Remove My Name From Your List

Really, there are "Do Not Call" Lists that appear to work fairly well (I don't get too many telemarketer calls anymore, just folks looking for donations). However, what about "Do Not Email"? I know, with just a click of a button it's easily erased. But I get irritated having to erase so much spam.

Recently, it's not just the spam that's irritating to me. It's the political crap. Don't get me wrong, I like to be "in the know." But, I don't like to be bombarded. I especially don't like to be bombarded by candidates who I can't even vote for.

So, to the Senator from Arkansas who I will not name but have not ever voted for and do not intend to vote for (especially now that it would be illegal as I am registered to vote in a different state): I do not know how you got my email address, nor do I understand why you are addressing me as "Milton" - this is my father's name, but his name has nothing to do with my email address "ebeth", nor is he a fan of yours either. Kindly cease mailing me your political propaganda.

I have written your office now three times saying I moved out of your state. My last email was even quite rude itemizing why I have not ever supported you/do not ever intend to support you. However, it apparently was not read by your staff. So consider this an open letter to you, your staff and any supporter you may have who knows me (yes, I will still claim them as friends and forgive their poor judgement in political views. This is America afterall.) to remove me from your list. It shouldn't be that hard! Just a click of a button. Surely the minions in your office can handle that task. If they can't, then I would suggest you look into replacing them with more efficient staff who would not be wasting my tax dollars.

Thank you.

Having a Hard Time Planning a Menu

This rarely happens, food is a specialty of mine, I love to cook and plan parties/meals. However, I have to admit that I'm having a hard time figuring out what's on the menu for Easter. You see, this will be our first Easter just the four of us.

Typically, Easter (as any major holiday) is spent with my side of the family at my parents house. Picture a scene from "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" and you have a scene from my family. Even though there were only three children, we're loud and everyone's into everyone's business. Sunday dinners are a big deal, and holiday dinners are especially a big deal.

We got through Christmas just fine... we had the hubs' family here. So it wasn't so glaring that we were alone. This weekend is shaping up to be another story. First, there's the obvious - less family. Now, when you are used to helping plan a family meal for about 15 hearty eaters and suddenly you're downsizing that to 4 it makes things interesting. Next, there's the delimia of what do you eat, exactly? All the sides and trimmings you're used to having on the table just seems like overkill when it's for so few people. And of course there's the debate of what will the main entree be? Traditionally we've had ham in my house, but this year lamb has been suggested. hmmm.....

So, I'm at a complete and total loss. I'm opening it up to suggestions. What are your Easter traditions? Apparently we're going to have to make some new ones here, so I'd like to steal from you if you're willing to share!

My Weekend in Review

This weekend flew by. I'm thinking I need a vacation just to recover! It started simple enough, just a couple movies and the couch.

We started out watching Taking Chance. This movie was more than I expected it to be. Kevin Bacon is a colonel in the Marine Corps. He's an analyst who is starting to double guess what exactly he's doing with his life. As he reviews the list of casulaties he runs across the name of a young man who's enlisted from his hometown in Colorado. Bacon volunteers to transport him home for the funeral. What ensues is a heart wrentching true story following the next week of his life. I'm glad I watched it in the dark, because the tears were freely flowing pretty much throughout the movie. I would definitely recommend it as a must see. It wasn't a movie in theatres, rather an HBO movie so it didn't get a lot of recognition. For once I'm happy I listened to what Netflix recommended.

We followed that up with Have You Heard About the Morgans? Funny movie. Not great, but just what I have come to expect from Hugh Grant.

The rest of the weekend was pretty much work. Saturday, phase one of our home make-over started. We repainted the kitchen. It went from the awful red color that was there to a nice, warm "rusty nail." No, seriously, that is the name of the color. It's like a deep terracotta. The room now feels warmer and more welcoming than it did in the hideous shade previously there.

After painting and running errands all day Saturday we had the neighbors (and good friends) over for pizza and a movie. I was the only one who'd seen The Blind Side. And, I'm hoping it lived up to everyone's expectation after I raved about it!

(my caption option apparently isn't working - old kitchen on top, new on bottom)

The kitchen was the easy part. Sunday we tackled the living room and stairwell. I am sore in places I didn't know existed on my body! The hideous red is now replaced by a warm beige (a.k.a. "bush whacking" - where do they come up with these names?!) and the mantle is highlighted in a cream. Suddenly my house feels light and airy, instead of like a dungeon in one of the inner sanctions of hell (yes, the red was that bad).

