The Ghetto Gay Hillbilly Variety Show

On the Move!!

2011-10-22T12:39:00.001-04:00

The Ghetto Gay Hillbilly Variety Show is MOVING!!!

To help expedite and make blogging life easier, I'm moving over to Tumblr. Love Google & Blogger, but simplicity at Tumblr is better.

Check us out at our new spot: http://jmwy.tumblr.com

See you there!!

Transitions

2011-10-18T08:35:00.001-04:00

Hello Kiddos -

It's been a few days since I wrote anything down other than status updates on FB, so I thought I'd drop a few verses.

First, I had a lil smoking habit creep back that was leftover from Ham Days - kicked that to the curb so I'm good to go now.

Still feeling good, still under 2000 every day, and 15.2lbs lost so far since I started this about 2 weeks ago. I am working my way towards another goal that I'm not ready to put out there yet, but it's working towards a more aggressive approach. For now, I'm taking my own steady approach to it, and getting into the rhythm. Once I feel like I'm in that rhythm, then time to push harder :)

So far there's only been one true relapse. I just fell apart that day - I think it was week 1. On week 2, I did have a weak moment and had a small square of a brownie. At a Halloween party, I did have somewhat unhealthy bruschetta - but not out of control - and still maintained my calorie goal. Also did our first DJ gig and ate healthy & didn't feel hungry during it - shakes, carrots, celery, no fat dip, popcorn. Week 3 here we are. Not just salads anymore - real food, salads, shakes, etc. No fried, no breaded, no fast food, no gorging, no pop, no sugar, no corn syrup, lots of chicken, and a lil 96/4 beef.

Have had a couple of minor chopping injuries lol Nothing bad, just annoying because it's been on the tips of my finger and one on my thumb, and then trying to get a band-aid around that sucks. And then I'm supposed to type all day. haha

In the next 5lb loss, I'm assuming MyFitnessPal.com will probably have me recalculate my BMR - how much calories I burn just existing - and I may drop below 2000 calories goal. We'll see. I think I'll be fine. One thing I've got to work on is exercise. I did it one day - and haven't done much since except cooking and some binder stuff that got me sweating at work lol Transitioning to getting back on the treadmill must occur.

I'll keep you posted :) Keep on eating green stuff!! (I think I put spinach in everything I cook now lol)

Taco Salad Soup

2011-10-13T20:55:00.000-04:00

I know it's been a few days since I posted, but been busy staying BELOW my calorie count, getting ready for a DJ gig, working on my new job, etc.

But I have a new recipe for you. Now, I agree it's a bit high on the fat side, and I will cut that next time I make it by reducing the cheese & taking out the bacon bits - live and learn :) But OMG it's delicious! All ingredients and counts right below except for seasonings, which follow in cooking directions - try it! It's goood!

Spices: Dash of Salt, Ground pepper to taste, onion powder, dash of Emmeril's essence, cumin, chili powder, dash of tobasco, garlic powder.

Get your big soup pan - the big one, not the huge stock one but the 3 quart one. Add the olive oil in the bottom, heat.
Throw in the chicken - yeah we're gonna cook it IN the stock pan. Take ALL the spices and put them on top of the chicken, cover and let cook for I don't know say 5 minutes on high.
Things starting to burn? Good! That's flavor people! Now flip the chicken, hang out for 1 minute, then add about 1/3 cup of water.
While that's a-brewing, take the chicken stock powder, add it to 4 cups of hot water. Whisk the hell out of it and then add the rice.
Make sure all your veggies are chopped - not too fine, but in nice chunks.
Once you think the chicken is just about done, pour the chicken stock & rice water in the pan (still on high!), and add all the veggies & cheese.
When everything is good and bubbling, add in the sour cream, stir stir stir. Add water if you don't think it's enough - but slowly!
Let it boil for eh maybe 5-7 minutes, take off the heat, and let it sit a good 15 minutes - helps to thicken and marry the tastes.
Top with the bacon bits (or for less fat, don't) and serve!

I think the secret here is that I never drain anything. I just cook everything in the same pan and never ever take anything out. All the wonderful taste can do nothing but melt into this delicious creamy soup!

Bon Apetit'!!!

PS - notice I never cut the chicken into chunks. Well it's up to you. This served 2 of us, and to make sure both of us got the same amount of chicken, I left the chicken whole then took it out with tongues and used kitchen shears to chunk it up equally into 2 bowls, then added the soup. But you can certainly cut it up before you even cook it - up to you! And remember to take all the totals and divide by 2 to get the PER SERVING totals!

Change It Up!

2011-10-09T20:59:00.002-04:00

If you been following, you'll know that for the past 2 weeks or less, we've been eating healthy by using lots of fruit/veggie shakes & salads served underneath a simple chicken breast. We've changed it up a couple of times but that's been our mainstay.

This week so the brain & body don't get bored, we're changing it up. In the mornings, we've been having a shake or "alien eggs"; this week, switching to only banana protein shakes for breakfast. In the afternoon, it's been mostly shakes; this week we're going with different soups/stews common in the fall. For dinner, it's been mostly salad with chicken; this week, salads are staying but as a side dish, with different things like healthy chili & healthy lasagna.

I'm still feeling good - the big weigh-in is in the morning. Still drinking my water. And I've discovered apples are my friends :) Still maintaining under 2120 calories everyday - most days well under 2000; although I try to get closer so I'm not starving myself.

More tips and lessons tomorrow, but for now I leave you with my recipe for my lunch tomorrow: Curry Chicken Butternut Squash Bisque :) Yummmmy!

Yeah I totally cheated on the ingredient list and just snipped from MyFitnessPal.com. But basically you just heat up the Bisque; Throw in everything but the chicken. Cook the chicken, then throw it in. Oh spices! Add a tablespoon of curry powder, dash of salt, dash of pepper, and roll on!

Hope ya like it!

PS - the numbers beside the food is the calorie count; total = 321

Germs are bad.... Wheat Germs that is...

2011-10-08T19:36:00.000-04:00

As I said I would yesterday, I did an experiment today to test a theory. It turns out, I believe my theory is correct.

I started out the day with just some scrambled eggs. Then I killed my eating until about 5pm today. I needed to start out with a fairly empty gut. I ran to Meijer's and bought some pasta & a few other other ingredients. I came back and made some Mac & Cheese. I also made a healthy lasagna for actual dinner.

Normally, after eating that much pasta (sometimes even while eating it) my body would just hate me. I would be super bloated - and I do mean super. My face would be hot, break out into a sweat, and even the next day it would seem to trigger eczema issues - red, itchy skin. It would just be awful but dumbass me of course would never let go of the pasta. This actually led to a lot of sick days a year or two ago, when we would eat pizza, I would just hurt so bad the next day - and my whole face would swell up, eyes all itchy. I did quit pizza for awhile.

I always attributed this to the carbs. While on the Atkins diet, any time I would fall off by eating pastas or breads (lots of carbs), my body would have that reaction and I so I associated this with an overload of carbs.

Last week, we threw a cup or so of WHEAT pasta in our salad to up calories and to change it up. Just that little bit of pasta - and even though it was wheat - my body just flipped out on me. I probably can't convey in words how just blah my body would be.

But tonight... my body had NONE of those reactions. I feel completely normal and full. (And still under my calorie count fyi). So what the hell? I bought GLUTEN-FREE pasta. After last week of having just a little bit of wheat pasta, I was thinking there is no reason that small amount should cause my body to freak out. So I started researching.

My theory? I am glutent-intolerant aka have a gluten allergy. Now it looks like there are 2 versions: celiac disease and just allergy. My inclination is that I am not celiactic (is that a word?) but instead my obesity has caused my body to develop an allergy to gluten. All the years of sandwiches, pasta, breads, even oats - I mean omg no wonder! They say if you go gluten-free you can repair the lining in your gut in about 3-6 months and life will feel even better - so that's now added to the goal list.

I am truly amazed that I ate that much pasta and I feel normal. It makes soooooooo much sense. I'm not even tired as I usually am. It's just awesome. Not that I want to eat that much pasta every day or even have pasta every day, but to finally figure this out feels great. Of course, I will follow up with a gluten allergy test at the doctor's to confirm, but I feel fairly confident.

So if you're feeling like crap after eating wheat/flour/and a whole host of other related things - check out the gluten allergy theory. It could explain so many things.

Howdy!

2011-10-07T22:55:00.002-04:00

OMG New posts!?!?!? Crazy right? Gawd... I read over this blog and it is a hot mess. I look at all the stuff I've done to try to lose weight and it hasn't worked.

Let's hope this one works. Feeling good so far. Transferred my FB notes to the blog - see past 3 posts.

More to come tomorrow :)

Lessssssons.

2011-10-07T22:54:00.000-04:00

Not much new food to post as far as recipes go. Yesterday, I learned some lessons, so I thought I'd share.

More calories early: By the afternoon, I had only had about 400 calories between breakfast and lunch shakes. I crashed come 2pm, and probably my sugar plummeted, broke out in a cold sweat, and felt like fainting. Luckily, I found a 80some calorie chocolate candy in the office and I stabilized. BUT... lesson learned, eat as many calories as you can in the morning, a lil less in the afternoon, and well it'd be nice if the minority of the calories are at night but that's another issue for later. Today at 8am I've already had 500 calories and I feel great. Another 200ish calories for lunch and I"m good to go. No more crashing. But just in case, carry a banana or apple with you in case of sugar emergency. Thanks Berty!
Carboration: I'm guessing that because I've pretty much killed most "white" food from my diet that I may have gone into a light form of ketosis (see Atkins) this week even with the sugary fruit. Because I had over 1600 calories to expend last evening because of my early day low intake, I decided to throw in some wheat pasta in our salad to mix things up. While the pasta itself was only about 197 calories extra, and although it was wheat, the carbs made me feel like the blob. I bloated up, and I'm sure the carbs soaked up all that water I drank, and gave me a nice lil tummy ache by this morning. So if you're low on calories and you want to add some, try to do something that's not so high on the glycemic index otherwise you could start bloating and floating. Not saying that you should go into Atkins ketosis mode, but if you're relatively low on carbs, add some back real slow and not with things like pasta or bread.

Also thought of a couple more tips to add:

Slow Water: Drink a lot of water to keep hydrate, BUT don't gulp down 8oz in 30 seconds. That can throw your whole sodium balance in your body out of whack and make you feel funky. Drink the water throughout the day - like I have a huge 48oz mug on my desk. It takes me about 4 hours to get through it & I feel nice and watery.
PB Dessert: One thing that did my body right during Atkins was peanut butter. I did the same thing last night - had a sweet tooth craving, so I took a big tablespoon of extra crunch peanut butter and just ate it. Eat it in bites - not the whole spoon. But this always seemed to stabilize my system and satisfy all the senses.
Measurements: I feel pretty confident in my measuring of most food stuffs because I've cooked for a long time, but one thing I apparently suck at is measuring pasta. Last night though we did measure out the pasta. I took in my hand what we would normally eat back in the day, and cooked it, thinking there was no way it would result in more than 2 cups of cooked pasta. By hell, we ended up with !4! cups of pasta! No wonder we were on carb overload before!!! So even if you feel confident about your eye measuring, do a lil reality check sometimes just to be sure.

Ok that's all for now. Happy Eating :)

Somethiiiiiiin something about this foood I be eatin....

2011-10-07T22:51:00.000-04:00

Waddup!?

