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.

Heartwarming Christmas stories about morons

When all my viagra and p**** enlargement spam have changed to "loans for Christmas" spam...i'm feeling the spirit! And then there's the Christmas moron stories...

This one comes from out of St. Louis where parts of the city recently suffered from a power outage due to a heavy snow storm...a 70 year old woman shot and killed her husband for bringing her a WARM beer...C'MON people...a WARM beer?!...now i could see if he had drank all her Mamertino!...Now on Blitzer and Donner to Sunny South Carolina where apparently they had no crime on the day that a mother called 911 and asked police to arrest her 11 year old son because he had GOTTEN INTO THE CHRISTMAS GIFTS she had hidden at grandmas house...and yes, since there was no other crime going on that day, the cops went to this kids school and did just that, arrested him.

Personally, i couldn't believe that and actually tried to check on the web to see if there was anymore to that story...there was...it seems that a few months ago, the kid in question hit his grandma...but on the day that he was arrested...he, well, he got into the presents after he was told not too...hmmmmmmm....now, i could see if he had gotten into the Dove chocolates she might have hidden in between her mattress after she had a particular grueling day at work...i guess i can't relate because my kids NEVER EVER try to get into any presents i buy for them...that is because i'm not allowed to buy the presents...EVER....i apparently SUCK at buying Christmas presents, and birthday presents, and the kids even refuse to open a card if I bought it...it all goes back to a particular daughters birthday in the year 1997 when my daughter turned five years old and was expecting an awesome gift of a bike, or a Barbie Doll or an easy bake oven and i got her....a chair.

And what an awesome chair it was...a local artist had painted beautiful kittens on it and since i knew my daughter liked kittens...and it was so pretty, i just knew she would love it!!!

She HATED it...she actually screamed "YOU GOT ME A CHAIR??!!" like i had given her a warm beer or something...even my normally mild mannered son proclaimed "man, that really blows mom."

So now every year when the birthdays and Christmas rolls around, the kids bypass me altogether and hand the wish lists over to their dad and stepdad and grandparents and aunts and uncles and EVERYONE but me...

My daughter still has the chair.
And she still says it sucks.

Looking for a sign and missing my grandma at Thanksgiving

I got the call from my mom last Thursday. My grandma, Reba Davison, had passed away at 2 am in her sleep. I don't know why i took it so hard, cuz after all, she WAS 98, but at first i was ok...i mean, isn't that how we all want to go...live to a ripe old age and then go peacefully in our sleep...plus, on the day my grandma died..there was a horrible tornado that killed 8 people, some of them children in North Carolina, so who am i to feel bad; my grandma almost made it to her goal of 100...

And i was fine, for a while, until last Saturday when i went to the funeral home and saw her in her casket...that's when it became real to me and i realized, "this is final, she is not coming back." I started thinking back to when i heard she was planning her funeral (over 10 years ago)...i was kidding her about it..."your not planning on going anywhere soon, i hope"...and she, in her very Quaker no nonsense way said that she just wanted to be prepared, just in case, but she wasn't planning on going anywhere until she was at least 100...which was how we refered to her age when anyone asked...my grandma was never ashamed to tell people her age...she was 50, then she was 60 until she got to 95, then her age officially became "almost 100."

So that's what i was thinking when i looked at her, so silent, in her very no frills casket which she personally picked out. They had pink lipstick and finger nail polish on her which made me laugh because my grandma would never have allowed that in her life but it did look very nice on her...i thought about all the trials and tribulations she had survived growing up in a very poor family of nine kids where they were lucky if they had horses, otherwise they walked everywhere, my grandma survived the great depression, the death of her parents and all of her sisters and brothers, 2 husbands, and every single one of her best friends but could not survive the loss of her child (two months ago)...they aren't sure what exactly took her out but i think it was a broken heart.