(again with the caption keys! Dungeon living room top, new paint bottom- excuse the mess the baby has taken over the living room with his toys)

So that completes phase one. Next phase, new floors. That should be interesting!

My $0.02 on the Preschooler in Boulder

Recently, a big brew-ha-ha was made over a Catholic school here in Colorado kicking out a preschooler because the parents were a same-sex couple. The school said this went against their principals and they could not allow the child to attend. There was a swarm of fanfare and media coverage, people picketed.

I haven't heard the end result, but I'm fairly certain the child is still not allowed to return next year. My response to this? Good for the Church! I don't mean that rudely. Yes, I am Catholic. But, no I am not biased against same sex couples. I feel it is the institution's right and priviledge to allow whomever they chose into their doors. Just as it is anyone's right and priviledge to choose whether or not to support said institution.

Let me give you a personal history lesson.... I went to a small, private, Christian college in Arkansas. We had to sign a "Code of Conduct" before being admitted. It was college, we did not have uniforms. However, among the very long list of regulations we had to abide by were the following: we were not allowed to wear shorts before 3 p.m. (and never to class), boys could not have hair over their collars or any visible piercings (if they did they could not wear them on campus),  drinking was strictly prohibited - even off campus - regardless of your age, couples could not have "relationships". A violation of the sex, drugs/alcohol clauses would subsequently get you kicked out of school and no tuition refund would be available. It was not a cheap school. The rules were strictly enforced.

For those who lived on campus (which about 90% did because you had to get school permission to live off campus  - and even then you had to live within a certain mileage proximity, with an immediate family member and/or be over a certain age in your mid-twenties with  no opposite sex roommates allowed) curfew was also strictly enforced.

Needless to say, I irked through - but I knew several who mysteriously went home for part of a semester and returned the following year. The particular religion of this school was also engrained upon it's students through required chapel and bible class attendance. You knew all these things going in. If you didn't agree with them, you didn't sign the contract and you didn't attend the school.

Was it always easy? No. Were there times when I wanted to tell the Administration they were full of it? Yes. Am I a better person for having the experience of such a rigorous education. YOU BETCHA! And, I'd do it all over again if I could go back in time. Sure, the rules made me angry at times. And, sure there were quite a few that I broke - although my "shroud of secrecy" will never be broken and I will not publicly admit to breaking any of them. I will pull a Bill Clinton, and demand to know the full definition of the question before answering. Then I will politically position myself to be teflon.

But, I digress. The point to that rambling message was that we knew before I stepped foot on campus what I was getting into. My children have attended private Catholic schools. Similiar contracts were required of them - they will attend mass and be exposed to the faith, they will wear uniforms, the school expects a certain standard followed by the parents. If the parents knew they didn't meet those standards why enroll the child? The Catholic church is one of the oldest religions in the world. Does one couple actually think they are going to change their view? Sure, you're in Boulder. Sure, it's one of the most liberal cities. That doesn't mean the Church is going to follow suit.

I say live your life as you wish to live it, but do not subject your child - who is an innocent in all of this - to become fodder for your own policital agenda. Growing up is hard enough without being turned into a pawn for your parents' views. Public institutions have to take everyone. The beauty of private institutions is they do not. I'm not saying they are always 100% correct, but they are free to make the rules as they see fit. There are plenty of non-denominational private schools out there who do not care what your orientation is; however, they have very strict admissions and cirriculum policies. Nobody is picketing them. Leave the private institutions alone, and let them have the dignity to operate as they have for centuries.

My Take on The Blind Side

What an amazing story! I purposely did not see this in the theatre because I knew it would make me cry. It takes a lot to draw a tear to my eye, but this had me crying within minutes of the opening credits, and off and on until the very end of the closing credits.

Leigh Anne Tuohy is an amazing woman, and Sandra Bullock's depiction of her is awesome. I'm also glad I watched this alone, so I know what to expect when watching it with the hubs later on. He tends to make fun of me when I cry at movies. Of course his "they aren't real people" line wouldn't apply to this, because they are.

My husband is a football fan, I'm sure he knows who Michael Oher is. Before the previews of this story, I did not. Neither of us knew Oher's background. I saw in an "HBO Behind the Scenes Look" of the movie that while some liberties were taken (as with all movies) this is very true to life. The real Leigh Anne Tuohy was on set during much of the filming to make sure of it. She's a spunky woman, she wouldn't let those hollywood types get her story too far off base. It was touching as well to see her in the audience at the Oscars to see Sandra win her award.

