This is why we didn't do a turkey this year....

I know I shouldn't be dreading going to NY in December. And mostly, I'm not. But a small part of me is wishing that I wasn't going. Partly it is because of the anticipation of pain. I won't have my tempurpedic mattress at my grandmother's and the trip to and from is going to be extremely painful. Taking extra pain pills will help some but not entirely. I'm just afraid I won't be able to cope with the traveling. Also, can't forget about the cold weather. We've gotten some chilly weather down here but it is nothing compared to NY winters. Another reason for dread is having to see certain members of my family. Now I am really looking forward to seeing my cousins and my grandmother - but I'd rather not see my mom or brother. At a later time I will explain why I don't speak to either of them.

Ultimately I don't think the pain or the people are the full reason I think I am dreading this visit. A large part of it is that this may be the last time I see my grandmother in person. I will talk to her each week as I always do. By this time next year she will most likely be in a nursing home or ... Don't want to think about the other possibility. That's why we're making a big deal about the family getting together. (Of course, they are making a big deal since I will be there for the first time in 3 years)

Fortunately I still have a few weeks to get myself mentally and physically ready for this trip.

I'm disturbed by the news I heard today. An impatient group of shoppers caused the death of a Wal-Mart security guard. Was saving $20 on an I-Pod really worth a man losing his life? The shoppers were so impatient that they broke down the doors at a Valley Stream, NY (Long Island) Wal-Mart this morning at 5am. It makes me sick that we have commercialized Christmas so much that something like this could happen. Unfortunately, there will probably be no justice since it was a "mob mentality" type thing and it would be difficult to pin the death on one or two people. What a shame.

While surfing new blogs, I found this on iwanksi.blogspot.com .... I think this dog is possessed!

OK - I really HATE commercials. Most are just plain stupid and they insult our intelligence. For example - look at the Free Credit Report website commercials. Catchy? yes. Annoying? you bet. These aren't the worst commercial offender though. That honor goes to the American Express commercials. Why? Have you listened to the script of those commercials? My 'favorite' one is when they tell the story of a guy who wanted to buy something and his MasterCard is over the limit and the girlfriend says "call American Express". Um.... if you've maxed out our credit card, wouldn't the responsible thing for the girlfriend to say be "no more credit!"

Yes, if I had maxed out my credit card, the answer would be to call American Express to obtain a card I cannot afford to have at a higher interest rate and more stringent payment policies. Morons!

Now this is rich. A website designed to hook up SugarParents and Sugarbabies. As one person described it, online prostitution. I'm not sure I would call it that but it wouldn't surprise me if people used it for that. What ever happened to romance and courtship? For a video discussing the site, click here.

I apologize that I have not been posting over the weekend. I was surprised when I get yelled at for not posting for 2 days. (That actually made me feel good to be honest) I have joined the ranks of the ill - I came down with a head cold the other day and so each morning and night I feel horrible. The afternoons haven't been too terrible since I'm not coughing yet, but today I took a 3-hour nap and when I woke up I felt like I was hit by a truck. Not fair. Sleep is supposed to make you feel better. Instead I wished I just had stayed awake - thank goodness I have NyQuil to take tonight!

Well I broke down and signed up for a Facebook account. Until now, I had told myself that I would not do it. To me, it seemed like it was just a site to find pseudo-friends and try to outdo people but collecting "friends" that you really didn't know anyways - like MySpace. I was pleasantly surprised that I have been able to re-connect with so many people from my high school - most of whom I haven't seen or spoken to since since I graduated in fact. Now I still despise MySpace but I recommend Facebook to anyone.

As I have documented in the personal posts here in my blog, things have been rough the past two years. In fact, I cannot tell you the last time something really good happened to me. This week I had several good things happen.

The last item is what really restored my faith in people and the idea that if you are truly a nice person you can have good things happen because of it. Today when I went to the clinic I was able to get a medical appointment and also dental and vision appointments even though they weren't scheduling those for January yet -- all because I was friendly with the aides. I'm just glad that something went right for me for a change!

Yes, you read that correctly. Apparently, a 61-year old ex-inmate in Washington State contracted a flesh eating virus while behind bars and was misdiagnosed with an 'allergic reaction to medication' by a prison doctor. It seems what he really had was a necrotizing faciitis and it destroyed his penis and one of his testicles. I cannot imagine how horrible that must have felt. Hopefully the $300,000 settlement he received will make things better.

England's Prince William should look harder for a bathroom to use next time he has to pee. During a recent polo match, paparazzi were able to snap photos of him whiled he relieved himself - and yes, you can see his penis. Mainly, you just see the head but most of us can extrapolate the full size. Somehow I don't think the royal family will be happy to see these!

