Sominex for later, but...oh, the other catch...you have free internet but it's only for 15 minutes at a time which means this is the third time i've tried to post...here goes;
Well, i know i haven't blogged consistanty in a couple of weeks (um...actually, since May-but it feels like a couple of weeks)...but i think i have a decent enough excuse...
I HAVE A JOB!!!
Right about the time i resigned from KTI i marched into Remedy Staffing Agency armed with an absolutely worthless resume and about 2 pounds of ego left...
24 years of radio has left me with ABSOLUTELY NO SKILLS (with the exception of absolutely worthless trivia that nobody really gives a damn about although i think it's pretty darn awesome that the song that goes "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire" was written in the hot heat of July...for real, cool huh?...hey, do you have a job?)

Where was i...oh wait, that's right, i walked into Remedy Staffing because i heard that one of the ladies that run it called Vicki use to listen to my show when i was on the Mix (about a hundred years ago)...and sure enough, Vicki gave me a couple of tests and i AM NOT MAKING THIS UP...i can type about 40 words a minute-not counting all the errors)...anyway...i qualified for something called "light industrial" and i got to tell you, i'm pretty excited...i even took the "light industrial" test and apparently ACED IT! (sample question: you hear your friend is stealing and you think A. This is ok...B. Not ok...C. None of the above...D. Don't understand the question because i work at K Mart)... Vicki said there was an opening in June...BUT THEN...something else opened up!!!
I got called to do a three week assignment at a place i can't tell you BUT...there's a recall going on and i'm the person making the phone calls...ok, one of the people...thank God for that because the first day was kind of rough...well, actually it was the second day...on the first day someone there told somebody else that i use to be a dj and so there was a steady stream of people coming down to look at the "celebrity"...at least they were polite...because by the second day of me bitching that
"I can't find the file."
"It's on your desktop."
"I'm looking on my desk and it's not there.."

Well, apparently this is a computer term and you'll be happy to know that i learned what "desktop" meant...But after someone told someone who told someone else; the second day everyone was coming down to stare at the incompetent moron...you'll be happy to know that
this incompetent moron doesn't care, because now she knows how to "fax, copy, paste," and talk "electrician..." Here's a sample;

"Sir, the problem is your cable was terminated incorrectly on the heat trace wire!"

I have no idea what i just said, but apparently, this is not good...but hey, it's 11 bucks an hour which ain't bad although i'm still upset nobody called from Starbucks...you know how in the last posting i said "they can't all be running to Starbucks for a job..." they weren't...they all went running to the donut making job at Pick n' Save.



BUT, at least this incompetent moron doesn't care cuz i'm making 11 bucks and hour and THEY HAVE FREE COFFEE!!!!

What i did on my summer vacation...part one

Long story short, after seeing the movie Office Space on cable on night, i too decided to do nothing, and try to find out if it was "everything i thought it could be."

I mean, i should be dropping applications all over the place, say maybe one for Starbucks or for my dream job of making donuts for Pick in Save (and no i'm not being sarcastic...i LOVE donuts!!!)

I mean, it's not like Starbucks is going to NOT need new barrista's tomorrow, right?..I'm not going down to Starbucks tomorrow to find that every single Starbucks in Milwaukee is full of employees and will not accept another application...especially from one who is as nice and sweet like me and always leaves an extra quarter in the tip jar after i pay for my triple grande mocha with extra whip...which, i haven't been able to order as much as i use to now with my unemployment running out...and honestly, i'm terrified that i'm going to GET the Starbucks job and it's going to turn out that I SUCK! That's right, i'm going to be the person that i HATE...the person who botches up my order with NO WHIP or accidently leaves out a shot of expresso or uses skim instead of whole milk on my mocha...the person who i look directly into their eyes and go..."don't you realize how much i'm paying for this cup of coffee and YOU JUST RUINED IT FOR ME?!"

Three years ago i was an award winning number one (25-54 women demos-kinda sucked in the other demos, yeah didn't have the teen vote, hey even my own teens don't listen to me) midday jock in Milwaukee...then some new boss flew in from Denver and said "you don't have the sound we're looking for"...and so today i'm trying to decide if i want the job with free coffee or the one with free donuts...at least i have karma working for me...the boss who didn't like my sound...he eventually got canned and had to take a job in South Dakota...hey, didn't they have tornados last weekend?
A girl can dream... : )
Love,
Cindy

Ps...ok, maybe tornadoes is too much...how about a mild snow storm, something like 6 feet or so...that's right, a mild snow storm in the middle of July, oh yeah...not too harsh at all...; )

CONGRATS RONNIE!

Isn't she hot?!

That's a very special friend of mine, RONNIE NYLES who has been my friend for WAYYYYY looooonger then i want to admit...(because we're both still 29!)

She is also this year's WAMI FEMALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR!!!

I first met Ronnie in Green Bay when she was one half of an awesome duet called Ladysmith. (her partner was Chris Gerard who is the sister of Greg and the ex-sister-in-law of KEEDY who had a really cool song in the early 90's Called Save some love-i still love that song!)

We were both poor and starving...we use to take turns for dinner...and we always had the same thing...SPAGHETTI...here's the deal...with spaghetti....you always have plenty, and there is always leftovers...that's all we ATE...which is why, to this day, i don't care for spaghetti...it's all i ate in the 80's!