So I told y'all if I felt like it I'd put the stuff on here I'm eating since some of you or some weird person out in the world may want to try it.... Herrrrrrrrre we go:

Breakfast:

Green Alien Eggs - 449 calories

- 1 clove garlic

- 1 Tsp tobasco

- 2 oz Soy milk

- 1 slice imitation cheese

- 8 Tbsp picante sauce

- 1/8 cup spinach raw

- 1/8 cup kale

- 3 eggs

CHOP garlic, cheese, spinach, kale in a food processor or knife it or whatever - lil bitty pieces. Throw in the pan with a lil vegetable oil (non flour) spray, start to heat.

MIX 3 eggs & soy milk, pour in the pan

COOK this stuff til the eggs are nice n fluffy and yes they'll be green.

Serve with a side of picante sauce and dot with tobasco sauce. I scoop the eggs in the sauce. Good stuff.

2 cups of my coffee = 35 calories/ea = 70 calories total

Lurnch: Tropical Breakfast shake- 345 calories

- 1/2 Banana

- 1/8 cup kale

- 1/3 cup spinach

- 2oz baby carrots

- 2 oz soy milk

- 1 scoop vanilla whey protein

- 1 TBSP crunch peanut butter

PULVERIZE some ice, spinach, and kale in blender.

ADD everything else to the blender. PULVERIZE SOME MORE!! RESISTANCE IS FUTILE!!

I put mine in a single serving type thermos and pack it with me for lunch. And just drink :) i swear it taste like it got coconut in there

DINNNNNNNER!!! Pan Chicken, steamed Broccoli, side super salad - 1022 calories

Better than Green Alien Eggs, yes? :)

- Chicken breast

- 1 Tbsp olive oil

- 1 cup raw broccoli

- 1/4 romaine heart, chopped

- 1/2 cup spinach

- 1/3 cup cucumbers

- 1/3 cup red onion

- 1/2 cup shredded cheese

- 3 Tbsp ranch dressing

- 1/2 cup peas

- 2 Tbsp of croutons or like 4 or 5

CHICKEN: I put that vegetable spray in the pan, throw in olive oil, turn the heat up high, cover the upside with my favorite seasoning - NO SALT! pepper or garlic or tonight it was mrs. dash's italian medley. Cook til it's done flip and all that.

BROCCOLI: couldn't find my steamer, so i just boiled a pot of water, and used my metal strainer and put over it and steamed the broccoli that way. I didn't put any seasoning on the broccoli - i know i was boring. DIDN'T I SAY NO SALT!

Salad - just chop up all that other stuff after broccoli up there and toss it. Yeah the cheese, croutons, and ranch are killers - but my gawd... I gotta live a lil and i'm on day 3. by about week 2 i'd like to cut back to ranch, replace it with balsamic vinegar, and kill the cheese & croutons completely.

There you have it!! A grande total of 1886 calories and big as I am - this app says in order to lose 2lbs a week, I'm allowed up to 2120 calories. But I also walked for 30 mins and stood cooking and that gives me 340 calories back. So technically i still have 574 calories to burn. Which I'm not gonna.

Have fun!!!

Diet.... Shmiet....

2011-10-07T22:47:00.001-04:00

Well I been updating my status about this stuff I've been eating for the past couple o days and people are asking what weirdo diet I'm on now.

What diet is it? I have no idea. It's just eating the good stuff in different ways and in moderation.

I'm 36 years old and I'm morbidly obese. OMG. I said it outloud - better yet, my actual weight is 347.8lbs as of today. BMI is like 51.2. It's horrible. But might as well be honest about what is and just have it out there. It ain't like you can really hide that much weight in clothing anyways. So my tip is - weigh, don't be shy, and just come to terms with the fact that you're fat. You're unhealthy. And it sucks. The good news? I'm not (and you're not) dead - yet! So there's still hope :)

I've been eating all the wrong stuff for a long time. I've drank too much, smoked too much, sat down too much, etc etc. If you can't admit all these bad things about yourself then you gotta get there first. Otherwise, don't worry about buying all this healthy food because it won't do you know good if you're still in denial.

I figure for me, my body, I'm just as good an expert as any dietician/Doctor/etc. I've done just about every diet in the book. Fad diets don't work - especially those that have an infomercial that starts out by saying "fad diets don't work!". We need to eat, eat good, eat often, but not doublecheeseburgers with fries and a coke. We know what's good for us - we just don't eat it cuz we've conditioned our taste buds so much with the fast food that we enjoy the bad stuff more than the good stuff. So we just gotta suck it up, eat the good bad-tasting stuff until we reprogram the taste buds.

Do I have any rules? I guess - I dunno. Some things I've learned from other diets that actually are true and make sense and work:

Too many carbs are bad since they just make you feel all blah and you crash and burn. So anything with all that corn syrup or more sugar than nutrients doesn't work for most people.
Stay away from fast food. Unless you're getting salads from there, it's unlikely that any of it has much nutritional value and will just make you blah. Even in sit-down restaurants getting the good stuff and it being a good value doesn't happen very often. Go to the grocery, cook, chop, blend, and stay home.
When you go to the grocery store, stay away from the middle aisles. Stay on the perimeter of the stores where the fresh meat & fresh produce are located. I do sneak in the middle to get that Quinoa stuff that is a whole protein but otherwise - RUN away from the middle aisles! lol
You need as much un-processed food as possible. All this fat-free, low fat, omg-this-is-good-for-u-just-cuz-we-put-it-on-the-label food is unnecessary and not even good for you. Real food has some fat in it. We need it. Some have cholesterol, carbs, sugars, and other stuff that we've been told is omg so bad - well we need some of that stuff to function - that's why it's in the food naturally! What we don't need is unnatural addition of this stuff to food and trust me if they are taking some of it out - like fat free - then they've added something else like sodium or sugar to make it taste better and entice us to eat more of it. So while it may be fat free it still sucks - just in another way. So don't buy that - just buy the real thing in the produce aisle.
Usually the darker color of the fruit or veggie, the better it is for you. Dark green leafy stuff is good for you. Blueberries, blackberries, raspberries - all deep in color are great for you. Bland white potatoes? Not so much. In moderation - sure.
As Momma Laura has said Everything in Moderation is okay. If you could actually do cocaine in moderation it probably wouldn't be bad for you. It's when you eat so much of something that it kills you. Even if you went wild and ate a gazillion stalks of kale, it'd be harmful somehow at some point. So just don't go crazy over one thing.

So what I am doing:

- Morning shake: Bananas, spinach, soy milk, protein powder and other stuff - but those three things are basically the building block for the morning shake.

- Lunch shake: Kale, berries, yogurt, protein powder, and other stuff - this one is kinda making me sleepy so I gotta figure that out.

- Dinner: Salad on crack! Half chicken breast, kale, spinach, romaine, ranch, cheese, bacon pieces, croutons, eggs, celery, carrots, red onion, broccoli, garlic cloves.... who knows what else. Lotta green stuff. Some meat. Some "evil" stuff but just a lil (ranch, croutons).

- Snack Shake: Pineapple, protein powder, water, ice, strawberry. This is kinda like dessert. Smaller shake.

But we're gonna switch up ingredients but still stay on those same guidelines. Also, if we can find ways to still have lower calorie ways of eating these types of food instead of a shake, we'll mix that in too - like we had scrambled eggs this morning but it was full of kale, spinach, garlic, and all good stuff.

So there you have it. There is no recipe book. I just am doing what feels right. And no I'm not talking about the way that a snickers bar feels right. You know what I'm talking about.

OHhhhhhhhhhhhhh yeah.... We ARE counting calories, and Ed is counting cholesterol too. My current goal caloric intake is 2250 - but see our bodies burn certain amount of calories just sitting on your butt. Breathing, peeing, showering, etc. all takes some energy. And if you're big like me - I'm burning about 2500 calories a day already. NOW does that mean you should sit on your butt? Well no. My goal is 30 mins a day, 3 times a week. If you fail, just start again. It ain't easy.

OH and we're using the MyFitnessPal app if you wanna add us on there - djjazzyj - I don't remember Ed's but he's one of my friends on there.

I wonder how many calories I burned typing this? Feels like 9million. Jeez. Bye people :)

All Alone Debauchery

2010-05-01T21:19:00.000-04:00

Ed works weekends these days & I'm left to decide on dinner by myself. I wanted to head back home but it stormed all day. Sadness.

Tonight's dinner is what I make when I'm home alone. It's simple, quick, probably not health food but is best consumed with a movie. "Dave" was playing on tv & lifted my spirits as I devoured the dish.

JazzyJ's Saturday Night Home Alone Philly Food

- Get about 6-10oz of thinly sliced "philly" beef & throw in the frying pan with 2 Tbsp of A1 sauce on low heat.

- Chop up 1 small yellow onion & 1/2 a bell pepper. Add to the skillet & turn up the heat. Add a dash of pepper & garlic powder or 2 minced garlic cloves. Stir it all up.

- In the meantime, kick the oven on broil. Put a pat of soy butter on two slices of whole wheat bread. Stick in the broiler for about 3 minutes to melt & brown. Sprinkle with garlic powder. Set the bread on a plate.

- Finish the skillet trimmings til the veggies are soft & the beef is cooked through.

- Spoon the skillet goodies over the slices of bread on the plate. Top with two pinches of shredded cheddar. I also sprinkled with parsley & more garlic powder.

DEVOUR! :)

(iphone post)

SharePod

2010-05-01T19:44:00.001-04:00

Okay - so maybe I'm late to the game, but oh I'm so happy I'm here.

For those of you with an iPhone, I'm sure you've found just as frustrating as I have when you want to just add one song, one movie, one little thing to your iPhone, you have to go through this horrendously long process of syncing with iTunes to get it on there.

Welcome to SharePod!! I found this through a simple Google search. You can sync one files, multiple files, delete single files, and do things much more quickly than having to sync with iTunes.

You can also find other iTunes helper files by doing a simple Google search if you want to find more involved programs to keep you from having to deal with the iTunes sync.

Have Fun!!

Morning Love

2010-05-01T14:50:00.007-04:00

This isn't really a recipe, and not necessarily a health nut item, but it's quick, easy, & good. :)

My healthier Egg & Sausage Muffin:

- Turn your oven on broil. Put a pat of veggie/soy butter on an opened English Wheat muffin.

- With one pat of the veggie/soy butter, cook a free-range, Omega-rich egg in a pan.

- Take one frozen sausage patty, throw in the microwave on defrost. Then cook for 30 seconds, flip, 30 seconds, check, 30 second increments til done.

- Put your muffin in the oven, broil til the butter melt & the edges are crispy.

- Use the bottom of the muffin as the base. Add the egg, add some cheddar, add the sausauge, a dash of minced garlic or sage or parsley (what I used), top with muffin top.
The sausage is not necessarily good - but you could use veggie/tempah sausage, or turkey sausage or just skip the sausage.

Enjoy the lovely morning :)

Caramelized Onion Chicken Pasta

2010-05-01T12:59:00.008-04:00

I found this recipe on Epicurious too; however, I don't really care for it. It was a lot more complicated than it needed to be and it could have been made a lot better. However, I think the general idea of the recipe was good so I am listing it here with my updates :)

- With a Tbsp of olive oil, cook up about 3-4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts that have chopped up into pieces. Move from the pan to a bowl.