My grandma use to tell us grandkids about the one famous actress she had known and use to occasionally babysit for when she lived in Des Moines, Iowa by the name of Cloris Leachman. This was back in the early 70's when Cloris Leachman had just won an Oscar and was in a hit television show called Phylis...we had a hard time believing her, "OUR GRANDMA from Mason City had actually met some one famous?"...but sure enough, one day in the 90's my grandma actually wrote Cloris Leachman a letter and when Cloris was doing a show in Minneapolis she actually took my grandma to dinner and gave her a couple of tickets to her show...the picture of her and Cloris was displayed proudly in her front room til just before she died...just so she could show it off with a "i told you so"...it's one of the few pictures i have of her with a smile on her face...being a no nonsense quaker she wasn't the kind of person who would get in touch with her emotions...where i'm sobbing like a baby as i type this i already know how my grandma would handle the death of someone she loved...when her second husband died in 1968 my mother said she could come live with us for a while and grandma said no, she needed to go home and face her new life without a husband head on...and she did...she went back to school in the early 60's when most women didn't go to college at all...she was in her 50's and to give you an idea of how rare that was, she made the front page of the newspaper...she took on city hall in the 80's and took on members of her family when she thought they weren't acting the way she thought they should...which was often in those years...yeah, she wasn't afraid of giving her opinion and did to just about anyone who crossed her path, the mailman, the neighbors, cops, didn't matter...she was staying for a week with us when my dad once came home late from work and complained about how noisy he had been when he came in through the door and my dad said "that's where i got you Reba, i came in through the window."

But she mellowed out in her final 10 years and when you came to visit, she made it impossible for you to leave, she'd give you anything she had just so you would stay a few more minutes, and it got so you couldn't get out of there under an hour...and, i'm SUCH A MORON! REALLY, WHAT WAS MORE IMPORTANT THEN SPENDING SOME TIME WITH MY GRANDMA?! Here she was, in her 90's and i'm watching the clock thinking "here's that same story again"...but you know what...i'd give every last cent i had just so i could hear her tell it again, right now...after we went to her graveside service we went to a little cafe she would have liked and when i went back one more time to her grave she was already buried and there was fresh soil over her casket and just like that...my grandma was gone.

Since Saturday i've had moments where i just start crying like when i heard a Chrismas Carol played while i was shopping and then i got it in my head to ask God for a sign that my grandma was ok...maybe a bunch of robins could chirp out one of her favorite tunes out of the 70's like "knock three times" by Tony Orlando and Dawn or something bizarre like that...but i haven't gotten a sign yet...and i have to accept that i may never get a sign...although, in the past few years there has been some fighting in my family and certain members of my family haven't talked or seen each other in two years, BUT this past Saturday, our entire family gathered together in unity to say goodbye to grandma, and you know what, maybe that's better then a sign.

VOTE

Today is election day and you know what that means...NO MORE ELECTION ADS TOMORROW!!!!!! : )

I still don't understand why the candidates run so many, because i haven't learned one new thing about Green and Doyle other then they're both "crooks" "dishonest" and "bad for the economy"---all three statements which came from their television ads about EACH OTHER!!!

Honest to God, if i didn't know better, i'd think Satan was running for governor!

Oh wait, he is...but he's running as an independent so he doesn't have a chance in hell.

Trick or Treats

Last night was a really bad night for me...because, last night, my husband turned on the light to our giant plastic outdoor pumpkin he had bought from the Hoooooe Depot (as he affectionly calls his favorite hangout), and the pumpkin would not turn on...he sent our son Seth to investigate and wouldn't you know...someone had cut the cord!!

As you might imagine i was FURIOUS!!! It wasn't enough that i had spent half a week in the hospital and was feeling like crap, but now, some insensitive A-HOLE had the nerve to come up on our porch and CUT THE CORD TO OUR PUMPKIN!!! WHAT KIND OF CREEP OR CREEPS DOES THAT?!!

I was so angry i wanted to go outside last night with a baseball bat and wait for the next enterprising delinquent who dared to come up to our porch! As it turns out, i won't have to.

This morning upon furthur investigation my husband found that it wasn't exactly as we had first thought. Yes, the cord had been cut...kind of...you see, when my husband had first bought the giant pumpkin--in order to save some money--instead of spending the ten bucks for sand or cat litter to weight the pumpkin down, he tried to save money by buying a few bucks worth of BIRD SEED. And from the looks of it, the late great chipmunk had had a wonderful, last meal.

Not again...another election?

Good heavens, i haven't had time to wash off all the mud from the last one...

Which election is it...hard to tell...there's news about John Kerry...oh wait, he's NOT running...this time it's over something he said...i'm not a democrat, but i am NOT offended by what he said--and i have a stepson in the marines...what kind of a world is it where a decorated Vietnam vet is accused of being unpatriotic by something he said...by an administration who got us into this mess in the first place...confused?...so am i and i AM a republican...or was...i don't know this time who i'm going to vote for but honestly whether my candidate wins or your candidate does, i think we can all agree on something that one candidate said two years ago;

"A vote for someone you don't believe in is a wasted vote."

Thank you Ralph Nader.

He's got my vote...whose he running against?