Entertainment Weekly named their 10 breakout "stars" of the year and while I hadn't even heard of some of them and others were only popular to tweens, I thought it was great to see comedian Chelsea Handler had made the list. While her stand-up career has definitely blossomed, she now has her own talk show on the E! Network called Chelsea Lately. Here are some clips of her comedy:

The one thing I hate more than anything about gay men is when one acts so effeminate that they might as well just have a vagina. I'm not saying that they need to be like John Wayne or something but come on, you don't need to feed into the stereotype. It just makes us look bad. I'm sorry if that offends anyone, and I am not trying to force a heterosexual agenda on anyone, but there is a point where I believe "too much" is just too much.

This scary looking individual is the worst on the show - possibly the most effeminate man alive. At one point he even squealed like a 12-yo girl. Yikes - this is a disaster of a "man". Really just makes me sad to know that people like this just feed the stereotype and make it harder for us to be accepted.

Have you ever been lying in bed with your dog and out of nowhere a rancid smell wafts up to your nose? Well tonight that happened to me. I was just playing cards online when with no warning my dog waged scent warfare on me. No kidding - I just about threw up. It made me wonder what the hell my dog has been eating. I know it's not his dog food that is causing that gas. I wonder what Darin has been slipping him lately.

If you're like me, you think Tyra Banks is completely annoying. I do like watch Top Model some but I usually fast-forward past Tyra trying to act refined (and sounding completely fake) so that I don't have to listen to her. I've made it my mission to never watch her talk show as well. She finally did something worth writing about!

If you're not aware already, Top Model had a transgendered contestant on the latest installment of the show. "Isis" King, born Darrell Walls, was first portrayed on the show in the previous cycle in a photo shoot that featured homeless women. She was so good in that shoot that the producers of the show brought her into the competition to compete for a spot in the finals. She eventually was the fifth contestant to be eliminated but it had nothing to do with her "hidden" attribute - she had lost her sparkle as the competition and the other girls broke her down emotionally. Although she didn't last past week 5, she made a major impact on the show and on television as a whole.

On this coming Tuesday's installment of the Tyra Banks Show, Tyra presents King with a major gift: gender reassignment surgery. King hadn't yet had the surgery because she could not afford the $30,000 price tag. She wouldn't allow photos of her as a male to be used for Top Model but they will air those photos on Tuesday's show.

As you all know by now - I love the show Intervention. I found this spoof of the show searching on YouTube. I think it is hilarious and I had to post it for our buddy John!

Here is a look at the new Harry Potter film.....The Half-Blood Prince

Hmmm Paul Rudd with no shirt on - Who could resist?

Comedienne Wanda Sykes not only attended a Prop-8 rally in Las Vegas today but also took the opportunity to make an announcement: "I'm proud to be gay." That's right, she made her first public announcement of her homosexuality.

Here is an excerpt from her speech at the Vegas Rally (attended by over 1000 people):

"I thought, man we are moving in the right direction. And then at about 11 o’clock I was crushed. We took a huge leap forward and then got dragged 12 feet back. I felt like I was being attacked, personally attacked, our community was attacked. I got married Oct. 25, I don’t really talk about my sexual orientation, I felt like I was living my life, I was not in the closet, but I was just living my life. Everybody who knows me personally, they know I’m gay. And that’s the way people should be able to live our lives, really. We shouldn’t have to be standing out here demanding something we automatically should have as citizens of this country. ... They pissed off the wrong group of people. They have galvanized a community. We are so together now and we all want the same thing and we shouldn’t have to settle for less. Instead of having gay marriage in California, no, we’re gonna have gay marriage across the country. When my wife and I leave California, I want to have my marriage also recognized in Nevada, in Arizona, all the way to New York. ... I’m proud to be a woman, I’m proud to be a black woman and I’m proud to be gay."

I found this listing of the 10 worst place to get caught having sex. My favorite? The one about the in-court self-pleasuring judge who got "pumped". Click here for some interesting public discoveries.

Darin fixed us another quick, easy meal that I wanted to share the recipe for. I hadn't had quiche in a long time and I decided I wanted some. So, Darin made a very easy one with a slightly healthier twist to it. Hope y'all enjoy it as much as we did.

Darin's Quick Quiche Lorraine

Ingredients:

1/2 lb bacon, diced
1 cup shredded Swiss cheese
4 eggs
1 pint half & half (use heavy cream if you want more fat!)
salt & pepper to taste
1 frozen pie shell (make your own if you're up to the task)

Layer the bacon and cheese on bottom of pie shell.
Beat eggs with half&half and salt/pepper and pour into the pie shell. Preheat Oven!
Bake for approximately 1 hour at 350 degrees. Quiche is done when you insert a fork/knife and it comes out clean. Note: The eggs will be puffy when it comes out but will settle as it cools. Do not be alarmed.