- In the same skillet take 2 medium sized red onions-chopped, and throw them in with a Tsp of olive oil. Cook them down for about 7 minutes. Add about 8oz of a nice red wine vinegar - I prefer the red wine garlic kind. Add 2 Tbsp of sugar. Let it cook down a bit til the onions are nice and caramelized.

- While you're caramelizing the onions, cook about 4oz of bow tie pasta. Drain, hold in the strainer.

- Chop up one good sized hot-house tomato - better yet, one from your garden. Throw in the pan with the caramelized onions. Add some fresh chopped marjoram leaves, fresh chopped basil leaves (2), add a couple dashes of salt & pepper, and 12oz (1.5 cups) of low-sodium organic chicken broth. Bring to a high boil, stirring constantly.

- Throw the pasta in the pan, stir, reduce heat to medium-low. Make sure the pasta gets covered by all the liquid. Throw in 2 handfuls of torn spinach leaves. Stir.

- Throw the chicken back in the mix, go to medium-high, stir, marry everything. Then turn down to low-simmer, and let it all gel together for about 10 minutes or so.

- Divide into your plates, and top with crumbled goat cheese. Serve.

Delicious!!

So what did I change? Well they wanted a lot more tomatoes, a lot more pasta, and they kept wanting to take everything out of the pan as it cooked to cook the next thing. That was just eh - I don't think it made it any better.

Enjoy!!

Quick Chicken Curry

2010-04-29T23:11:00.001-04:00

I found this recipe at Epicurious, so I can't take credit for it but I did make some changes.

It was my first time making a curry dish at home & it was goooood!

- Take 2 Tbsp of a curry paste, I used Pataks, 1/4 cup white wine, 2 inches peeled/grated ginger root, 2 tsp ground cumin, 2 tsp ground cardamom, & blend it all up together. I used my Ninja, but you can just use a fork or whisk, but mix well!!

- Chop up 4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts into bout 1" pieces. Throw the chicken & your just made curry sauce in a bowl. Toss it all around to coat the chicken pieces.

- Put a Tbsp of olive oil in a skillet, turn the heat up high, put the chicken & all the curry in the pan. Add 2 dashes of salt & pepper. Cook til the chicken has cooked through, bout 8 minutes.

- Take the chicken out of the skillet & set aside.

- Throw about 2 small chopped onions in the skillet. Add a dab (1/4 cup) of water, and stir it all around to pick up whatever goodies that was left from the chicken fry. Once the onions start going clear, put in one 6oz can of tomato sauce. Maybe its 4? Whatever that lil can is. They used diced tomatoes, and we didnt like it. But the sauce would have worked. Bring all this to a high simmer.

- Throw the chicken in the skillet, and stir all round. Let all the stuff marry in a low simmer for a smidgen, add water if you want to thin it a bit.

- Serve over jasmine rice and top with fresh chopped cilantro!

My next try will be to cut out the paste & make my own "paste". See ya!

(iphone post)

Kentucky's US Senate Race - The Unknowns

2010-04-24T13:07:00.010-04:00

May Primary elections are upon us. One of the more significant openings in KY is the US Senate seat finally being vacated by the career politician, Jim Bunning (R). He's beeng sitting up there on the Senate thrown for a decade now, and if you think about it - a lot has happened in the last decade. I definitely think it's time for new blood.

We have several candidates up for his spot. I thought I'd start by giving you some snippets of what I call the "unknowns". These candidates are not as well known, and I don't believe I've seen a commercial for any of them. This is by no means an endorsement from you, but I post the info in the spirit of being an informed voter. I've included links to their websites so you can judge for your self.

And the nominees are...

James Buckmaster (D): http://www.buckmaster2010.com/issues.htm
I'm really confused about Dr. Buckmaster. He is running as a Democrat, yet he sounds like a typical neo-conservative Republican/GOP candidate. He is against same-sex marriage, he believes in the Iraqi war, he's against abortion rights, he's high on prayer in school-work-life, & against free trade. He's not the candidate for me at all - but there is his website, you choose for yourself.

Darlene Fitzgerald Price (D): http://www.darlene4senate.com/index.html
Darlene Price sounds more like your run-of-the-mill Democrat candidate, except I do notice she steers clear of most social issues. It looks like she wants to support education through government, strengthen the rights of veterans, deal with immigration issues, and work on health care. I do agree with her at the very least on the immigration issue. She supports actually enforcing the laws that already exist - kudos! But avoiding addressing social issues makes me think she either a) has opinions which would not jive with the typical liberal voters or b) does fall in line with typical liberal voters but doesn't want to say so in order to get more pseudo-conservative votes. Either way, social issues have to be addressed in this country since the government has chosen to meddle in them already, so for me, the avoidance of such issues makes me weary enough not to vote for Ms. Price.

Maurice Sweeney (D): http://www.sweeneyforussenate.com/theissues.php
This gentleman has been busy in his life. I think he's done some great things. However... I see a lot of rising taxes in his plan to overhaul education. He also does not think we should question the President on the war in Afghanistan. We should always question - in my opinion. Even if the President is the greatest person ever to have lived, we should question. Christians even at times in their lives question God - Jesus; we must absolutely question the President about their policies. Well any politician. He does get brownie points for wanting Senate term limits - the only candidate I've seen yet to push for such things.

Gurley Martin (R): http://www.gurleylmartin.com/Home.html
Mr. Martin still has a lot of spunk for an 86-year-old; however, I feel it is severely misguided. He talks of all Liberals being haters, and lots of his information sounds like it spewed forth right out of a Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh rant. Thanks, but no thanks.

John Stephenson (R): http://www.jstephenson.com/Issues/Issues.htm
John Stephenson has some good ideas such as the rail system; however, once again, like much of the GOP party, his good ideas are tainted with his personal religious views so much, I'd be concerned that he would be more worried about using the government to push the Christian agenda rather than pushing the conservative agenda. He says he's running for God. He says we need to make a "U-turn" back to God. I say, the government needs to make a U-turn back to staying out of lives - including our religious lives.

John J. Scribner (R): http://jonscribner.webs.com/
Can't tell you much about Mr. Scribner. His website is quite underdeveloped. He does state in a comment reply to someone that he is against abortion except in cases of Rape & Incest, he believes we need TORT reform, a balanced budget, & a strong military. The KFTC is sending him a survey, maybe we'll see more of him later?

So there you have it folks. Beyond Grayson, Paul, Conway, & Mongiardo, those are the other choices we have. In my opinion, it's not much, but you make your own decisions. Unfortunately, no independent or 3rd-party folks are running, so I may end up not casting a vote at all for this seat.

Enjoy the weather!

VegChili & Thai Pie

2010-01-04T22:11:00.001-05:00

That pictured pizza is not mine, but it's close!!

I took more than inspiration from Saul Good's Thai Pizza tonite to make something delish! It is still a work in progress though so no recipe yet. But the sauce that makes it is the sweet chili sauce! Omg it's good! Tonite I used some tofu cubes & veggie mozzarella too. Forgot the peanuts and I need a better dough so stay tuned!

Sunday night we had a veggie chili. It was simple yet tasty! I used a spice chili veg mix from Whole Foods - a bit spicy but yum! I threw some tofu crumble in the pan, heated. Added water, spice mix, stirred heavily. Threw in kidney beans with their water, chopped onion, lots of garlic cloves, salt, pepper, ta-da! Boiled for a tad bit, simmered for 20, and yum yum good! Leftovers for lunch tomorrow too!

Have a great Tuesday!

(iphone post)

Ahhh VEG Out!

2010-01-03T21:25:00.001-05:00

A healthier year... That was a resolution I made for 2010. I didn't get specific - I'm hoping to do that with mini-goals along the way.

We took a trip to Whole Foods today. I thought it was going to be outrageously expensive but I was surprised by the total bill for a week's worth of breakfast, lunch, dinner, & 2 snacks a day - about $28 a day for two!

I was very disappointed in their produce selection. Sure everything was organic, but there was not much diversity. We couldnt even find any green onions or fresh parsley!

I did love their measure your own aisle for beans, rice, dried fruits, and nuts. Lots of diversity there! I was surprised to see only a small section for tofu - maybe this is demand driven?

But we walked away with some good stuff - hopefully a lot less cholesterol & fat, and even a little less in calories.

We made a veggie meatloaf that was a bit spicy but mmm mm good - and no cholesterol!

Here's to a good start!

Location:Richmond, KY

Year in Review : Looking Ahead

2009-12-27T21:42:00.006-05:00

My goodness... It's been way too long since I've posted on my blog. I think I'm still trying to find some sort of focus on this blog, but so far only recipes seem to be a dominant characteristic - and maybe politics.

So this year in review, what in the hell did I start & never finish? The same thing I've always started & never finished: healthier living.

I was hyped about the weight loss surgery, but then made other plans. I was hyped about joining Team Poynter's, then fell out after food boredom. I was hyped about cooking, then the holidays came & cooking fell to the wayside.

Apparently the issue is discipline. Possessing the discipline to stick to a healthy regimen, regardless of what it is, is the issue.

I just took a class at UK: 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. What an amazing course! Of course, there are tons of things in there that we'd all love to do, and I know I won't do all of it. But if I can incorporate slowly some of those principles into my life, it can only get better.

New Year's resolution? Let's not get crazy, and say lose 100 lbs. My resolution is to make a more disciplined, habitual effort at living a healthier life. It means more exercise, more food control, more food exploration, more nutrition guidance. More more more! Small, attainable goals which will hopefully lead me to more long term goal of being a healthy human being.

The tools are there: Weight Loss Matters program via UK, Bowflex machine, Treadmill, love of cooking & trying new things. There's no more money that can be spent to make it happen, I simply have to do it. There is no choice.

So once again, I ask you to wish me luck. And I, in return, wish you luck on your endeavors for the new year!! Post your new year's resolutions to share with everyone!

Good night!

Wednesday

2009-11-04T21:58:00.001-05:00

Today was just... Wednesday. Sure they banned gay couples from purchasing a marriage license in Maine, eh so what's new?

I did write to the good folks at http://www.unmarried.org & told em I really couldn't support them anymore unless they called for actual repealing of all marital laws. Otherwise even if they legalize gay marriage, aren't single people going to remain financially unequal even though they consume less resources?

Wednesday was just Wednesday. Nothing exciting.

Even dinner was not much to talk about. Chicken w/ pepper sauce. It said sweet but I disagree that it was sweet...

It wasn't bad, want the recipe?

2 chicken breasts, beat down
1/2 cup o flour
10 leaves of cilantro
2 yellow/orange 'sweet' peppers
2 TBsp of olive oil
1 cup lo sodium chicken broth
7 oz diced tomatoes
Salt, pepper
Rice - optional

- Mix flour, salt n pepper together;
- coat chicken with flour
- swirl oil in pan, throw in chicken
- dice up the peppers, mince up the cilantro, drain maters
- after chicken browns, throw in everything else cept rice
- bring to a boil, then cut it off, let it cool, thicken just a hair
- serve over rice

Not bad but I was out of diced tomatoes, had to use rotel. That killed the sweet but sure did spice it up!!

So here's to hoping for a more exciting Thursday!

Nitey nite!

(iphone post)

Moving on...PASTA!

2009-11-03T20:19:00.000-05:00

Let's get through all this real quick: Surgery on pause, trying to work out/ eat better, joined Team Poynter, fell off that wagon, working from modified Poynter plan, job changing signicantly, Ed lost job, Ed found new job, and we resigned from our church. Some ups, some downs, it's a wonder I'm not smoking 3 packs of cigarettes a day, but I'm not. Doing pretty good, and so is Ed.