This just in; Monday sucks! (8 am in the emergency room)

Maybe you've noticed i haven't been in this week...that's ok, your very busy and i understand...this past Sunday night so was i...in fact, i was very worried about what i was going to wear on Monday morning because i was going on Channel 4's Morning Blend and i was concerned that i didn't have anything that would make me look "skinny enough". Then sometime after 10 pm while i was checking out the forecast on the Weather Channel i got what i thought was a backache...i took a couple of Advils and started to finish up the dishes...and then, when the backache got worse, i headed up stairs to take a hot bath thinking that would do the trick. Sometime after midnight when the backache started wrapping around my chest and i couldn't breathe because the pain was so bad, i woke up my husband and he took me to the emergency room. Sometime around 3 am (and one morphine drip later)the doctors were saying it was probably a kidney stone but they were going to do just one more test, which was alright with me because i was thinking i could still get home, get a nap, and then get to The Morning Blend...But then, sometime around 5 am the doctors started using the words "Pulmonary Embolism" and lung and i was like "WHAAAAAAT?!" I would have been far less surprised if the doctors had come back and said they found UFO's in my double chin...it was so far out of left field for me that i really couldn't take in anything else they had to say...didn't they know i had plans for this morning and i was too busy for this...in other words, "could i come back next week and take care of this?"

So it's like this on a Monday morning at 8am...i'm not going to be a guest on the Morning Blend AND i'm sitting in the emergency room waiting for someone from "transport" to take me up to a hospital bed...the girl from transport finally shows up and immediately starts complaining about how she hates Mondays and how it sucks for her cuz she has to work all day and i'm thinking, "man, i wish i was you."

FISH(Y) TALES

This whole tragic episode with the Crocodile Hunter and the sting ray really got me thinking...especially in light with another incident that involved a sting ray stabbing another man in the chest...why is it that everytime something like this happens we always hear animal experts describing sting rays as "docile"...getting stabbed in the chest by a fish doesn't sound too "docile" to me...

It really has got me thinking about other animal stories we might have missed...like the headline a few weeks ago that said "KILLER WHALES SETTLE DISPUTES LIKE HUMANS", and i'm thinking "oh great, now the whales have guns!"

Or; "SHARK THAT WALKS ON FINS IS DISCOVERED" "Oh great, next they'll want to move in my neighborhood!"

Or; OJ SIMPSON wants to write book entitled "IF I KILLED NICOLE" "Drop the "if" OJ and you could make it a "how to" manual."

What? OJ doesn't qualify as a "fish tale"...i'm not so sure, he sure sounds "fishy to me..."

And i took the road less traveled...

And let me tell you what a bad idea THAT was!

The whole road trip from hell started out as kind of a cool idea...i don't have the ("are we there yet?") kids with me on this trip back from Iowa, so maybe, just maybe, i could took the little side trip i have always wanted to do and take the side road that hugs the Mississippi river from La Crosse down to Highway 18...no kids griping about how much longer will this take and no husband to point out that we were wasting gas...just me and the dog...(the dog that gets car sick on any trip longer then getting gas at Speedway BUT i had already taken care of that little problem too with vet approved doggie car sick drugs...)

So there we were, me and the dog on a beautiful Wednesday afternoon enjoying the scenic route...well, actually just me as the dog was zonked out...i have a friend who always takes the road less traveled under the idea that there is less traffic and you can drive faster but NOT ME as i was there to ENJOY THE RIDE and what a ride(!)...the hills and beauty of the Mississippi was stunning...there were views that reminded me of coastal southern California...the mist coming off the river and the fishermen bobbing in their boats just a few feet from the cliff i was traveling on...not to mention the hills jutting out of the river--the colors, just past peak but still beautiful...plus, as an extra bonus, the excitement of watching a frusterated driver from Nebraska in a giant 78 Buick try to pass a slow moving hay wagon that was actually doing the speed limit(!) on our two lane road...there were also markers along the way that i would have liked to have slowed down and read (one i saw from the road said "Bad Day" as if a bad day was so rare along this river route someone actually put up a sign to mark the occasion) but there was a big semi on my a$$ that i suspected wasn't on this road to enjoy the scenery so i kept driving...