It is amazing how they caught on film the things we go through for those we love. And her determination to help this boy - there just aren't words! I have a new hero.

My two favorite scene had to be she confronted a gang-banger about messing with Michael, "You mess with my son, you mess with me" and she goes on to tell him how she's a card toting member of the NRA, and always "packin". He wants to know what she's carrying, if it's a "Saturday night special" and she says not only that, but it works just fine all the other days, too. He's left speechless. But it's such a true moment. What wouldn't we do for the ones we love? We'd risk it all, even if it meant putting ourselves in harms way.

Anyway, the point to today's blog isn't really a movie review, but rather a reflection on this story. This woman didn't ask questions, she knew what had to be done to help this young man. She jumped in feet first and did it. I don't know what he's like in real life, but I know he ended up getting an education and making something of himself. Michael went from cleaning up the bleachers after sporting events so he could get the discarded bags of popcorn and have something to eat to a multi-million dollar contract in the NFL. Leigh Anne realized a young man needed help, and that nobody else was going to give it to him. Her family didn't think it odd that they take him on as a big brother or older son.

We could all be so lucky to know such a bond.

Wednesday Recipe: Sesame Grilled Salmon with Wasabi Marinade

Last Friday I said I was going to fix a new salmon recipe that was sure to be a disaster. Well, actually it turned out pretty darn good, if I do say so myself. (I know, it's bad form for a chef to compliment themselves, but I never claimed to be a chef - or to follow the etiquette rules all the time).

I'm not a huge salmon fan. I know a lot of people who are, but it's not one of my favorites, I like salmon but it's one of thos dishes that if I have it 3 times a year I've had it a lot. I can't do just grilled salmon, it has to be spiced up with a little extra flavor.

Some friends of ours served this dish as part of a "surf and turf" menu to us right before we moved. Since we had it Friday (which is a non-meat day for us during Lent) and it was just me, the hubs and the minions children I didn't do anything too fancy. We just had salmon, rice and vegetables. It sounds like a time consuming dish, but it really isn't. The tang of the wasabi mixed with the sweetness of the brown sugar makes the marinade really good. Combine that with the density of the Salmon, and I think it actually scores an A. Plus, middle child really liked it and asked for seconds, this tells me it has to be good!

Ingredients:

1 Tbs Sesame Seeds

2 Tbs Wasabi Powder

1 Tbs Water

1 Tbs Soy Sauce
2 Tbs Olive Oil

2 Tbs Rice Wine Vinegar

1 Tbs Brown Sugar

1.5 lbs. Salmon Fillet

Directions:

1. Toast sesame seeds over medium-high heat in a nonstick skillet until light, golden-brown (approx. 3 minutes). Combine Wasabi powder, water and soy sauce in a small bowl. Add oil, vinegar, brown sugar and sesame seeds. Mix well. Reserve 2 tablespoons marinade for basting later.

2. Cut salmon fillets into 6 serving size pieces. Place salmon and marinade in self-closing plastic bag and seal. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes. Remove salmon from marinade. Discard marinade.

3. Grill or broil over medium heat 8-10 minutes per inch of thickness or until fish flakes easily with a fork. Brush with reserved marinade during last 2 minutes of cooking.

Since I made it in March, and it was cold and snowy the evening I made it, I just used the broiler and cooked it indoors. When I was introduced to this dish last summer, they had plank grilled it on a charcoal grill - that was fabulous as well. All the above mentioned flavors saturated with the smokey charcoal flavor, it's a must do in the summertime!

Uncovering My Home's True Potential

I have an irresistable urge to rip up everything in my house and start over. I'm thinking this isn't a good sign. I do love my house. The hubs did good. He found it and made an offer on it before I ever came out here. It was a bit scary, and our realtor was sweating bullets the day I flew in to see it.

She took me to 11 houses before she brought me here. She told me if I hated it, she could figure out a way to get us out of it - there were plenty of loopholes she could use. I did fall in love with one not too far away, but it had no closets (literally, NONE). I couldn't justify the increase in cost - even if it was a bigger house - when there were no nooks or crannies to hide my clothes in.