So now I'm just trying to eat healthier, move more, love more, and have more patience with people.

With that in mind, I offer a cool lil recipe I found & reworked:

CHICKEN RAVIOLI FLORENTINE

3 chicken breasts, cubed up
3 handfuls of baby spinach, chopped
6 fresh Basil leaves
4 cloves of garlic
8 ounces of four cheese ravioli pasta
3 TBsp olive oil
1/3 cup of pine nuts
Salt, Pepper, whatever you want

- Start boiling the water for the pasta
- Swirl the olive oil in the skillet, cook the chicken, salt it pepper it, and I Mrs. Dashed mine .. Tomato basil dash. Do not drain. Leave on low low heat.
- Throw in the pine nuts with the chicken.
- Cook the pasta, garlic cloves, dash of salt, few drops of olive oil in boiling water. Drain.
- Throw the basil and spinach in with chicken. Toss it around.
- Add in the ravioli with the chicken mix. Fold in.

I also grated some asiago cheese over top; you can add whatever you want!

(iphone post)

Stop! In the Name of Life!

2009-09-20T22:16:00.004-04:00

So much has happened since last time I posted. I don't want to dwell on it too much - some of it is sad, some is bad, and some is just life :)

First, we made the decision to stop the surgery process. This was mostly a financial decision. We found out that my employer offers an insurance that will pay for practically 100% of the surgery. Of course, I have to wait until open enrollment in the summer, and do a diet plan prior to that for it to pay it but if it will save me $20,000 - why not??

Second, in the meantime, we bought a treadmill and Bowflex. I'm hoping to still drop a little bit of weight while we wait to switch insurance in the summer. I was so looking forward to feeling better, I just can't wait until next summer. So I'm willing to put in the work to start feeling better now!

The last thing is we're down to one income - so our first decision was very timely. Don't want to go into the details, but Ed is optimistic and looking for another position as we speak. If you know of anyone hiring, let us know!

So, we've had to stop, take a look around, re-assess some things, and make new decisions, but we're fairly resilient people - especially Ed. We're okay with change so long as we can keep moving forward.

That's our news for now... couple of more posts to come: Our first camping trip & Ham Days is on its way!!!

RIP: Patrick Swayze

2009-09-15T10:05:00.002-04:00

Dancer of the Dance... Friend to the Gays... Lover of Life...

We'll miss you Mr. Swayze!

Enjoy the music...

Good Night, 613 Hugging Bear Lane

2009-08-28T09:30:00.017-04:00

Today we finally close on the first home we ever lived in together and purchased together - 613 Hugging Bear Lane.

Originally, our friend Jason & his father owned the house, and we rented it from them for a couple of years. We then purchased it from them, and stayed for 7 years.

Seven years doesn't seem like a long time when you look at the

number, but when you think about

all the memories it seems like a lifetime.

While living in that house, we got married, I lost my mother, he lost his father, we hosted Christmas soirrees, we formed relationships with great neighbors, our pets grew up, we laughed, we cried, we lived a life.

Last night we said good night to 613 Hugging Bear Lane for the last time. We thank you for all the wonderful memories!

First Appointment Scheduled

2009-08-19T13:46:00.002-04:00

I scheduled my first appointment with an internist at St. Joseph Hospital - Lex-East for next week.

They sent a whole packet to me of everything that they may or may not do during this visit. They said it could take 4+ hours! I wonder if that includes the typical time that we spend in the waiting room waiting for them to call us back so we can wait in a room on a tissue-covered lounge thingy? Maybe these folks won't have that typical waiting period - if so, I'm counting on a good 6 hours for this shindig.

Center of Choice

2009-08-15T00:39:00.000-04:00

The next crucial decision was to choose which medical center would perform this surgery. It's a decision that involves many aspects like finances, quality of care, program quality, program benefits, surgeon reputation, hospital reputation, location, and others.

Originally, I did not think UKHMO, my insurance company, would pay a cent for any of this medical service. So I entered this with the notion that I would pay for all of it. While that's not a good thing, it certainly knocks down many of the hoops one has to jump through to get the procedure done. Comparing the prices of the two centers - Georgetown Community Hospital and St. Joseph Hospital Lex-East - I found there was not much difference.

However, St. Joe's staff pointed out that it is likely UKHMO will pay for the pre-op tests which is a nice chunk of change as long as I do them at UK, then just send the results to them. Great!!!

Both places have earned the Excellence designation (see seal above) and both seem to have top notch surgeons; although, Gtown only has one.

The programs for pre- and post-op are similar, but I feel St. Joe's is more in depth. For instance, I will meet with a physiologist at St. Joe and work on exercise programs - a key ingredient to success. I was unable to find that Gtown offered the same service.

Also, Gtown requires that you do the insurance investigation in the beginning yourself; whereas, St. Joe's takes over dealing with the insurance company from jump.

Of course, Gtown is a good 15 extra minutes from Richmond, and I pass by St. Joe's twice a day five days a week already.

Also, I have friends and family that work in the St. Joe Lex system, so I can get some inside scoop!

I think both places have great staff and surgeons with promising programs; however, I think St. Joe's is the best fit for me.

My first appointment with them is scheduled on Aug 27 - and we're off & running!!!

Have a great weekend!

(iphone post)

Surgery Comparisons

2009-08-13T19:32:00.004-04:00

Ok so there were two major decisions that needed to be made: which surgery do I have, and where do I have it done?

Below are the two most common options - and the only two I consider, although there are a couple of others:

This is also called the Roux-en-Y

This is the Band option

I chose the Roux-en-Y for several different reasons. The main reason is that it is the most successful option. By that I mean, it is most successful in keeping weight off long-term. It is also the most successful in "curing" those co-morbidities, or the obesity-related health conditions like hypertension, diabetes, sleep apnea, GERD/Acid reflux, etc. Many of these conditions go away while you are in surgery, the day after surgery, or a couple of weeks after surgery.

Also, with the banding, you have a foreign object in your body for life. Foreign objects may be prone to infection, it could also grind into your pouch, twist, turn, flip, and deteriorate. The banding is also not recommended for those who have GERD/Acid Reflux as it can actually make the condition worse.

There are upsides to the band: although it is made to be permanent, it can be reversed, and even "traded in" for the gastric bypass some time in the future if it doesn't work out. It is also adjustable through the port under your skin with saline solution injections.

But for me, Roux-en-Y is the best option. I'm still going to discuss this decision with the internist during my first appointment, but I feel confident about this decision.

The next decision to be made is where to have it. I've made that decision too. I attended two seminars - one at St. Joseph Hospital - Lexington - East & one at Georgetown Community Hospital. And I will talk about that decision tomorrow... In the meantime, you can click the links to see what each medical site offers.

Disclaimer: This blog or any of my words are not meant to be considered professional advice or professional claims of any sort. You should make your own decisions and do your own research before embarking on any medical journey.

The Journey Began

2009-08-11T01:11:00.003-04:00

So if you haven't read twitter (@jamesyounce) or facebook, then you're probably wondering what the hell I have been talking about.

After years of struggling with obesity, I am determined to have gastric bypass surgery. This is going to consume and/or invade possibly every aspect of my life for a long period of time -some of those times more difficult or easier. So I felt this was worthy enough to blog about in 'journey' style as I call it.

I will share my experience with everyone so that others considering it may have some insight, some who have done it can share, and the family of those considering or currently going through it can have another perspective to read about.

I am definitely not the first person to blog about this experience, and I encourage those interested to search for other stories. I do hope to share more of the overall process details and not just my own personal achievements.

You can follow the mini updates on Twitter @jamesyounce then filter the tweets using the hashtag #jazzyjourney. All of my tweets with that hashtag will be about the gastric bypass.

So far I've attended the informational seminar at St. Joe East in Lexington. For comparison, I'm attending a similar seminar tomorrow at Georgetown Community Hospital. I'll give more details tomorrow. Nite nite!

(iphone post)

The Journey

2009-08-09T19:25:00.001-04:00

I have a journey that begins Monday at 3pm. Wish me luck!

Stay tuned for more details....

(iphone post)

iPhone Explorations - Update

2009-07-28T10:59:00.004-04:00

So a few weeks back I talked about three new apps I planned to try out. Since then I've replaced one, continue to use another, and rarely use the last one.

Twitterfon is a great app; however, I found one that is even better: Twitterrific. Why is Twitterrific better? The biggest difference that I see is that Twitterrific allows you to compress text and URLs BEFORE you post. With Twitterfon and other Twitter apps, you have to go out to tinyurl or other tiny url maker to make the link smaller and then paste that into your tweet. You would also have to look for text that could be replaced with abbreviated text-types. With Twitterrific, you just press a button and boom - text is compressed, and urls are shortened. One feature I do miss on Twitterfon is the ability to look at Tweep's followers/followings. You can see how many followers/followings a Tweep has but you cannot view who they are. That is a minor drawback to this great app. I currently use it for my personal, church, and ky wine lovers tweets.

VR+ was an app I installed to be able to post voice recordings to Twitter, FB, Blogger, etc. I used it for about a week, and just realized that voice tweeting wasn't my thing. Recording voice is not always convenient because you cannot be incognito about it. You need to be in a quiet place, and preferably without others around - otherwise you could look nutty. Nothing wrong with the app if you're into posting recordings; it's just not my thing (for now at least).

BrightKite has remained the lone survivor of my exploration trials. There was a brief period where I forgot to use it, but a friend "nudged" me to remind me to post something. It is superior to Loopt, but Loopt has the live tracking feature which BrightKite does not (you have to check in before someone knows where you are). So I have kept Loopt so my husband and I can keep track of one another, but BrightKite remains my choice for location tweeting. It also works well with FB Connect, and you can even configure the posting templates to include hashtags for Twitter.

In summary: Twitterrific better than Twitterfon; VR+ good app if you do recording tweets; BrightKite superior location app.

A few other apps I've been working with recently that are still in the review stage:

BlogPress - best app so far for blogging from your iphone
DoGood - increase your good karma with daily "do goods"
Quicken - view all of your financial accounts via a quickie app
MemoryInfo - short on memory? games crashing? don't reboot, just use this quick app

That's it for now folks, have a good week!

Conservative Tide Turning

2009-07-28T09:55:00.005-04:00

Yesterday, Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY) announced that he would not be seeking re-election. YAY!! There are numerous reasons why some are happy about this news; I have two very distinct reasons:

I strongly believe in term limits. Currently the Senate seats have no term limits, and because of this we have Senators who have become career politicians, sitting in those seats for decades - I don't believe that is the best for government. I even believe we should have term limits for the SCOTUS judges. Allowing a person to sit in the same office for decades just lends itself to these people getting in routines and doing the same ole, same ole, year after year. It gets more and more difficult for them to think outside the box and to embrace new ideas. I think it would be best to have a blend of old tradition and new ideas to help stabilize our country. Using one extreme or the other is never a good thing.
Senator Bunning has been no friend to the gay community. He has co-sponsored, voted for, and given speeches time and again for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. I believe this is one of problems with the GOP. Instead of focusing on decreasing the size of government, government efficiency, and spending reductions, they have allowed the extreme religious right to control the party and push social agendas which actually increase the size and scope of the government. That is not being "conservative" in my opinion.

I'm certain that Senator Bunning has had some bright spots in his career, and I thank him for his public service; however, it's time (has been time) to go.