ANYHOO....flash forward um, a few years and;

Ronnie has recorded a very special song called Barbados Song which was about the famous race horse who had to be put down earlier this year...all the proceeds went stop the horse slaughterhouses that still exist in this country (i'll have more on that in a future blog).

Ronnie and the band Krash are going to be opening up for Joan Jett and the Blackhearts at Pridefest, Sunday June 10 and rocking the Harley Stage at Summerfest, Friday, June 29!

Ronnie is this year's WAMI FEMALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR and her fans, Tina, and me are very proud of her!

GOODBYE, KTI

I just want to say thanks to my WKTI family for a year of a half of fun, memories and Krispy Kremes!

There wasn't one day that i came to work and thought..."man, i'd rather be working at Burger King"...even though from what i understand they provide free uniforms... No, it has been a true vacation at KTI and i had a blast working with people that i absolutely admired and have come to love;

Lipps Labelle whose sense of humor made Thursday jock meetings so much fun that i was always tempted to sneak popcorn and sodas in so i could further enjoy the show...Dan Kyle who once shared with me his most deepest and innermost secret and which i promised never to reveal...(but what the heck, i'm leaving)...his love of the Macarena...sure, he'll deny that he once said it was his favorite tune of ALL TIME...but who are you gonna believe, a guy with a successful midday show or this loser(?)...Gino who was so hip i knew the first time i met him that he wasn't from Iowa...and the one person i refuse to say goodbye since i know i will run into him at Speedway...Gene Mueller..."hey Gene, that one chick with 6 tatoos who makes coffee in the morning says hi--i can't remember her name but she says you'll know who"...then there's Lisa Letterman who always had the right words at the right time like last November after i got out of the hospital...she comforted me with words of wisdom from the guy who wrote the book "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff." Then two days later i read his obit in the Journal...(should have sweated the small stuff i guess....)

Earlier this year i decided to challenge myself with new challenges that absolutely scared me...like math classes, and i'm happy to report that i now know how to multiply fractions AND identify mixed ...um....oh shoot i forgot how to do it again...i'm sure this knowledge will come back to me right about the time your car pulls up to my window and i hand you your delicious golden fries...ummmm...no more transfats...i hope you don't mind if i eat a few of your fries...it's not like you need that many anyway...

You probably noticed that i didn't include Bob Reitman in this list...that's because he promised to loan me his Bob Dylan CD....the one that had Tangled up in Blue on it...and then never got back to me...thanks alot Bob!...just for that i want ALL my Abba 8 tracks back...that's right...ALL OF THEM...even Super Trouper ...and while your at it Dan Kyle would like his cd single of the Macarena back...

Planting a tree for my Grandma's 99th...

Grandma Reba V. Davison with us kids Christmas 1968...(i'm the one on the right sporting the very good looking Mia Farrow cut...the Jennifer Aniston hairstyle of the 60's.) This picture was taken the year my stepgrandpa died and my grandma didn't want to spend the first Christmas alone.

Today would have been my grandma Reba's 99th birthday...and i'm ashamed to tell you that while she was alive i could never remember what day her birthday was on, just that it was in April...so i would always send her a birthday card in April.

My daughter in a beautiful garden...it's not my garden...

The other picture is my daughter in my neighbors garden...a picture that appears in one of my posts from last year...in that particular post i extol the virtues of a summer garden while talking about how my garden sucks...then i lead you to believe that picture is from my garden...it's not.

My garden does suck...and i was too embarassed to take a picture of it...so i used my 81 year old neighbors garden...see that pretty tree in the picture? My neighbor planted that tree the year her sister died...it was her way of keeping her sisters memory alive...see those really nice bushes in the back, same thing...in a weird sort of way it's almost like looking at headstones...really beautiful headstones that bloom in the spring...certainly NOT like my yard...(although the creeping charley has a nice little bloom in the early spring...sadly though it's the only green thing in the yard.)

My grandma was buried last November in Iowa so visiting her grave today wasn't an option...and my grandma wouldn't have liked that anyway...she always said "i don't want flowers when i'm dead."

Which is why i planted a cherry tree in honor of my grandmother today...it's not much of a tree at the moment...it's more like a two foot twig...but i ordered it a month ago from Publishers Clearing House where right this very moment, i could be a winner...and sure, you don't have to buy anything to qualify to win...but hey, there is that 4 easy payments of 3.99 thing...well, anyway, what i'm saying is, i'm missing my grandmother today and wishing she could have made it to 99...and pissed at myself for never remembering her birthday--until she died.

So today, in honor of my grandmothers 99th birthday...i planted a two foot twig that i hope someday will grow into a beautiful Washington DC type cherry tree...i just hope i don't accidently kill it before i make my fourth payment.

So i took my son in for his first drug testing...

This boy is drug free and will soon be cleaning up after you!

And how weird is that?

My son just got hired for his first job...busboy...and your going to be very happy to know that YOUR table is being bussed by a drug free busboy!

Strange isn't it...there is drug testing for EVERYTHING now...i mean, i've been drug tested...FOR THIS JOB! When i first started in radio, NO ONE was drug tested...your bosses just assumed you WERE on drugs when you took the job.

I mean, had there been drug testing in the 70's there would be no IMUS...ok, maybe that would have been a good thing.