When I saw this one I loved it. Even with the disgusting decorations the previous tennants had scattered about (i.e. the jungle growing on the mantle, the mismatched furniture, and the beaded doors circa 1972 pot house) I saw it's potential.

We bought as a short sale, so everything was "as is". The hubs went to work and repainted the inside, but one of the colors didn't quite take like we had wanted it to. Last weekend I bought 6 gallons of paint to finish things up, and hopefully before too long we'll start the flooring process.

But, this has unleashed a monster. Now I have all kinds of ideas. New fixtures in the bathrooms, an island in the kitchen, one day I'd like new countertops. Every frappin' light fixture in the house needs to be changed - which means all the door hinges and handles also will need to be swapped out to match the finish on the lighting fixtures I want. WHERE DOES IT END?!

So, since I obviously don't make enough money to just gut the place and start over, we've decided to babystep it. Phase 1: this spring. Convert kitchen and living room color from crazy red they are now to a warm terracotta in the kitchen and neutral brown for the living. Phase 2: this spring. New floors downstairs and in bathrooms (maybe upstairs as well, just depends on what we find vs. the budget to do this). These are the phases the hubs knows about. ha ha.... in my mind Phase 3: sometime late this year/early 2011 lighting/fixtures update Phase 4: kitchen.

About the time we get all that done, I'll have found a new color I love and either have to repaint or begin to pester the hubs for new furniture. I'm thinking it's time for a new hobby.

11" Later... My Hair is 1/2 What it Used to Be

Well, I took the plunge. After growing my hair out for over a year, I cut it off. It wasn't as drastic of a change as I had in mind (the girl who cut it was actually afraid I'd hate her today). But it was a needed change. Maybe next time I'll get it the more choppy, textured look I had in mind. For now, the razor cut bob I got is sufficient. Gives my kids time to recognize me without too much drama.

For those of you who don't know, I was always daring with my hair when I was younger. My nearly black locks have been platinum blonde, they've been "boy short". I've had crazy bobs, echoing the 1920's flapper era, to long locks with severe bangs looking quite Cleopatraish. In college I even attempted to mimic Meg Ryan's do from City of Angels. Um... that was a disaster. I actually called in to work and went into hiding for a day and a half until the stylist could make me look less like a white Tina Turner and more like myself.

Before 4:45 yesterday afternoon, my hair was past my shoulderblades, almost mid-back. To be exact, it was 22" long. I cut off 1/2 of it.  I know, the picture is gross. An 11" poneytail on a kitchen chair (I know, yesterday I said 10.5", but I actually measured it with a tape measure a minute ago, it's 11"). Nice! I came home and told the hubs it was too special to me, we couldn't part ways just yet. I needed some time to say farewell. His response was not fit for network television. No worries! I'm mailing it off to a charitable wig organization later today.

In case you're wondering the finished project isn't life altering or really too exciting. It is presentable. It is fun - even if I did think for a moment I needed to throw up when she chopped it off. I'm sure in a week, I'll hate it as much as I hate all my hairdos and the plotting for a new look will set in. It always does.

But, for now this is the age/weight appropriate do. Yes, I said weight appropriate, nothing too short until a few more pounds/chins have removed themselves from my post-baby blobbishness.

It's been a ho-hum kind of week

I haven't blogged too much lately. I'll blame it on a variety of reasons, but probably first and foremost is the fact that I have difficulty deciding what would be interesting for you to read about versus what makes me sound like a bitter old lady, ha ha!

Truth be told, this has been a difficult week. It shouldn't have been, but somehow it has. I blame the time change. Even the baby isn't thrilled with this new schedule. He's very schedule oriented, and the fact that I now have to wake him up in order to take middle child to school has not been made for a happy baby this week. Top that with the crazy weather (70 degrees a couple days this week followed by what I am deeming a blizzard outside right now) and you just have a recipe for chaos.

On the bright side, Uncle Sam was nice to us this year, so we can go ahead with our home improvement plans and hopefully have a new shade of paint in the living room and new flooring before we get too far into spring. The hubs still thinks he's going to do the floors himself. I'm hoping he lets me know when this is taking place so I can plan a vacation - anyone want to run off to the spa or a girls weekend in the mountains? lol...

So, there you have it... a very boring review of my week. I'll try very hard to post something a bit more interesting next week (if nothing else, at least recipe Wednesday will return - I'm attempting an interesting Salmon dish tonight, that has potential for disaster written all over it).