Looking to the future, I have a good feeling about Trey Grayson - our current (Republican) Secretary of State. Secretary Grayson has done an outstanding job as SOS of KY. I gave him my vote again this past election and would do so again. He has opened up the SOS services more than ever before with making so many of them available online. He has made the process of starting a new business in Kentucky almost effortless. He embraces technology and hopefully new ideas.

He does not have a current voting record. I am not sure about all his views on the social issues. I will be looking forward to hearing him speak on these topics. However, more importantly, I am hoping to hear that he plans to focus his work on reducing government size, spending, and inefficiency. While he may be for the "traditional" definition of marriage, I would be happy were he to go to DC and focus on fiscal issues instead of grand-standing on social issues. Too many politicians now use social issues as wedge issues to incite emotions in people to get them to the polls. As a conservative, I find that social issues are easily solved - do NOT involve the government. Involving government in making social decisions expands the size of government, and deteriorates our individual freedom. I realize were the issue of marriage to come up, he may have to vote based on his constituency's voice; however, I am hopeful that he does not use the issue to muddy the waters and to grand-stand to make a name for himself. If that is his path, then he won't get my vote.

We'll see how this plays out...

PS - LT. Gov. Mongiardo? I will never vote for him. I am done with back-stabbing Democrats. There may be some 'good' Dems left, but President Clinton, Rep Chandler (D-KY), President Obama, and Lt. Gov. Mongiardo have left me with a very sour taste for the Democratic party.

Lake, KY (part II)

2009-07-26T21:47:00.001-04:00

After a great night's sleep on the water, we packed up, and headed home today. It was a wonderful weekend and we greatly appreciate our family's hospitality.

So what is so great about boating? As I said, I just love riding around the lake. But there are tons of other things to do! Throw a rope behind the boat with a tube float attached or a person on skis or some other contraption and you have instant fun. Bring some worms and poles for fishing right off the boat. Drive out to the middle of the lake & jump out for a good swim. Find a nice quiet cove or beach to spend the day sunning and listening to good tunes. You're only limited by your own sense of adventure (and local liquor laws). One of my favorite memories was of fishing for croppy late at night. We'd tie lanterns off the back of the boat over the water. This would attract the shad (think minnows) which then would attract the croppy. I think I enjoyed being able to stay up that late as a kid.

So you cannot afford to buy a boat? Rent one! You can rent them by the hour, day, week, or longer: pontoons, runabouts, houseboats, jetskis, paddleboats, etc. But you do not have to have a boat to enjoy the lake.

A cheaper option is to buy a tent, reserve a campground spot near the water, and live with nature. These days most spots even have electricity & water! There are some where the spots are grouped closer together for a small community feeling; some have more private settings. There's usually a marina store nearby in case you forget or run out of food, drink, or just want to throw your money at souvenir stuff. Some also have restaurants. Usually they'll also have restroom and shower facilities. So you can actually rough it or not as much as want. Build campfires, go hiking, go swimming, or lay in the tent all day if you want. This weekend we walked through the campground and found a large group celebrating Christmas in July - complete with lights, trees, & santa hats. We asked one if them about it, and she said it was the best way for all of them to get together and celebrate a holiday. It was cool :)

Looking for even less investment - you can do that too! Many of the larger lakes have public beach areas. All you need to pay for is the gasoline to get there. Some have on duty lifeguards, most have picnic areas with tables and grills, and some even have playground areas. I have lots of great memories of swimming with friends & then eating cold - yes cold - fried chicken.

I feel certain there are a ton of other great lake ideas - some legal; some not. So after enjoying the warmth of bourbon in the winter and excitement of horse racing in the fall & spring, in the summer, make sure you enjoy another pride of Kentucky - our great lakes!

PS ~ about spending time with fam: KY lakes are a great way to do that!! Thanks again to Joe, Anne, Leah, & Nathan for a wonderful weekend!!

Lake, KY (part I)

2009-07-26T01:11:00.002-04:00

We spent the weekend with my sister-in-law & her family on their houseboat on Lake Cumberland. We've had a great time! I decided to post just to say that I have blogged while on water - it's the little things in life :)

Spending time with family for us is quite possibly at the top of our goal lists. We've lost some very close family members early in our lives and that has made us realize that we do not want to miss out on sharing our lives with our families.

Now I could carry on about how everyone should cherish their families, but why restate the obvious? Instead, let us talk about the lake.

I did not consult Wikipedia, but I do believe that Kentucky has more lakes than any other state. We're not just talking pond water folks - we're talking big economy-generating water!

Kentucky is well-known for our horses and our bourbon; but, there is a sizeable segment of our country's population that knows us for our relaxing waterspots. This weekend, I have noticed many of the docked boats call surrounding states home. That is an impressive accomplishment of our tourism industry - having spent years of my life living on and visiting lakes, I cannot imagine driving to another state just to go to the lake! But here I am surrounded by locals and citizens of other states, all of us drawn to the Kentucky water.

So what is the big deal about the lake - it's just ole dirty water right? Of course not! There is so much you can do at the lake, it would be difficult to not find something fun for everyone.

My guess is that most people's primary focus when coming to the lake is the lake itself. The water can be enjoyed in so many ways. Boating is one of the more popular routes. Some have their own boat - bass boat, runabout, cruiser, cabin cruiser, pontoon, houseboat, etc. Some rent boats from the local marinas for a day or even a week or more. Maybe it's because my childhood was filled with boating summers or because I'm a Pisces, but simply being on the water is all I really need to enjoy - all else is bonus! I love just riding around, feeling that wind against my face; water misting on my sun-drenched skin. But do not fear! There are tons of things to do while boating.

And tomorrow, we'll talk about all of those.... But it's late and the water is gently rocking me to sleep.... Goodnite!

Our Independence

2009-07-03T23:02:00.000-04:00

Saturday is July 4th - Independence Day. Like Christmas, Easter, and Halloween, is the true meaning of Independence Day becoming lost? I'm concerned that it is.

Ask most kids about the holiday and they will define it as the day when we set off fireworks, eat lots of food, and the parents have the day off from work. Mention something about Independence Day, Britain, Declaration of Independence, or revolution and they stare at you oddly.

Anybody can Google the history so there is no need to go into it here, but I hope we not only read about but we share the history with our children and others.

No doubt that America has had its dark days of internal issues, and it continues to struggle with some issues. But a nation that prides itself on individuals rights And freedoms cannot be expected to be perfect. These rights and freedoms allow for our country to have a very diverse population; we cannot be expected to agree on everything. Compromise takes time but we should always have hope that one day we'll reach an agreement.

I realize many political issues these days divide us and leave many of us feeling ostracized within our population - this can make patriotism a difficult attribute to attain. However, even with all of our faults, it is my opinion that this country continues to provide the best opportunity to effect change in how it is governed.

So tomorrow take the time to educate your kids, your family, your friends, and especially yourself about why we have this grand celebration in July!

(iphone post)

iPhone Explorations

2009-07-03T14:21:00.004-04:00

Hey folks!!

I've been looking at reducing the apps on my iPhone but making sure I still have all the "power" I "need" to stay in contact with folks. Now maybe I'm one of the few that is just getting around to this, but I have totally shuffled up the 4 apps that get that sweet-spot that is static at the bottom of the screen.

Before it used to contain the Phone, Messages, Email, & iPod. Does anyone still use their iPhone as a phone? Sure I still make a few calls, but most is done via Twitter, FB, Texting or email.

Email is still a big component of my communication, so it was the only original native app that got to stay in static section. I use it for work, personal, church activities, etc. So I still feel it has enough importance to keep. The Phone, Messages & iPod apps found a new home - not far away, still on the first page, near the bottom.

So what are the new apps that were worthy of the static spot?

First, Twitterfon. It's a Twitter app that has all the Twitter features you'll ever need. What I like about it is its simple format but still comes with all the features I need. One such feature is multiple accounts. I not only update my own Twitter, but I also do all the tweets for my church's Twitter account. So multiple account handling was very necessary.

Second, an app that came to me via a friend - Kevin P. I saw him using this odd app to update his Twitter status - called BrightKite. If you've ever used Loopt, it is similar to that app. It allows you to "check-in" to locations chosen by your or the GPS, and you can allow it to update your FB and/or Twitter. Now I have been an ecstatic user of Loopt, but the drawback with it is that you have to use a cell phone # in order to add people or give yours out in order to have people add you. You would think with all the information we're allowing people to have, giving them our cell # would not be an issue - but it's still a bit weird to do so - I think because you can't simply block people from calling you, but it's very simple to block someone from Twitter, Loopt, etc. That said, BrightKite does NOT use your cell # for social contacting. You can see activity or people within various ranges of your location. You can also post pics and other comments with it.

The final and newest app I've found is VR+. It is a voice recorder that allows you to share the recordings via email, FB, Myspace, Twitter, or Blogger. You can also log them all on their website. I'm not sure if this one will catch on, but I thought it would add a new media dimension to the social interacting experience. We'll see how she goes.

I'm still searching for that perfect app that allows you to do FB, Twitter, and Blogger all in one. ShoZu was promising but it has lots of bugs which hang up the program a lot so I've not been happy with it. If someone has any suggestions, let me know.

What does any of this have to do with Independence Day (4th of July for those too young to remember what this holiday really is)? Well... look at Iran.... and the impact Twitter, FB and other social networking apps have had on their freedom and revolution recently. And people think these things are just for those tech-obsessed types like me? ha! Viva la Revolucion Technologia!

Testing a new voice/twitter app

2009-07-03T13:24:00.001-04:00

https://vr.shapeservices.com/play.php?hash=50aa1d1eaff79da5a1528cd9aaba46e059e4cfa4250a32463

we'll see how this goes...

___
Sent via VR+

In Memoriam: Michael Jackson, King of Pop

2009-06-26T14:17:00.008-04:00

I still don't think I could sit down to write about all the ways Michael's music reflected upon my life as we grew up together... so for now, I offer a growing list of MJ music on the blog music player... I'll just let his music speak for itself for now...

Rest in Peace: Michael Jackson, King of Pop

2009-06-25T19:02:00.002-04:00

Michael has passed away. Are there any words? I can't think of any.

House For Sale!!

2009-06-17T13:30:00.010-04:00

So where has James been and why has there been no blogging activity?

Well I did take a short trip to Florida, but now I'm in full-swing of selling our home in Lexington, KY. We moved from there about 2 years ago to Richmond, KY, and tried to make a go of it as Landlords until the housing market flourished again.

Well listening to Dave Ramsey, the market in many areas is already coming back. And the renting market in this area is very saturated - so now is the time to make the move!

So now I shall shamelessly plug our Realtor and our listing!

We chose Maria Gnas with Team Gnas from Dave Ramsey's list of ELP Realtors (Endorsed Local Providers). Great program! He's already put her through a grueling interview and acceptance process so it saved us most of the research time.

She's absolutely perfect for selling our home!

Our house is located at 613 Hugging Bear Lane in Lexington, KY 40509. It is a 3BR, 2BA ranch-style house with a 2-car garage and fenced-in backyard.

Easy to remember link names to our listing!!

http://tinyurl.com/613huggingbearlane

http://tinyurl.com/613huggingbearlisting

For now if you're interested, give Maria a call at 859.229.2925 or email her at maria@teamgnas.com. Her website is at www.teamgnas.com.

Call her today! Now! What are you waiting for???