But here it is Saturday morning, and my 16 year old son is having all sorts of anxiety thinking about someone standing outside his stall when he...well, you know, fills the cup...

While sitting at the drug testing place, I assured him everyone has this type of performance anxiety, and then promptly shuffled through the People magazines the office had...ahh, here's one of Angelina Jolie with a brand new kid...i wonder if she'll ever have to drive her kids to get drug tested...most likely if she stays in Hollywood...i saw the Real Life Wives of Orange County on Bravo...i'm not sure ANY of those kids could pass...

All for the joy of bussing your plates and silverwear at his first job...i assured him that peeing in a cup with someone standing outside his stall is going to be the easiest part of his new job.

The hardest part will be after he opens up his first paycheck and asks me "what's fica, and why did they take my money?"



Personal note to Amy Taylor: I just want to salute you for a job well done and thank you for your warm smile and the kindness you have always showed to me...you are going to be missed kid and on that note, i want to ask you to continue your blog on KTI...please, don't be a stranger and lose touch...i think i speak your fans who would love it if you occasional check in and keep us updated on everything that is going on with you and the triplets;

Plus, 13 years from now i want to read how much fun you had when you drove the triplets to their first drug screening!

In praise of nothing special...

I remember the night we took this picture...it was sometime in late fall of 2004 and i picked up some KFC for supper...and just for the heck of it, i pulled out the camera and snapped some shots of everybody.

My stepson Mark, (he's the cute kid sitting next to my daughter whose sticking her tongue out) asked me "why are you taking pictures, nothing special is going on" to which i replied "exactly, that's why i'm taking pictures." I mean, there wasn't any particular reason to be taking pictures except maybe that disposable camera had been sitting on top of the tv for half a year and i was curious to see what i had taken pictures of so i was gonna finish up the film and take it in to Walgreens...

But when i flash forward to the year 2007 and look back at these pictures...they suddenly take on a new meaning to me...there's my incredibly handsome 17 year old stepson sitting in the front room with his brother and stepsister enjoying original recipe chicken and mashed potatoes...nothing special...he's probably thinking about how he's going to convince his dad and me to let him go out with his friends for a couple of hours, we're gonna tell him we really don't think it's wise on a school night and he's always gone and why doesn't he just stay put tonight and hang with the family...then he's going to complain we're too strict and that he stayed home a couple of nights ago and maybe he'll stay home tomorrow and c'mon, it's just for a couple of hours he'll be home by ten.

He's in Iraq now....it's about 9 hours later then here which means he's probably just waking up now and getting ready to do God knows what...his dad, mom, and me watch a lot of CNN and FOX especially when the headlines "new blood bath in Bahgdad" scroll across the screen...before he left in February he told us he was going to be guarding a water tank and it turned out to be a lie...he's the guy in back of the machine gun on top of a hummer guarding a convoy...when he calls it's at odd hours--late at night for us OR early morning...he's already had two close calls...one, where the missle hit a car up ahead of his convoy and blew it and it's occupants to bits...he had to help clean it up, and one where he got scrapnel on his feet and didn't notice his foot was covered in blood til later...he has had children run up to his humvee and plead for food and watch as their mothers rush out and beat their kids for approaching an American...(he's not allowed to feed them anyway as the children are being trained to throw grenades at them making it too dangerous to help)...

So this picture is just a snapshot of a "nothing special" night in late fall of 2004...a another boring night where nothing special was going on...and i'm glad i got a picture of it.

So how'd i do dancing...i placed sixth!

And that would have been ok if there had been something like 7 people in the competition...

It's like i got beat by Sanjaya--and i didn't even know he was in the contest!!

AAAAAAAAARRRRRAAAARRRRRRRRRGH!

I was stunned to find out right before the dance contest that my professional dancer, Mark Webster, had volunteered us to go first...at first i was terrified and figured it was karma payback for some evil thing i did in a previous life but once we got out on the dance floor i just smiled and let Mark do all the dancing...me, i flirted with the judges and peeled of my gloves and basically tried to keep from falling out of my shoes and on to my butt...but after it was over i was like well, that was fun...and then i could relax and enjoy the other dancers...every single one of them my new best friend---even the Klements Sausage guy who i figured was the one guy i had a chance at beating...oh yeah, as i was watching him moving around like a robot during "Singing in the Rain"...i'm thinking "yep, i have fifth place all wrapped up"...but then he did something i never suspected you could do...(or I would have done it)...he gave the judges Klement sausages...

Next thing i know, the dance contest is over and we are all lined up waiting to receive our trophies, and the first thing i hear is "AND NOW IN SIXTH PLACE, CINDY HUBER FROM WKTI"...and i'm thinking "i could have skipped the 3 months of dance lessons and just showed up and said give me my trophy for sixth place."

Worse then that...i had to hear congrats from EVERYBODY in the whole damn place..."CONGRATS HUBER...YOU WERE GREAT!" (Congrats loser!!!)

The next thought i had is "i wonder what BMW the sausage guy is driving so i can throw eggs at it when he's not looking"...(but then i remembered i really need those eggs for Brownies tomorrow and that i also have to pick up some milk and toilet paper too)

Which is really sad because now i have to add "dances like a white girl" to the official list of things i suck at...and that list is getting long.

ps...honestly, i'm glad i did it...i mean the bottom line is it raised money for an awesome cause that has already saved my dad's life and if that isn't worth sixth place...plus, the sausage guys wife was really nice and gave me a hug...c'mon, how could i be mad...well, maybe at my husband...because after the whole dance was over he gave me a hug and said "nobody loses as good as you do"...i'm sure he probably meant something like "at least i have the dignity to handle it well"...but then again i'm not sure...either way he ended up on the couch that night.

psps...Plus Mark Webster is really hot! : )

Dancing for a CAUSE...