Plotting a Stealth Mission in My Mind...

Maybe Wynonna was right. I remember a few years back reading a story about Wynonna Judd in a magazine. She was taking some major heat from animal activists because she had her dog's vocal chords clipped. They just couldn't imagine how someone who made their living using their vocal chords could do such a deed to an animal.

They apparently didn't have my new neighbors.

I live in a relatively quiet community; however, the houses are very close together. Having a conversation outdoors typically means if your neighbors want to be nosey they'll know what you were just saying. You can imagine if you can hear an outdoor conversation, you can almost certainly hear noises made by outdoor pets.

Don't get me wrong. I like animals. I have a yappy dog myself. I try very hard to make sure she doesn't cause any disturbances, but just by being an animal it is not uncommon that she's going to bark. I understand that, my neighbors understand that. No hard feelings. We all get along in our little bubble just fine.

Enter new people. They have two ginormous labs in their backyard. These two dogs do not care for their new surroundings AT ALL! These dogs fight during the day (literally tear each other's heads off) - I am hearing them snarl and gnash at one another as I type this. And, at night there are long periods of nonstop barking. I'm secretly hoping a large starving coyote wanders into the neighborhood and eats them.

PETA may come picket my yard for this, but I have found myself plotting... my vast array of black clothes are perfect for a night-time ninja mission. Maybe a few well thrown ninja stars will hush them. I've already scoped out areas in my upstairs where I have perfect line of vision and nobody could trace my line of attack back here. A quick slip over the back fence, few stealth moves and I'm sure I could perform the procedure Wynonna had done.

But, alas, I'm too much of a scaredy cat myself. Don't feel like getting picketed by PETA, or going to jail for animal cruelty. So, I guess we'll just have to live out the rest of our days listening to these dogs go at it. My hope is that they'll be stupid and get one more (from my spying missions when I go for walks I have already determined they have these two, plus one lap dog inside which means they are at the limit as decreed by city ordinance). One more shows up and hopefully Animal Control will do something about it. In the meantime, I'll just continue to grit my teeth.

Random Thoughts

How did I go from no job to many jobs? True, I still consider myself a stay at home mom, because I do work from home. But in the last two months I started working for a family business basically handling scheduling and billing from home. It's flexible, it's all done by computer and telephone, and it lets me raise the baby without having to rely on daycare - which is always a plus!

However, in the last few weeks I've been approached to assist in running a small political campaign back home, assist in designing a website (which I don't know if I can do, but I'm fairly certain I can follow the templates), and now I've been approached to work free-lance doing some press releases for a contact out here.

So my brain has begun to spin... you know, it's very seldom that it isn't spinning out of control. But, now I'm wondering - would it be possible to turn these freelance requests into an actual job? For those of you who may recall, I interviewed with a small public relations firm out here around the holidays. Timing for that wasn't quite right on either end. But that company was a husband and wife team who started a great business in their basement and have been able to steadily grow it over the years.

I know a LOT of people back home who did similiar things - running their own one-woman design or marketing  businesses out of their homes. So, why would I be any different? It's living the American dream, right? Working for yourself? True, there's the whole issue of billing, keeping up with time, making sure you don't bill the client for the time you had to feed and change your child.

So, for the next few weeks as I work on these various projects, I'm also going to start doing a little bit of research on the side. Talking to people who have done it, researching the market, figuring things out. Basically seeing if this is another hair-brained idea I've cooked up, or if it could have any meat to it.

Sorry that today's blog wasn't comical, whimsical, or anything that I started out saying it would be - but I had a need to get my idea out there... to see what others thought of it. Feel free to comment, mock, encourage, etc. I need all of the above to decide if it's a leap we're willing to attempt! We'll return to regularly scheduled programming tomorrow!

Home Improvement: Take I

My fascination with reality tv is about to literally hit home in our daily lives. Andre (aka the hubs) and I love watching "Moving Up" and various shows about flipping/improving homes, etc. When we purchased our house last summer it needed some work. We've repainted most of it, and plan to finish that task very soon. Now to move on to the floors.

Our house is fully carpeted. This is an odd concept to me. Who carpets the bathrooms? So the plan is to rip out the carpet and put in new hardwood and tile. We may put new carpeting upstairs, this is still debatable. Andre seems to think he can do all this himself (except carpet install) which is even more intriguing to me. Needless to say, I may be temporarily living in a hotel during the time of the upgrades - just to keep the possibility for disaster to a minimum.