Concession for the Recession

2009-05-30T10:01:00.005-04:00

My last gas fill-up at the local Speedway in Lexington was filled with nuisances. The service wasn't necessarily bad, it was just annoying. I pull up to the pump, get out, then have to navigate past this big Budweiser ad-stand they had in front of the pump. For a small person maybe it's no biggie, but for us big people, you damn near knock it down to get to the gas pump. I fill 'er up then decide to go in and get a diet coke. I get it and stand in line - the line was a good 6 people deep. Unfortunately, there was only one store clerk (the other was outside on smoke break). I've run into this store clerk before. She's very friendly, really nice, but she is just slow as hell. She talks and talks and talks. That is why the line is so long - not because anybody has special purchases - she is just going through life stories with everyone. I purchased a car wash with my fill-up, and drive over to the washer. As I'm sitting in there, I notice all the debris from bird's nests on the dryer vents. See I probably would not have paid much attention to it had I not already been annoyed, but now I was in "critical" mode now, so everything I saw, I critiqued. I'm thinking that I'm paying money to have my car washed, and now it's drying my car with bird nest debris flying out of the dryer vents onto my clean truck. I finally get through and head home.

Now on my way home, I remembered seeing the sign "How are we doing? Let us know at Speedway.com". I thought, yup, I'm going to and let you know the clerks are too slow, your promotional setups are in the way, and your car wash needs to be cleaned. But then I thought, well... what if this particular clerk or store manager is already on thin ice because of slow performance or other store issues? Another complaint may end up being the last straw, last write-up, and then they're out of a job. So I talked myself out of writing to Speedway and told myself I was just being too critical, and that my experience was not worth causing someone else a headache during hard times.

Normally, I would have never given this a second thought. I would have written, lodged my complaint, and expected better results next time I visited the store.

My husband and I tend to be tough on customer service at the places we patronize. We both started our careers in the service industry (food service & lodging) and having been in management, we know the value of customer service. Often the service you receive somewhere is more important than the actual cost of the service. Many people are much more willing to overlook the higher price of food, gas, lodging or other service if they receive good customer service. It usually determines for us if we'll make a return visit to a place of business. Who wants to continue to go to a place and pay money if you don't receive good service? Even if they have a great product, it is just not worth it to us to deal with bad service. That's one reason why I'm against government-sponsored monopolies like cable companies, water companies, electric companies, etc. If you have a service issue with any of those, you can complain, but there's not much else you can do because there is no other company to provide that service. But that's another story...

So my small concession in this recession is to not be so tough on those providing customer service. Jobs seem to be hard to come by right now, and I don't want to be the final complaint that gets someone terminated in these rough tides. Don't get me wrong, I still believe that a company should provide the best customer service possible, and when we get back to a flourishing economy, I'll likely change my ways back to making my disapproval of bad service known to management. I work for my money and if I'm willing to trade some of it for service then I expect good service...but I'm willing to overlook some questionable service right now because times are tough.

This doesn't mean that you're still going to get a 20% tip if you don't smile, if you screw up the order, if you go missing during dinner, if you make it clear that you dislike your job, if you're a smart ass, if you act a fool. You're still going to get a 0% tip because you haven't figured out that good customer service is what you need to provide, but my concession is that I'm not going to ask for a manager, call the corporate office, write an email, or point out to your superiors that you're giving bad customer service. Hopefully the zero on the tip line will be enough to prompt you to get it together and you won't have another documented mark against you from me.

I make no promises that my husband will make the same concession, but I'll try to rope him in... :)

Rest In Peace - Sara the sweet ole beagle

2009-05-29T09:36:00.007-04:00

Last night, Ed arrived home to our neighbor upset over one of our dogs, Sarah. It appeared that Sarah was coughing up blood. Luckily, we have a great vet, and he agreed to meet us last night to have a look at her. We honestly thought we were on our way to have her put down, because we thought the bleeding was internal, and we don't have much hope for that in dogs. But when we arrived at the vet's, he pointed out that she had just cut her tongue badly on something. He was going to stitch her up and all would be well. We went home feeling relieved and happy that Sarah would be home the next day, and we were thinking about what kind of odd diet regimen she was going to be on for a stitched up tongue.

Unfortunately, this morning Ed called me to let me know the vet called him to say that Sarah had died during the night. She had lost a lot of blood, and he tried to give her lots of fluids, but it just wouldn't work.

We are sad, but we are happy that Sarah had a long, happy life. She was originally the pet of a neighbor of Ed's parents. When that neighbor's husband died, she moved to town, and left Sarah with Ed's Mom. She was a "front yard" dog - never fenced in or tied up, just roamed the neighborhood with one of our other dogs. Everybody loved her - she was a sweet old beagle. When Ed's Mom passed, we inherited all her animal family, including Sarah. Sarah didn't seem too happy that Ed's mother was gone, and seemed out of sorts for some time. But then one day, it seemed a switch had flipped - Sarah was just so happy about something, not sure what. Her little straight tail was wagging, and she had pep in her step. We always tried to spend a little time with her and talk with her when we would get home. She always greeted us - and anyone else - when we got home. She seemed to smile and was moving pretty good for such an old dog. Still don't know what made the change happen, but she was that way from then on - always greeting people, smiling, wagging her tail, and venturing out with Babes.

We know she's happy still...being back with Queen Mom...and even ole Buttercup.

Real Equality for Family

2009-05-27T11:05:00.002-04:00

Unless you were asleep yesterday, or outdoors enjoying life, you likely heard that the California Supreme Court upheld Proposition 8 which was voted in by CA's citizens to define marriage as between one man and one woman in their Constitution. However, the Justices also upheld the nearly 18,000 same-sex marriages which were entered into legally prior to the passage of the ban.

The second opinion is an easy one for me to digest. In this country, we do not pass ex post facto laws - meaning we don't create new laws and then apply them retroactively. So it is clear that the 18,000 legal marriages had to remain legal in order to continue our ex post facto laws.

Their first opinion is not entirely clear for me. I don't necessarily agree or disagree with it. I have not read the actual opinions yet, so I am not clear on their basis. What I have read prior to the outcome, leads me to believe this really had nothing to do with gay marriage. From what I read, the issue was more about clarity of California's Constitution and how it is amended or revised. I believe the arguments revolved around the Constitution's semantics on whether Proposition 8 was an amendment or a revision, and depending upon the resolution, how an amendment or revision affected the Constitution. There seems to be confusion in these two words, and that seemed to be crux of the matter decided upon by their Supreme Court. I am not a legal scholar, so I am not certain what the outcome should be.

What I am certain about is equality, and the lack of equality with regard to the way in which we are allowed to legally document our relationships in this country. I am not in favor of "gay marriage". I am also not in favor of "straight marriage". By allowing the government to define marriage - however broad or narrow - limits the people in how they venture through the legal system with regard to their relationships. Even if you allow same-sex marriage that definition still does not encompass all of the relationships citizens make with one another in this country.

The obvious arrangement it excludes is polygamy. Whether you and I would ever agree to such an arrangement is not relevant. These relationships exist and deserve the same equal legal documentation and benefits.

Another one that is often cited is incest. I do not personally believe in incest and could never enter into an incestual relationship; however, who am I to tell someone else they should or should not. Opponents will say that due to biological reasons, those related closely by dna should not be allowed to legally marry because they often produce off-spring with abnormalities. Yet those same opponents call homosexuality an abnormality, and it is the married heterosexuals who have produced the homosexuals - so what's the big fuss?

Of course, there are other relationships that people cite in the slippery slope argument against gay marriage that are off-the-wall - "why can't I marry my dog?". Well in most cities, you actually can legally document your relationship with your pet by buying a pet license - this bonds you to the animal and makes you responsible for the pet and gives you legal rights to the pet. We may not call that marriage, but the basic premise does exist.

I am not an advocate of these types of relationships, nor am I in opposition to people arranging these types of relationships - and that is exactly the stance our government should take in such matters.

Marriage supporters have maintained that the state has a valid interest in the promotion of marriage between one man and one woman. They believe that it is the best model for rearing children and such families benefit our society above any other relationship. The gay community believes that this model should be expanded to include two people regardless of gender. The polyamory community believes this model should be expanded to include more than two people. I believe the model within the government should be abolished. Evidence such as the divorce rate makes it clear that regardless of all the benefits & promotion for the government's marriage model, people will still make the relationships that best fit their needs.

While most states include "for life" or "life-long" in their definitions of marriage, the divorce rate is a clear indication that people ignore this part of the definition because they have a need to change their relationship for whatever reason. Gay people continue to form life-long relationships even though the government may not allow them to legally document those relationships. Polygamists continue to form families even though the government does not recognize such relationships. My point is that regardless of what the government sanctions or does not sanction, people have a need to form relationships which are not defined by legal definitions, and will continue to do so regardless of government action; therefore, the government has no interest in the promotion of their very narrow marriage model.

So what happens if we abolish all marriage laws? I believe the first thing we would see is an major financial impact on single people. We give married couples tax benefits that single people are not allowed to access because they chose to remain single. Now the tax burden would be spread among all the people equally without regard to marital status. These marriage tax laws have always been discriminatory against the single person, and as I've pointed out, there really is no vested interest in doing so.

Will people end their marriages without marriage laws? Will people ever commit to one another ever again? Oh my gosh!?! No - that is a invalid argument. For those of you who are married or those who know people who are married, examine why you got married or why the people you know got married. I doubt you will find any of them who chose to commit to one another in a life-long relationship, to love, honor, and cherish because they were able to purchase a marriage license. I am certain that they would have still made such a commitment with or without such legal devices and I have a whole community of gay couples out there who are not legally married but have made such commitments in ceremonies to back up my assertion.

We need less government in our lives folks...especially when it comes to our most sacred relationships with one another. I haven't even spoken about families that form that are not biologically linked - yet another narrow view of the government which denies access to family benefits to those who do not fit the legal family model.

No matter how far the government expands the definitions of marriage and family, I believe that it will never be able to keep up the pace with how its citizens form relationships with one another. I do realize we need legal documentation for such things as property rights, custody issues, etc. But I believe a simple legal contract can be drawn up by anyone with witnesses/notary that spell out said needs that 2 or 20 people of any gender or biological make-up to cover such legal situations. We just simply take the contract to our local courthouse, file it so that it is public record, and we're done. We just call it a contract - no special, narrow-minded semantics necessary.

We should be defining our relationships, not the government.

Ghetto Gay Hillbilly

2009-05-19T13:11:00.019-04:00

I know some of you are saying what the hell - a ghetto gay hillbilly?? How does that work? Well I've lived a very diverse life over my years thus far, and just like a good recipe, I've had lots of ingredients that went into making me who I am. Ghetto, gay, and hillbilly are not the only adjectives I could use - but I'd say they are the most prominent, most inclusive of how I live.

The gay part is probably the simplest part. I am a homosexual. Not much to that - it is what it is. My husband and I have been together for 12 years, and on some

points we fit right in with gay stereotypes, and in some others we don't. I tend to listen to jazz, r&b, hip-hop music - don't care for techno much - which is the overwhelming musical taste of the homo community. There was a time when I loved the clubs and especially the drag shows - still like to see those sometimes - but now I'm much happier at home out in the country with my 7 dogs and 3 cats...and if you know much about my background, I've come full circle in that aspect from my childhood. But I still love to get together with friends and be catty and judge all the weird people that walk by us :)

Ghetto and Hillbilly...now how does one put those two together. Well, first you have to start with the definitions of those two words. Most people associate ghetto with black folks...with living in run down tenant houses...scraping by and doing some odd stuff while scraping by like eating butter sammiches - that's what they would call ghetto. With hillbilly most people think of old country rednecks living out in the middle of nowhere, barely wearing any shoes, eating possum meat because they're too broke for the city grocery, and playing fiddles on the porch drinking moonshine.