I mean, is there any other reason to dance? (other then dancing is fun, good, clean enjoyable excercise?--ok, ok, dumb question, oh and by the way, that's me, Billy Ray Cyrus)

You see, last year, Dan Kyle was in a "Dancing with Celebrities" type fund raiser which raised money for the David M. Sherman Cancer foundation...an awesome charity which has discovered among other things a way to fight prostate cancer more effectively...something that has directly affected my family as my dad used their treatment (radioactive seed implants) to fight his prostate cancer...and i am incredibly grateful...in fact, so grateful, that when i was asked to dance this year i immediately said yes...because, well, 30 some years ago i won a disco dance contest and got an awesome Journey ALBUM...it was the one with Wheel in the sky on it...

What i forgot til now was the reason i won was the judges were very very drunk (this was college after all) and i was the only one who entered...ok ok, i might not have been the only one who entered...i might have been the only one not drunk enough to quit--but my memory is a little fuzzy on this because i was drinking and did i mention I WAS IN COLLEGE?)

In spite of that i'm a huge Dancing with the Stars fan, and really how tough could this be...i mean, DAN KYLE CAN DO IT!!!

And i suck...no really, i do...i feel so sorry for my professional dance instructor...he is a kind, hot looking man who for whatever past life karma reasons has been saddled with this years Milwaukee equivalent of Billy Ray Cyrus...he is trying to teach me the West Coast Swing, and God bless him, i'm trying to learn it...i even went out and bought the dvd's of Flashdance and Shall we dance, you know, the movie with Jennifer Lopez and Richard Gere...geez it sucked...

But, i got a great deal 2 for 9 bucks and Blockbuster threw in a free tub of popcorn, and there is where i am right now...in front of the tube watching Jennifer Beals taking it off for the umpteenth time while enjoying a tub of popcorn...i'm hoping you'll come out and cheer me on...next Wednesday night at the Pfister in downtown Milwaukee...myself and a bunch of other radio and tv celebrities and a guy from Klements sausage...stripping it off...opps, just kidding...wait, maybe they can get Ally from Kiss to take it off, she lost a ton of wait on LA Diet and looks good; but the rest of us are teamed with professional dancers and we are going to dance for you, and God help us, none of us will accidently hurt our professional dancers...or at least step on their toes...although, if my professional Mark Webster (from DanceSports in Cedarburg) tells me i'm moving like Billy Ray Cyrus ONE MORE TIME...


Dancing with Celebrities to benefit the David M. Sherman foundation is Wednesday, April 18, at 7pm at the Pfister...you can buy tickets at the door (20 bucks) and the money is going to find a cure for cancer so that 20 bucks may some day save a life, yours.

This is NOT a post about Steven Avery...

I still have NIGHTMARES about what happened that horrible Halloween Day in 2005 to Theresa Halbach that makes those old Halloween movies with "Jason" more like The Three Stooges...

Good riddance...i hope Avery rots...

This is a post about reptiles and i don't mean to imply that Steven Avery is a reptile...it's not fair to snakes, turtles and other various creatures to call him that...

What i really want to say is, i'm a cat and dog person and i never thought i'd LOVE reptiles BUT...when i bought Mr. Tim Turtle for my son's birthday a few years ago...i thought that box turtles lived as long as, well, hamsters...boy was i wrong! Apparently box turtles can live to be 75 years old which is something to consider the next time your at the pet store and your kid says "can i have a turtle?"

But we didn't buy Tim Turtle at the pet store...one of my son's friends didn't want him anymore and just happened to call on my sons birthday...does it sound like i was set up...you betcha...

And anyway, i have really come to love this turtle (sure he and i may someday share the same nursing home--but if i'm lucky i'll die first)...he doesn't do much quite frankly but stare at himself in the mirror, soak in his little pool...and eat everything that i should be eating...things like fruits and veggies...oh, and crickets...but it's the little things like the absolute pleasure Mr. Turtle gets on the first warm spring day when we take him outside and let him roam around a bit...his little tail starts wagging excitedly and he moves as fast as i do when i hear there's an extra Krispy Kreme in the studio...

And he has Taste buds. For real. He will eat something like green seedless grapes nonstop for three years and then one day, just stop...doesn't want them anymore...and he won't eat freeze dried crickets, he has to have the real thing. This year he likes fresh strawberries and bananas...everyday!

He also likes to hibernate...up to six weeks at a time, it's normal for him...which is why i'm so worried that there may be something to this Green House effect, because Mr. Turtle only hibernates in the winter, and he hasn't gone to sleep yet...but other then that, when horrors like the Iraq war and the Steven Avery trial air on the tube, it's kinda nice to go upstairs and check to see if the turtle has gone to sleep yet...nope, he's still in his pool.

My snowman is drunker then your snowman!

Happy St. Patricks Day!