I can already picture the disaster that will probably occur. Sure, Andre's plenty handy... but my household luck is a lot like Tim Allen's. And, unfortunately I don't know if we have an "Al" nearby. (Although the real life Al does some ads for a handyman in town, but I digress.)

Anyone who knows me knows that even the simplest of projects become a daunting overhaul when I'm involved. The OCD in me requires intense/extensive research on the project at hand. Which means in a matter of days I will probably become a self proclaimed expert at the variations between Oak, Bamboo, Pine, Hickory, etc. Lord help us all!

As I begin this quest, I'm curious to know who else has survived a major home improvement project, and would you do it again? I've heard it said that building a home can make or break a relashionship. And, I've heard that "improvement projects" are sometimes worse than planning from ground zero. So, if you have any interesting tidbits you'd like to share - feel free. And be prepared, you'll probably see lots of rants/comments in the months to come (once we decide on a "go date") on this topic. But in the end, hopefully we won't have accomplished a complete demolish of our beloved home, rather I'll be able to post some really amazing before/after shots.

Grudgingly Jumping on the Running Bandwagon

Recently, I splurged and bought some new running shoes. I don't buy things for myself very often. Let's face it - I'm a hermit, hermits don't need much - so when I decided to spend that much money on something for myself you would think I'd use them, correct? Umm, not so much.

In case you can't tell, they are Brooks. Brooks are higly rated by Runner's World magazine. We'll see...

For those of you who may not know me or my family very well, I'll fill you in. The spousal unit is very into athletics. There's not much he hasn't done athletically, and he's very competitive. He was a golden gloves boxer, great tennis/raquetball player, he runs, road bikes, and is currently in training for an ironman later this year. Then there's me. Exercise in my mind is walking up and down the stairs 15 times a day. Yes, I've had moments when I thought I'd get into better shape. But, really - who are we kidding here? I'm one of the klutziest people on the planet. And for a while, my kltuziness resulted in a surgery (or at least multiple doctor's visits) a year, so why tempt fate now that I seem to be past that section of my life?

But, alas - he continues to pester me on this subject because this would be "quality time" for us to spend together. Ha Ha Ha... as if quality time were described by me getting angry at the fact that he runs/bikes ahead while I try to stay upright on the trail. This subject could easily land me and the hubs on The Marriage Ref.


But really, how hard can it be? I mean the people on Biggest Looser can do it. Random people I know on FB who don't look too athletic continuously post about their mileage. And, even my just as athletically challenged as I am friend has started walking/working up to running a mile - you can read about her quest here.

So, since it's become apparent that my apathy towards all things athletic or exercise related may soon enough land me in divorce court (or at the very least as a contestant on The Marriage Ref) I guess I'll vow today to start doing something. We'll start small. Maybe a walk around the neigborhood... but eventually I'm turning into this woman:

I thought the picture was appropriate since I'm in CO. Of course to run up a mountain like that will probably land me in the hospital with all sorts of broken bones/collapsed lung.

What're You Arguing About?

The Marriage Ref - It made it's debut after the closing ceremonies of the Olympics, and I think many may have skipped it. If you haven't seen it - it's worth the watch. It'll be on it's regular timeslot on Thursday evenings during the hole left by Leno's return to late night. It was hilarious!

I actually missed it when it came on the other night, but caught it "On Demand". (My love for this feature of cable should be the subject of a future blog, but that's beside the point.) Here's a brief synopsis - Jerry Seinfeld and Tom Papa have teamed up for a new show. They get a panel of "experts" (i.e. anyone famous who is or has been married) to watch arguments between couples and weigh in on their decisions. They tell Papa, the "ref", what they would do in said argument. Papa then announces the winner of the argument. And, the couples have to abide by the ref's decree.

I thought I had some weird arguments with the hubs before, but these loons take the cake. I mean seriously?! The first couple got into it because the husband's dog died. He took "The Fonz" (dog's name) to the taxidermist and had him stuffed. He then chose to display The Fonz in a shrine he built in their stairwell. Now they lived in a nice house - they seemed a little like the cast of Jersey Shore, but one wouldn't really think from the looks of their home that you'd find a taxidermied dog stuck in a cubby in the stairwell. Creepy. Of course, the ref chose to side with the wife and relegated The Fonz to the attic.