My definitions are a little bit different. First, I don't think being ghetto or being hillbilly has anything to do with skin color. I've met ghetto white people and even a few hillbilly black folks. To me, ghetto and hillbilly are not that different. They both seem to focus on a simpler life. A simpler life where the focus is not on the things you can buy, but the people and things that are around you. Sitting outside, talking with friends or family all day long about nothing that means all that much - whether it be on the stoop in the projects in lawn chairs, or on the broke down porch of the old country house. Food is an important part but it never had to be ultra-fancy for people to chow down, and as a kid, you didn't complain about the food you got, you ate what your momma gave you. Kids played with what they had around them, not fancy toys that were store-bought.... dodgeball with an old deflated basketball in the projects, a stick and a rock in the country, or just making up some new game that was like tag - in the projects or in the country. Parents usually weren't much different - they would sit around with those that lived nearby playing cards, horseshoes, play music drinking cheap liquor, sit around and gossip and cut up.

So whether you lived in the projects or the country, life seemed simple to me because we used what was around us, and we socialized with those around us - we didn't travel to far off places to do things or to socialize.

I happened to live in all kinds of settings - the projects, the 'city', & the country. I can remember the women-folk sitting around the front of the buildings in lawn chairs that was bout to break down, all of them gossiping, and talking about what was going on with him, with her, and who was having the card game that night. I can remember parents' friends coming over to our double-wide trailor way out in the country, up on top of a knob by a lake, with about 15 dogs around, they would sit around listening

to all kinds of music - Lionel Richie, Bonnie Raitt, some country, some r&b, and they would even dance & sing. I can remember back in the projects, us kids making a club house in the property treeline - not a wall, roof one, but our imagination made this spot our club house. Back up on that knob in the country, me and those 15 dogs used to trail up old logging roads and have all kinds of imaginative adventures. I remember being on my big wheel, and running up to the

two bullies in the projects @ Maple Street...I cussed em both out, and flew back down to our apartment on my big wheel. Boy I was mad that day - I think they had said something bout my Momma - I couldn't been no more than 6 or 7 - hahaha.

I remember going on my first date when I was about 7 on my big wheel, driving down that great big hill on the knob's gravel road...

Had to stop and get some pretty flowers in the field (they were weeds) to take to the girl who lived across the road on the top of the other knob. lol

Oh those were the days - but it really wasn't much difference - projects, country - life was simple & fun.

To me really - ghetto and hillbilly are pretty much interchangeable...if you lived a simple, typically financially poor life, then you were ghetto if you lived this way in the projects, you were hillbilly if you lived this way in the country.

Today, I wouldn't have changed a thing about how I grew up. I had all kinds of people that I called family all around me. I think it really helped me to not have preconceived notions about people who live in the projects or those that live out in the country. I'm sure it was a lot for a kid to take in - all those different settings, and all the different types of people that came with those settings, but I sure am glad I got to take it all in, and I'm glad all of it is part of who I am today.

PS - and for the record, I ate butter sammiches in the ghetto, in the city, and in the country - don't knock it til you try it!

Momma's Day Chicken Salad

2009-05-10T17:54:00.006-04:00

Ahh it's such a beautiful day... I thought I would share this recipe for what I'll now call Momma's Day Chicken Salad... It's easy to make, and it was even easier for me because my lil niece helped!

What you need:

- 1lb of skinless, boneless chicken; I used tenders

- 1 bunch of red seedless grapes, sliced in half; bout 30 or so

- 2 bunches of green onions, chopped; only 1 if you don't love onions

- 4 hard-boiled eggs, peeled, chopped

- 2 cups Mayo; I used regular ole Miracle Whip

- Salt n Pepper

Get a medium pot, throw in the chicken, boil for about 15 minutes or so. Doesn't matter how you do it really, cut the chicken before the boil, or after. If it's thawed, probably easier to do after it's boiled. Add some salt for good luck.
Take the green onions, chopped eggs, sliced grapes, and 1 cup of mayo & throw it in a big bowl, and stir for a few.
Drain the chicken, let it sit so the water evaporates out. When it's cooled, chop it up if haven't already. Add the chopped chicken to the bowl.
Add the remaining mayo, salt n pepper, and stir it all up really good. Taste it, add more salt n pepper as necessary. Refrigerate for...well I don't know... a few hours. I prefer to do it the night before and let the flavors marry and then serve it.

Now you can top it with chopped peanuts, fancy shredded cheddar, or just leave it as is. Serve it on croissants, bread, crackers, pita bread - doesn't matter it's delicious!!

Enjoy!!

Get It Together...

2009-05-08T11:33:00.009-04:00

There are no quality men out there to be found - who has not had this conversation? I've been having this conversation for a very long, and we always seem to find some temporary answers, but nothing sustaining. And don't think I have a sustaining answer for you now - sorry to disappoint.

I have a few friends who are single and 30something. Now I'm not calling no names, so when these friends read this, no need to out yourself by flipping out in the comments section. :)

But I've tried to give them words of wisdom, and I feel as though I may have failed them because the longer we go down this road, the less wisdom I have to offer. I've been blessed to have found a perfect mate, and I'm sure I get so wrapped up in my relationship that I ponder about the single life less and less, which leaves me at a disadvantage when trying to give meaningful advice to my single friends.

The advantage though is that althought we have these "where are the good men" conversations, we're old enough to know what the answers are already, but we know that it is soothing to the soul to vocalize these things to our friends - to be heard, to have someone listen, and not have all these negative conversations in one's own head.

So...where are all the good men (women)? We can't seem to find them. The only real answer we can come up with is they are out there, and eventually we'll find them. However, time is precious, and we see those around us getting hitched, and we start to question our own abilities to find a mate.

True, you gotta be happy with yaself before you can be

happy with anyone else. Some of us didn't figure that out early enough, but we were lucky enough to figure it out, and work through our relationships. For those that are still single, looking around at their mated friends, the single mind starts looking in the mirror and the criticizing of one's own self begins. Sure, some folks go through life and never question the fact that something might be wrong with them and that is why they are single, but my friends have done the introspective exploration, and have made peace with themselves.

My friends have actually gotten it together. They are productive members of society. They are gainfully employed, self-supportive, and are for the most part are comfortable with being who they are.

So what is the problem? Maybe they are too confident? No, we've had that discussion. They are confident in themselves, but not cocky. If someone is intimidated by their confidence, then that person has self-confidence issues.

The only problem I can come up with is not being able to find that mate who also got it together. First impressions are so false these days. I've met a good majority of my friends' potential romantic interests, and I'm telling you people (esp. men) these days can pull off a gooooood front! Then my friends put forth effort into slowly building a relationship, and eventually the truth comes out - it always does, don't be lying, just tell people shit up front because the truth is ALWAYS going to come out - I promise you. And when it does, we find they got 5 babies and 7 babies' mommas, living with a girl you didn't know about for 6 months, got fired 4 months ago, living with the parents and no desire to move out, just looking for sex, a total psycho, & the list goes on and on.

Some of these issues, my friends may even be willing to work through - had they known up front. But you can't build a relationship up for a few months, thinking there is trust, and then you spring something on them that far in, and expect everything to be gravy. All the trust just went poof!

We all know the woes of finding a partner, I guess I don't need to keep on keeping on about the stories. But where is the hope? Where is the light at the end of the tunnel?

I do have hope for my friends. I look at them and they are great people - and I'd be the first to tell them if they were whacky and they are the reason for being single - but I just don't see it. To me, they look like prime relationship material. But I've been domesticated, so maybe that's a problem with my viewpoint?

Anyhow, back to the hope. I do have a great deal of hope at their outlook on finding a good mate. Why? Because I know if I have these wonderful friends that have gotten it together, they surely cannot be the only single people who have their lives together.

We just have to find those other people, and get it all together. Any ideas on where? The internet and the club ain't worked so far...

So my friends move on, and hope the next man/woman can get it together...

"Get it together,

You wanna heal your body,

You have to heal your heart

Whatsoever you sow you will reap,

Get it together...." - India Arie

Dressed Up Chicken Alfredo

2009-05-06T21:16:00.005-04:00

Tonight, I felt the urge to share a lil' recipe I threw together for dinner.

I don't know what you call it, but Dressed Up Chicken Alfredo is what I'm calling it tonight!

It's real easy, and you probably have most of this stuff sitting in your cabinet and fridge - I did, that's why I made it.

Here's what you need:

- 1 good-sized skinless, boneless chicken breast or about 4-5 skinless, boneless chicken tenders

- Sweet Peas, I used a 16oz can, but 1/2lb fresh or frozen will work too

- Carrots, I used about 4 fresh carrots, canned works but they don't hold up as well

- Onion, I used just a medium sized yellow onion

- Garlic, I always have a jar of chopped garlic, used about 2 TBLsp, if fresh, use about 2 cloves

- Pasta, I used 8oz of angel hair, but you can use whichever you like best

- Olive Oil

- Salt & Pepper

- Parsley (optional)

- Parmesagn (optional)

- Alfredo sauce, I used a jar of store-bought, you can make fresh too with just some parmesagn cheese, butter, milk, and maybe a lil bit of flour: melt the butter, stir in the parmesagn & flour, pour the milk in slowly, bring to a boil, turn off the heat, keep stirring til it gets right - you can add a bit of milk if it's too thick

Now...real simple:

- Peel the carrots, and chop em up if using fresh. Put them in boiling water, let them boil at least a good 10 minutes or so. If using canned, skip this step.

- While the carrots are cooking if using fresh, then take the chicken and chop it into cubes - they ain't got to be fancy. Heat up about a Tblsp of olive oil in a good-sized skillet, dump the chicken in, and set 'er on med-high. Add a dash of salt, and 2 or 5 dashes of pepper.

- If you used fresh carrots, and you've boiled em for about 10 minutes, now throw in the sweet peas in the same pot. Boil for another 2 minutes or so, and cut the heat off, drain the water, and set aside.

- Using that pot you just used for the peas & carrots, fill it back up with new water, let it come to a boil, then throw in your pasta. About 8oz is all you really need unless you just want a mouthful of pasta.

- When the chicken has turned white, and the juices are runnin' clear, chop up that onion, and throw it in with the chicken. Now I like my onions to have some texture - not just foo foo in the recipe, so I don't cook them all the way til they're clear.

- Now if you put in too much oil, you should drain the chicken/onion in a colander/strainer. Do that, then dump it back in, throw the garlic in with it. Let that cook for another good 2 minutes.

- Time to pour in the alfredo sauce. Just put the whole pot/jar of it in with the chicken/ onion/ garlic mix. Give a good stir or three.

- Now put the peas & carrots in with the alfredo/chicken/ onion/ garlic mess. Stir it all around and make it look pretty.

- All you have to do now is drain your pasta, throw a lil dab of butter in it so it doesn't stick together. Now one thing I did learn from Martha Stewart: Let the pasta let off some steam in the colander when you drain it. This takes out some of the water, and lets the pasta taste better in whatever sauce you throw it in.

- Put the pasta on the plates.

- Make a lil center place for the filling to go into.