As you can see winter has been toooooo long and one snowy winter morning i decided to take a break from shoveling and make a drunken snowman...it didn't start out that way, it's just everytime i tried to straighten him out he would just start leaning to the left again...

the same thing use to happen with all my boyfriends!

WINTER SUCKS!

Our groundhog didn't see his shadow this year and has predicted an early spring...what is he smoking...crack?

I'll tell you this, if Britney Spears lived in Milwaukee she would'nt have shaved her head!

This is the time of the year when you start hearing and reading about Seasonal Affective Disorder referred to as SAD with all sorts of advice on how to not get depressed this time of the year;
1. Get up early to maximize your daylite time.
2. If possible, sit near a window at work.
3. Try light therapy.......OR... in my personal opinion;
4. Move the hell out of here!!!! (some place...any place warmer than here...which according to the weather channel just happens to be Florida--but wait--don't they have hurricanes? Today, that sounds like a fair trade off!)

However, if you don't mind waiting a few years...like 93 years from now...according to a recent interview i heard from a climate instructer here at MATC...by the end of the century our climate will be just like Southern Illinois-Northern Kentucky...which means much less snow and cold BUT a whole lot more tornadoes...of course, i'll be long gone by then...something to think about while i shovel the snow this afternoon.

They're Stealing OUR songs...again!

So i'm trapped in the car during rush hour when i start channel surfing (oh right, like you don't do it too)...when all of sudden i hear The Fray--one of the bands we play--on the Christian channel! And i'm p*ssed...they did it again!...stole one of our songs! It seems like everytime i turn on their channel they're playing one of our tunes...like Natasha Bedingfield or Los Lonely Boys!

News flash...Just because Los Lonely Boys are singing about heaven doesn't mean they're singing about your heaven...and how the heck did you even justify stealing The Fray's How to save a life?!

Hey Christians, STOP stealing our songs!!!

I'm willing to make a deal with you...i'll give you back your Amy Grant AND Michael W. Smith IF you promise never to touch our Mr. Misters Kyrie AGAIN...

The Dog says "no."

It was sooooo cold the other night that the strangest thing
happened...i asked my dog Max if he wanted to go outside
and he said "no."
Which i thought was strange since i didn't know dogs could
talk.

I finally broke down and bought boots for Max, i mean i
don't own a pair of gloves that match, but the dog now has
doggie boots...not that he wants to wear them. He put up
a big fuss skirming and yipping but he'll get use to them. He
did the same thing when i bought him a winter coat last year...yeah, a winter coat...oh never
mind.

Not pregnant at the "Happiest Place on Earth"

I see Christina Aguilera is denying reports that she is pregnant again. This time she pointed out that she couldn't be pregnant because she spent this past Valentine's Day at California's Disneyland "screaming with delight" as she enjoyed the Matterhorn...a ride not recommended for expectant moms.

Which really sucks! Because i'm NOT an expectant mom...and when i took three of my kids to Disneyland last Thanksgiving the ride was CLOSED! In fact, lots of rides were closed for repair or not operating at this time. We found that so many of these rides were not open that day, that i finally gave up and took pictures of my kids standing in front of the barricaded rides...this picture is my kids in front of the "closed for repair" Matterhorn--i got a whole photo album of these...wanna see it?

blahblah...hey, girl scout cookies have no transfats!...blah blah

That's right, thats what i said! The girl scouts have very kindly removed ALL the transfats from their cookies...no more worrying about bad fats while i eat something like the 40 dollars worth of thin mints i bought last weekend...although i smoke so transfats are going to be the least of my problems in 20 years...

But i'm sure i'll have it coming...it's my fault for engaging in such high risks behaviors like smoking, eating girl scout cookies or filling up my gas tank on Capitol and Sherman...

And as long as i'm on it...i admit that i'm part of the Britney problem on the tube and in print...i can't seem to stop myself from checking out the latest stupid mess this bald headed millionaire seems to indulge in...maybe it's because it's always nice to see someone who has 100 million dollars so messed up...as in "i'm broke but at least i'm not as stupid as Britney!" Let's see Britney answer the phone and come up with a new inventive excuse for not paying her cable bill this month instead of the boring "i'm broke" same old same old...bet she can't cuz she's stupid!

It just depresses me that someone as untalented, "can't sing, can dance a little" as Britney has 100 MILLION DOLLARS!!! WHAT THE HECK! What kind of cosmic lottery did she win while someone like you and me...nice attitude, sound morals, underwear wearing person struggles...you know what kind of problems i would have if i had that kind of money...who to call for delivery..."should i call Dominos or Pizza Hut...hey, wait a minute, i'm rich...i'm calling Rosatti's!

I suspect a major part of Britneys problem is....(drumroll)...herself...and i don't mean bipolar or too much to drink...her real problem...she's narcasistic...check it out...she has 100 million and two beautiful healthy young sons yet she is jetting all over the world with guys she barely knows paying 40 thousand a night at some hotel...when she's not shaving her head...i mean i have bad hair days too but that is what bleach and Cost Cutters is for...i have a girlfriend who has tried for the last decade to have children and all she has to show for it is a weird sort of rare cancer she got from the fertility treatments...yet she's shown nothing but grace and peace...plus she's a damn fine cook, but no one knows about her...and then there's the brave teenagers who stayed by the side of a dying man they didn't know at Citgo on the corner of Capitol and Sherman...how many teenagers or adults would do that?! Damn few...but then again, they're no Britney...thank God.