Couple #2 was interesting. While this isn't a discussion I've had with the hubs, I can easily see this being a more common argument among some folks. Husband #2 tried his best to persuade his wife to install a stripper pole (ummm, he called it an "exercise pole") in their bedroom. He said he'd even settle for it out in the garage. There's a classy image, stripping alongside the lawnmower. Her response was classic, "People in Hell want ice water, but they don't get it!" After much debate among the judges, the ref sided with the wife - no pole for them.

This got me to thinking. Where do they come up with these people? I mean, according to some research provided by the show approximately 1,000 people nationwide had their beloved pets stuffed last year. So that guy would probably literally be classified as crazy for his behavior. Admit it, sometimes we do fight over the most ridiculous things. But, would you really want to announce to a national television audience your most bizarre arguments as couples? If you would, please share your argument. Maybe it's good enough to get on TV and win a cruise like these two couples did. I'll submit for you, just so long as I get to tag along in your suitcase!

Farfalle con gamberetti e piselli

Fancy title, eh? In the spirit of Lent I decided to post a non-meat dish this week. We've eaten this on Fridays a couple times already this year, and really enjoy it. My family loves pasta, and they generally like most seafood. So, when I ran across this recipe in my "The Italian Cooking Encyclopedia" I thought it would be worth a try. Plus, it's fairly simple to make.

It's not often that I make and serve something that every member of the family enjoys. I give "Farfalle con gamberetti e piselli" a.k.a. Pasta Bows with Prawns and Peas an A. (By the way, forgive the blurry picture - there was none to be found online so this is a picture of the picture in the book. Sorry, I'll try to do better next week.)

Ingredients

3 Tbs olive oil

2 Tbs butter

2 spring onions, chopped

12 oz. fresh or frozen peeled prawns

1 1/4 cups frozen peas, thawed

14 oz. farfalle pasta

1 cup dry white wine

a few strands fresh saffron or 1/8 tsp powdered saffron

salt & pepper

2 tbsp chopped fresh fennel or dill, to serve

(serves approx. 4)

Directions

1. Bring a large pan of water to boil. Heat the oil and butter in a large frying pan and sautee the spring onions lightly. Add the prawns and peas, and cook for 2-3 minutes.

2. Add salt and the pasta to the boiling water. Stir the wine and saffron into the prawn mixture. Raise the heat and cook until the wine is reduced by about half. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cover the pan and reduce the heat to low.

3. Drain the pasta when it is al dente. Add it to the pan with the sauce. Stir over high heat for 2-3 minutes, coating pasta with the sauce. Sprinkle with fresh herbs and serve at once.

*Blogger's Note: It calls for farfalle, and that is the best choice, but I've made it with other pasta I had in the pantry and it turned out just as good. Also, I've used random herbs such as parsely, oregano, and rosemary and it's been very good, too. This is a pretty easy recipe and fairly adjustable to different herbs you have in the cabinet. I say play with it a bit, but if you like shrimp - it's a must try!

Mimes v. Puppeteers

So, my daughter has a book called "Coke or Pepsi" it's an entire book of quizzes... basically things like Would you rather be stuck in a traffic jam or listen to 3 hours of your parents music,do you like stinky cheese, etc. One of the questions I found very interesting...

Would you rather spend the rest of your life as a mime or a puppeteer?

For me, this isn't difficult. I love to talk. Since not talking is a pretty important job requirement I would not be a very good mime..The whole charades bit 24/7 would not be very good to my mental stability. But, I got to thinking.... what would life be like as a puppeteer?

Of course, the whole walking around with marionette strings tied to your fingers all the time would be very aggravating. So, let's say you could be a "mind puppeteer". Does this mean you are the mastermind behind all of the actions around you, having control over people as if they are puppets on a string? If so, this would be a fantastical super power to have.

A real life Michael Corleone, only you can't use your powers for evil. Imagine all the sticky situations you could get yourself out of. And, you'd never have to do housework again because with the mere power of suggestion the kids/spouse would gladly do it!

All kidding aside, isn't that already part of the job description of a parent? You already are a puppeteer in some form. You have to pull the strings to try to make your kids make the right decisions. Sometimes it's not so fun guiding them through homework, using your mind powers to try to force them to do the right thing - sometimes we fail at this, but it makes both us and our "puppets" stronger. We are all already puppeteers in some form, but we have to take the good shows with the bad.