Somewhere around DeSota the dog woke up and started vomiting and i came back to earth...24 MORE MILES TIL HIGHWAY 18?!!!! Oh my God' i'm never going to get home at this pace...what the heck was i thinking?!! Had i taken the other route i'd be to the Dells by now! From now on, when i have the choice between the road less traveled and the other road, i'm taking the road going 65 mph! ; )

A Finicky turtle and chocolate beer

Well, i just learned something today. Our box turtle who has been a member of our family for the past 3 or 4 years has taste buds...(yep, bet you didn't see that coming...for the past couple of weeks i have posting things about how i think Andrea Yates sucks and how Amish people are better then me and then i hit you out of left field with a turtle, and his taste buds)...which was a huge surprise to me, almost as surprising as finding out our turtle has ears...for what i don't know...i mean, he doesn't come when we call ("here Turtleturtleturtle"), but yes, he has those too, and that knowledge only cost 75 bucks, in "people money"...

It all started a couple of weeks ago when i noticed a huge lump on the side of the turtles face, he was looking at me and i was looking at him and i'm thinking "is that suppose to be there or what?"...his appetite for strawberries and grapes ended about the same time...the vet explained it this way..."a turtle can eat the same thing for years and years and then one day with no warning he will just stop eating it"...i wish that would happen to me...one day, with no warning, i just decide NO MORE CHOCOLATE...that's it...weight problem solved...which brings me to "HAPPY NEWS!"

CHOCOLATE BEER! : )
I think that rates a happy face, don't you?! It's being put out by Miller Brewing Company just in time for Christmas AND it will brewed with six different malts INCLUDING chocolate and dark chocolate...this being Wisconsin i can only think the idea started something like this with the collision of two rocket scientist;

"Sir, you have chocolate in my beer!"
"And you have beer in my chocolate!"

The beer is going to be sold any day now for $5.99 and i'm thinking me and the turtle are going to celebrate this Christmas in style...me with a pint of chocolate beer and the turtle with-i dunno, anything but my beer, now that i just found out he has ears, it would be my luck he has a liver too, and i don't have an extra 75 bucks for that...

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 let 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 at the fact that i always sort of, well, i didn't think i was better then them but 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.

Is the whole world going CRAZY...or is it just ME...thoughts on Dog, the bounty hunter, and the pope

So let me see if i have this straight...you can be a rapist...CONVICTED of 86(!) counts of rape...but if you escape to Mexico...AMERICA isn't allowed to touch you...but if your a bounty hunter and YOU get CAUGHT catching the RAPIST...YOUR the one who goes to JAIL, in MEXICO...how stupid is this...or is it just ME...Honestly, i thought it was some kind of joke when i first heard this...IF YOU DO A CRIME...MOVE TO MEXICO...you can pay off the local police and live there and God forbid if anyone from America tries to bring you back...i'm making the story simple but honestly, check out what is happening to Dog the Bounty Hunter (Duane Chapman) and i guarantee your blood will boil...one of the girls that was raped has started a petition to keep Dog out of Mexico and i'm listing it here:

www.FREEMYDOG.com
(i'm number 3138 just in case your wondering...)

AND NOW, the POPE

I see the pope is apologizing to the Muslims again, and honestly, i'm starting to get sick of this...every night that i turn on the news...some RADICAL ISLAMIST is threatening America...calling us dogs and telling us how their going to kill us and blow up our cities...blowing up our Catholic churches...and this is EVERY NIGHT...and i don't see the Catholics or the Baptist blowing up Mosques...Of course the Baptist might be too busy protesting Planned Parenthood...(note: i'm Baptist...and i have never picketed Planned Parenthood myself although i will admit to burning a record or two in my day)

My point is, how crazy is it that the Radical Islamists have the freedom to say WHATEVER THEY WANT...but God forbid if you're the pope...is this world going crazy, or is it just me..?

Could you sign my petition for the Cowsills in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ?

I've been wanting to post something in my blog about Barry Cowsill...it's been about a year now since he was reported missing after Hurricane Katrina, and at that time myself and thousands of his friends and fans could never have believed that he would be found dead...it's still bizarre to me...he reminded me of a cat with 9 lives but somewhere along the way he must have used them all up...i first met Barry and his beautiful saint of a wife Debbie in the summer of 1996 when they moved here from Seattle...Debbie worked at the same radio station i did and Barry, well, Barry seemed kind of lost...but he was the sweetest, most charming "formally famous" person you could ever imagine...never one to talk about his past (AND WHAT A PAST!--he toured AND partied with Led Zeppelin AND his family was the ORIGINAL Partridge Family...until his dad messed it up) and always hopeful about the future...since he didn't have a job he would babysit Debbie and my kids when we headed out to various radio appearences...my kids adored him...he would gather them around him in a circle while he sang and played his guitar...and he would leave the best messages on my answering machine...he would never talk as he would sing them...Barry's heart was never here in Milwaukee although he tried to break into the music scene...he was a New Orleans boy and of course that is where he eventually returned when the hurricane hit...when you have a couple of seconds, if you wouldn't mind, would you please type in www.petitiononline.com/tchof05/petition.html. or click on www.Cowsill.com

I'm really bad with this internet thing and i don't know to put in a direct link yet, but as soon as i find one of Dan Kyle's interns...i'll fix it...until then...if your a Cowsill fan or know one...please sign the petition.