Sharing a recipe from my grandma

Well, it happened again. This time i was at Walgreens picking up a perscription when i happen to see some Christmas cards i liked...and as i was looking through the boxes it occurred to me that i didn't have to buy my grandma a Christmas card this year (since she passed away around Thanksgiving) when all of a sudden a tidal wave of tears flowed up my throat, through my nose and out through my eyes...and i COULDN'T STOP! Would you believe, i had to leave the store...i muttered "allergies" to one of the clerks who asked me if i was ok as i made my escape. Up to this point, i thought i had done pretty good...but, you know, with grief, you never know when it's going to happen...one minute i'm laughing along at something as normal as the next person and then something, a song, a chance comment like "sorry about your grandma" and the next minute it's waterworks...and i'm just going to have to accept that it's going to hurt and soldier on...

I was at Southridge Mall yesterday when i saw a tee shirt kiosk and a woman making personalized tee shirts for somebody...i asked "if i brought a picture of my grandma, could they make that into a tee shirt?" and she said "they do it all the time." So, now i know what i'm going to do this week...i'm going to make a tee shirt with my grandma's picture on it...and i'm going to wear it on my grandma's 99th birthday...what the heck, i'm going to celebrate my grandma's birthday after all! And you know, i'm pretty sure she would approve of that...although, what to put on my shirt along with her picture i'm still wrestling with...at first i thought of putting "Rest in Peace" on it along with her name, but my husband thought that was way too morbid...then i thought her name with birthdate and death date and my kids said that i was depressing them...so now i'm thinking of trying a little humor...something like "my grandma died and all i got was this tee shirt!"

My grandma was a terrific cook...it's very unfortunate that i didn't inherit that gene from her...although, the last 30 years of her life she ate cabbage every day (since she thought that would help her live to one hundred)...and i'll tell you...i had to bust my butt to find a recipe of hers that didn't include cabbage in it...but i think my grandma--who loved to cook for people and enjoyed sharing recipes--would love it if i kept her memory alive with one of her recipes...in fact, this one was featured in her church recipe book in April, 1987...and if you have a grandma coming this holiday season, feel free to use it, and just tell it you got it from your friends grandma...i know my grandma would love that.

Pork Chop Noodle Dinner............ Reba Davison

4 pork chops.........................2 C. cooked noodles

1 tsp. salt.........................1 can cream of chicken soup

1 tsp. prepared mustard...... 1 C. water

1 tsp. chopped onion

Brown chops on 1 side; turn and season. Brown side with salt and mustard. Place noodles in buttered casserole. Place pork chops on noodles, brown-side down. Pour soup, water and onion into skillet; stir and heat until blended. Pour over chops. Cover and bake 1/2 hour at 350 degrees, then uncover and bake 1/2 hour til brown.

Cucumber-Pineapple Salad ........Reba Davison

1 pkg. lime jello............. 1 C. Dream Whip

1 C. crushed pineapple.. 1 C. mayonnaise

1 C. cubed cucumber

Add 1 cup boiling water to jello; stir until dissolved (2 minutes). Add 3/4 cup pineapple juice and cold water. Chill until jelly stage. Add pineapple, cucumber, Dream Whip and mayonnaise. Let set.

When it's 9 pm here...it's 6 am in Fallujah...

My husbands son, my stepson Mark, (he's the one in the middle of our Christmas photo) is now in Iraq. It sounds so ominous...for the last year or so we had the knowledge that he was going hanging over our heads like a sword...and now, it's here.

Last week, my stepson told his dad that once they got to Kuwait...they would be flown in a helicopter where it would be "so high" but not too high, as the terrorist's had rockets they could use to shoot them down, and not "too low" as the terrorist had shoulder rockets that could also, shoot them down.

My husband takes comfort in that this is something his son has always wanted to do...to join the Marines and serve his country. He also takes comfort in a fathers day card his son gave him two years ago...right before he joined the Marines:

"Well dad, i've been yours for the last 19 years now and it's coming to that time in our lives that soon i won't be around at all, who knows where i'll be next year, if i'm even gonna be in this country. You are the best dad in the world, i wouldn't trade you for any other. I mean that, i love you more then anything in this world. Keep safe dad , and no matter what ever happens to me in the future KEEP THE FAITH! Everything and every choice i make, i try to make so you'll be proud of me. That's the most important thing to me is that you are proud of me even when some choices i make, i know you wouldn't be, i look down on those choices.

I don't know what's gonna happen to me while i'm serving the country. Tell you the truth, fear of the unknown scares me to death...one thing that i do know is death. If and when i die i know i'm going to heaven. I know my sins are forgiven, i will never forget what you taught me about our creater, and savior. Thank you dad, you will live forever because of what you have done for me. The people i change for the good will (be) because of you, even if they don't know it yet. I also know that light that is inside of me, the fire that burns within (is) the fire you made.

Thank you dad,

your son,

Mark

Fallujah is northeast of Bagdad and nine hours ahead of Milwaukee, so when we go to bed at night we say a prayer for Mark as he is just waking up...and when we wake up, we say another prayer for Mark because we know he is out there, somewhere, serving his country. It is all we can do for him now.

Helping my daughter with her homework...

I suck at my kid's homework! Since i went to school (which was about one hundred years ago, back when the dinosauers ruled) math and just about everything else seems to have gotten harder and i was pretty much obsolete as far as my kids homework was concerned right around the time they hit first grade!