Well, I have sad news to report. As I posted recently we adopted a 7-week-old lab mix puppy from one of Darin's co-workers who rescued two pregnant abandoned dogs. It's fair to say that we fell in love with Bella the first day. Unfortunately, she was still at the stage where there is a lot of picking her up and putting her down as part of housebreaking her, etc. So, thanks to my health we were unable to keep her as it was causing me tremendous pain. Also, while we expected our male dog to have some adjustment issues, it was our older female dog who had major issues with the puppy being here. It just got worse as the puppy was here longer. So all around, it was best to not keep the puppy - but we're still incredibly upset about it.

If anyone in Louisiana, Mississippi or Alabama is reading this and would like to adopt a lab mix puppy, they still have 9 or 10 puppies left who need a good home.

As I mentioned previously, I love the A&E show Intervention (as does our buddy John!). I'm excited that they just announced the new season will premiere on December 15th with Janet, a 50-yo divorcee who is an alcoholic and sex addict. I think that this may be the first episode where they profile a sex addict. Check it out if you haven't seen the show - current repeats show on Monday nights at 8pm and 9pm EST.

The level of stupidity in this country amazes me sometimes. Did I not get the memo that college football is worth killing over? I was under the impression that it is JUST A GAME - not a matter of life an death. Well, in Evergreen, AL, it became a matter of death over the weekend. As we know, the LSU QB handed Alabama a win on Saturday. Apparently, an LSU fan, Dennis Smith, called the boyfriend of a relative, Michael Williams, and an argument ensued. Smith and his wife, with a pistol, went to the home of Williams and Williams took out a shotgun and killed the couple. He is now charged with two counts of murder - over a silly football game! It never ceases to amaze me the number of idiots out there.

OK - I knew the new puppy wasn't going to be thrilled with being in a kennel for the first time last night. I figured she'd at least SLEEP some - especially since she mostly sleep since we brought her home. I think the longest I slept last night at one time was an hour - other than that her crying woke me up every 20-30 minutes. So now I have a monster headache and feel awful. Of course she has had to go out like every 2 hrs on top of that - which I expected. BUT - she decided to pee on my bed even though she had just peed outside 20 minutes before - lucky me! Let's not forget that she is teething too so she is trying to bite everything she can - especially my fingers and toes. She was so sweet last night -- it's like Jekyll and Hyde!

Since I posted a recipe from Darin and so many liked it, I figured I would post one from my grandmother. This is a side dish that we always had at Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners and our family really enjoyed it. It may not sound like a side dish - Darin thought it was a dessert - but rest assured that we served it with the meal - not after. For the dish, my grandmother had a special mold she used but you can use a bundt pan, bowl or jello mold.

Lime Salad aka Green Salad

Ingredients:

2 small boxes/1 Family sized box Lime JELLO
(Use JELLO Brand only!)
1 #2 Can crushed pineapple (not drained)
1 pint Vanilla Ice Cream
1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

Dissolve the jello in boiling water. Add the ice cream and stir until dissolved. Add the pineapple (fruit AND juice - do not drain!) and the nuts (you can leave the nuts out if desired). Chill until firm. We make this the night before and let it chill overnight as it takes longer to firm up than plain jello would.

Enjoy!

I know y'all have read about our dogs before so here are some photos of them!

This is Pokey. Yes, he lives up to his name most of the time. We got him when he was only 6 months old - 4 of which was spent on the streets as a stray. He is about to turn 4 in December. He's a very active dog - and quite needy at times. Unfortunately, he is fearful of strangers but we've managed to get him pretty adjusted to people inside the home. He is definitely our baby boy. Could you resist that cute face?

I know there are lot of people who do not like reality television - even some who think there is no such thing as "real" reality television. Obviously, these people have never watched the National Geographic channel! The show people really should watch is over on Arts & Entertainment channel. I know the historical reputation of the network isn't really as exciting as most networks - actually it used to be downright boring! One of the best shows I have seen is Intervention. Subjects agree to be part of documentaries about addiction - not for money but because they know they have a problem. The show does not try to sugar coat anything and they are not afraid to put out there just how low some of the addicts will go to continue their addiction. I think it is great what they are doing - offering these people a way to heal, therapy for them and their families and also educating people on the perils of addiction. It's important to note that A&E does not seek out people - they or their families contact the show about being subjects.

My favorite episode is about Tressa Thompson - a lesbian who is a former 3-time NCAA Shotput champion and at one time, an Olympic favorite. No, she did not go to the Olympics - she failed a drug test. While at the time she was not an addict, she quickly became one once her Olympic dreams were dashed by her choices to get involved with drugs. Did she accept treatment? YES. Is she still clean and sober? YES. The one thing I am still disappointed is that her family still will not accept that she is gay. They see it as a sin. Here's the interesting part to that - her dad cheated on her mom and divorced her to marry the mistress and also Tressa's younger sister got pregnant out of wedlock in HIGH SCHOOL. Glass Houses people.

Below is the first part of her story on Intervention. The rest can also be found on youtube. Also, check out the rest of her story, her update and also more stories like hers on A&E's website.