Thanks.

Remembering September 11, and an uncle who raised seahorses

It's Sept. 11 again and i'm stunned...FIVE YEARS ALREADY?!

There's times that it seems like it happened one hundred years ago, but really, it was only FIVE years ago...there was a world before that date and now...i'm really thankful i took my kids on an airplane ride to see their grandparents before that happened...before there were all those damn checkpoints..."look kids, there's grandpa and grandma standing right by the window waiting for us"...and really, there's no point in moaning about what use to be because it ain't going back...not with all these terror alerts complete in orange, red and yellow...so, tonite, my family is going to do the only thing we know how to do...

CELEBRATE.

That's right...celebrate life...as in how dare you terrorists THINK you can destroy us with fear..! Bite me you B%#st**ds!!! Today my family will celebrate LIFE...TODAY is a day we will share together...with love, with random acts of kindness toward strangers, maybe even taking some cookies to one of our elderly neighbors...just because.

Today i will FEAR the acts of GOD...but i will not fear the acts of man!

Cindy Huber

ps...geez...maybe i shouldn't have skipped my prozac before lunch.


An Appreciation of my uncle, ROBERT FALT

Tonite, i will also celebrate the life of my precious uncle, BOB FALT, who was a science teacher in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and before Type 2 Diabetes destroyed his health, a tennis instructer...he was a smart and brilliant man who raised seahorses in his basement...yes, seahorses...i mean, they won't even sell them to the general public anymore because they are so difficult to keep alive and apparently feel pain...but my uncle raised them...AND sold them to the pet stores...i never really knew how awesome that was...to go down in his basement to play with my cousin Jennifer and watch the seahorses...now when i think back, i'm totally in awe.

I was lucky enough to get a chance to visit him a few months ago with my mom...it was obvious that he was dying but he lived alone in a apartment complex, and sat outside on the porch waiting for kids to go by with their homework so he could offer help...he was also dying of loneliness so my mom came upon a compromise...if he would give up smoking, my mom would buy him a puppy...at the time i wondered about the sanity of the situation...my poor uncle, suffering from cigerette withdrawal while the puppy would be peeing all over his apartment...but my uncle said yes so out we went and bought my uncle a puppy...because that's what you do when someone is dying right?...you buy them a puppy...at the time i promised my uncle that if anything happened to him...i would take care of the puppy...and, well, you know where this is going to go, right..?

My uncle passed away this past Saturday...alone, but not alone...as several of his neighbors, who loved him very much, were keeping an eye on him...one knew that he was bad and begged him to let her call 911...but he said no...(actually he said "don't you dare" as he was terrified of having to go to a nursing home again)...he was found, probably a few minutes after he died by his new family of neighbors...with his dog by his side...

Oh yes, the dog...remember that promise i made?

Sempher fi, butterfly

My son and i were sitting outside Dominos pizza one late summer afternoon...(i believe it was on a Monday since that's the $4.99 large one topping special)...when we noticed this big beautiful butterfly fluttering around in the breeze when SPLAT,
a big red Ford truck hit it...

Man, isn't that kinda like life...Your kinda fluttering around on a nice warm breeze thinking about how perfect everything is when life slams into you...not less then 24 hours after our family vacation the phone rings and it's the MARINES on the other end, against my husband and my wishes our (then) 19 year old stepson signed up earlier and now it was time to go...it's not that we don't want him to go in as this is something my stepson has always wanted anyway, it's just that his dad and mom and i are worried sick about what's out there for him and have tried to talk him into waiting and taking some college...he didn't, of cours, cuz he's in a hurry to grow up and get out of the house-worried that he might miss something if he stays at home...weren't we all like that once...

And what is really weird now is that i can't remember a single bad moment that we had all though i guarentee you we had them...c'mon, i'm the "wicked stepmom" ok?...the one who put the "smack down" when he broke curfew or got a little mouthy...we weren't the Brady Bunch, that's for sure, but honestly...all i'm thinking about right now is his silly sense of humor and his belief in doing what is right by his country, and i'm incredibly proud of him...