That's why i was so excited when my daughter told me she had to do a paper on Earth Day. How cool is that?! If there was one thing i majored in, it was writing about ten pages of bullsh#t on just about anything...as long as it didn't include math! So when my daughter showed me "her" paper, i set about correcting and adding on to it as best i could...here's what she wrote:

Dear Earth, happy birthday! I can't believe your 210 million years old already. It was just yesterday that you were in the Jurassic period of your life. I remember that your super continent, pangea, was already starting to drift apart. I also remember the first land plants that you grew...the life that your plants gave was amazing! You had animals such as plated stegasaurs, brachiosaurs and many more animals. You also had the first birds like the pterosaurs and even the early mammals. I hope you have a wonderful birthday, Love, Sara.

Now here's what i wrote:

Dear Earth, happy birthday! I can't believe your 210 million years old already when you don't look a day over 29...ok, ok, just kidding, those lines on your face, barely noticable. Probably during your jurassic period. That was because your super continent, Pangea was already starting to drift apart, probably because of too much sun. I told you to use more sunscreen! I love your first land plants! The ginkgoes i buy in a bottle...they were on sale at Walgreens last week, pretty cheap. My little dog Max would have a ball barking at your ptersaurs. That is, if they didn't eat him first. Have fun on your birthday, but don't party too hard...remember your last hangover the ice age...that really sucked! Love, Cindy

My daughter no longer asks me for help with her homework.

My husbands bosses daughters wedding and other trainwrecks

This is a picture of me camping in 1975...i did not want to camp, i don't like to canoe, i hate cold, and i hate rain...but i went camping with my church youth group up near Canada because somebody told me they had pop machines on the islands and i believed them.
They were just kidding.

The big story JUST IN TIME FOR VALENTINES DAY:

ASTRONAUT LOVE GONE BAD!

Maybe i'm getting old but it sounds like it would make a great line in a Steve Miller song...personally, as someone who never completed college it's kinda cool that someone who mastered in aeronautical engineering sucks at love...AND wears a diaper...suddenly, my life doesn't seem all that bad...although i'm capable of my own screw ups the latest being my "husbands bosses daughters wedding"...

Personal jock note;
You know, you can't be a disc jockey for over 24 years without some hearing damage...it's all those headbanging 80's tunes that i cranked up in my headphones!
(darn you Cyndi Lauper!!)

So my husband and i are in Florida for the weekend and we're seated next to this wonderful couple, the wife--i swear to God said--"i hate McMansions." Let me explain, in Naples Florida, the rich are tearing down these cute Floridian bungalows and building cookie cutter mini-mansions in their place, hence the name "McMansions"...i also HASTEN TO ADD that there is NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT...except, i think it looks like crap but what do i know...i think 72 Volkswagon bugs look cute!

So here we are seated next to this very nice couple and i swear to GOD she says that she hates McMansions which is awesome because so do i and now we have something to talk about and talk i do...i go on and on about how crappy they look and what sort of people need to tear down perfectly nice cute bungalows to build crappy "hey look at me McMansions" except people who need to show the world they have money...it wasn't too long when they excused themselves that my husband turned to me and said something to the effect of "you idiot"...she didn't say "they hate McMansions", she said "she BUILT a McMansion!"

The chef on my favorite tv show says i can do this!

My absolute favorite tv show these last few weeks has been TOP CHEF!!!!

It's like Survivor, but with CHEFS...and they never vote you off an island--they just say "pack up your knifes and leave!" And it doesn't matter if i don't know how to cook and once broiled a cake...which, by the way, if you like cake batter...it's not too bad...it has a nice crispy texture to it with a subtle slightly burned flavor...but is a bitc* to frost!

However, my favorite sexy judge in the world says that ANYONE...(so i'm guessing he means me) can DO THIS RECIPE...sooooo....here goes...

TOP CHEF TOM COLICCHIO'S Strawberries with Balsamic Vinegar

Top Chef Tom says use the freshiest strawberries you can find and that this taste pretty good over vanilla ice cream or yogurt...

1 quart strawberries, cleaned and quartered
1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp. superfine sugar
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

Sprinkle sugar over strawberries, tossing gently. Let mixture sit about 15 minutes until the sugar dissoves. Add balsamic vinegar. Taste and adjust sweetness as desired.

And if it doesn't work...Walgreens has a sale on chocolate candy bars this week.

No TACT, No BRAINS, No CLUE, No JOKE

When i first heard the story about the soldier in Iraq who got a nasty email from a business called DISCOUNT-MATS.com...i honestly thought it was going to turn out to be a hoax...a sort of urban legend created to piss people off...like the Starbuck's HOAX a couple of weeks ago...as if we don't have enough real things to be angry about anyway...

NOBODY could be THAT stupid, right? I mean, if your in a business to sell something, you know, to MAKE MONEY...you don't EMAIL a nasty reply to someone that could turn around and email your thoughtless reply to millions of people AROUND THE GLOBE...some who, presumably might want to purchase your product...it's a competitive world out there right?...there must be hundreds of people selling your exact same product, like mats, and why would you want to anger, i dunno, half of your potential client base?...or am i just over thinking this...