So with a heavy heart and a giant lump in our throats, his dad, mom and me relunctantly set our butterfly free,

Hey Mark,

Sempher fi.

ps...and watch out for big red Ford trucks.

Summer's over, thank God

I'm tired of shivering through another August...think we'll have better luck in September? Here's a scarey thought...when i went to bed last night it was still August!

And i still can't get over the thought that Summerfest and the Wisconsin State Fair are over, sometimes i get so depressed...i went out and bought a pound of powdered sugar, i try to pretend i'm eating cream puffs and that i just misplaced all the other ingredients...

ps...i've gotten a few emails asking me if that grapefruit diet i was trying worked...it DID...Now, here's the deal...(according to the National Enquirer) you're suppose to drink 8 ounces of grapefruit juice a day AND at the end of the month...you should lose up to three pounds a month...just by doing that...but word of warning...unless you love love love grapefruit juice...spend a little extra and get the name brand stuff cuz otherwise you will be gagging all the time...however, and this i pray..."Dear Lord, if i can't be thin, please, at least let me be skinnier then my girlfriends"...(i saw that on a tee shirt once, worn by a skinny you know what)

The first "FAMILY" Vacation...

This is my family in front of the Corn Palace in South Dakota...
NOTE: There is no palm trees or beaches anywhere near there...it is a building covered with CORN!!! (at least the popcorn was good)

Last year my family went on our first "blended" family vacation...my husband and i had been meaning to do this since we got married a few years ago...but something always came up like...no money...kids who didn't want to go "WITH US"...and where to go "destination problems...like...i think vacations should involve a BEACH...and my husband thought a vacation should involve HISTORY; "hey kids, let's go see Mount Rushmore and learn something..."

Look, i love presidents as much as the next guy...but i'm not sure i want to spend precious days off staring at four dead presidents on a big rock...unless that rock is next to a beach...a big, beautiful beach...with sand and waves, and maybe a concession stand that sells hotdogs and Corona's...

I might also point out that i lived next to South Dakota for a while in the 80's...maybe not for a long time but LOOOOONG Enough...

And i thought that would be the end of it...until my husband got it in his head to visit South Dakota...for the last three years that's the only place he's wanted to go...i kept hoping he'd give up on it BUT much like Chevy Chase in the original Vacation movie...("the moose says South Dakota's closed but i say it's open")AWAAAAY we went...my kids and his kids and a dog who gets car sick...

How'd it go...?

Well, here's what we did and i'm gonna pass this gem to you because i like you...rent a car with a DVD player...

That's right friend....the SECRET TO A REALLY GREAT FAMILY VACATION ISSSSS...a DVD player...forget those old family vacations where everyone was forced to look out the window at scenery...(God's green earth "are you crazy?"..it's South Dakota--everything's brown(!)...and God forbid, talk to each other...family vacation conversation is over-rated anyway...i mean, growing up, our family vacation conversations were always the same: "Mom, Paul is pinching me again...hey, it's my turn to sit next to the window...i'm sick of this radio station, CHANGE IT NOW!... PLUS, the ever popular; "ARE WE THERE YET?!"...followed of course by my mom's..."ONE MORE WORD AND I'M STOPPING THE CAR AND BEATING YOU ALL!!"

No, there were no beatings on this family vacation! In fact, i can tell you where we were just by the movie that was playing at the time...for instance...the trip through the Badlands was perfectly accented by a Chuck Norris film called "A Force of ONE..."He (hhheehheeehhheee)hears the silence...he (hhheehhheehheee)sees the darkeness, and only he (hhheehheehhhee can stop the kkkilllling!"...summing up the absolute remoteness that is the Badlands...
The trip through the Corn Palace and Wall Drug was best summed up by the "Best of Friends" season four dvd--totally commercial...and then there was Mount Rushmore...drum roll please..."Napolean Dynamite"; What do you get when you combine a tiger and a lion...a liger, or course...that's right, the kids got a little education with their history...this is not to say that we played dvd's the ENTIRE time...no, there was that little unfortunate escapade through the "wildlife loop" that winds through Custer Park where we weren't sure if the bison were going to stampede through our Ford Expedition or not that the movie "Jurassic Park" didn't seem so appropriate, that was probably the quietest part of our entire trip...

Sooooo, the next family trip you decide to take, get a DVD player and thank me later, in fact, i have a few dvd's i'd be glad to loan you..."Jaws" anyone?...probably not if your making a road trip to Florida.