Well, it turns out that the email IS TRUE! I'm reprinting some of this just in case you missed this;

SGT Hess,
We do not ship to APO addresses and even if we did, we would never ship to Iraq. If you were sensible, you and your troops would pull out of Iraq.

The vice president of Discount-Mats.com reported that they had to shut down their site to deal with the angry and threatening emails...Well BIG DUH...

Othmau Atta of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, who scores at least a couple of points for at least not fanning the flames with the "freedom of speech line" totally missed the entire boat by saying "if you look at the polls, his opinion is reflected by a majority of Americans now."

Another BIG DUH dude...i DON'T WANT my stepson in Iraq, in fact, i'm terrified for him but it isn't up to me...But now, thanks to Discount-Mats.com, i have someone i can be angry at...the thoughtless, tactless, clueless "why don't you put your name on your email sissy boy", or girl...i'm just saying, "it's sure a weird way to build up a business..."

But then again, who says there's no such thing as bad publicity? I dunno, maybe we should ask the Dixie Chicks...

But i HAD the flu shot!

My daughter informed me this morning that i did not have the flu...i spent the entire weekend laying next to the downstairs toilet because it was easier then having to worry whether or not i was going to make it in time...plus, you can hear the tv from the frontroom!...but according to my daughter, what i had was some kind of virus...NOT the flu...picky, picky...

I spent most of the last couple of months bragging to my neighbors that i got the flu shot this year..."i'm a disorganized mess who can't find a pair of socks that match but I GOT THE FLU SHOT" i would brag to my neighbors as one after another they would succomb to a night of vomiting...til yesterday morning when i called in sick while looking out at the 4 inches of newly fallen snow and listening to the radio about all the car accidents thinking; "oh great, no one's going to believe i have the flu."

But according to my daughter it wasn't the flu...it was some kind of virus called the "noro something or other" that shut down a cruise ship with the same symptoms i had. Something to think about while my stomach rolled with the waves...

But there is hope, i know i'm starting to feel better because as i'm laying here next to the toilet wondering how many pounds i lost i'm starting to notice that i need to do a little cleaning around the sides so as long as i'm down here, "kids, can you pass me the Clorox bottle?"

What Scrooge says and what i think

I was reading my bosses blog over the holidays and was shocked to see someone hated our giant "Plasma Screen TV" giveaway...
"What a waste of money when there are starving people in Milwaukee" he or she said...i don't know if it was a she or he because they cloaked themselves under the word "anonymous"...which i guess is as good as any name when your a big chickens#$...OPPS...see, here's where i get in to trouble...i should just say "i respect your opinion and i hope you'll respect my right to disagree"...think of all the trouble i could have bypassed in life if i had just done that!!!!!!!

But, and that's a big butt i have...that has never been me...one who...when faced in a pile of quicksand and a shovel in which to dig my way out of has always politely said, "no thanks" and just sank to the bottom! What i'm trying to say, i think, is that i would never be a great in politics because you would always know what i think! Although, as my friends would tell you, if i was telling you to go to hell, i would always be polite enough to include directions! Maybe that's why i'm always stuck on the night shift!!

So, maybe i shouldn't use the word big chicken whatever...maybe this year will be the year of the "kinder, gentler jock." The one who when reading on my bosses blog "i was outraged by your wasteful stupid plasma screen tv giveaway" could say something INSTEAD LIKE "i recognize that you think you have a valid point but tell me anonymous person, what did YOU DO this year to make a difference in someones life?"...Cuz, i could think of a ton of ways YOU CAN HELP!!!

For instance, every time we sponser another "Mothers helping Mother's" or we try to provide a Thanksgiving meal for families that usually don't even get a whole meal during the day...all families who live in our city, maybe next door to you or down the block...or, if you missed those, here's some other ideas YOU, yes you, anonymous plasma screen hating person can take part in;

I'm not trying to promote Pick N Save here but just in case you do shop there they offer an advantage card program where if you have one (an advantage card), you can simply stop by their customer service desk and fill out a form in which THEY (Pick N Save) will donate a percentage of what you spend to a deserving charity of your choice like your kids school, or boy or girl scouts or even an animal shelter...my designation goes to the No Kill cat shelter called "HAPPY ENDINGS" on 5349 Forest Home Avenue in Milwaukee because i have personally witnessed how hard they work over there to rehabilitate abused or abandoned cats and kittens that would have otherwise been destroyed...they also neuter feral cats and they work their butts off with very little and yet, accomplish a heck of a lot...i'm really proud of them...shoot, if at the very least you pick up an extra thing of paper towels or heavy duty trash bags or even cat food, or at the very least you have a couple of extra bucks, you could drop it off next time you drive by there, they're open Thursday nights and Saturday's from 10-4pm. (You can also email them at happyend@execpc.com)

And then there is our awesome Wisconsin Humane Society...did you know you can volunteer there?...my daughter and me are discussing it for this spring when you can volunteer May through September to help feed orphaned wild birds. (This came from an incident last spring at the "Elegant Farmer" in Muskego when i encountered a helpless baby bird lying on a hot tar pavement with a broken wing that was obviously going to die, but i couldn't just leave it lying there...so i picked it up and looked for help--i had no idea what to do to comfort it and from that moment i said "never again, i want to know what to do")

Ok, ok, i know my suggestions are animal related, but it's something, it's a start...sure beats complaining about plasma screen tv's, although that's just my opinion.