- Scoop the Aflredo mixture into the center of the pasta, and you're done! Well almost...

- Options: You could sprinkle some of that parmesagn cheese on top, throw some parsley on top, and some folks may even like to just stir the pasta right on in the skillet with the Aflredo sauce. It's all up to you

- More options: Now I used peas and carrots. But chopped spinach works, broccoli, mushrooms, and who knows what all else.

It's real simple folks, and only one pot and one skillet! My husband loves me for that!

Catch ya later!

Biltmore in Bloom

2009-05-04T14:57:00.018-04:00

I wanted to share some of our experience in Asheville, NC this past weekend.

We visited the Biltmore Estates around Christmas time last year, and it was so beautiful we bought year-long passes. We're now trying to make good use of those passes by going at least once a quarter to visit.

The interstate is always so boring we decided to take historic US 25 all the way to Asheville. We found some very interesting things along the way.

Right outside of Newport, TN, we decided to try to find something to eat. At this point, we had lost all sight of civilization. Nothing but mountain tops and grassy fields along the way. Finally, we saw a glimmer of life at this lil convenient store/gas station/eatery - The Slab Cafe. Getting out of the van, we noticed an old SUV over in the grass - it had been

burnt to a crisp! We had a lil hesitation after seeing that but we were hungry. We headed in and there was a store side, and a restaurant side with booths, and a counter. We sat at the counter, and I got the special of the day: Catfish, fries, hushpuppies and coleslaw. Didn't care for the coleslaw, but the hushpuppies were awesome, and the

catfish was tasty. Ed had the usual burger and fries. Now don't get too excited - none of this was homemade. It came out of the freezer and into the deep fryers. But it was cheap, it was good, and it was there. Some locals came in, and of course they all knew "Scooby" the apparent manager of the place. She was at the register hollering back at them as they harassed her about selling some truck outside. Two young dudes came in, and she got a lil miffed with them. When they left, she addressed the whole store, and told us that those two just asked her if she knew anybody that had some weed! hahaha. She was shocked that they just came right out and asked her and they didn't even know her. Then they started gossiping about this missing girl whose picture was posted on the front door. They had all signed up for various times to help with the search, and now they were trying to figure out what happened. It reminded me of sitting around in Lebanon. Fun times. Now on to Biltmore!

At this time of year, Biltmore is in full bloom! It is absolutely beautiful! We didn't even go inside the house this time because we spent so much time in the outdoors.

After we had checked into our hotel, our very first stop was the Gardens @ Biltmore. The path down to the arboretum and surrounding gardens was full of blooming wisteria.

Some of that wisteria has been there since the original planting when the house was built. It was absolutely gorgeous! The front walls of the gardens were lined with tulips of every color - and I don't mean a small single line, I mean a full wall of tulips! As you walk down you see all the pansies, elephant ears, lilies, more wisteria, and other flowers whose names I cannot recall. Unfortunately, the rose garden had not bloomed yet. The roses were about to bust, but were not quite ready to pop out just yet.

Inside the arboretum was an assortment of beautiful vibrant plants and flowers. Of course, I don't remember all the names, but they were stunning.

Leaving the gardens, we headed to the winery, where we tasted their two newest wines: rose & white Festival of Flowers. We purchased one of each to add to our Biltmore collection that we purchased during Christmas. You should definitely try them!

By now we were in need of food. So we planted the van in a parking spot, and began walking to a restaurant we noticed earlier. Before we made it there though, we ran into a community theatre that was having an open night for one of their plays. We walked in, made inquiries, and walked out with two tickets to the play.

On we went to Magnolia's from there, and secured outdoor seating - it was a beautiful evening. We had a tomato, mozz, balsamic vinegar appetizer. Ed had the root beer glazed double cut pork chop served with mashed sweet potatoes, braised collard greens, and topped with caramelized onions - he loved it! I had the blackened salmon served over a sweet pea saffron risotto with a bleu cheese lump crabmeat sauce - delicious. It was a bit pricey (~$18 entree), but worth it for a vacation dinner.

Afterwards we shuffled over to the play - Enchanted April. It was a wonderful story line - it actually was wonderful how the play was intertwined with a story of wisteria, especially after seeing all the beautiful wisteria at the Biltmore Gardens. Below is the tagline from their website about the play:

"When two frustrated London housewives decide to rent a villa in Italy for a holiday away from their bleak marriages, they recruit two very different English women to share the cost and the experience. There, among the wisteria blossoms and Mediterranean sunshine, all four bloom again—rediscovering themselves in ways that they—and we—could never have expected."

It was very funny and uplifting. If you get there before May 17, you definitely need to check it out. For community theatre, they were very professional and perform their craft very well. Ironically, during intermission we met a couple from Winchester, KY! The husband and wife said they traveled by Asheville so many times on other trips, they decided to check the city out.

After the play, we went in search of coffee downtown - but the two shops from my iphone were both closed. Of course, later we found out we were within minutes of coffee shops that were in fact open. We tried to swing by the Starbucks at the Biltmore entrance, but to our disappointment - closed too. So we made some awful coffee at the Howard Johnson's and called it a night.

The next morning, I was full of energy and was showered & dressed before Ed even made it out of bed - this had to be noted because this never happens. We had no real plans for the day, other than a Legacy of the Land tour at the Biltmore and we wanted to explore more of Asheville.

So we found a local breakfast cafe - Over Easy Cafe. Their menu was entirely organic. All of their eggs are from local chickens who are "free-range" chickens, no steroids, no antibiotics, etc. I chose the Deluxe Breakfast - two eggs, home fries, organic toast, and soy sausage - it was all fantastic, even the soy sausage. Ed had the quiche of the day - turkey bacon, spinach and cheese I believe. He loved it. They also had smoothies so we both had the red, white, and blue - raspberries, blueberries, and yogurt. I also had an "elixir" put in mine that had fresh herbs and blackberries that was supposed to "hydrate". It was extremely delicious and we sucked them down before we got halfway down the street.

We got moving to the Biltmore for our Legacy of the Land tour. We hopped in the shuttle, and the guide discussed all the features of the land surrounding Biltmore - how it began, how it was grown, how it was built, etc. We stopped a few times for pictures and more in-depth discussion. The Vanderbilts were quite generous people we found out - you need to hear the stories sometime. The tour is well worth the money.

After the tour, we walked back through the gardens one last time, and stopped in the Gardenside shop to make a few plant purchases. From there, we headed back to the hotel to rest a moment and figure out what was next.

We found that there were a few free wine tastings going on - and of course we jumped on board! We drove to downtown Asheville. If I haven't mentioned it yet, Asheville's downtown scene is very "artisan". Lots of local artists, their shoppes, local eateries, wine shoppes, music venues, musicians on sidewalks, and gobs of people walking everywhere. We had no idea!

Our first wine stop was at the Asheville Wine Market. Their walls were completely covered in wine. I've never seen so many wine bottles in one shop. Unfortunately, they tend to sell European - old-world wines. Ed & I haven't really explored those yet - mainly focusing on local, American new-world wines. So we were not very knowledgeable. But of course, we plopped down for the wine-tasting anyhow. We tried 4 different wines from various places in Europe. The price points for most of them were actually quite low - and we ended up purchasing the 2007 Vignerons de Caractere "Petit Caprice" from France. According to the website, this wine is "soft, ripe, and medium to full-bodied, displaying loads of lavender, pepper, and black cherry characteristics. A blend of 75% Grenache and 25% Syrah...". It was tasty - that's bout all I know.

From there, we headed to a more local scene wine shop - Appalachian Vintner. The guy doing our wine tasting there was very knowledgeable all things beer & wine in North Carolina. He had a very positive attitude as well. We met a lesbian couple that was also doing the wine tasting - turns out they are visiting Lexington, KY in two weeks & so we swapped ideas about what to do in Lexington & Asheville. There are two places mentioned below that we never made it to, but I included them because they came highly recommended from this couple. Our wine tasting here was both old- and new-world; disappointingly nothing local was on board for tasting. We decided on a spicy red from the tasting, and we had the local guy recommend a local vintner from Asheville. If you do visit, you'll also have to check out their micro-brewed beers. It seems the locally produced beer may be more popular than the wine!

The lesbian couple had steered us to our next venture - a unique Mexican-Caribbean restaurant named Salsa's. We saw it the day before, but just thought it to be another typical Mexican restaurant but we were wrong. The chef is becoming locally famous - he now owns three restaurants in Asheville. Salsa's is a small, quaint place. The food is inspired from the chef's Puerto Rican heritage. We started with the Chipotle and tomatillo salsa & chips. It was the simply the best salsa I've ever eaten. A lil spicy, lot of garlic, but not overbearing. Ed was not happy with his meal because of the spicy heat - we found out afterwards that we could ask the waitress to make it mild, medium, or hot. He had the chicken quesadilla with roasted red peppers, wild mushrooms, fresh spinach, Monterey cheese, and annatto seed sauce served over rice and black beans. I had the Pork Quesadilla with pineapple chutney, fresh cilantro, Monterey cheese, and herb-avocado blend over rice & black beans. Mine was also very spicy but I loved it! The portions are huge! Prices were around $15 per entree, but the portions made it well worth the money.

We were feeling spent by the wine and stuffed by the quesadillas, so we decided to call it a night. We did finally make it to Starbucks while they were open. We thought we had called it a night, but then we took a joyride around Asheville. No stops, just having a look-see. Later that night, we did venture back out because we had found Ed's all-time fave: Chik-fil-A. We completely missed the running of the roses back home at the Derby, but we planned ahead. We popped open our bottle of Chrisman Mill's 135 Kentucky Derby Blush. Then we crashed.

The next morning, we were not so energetic, but we trudged on. We zipped through the Biltmore McDonald's & headed to the Unitarian Universalist Church of Asheville. We came in and were heartedly greeted, and ushered to the visitor's table - well after we zoomed over to the coffee counter first! We were amazed at how organized they were. You walk into the main foyer area, and everything is labeled with signage - there was simply no excuse for missing something. Lots of greeters on hand, lots of information, lots of conversation. The main chapel area was beautiful. Stone walls lined with wood rafters, and lots of sunny windows. Pews lined in different directions from the pulpit sitting next to a choir area complete with piano and organ. It was quite different from our own church in both design and structure - building & service. But it was a terrific service. Lots of music, lots of history, lots of personal story. We'll definitely be back when we visit again.

After church services, we jumped back on historic US 25 and made the journey back home. We can't wait to visit again and explore more of Asheville, and see what new things Biltmore has in store for us.

Below are links to many of the places we visited/mentioned above. Check them out!

Biltmore In Bloom - Our Picture Album
Historic US-25
Biltmore Estates
Over Easy Cafe
Asheville Community Theatre
Magnolia's
Salsa's
Asheville Wine Market
Appalachian Vintner
Unitarian Universalist Church of Asheville
Scandals Night Club (didn't visit, but recommended)
Tressa's lounge (didn't visit, but recommended)

Traditional Tithing

2009-04-28T11:31:00.002-04:00

Recently, I read an email from a church staff member in some far off land that was concerned about financial participation of the church's patrons. It would seem that there are tithing members, but they also have many "friends" of the church, who are not officially members - and possibly due to the fact that as such they are not obligated to contribute financially to the church.

I'm not sure if we have that problem in our church. Our congregation is small, but I'm not sure if we have any "friends" of the church or not. Our church allows members to give financially or through service commitments (greeters, landscaping, webmastering, coffee making, clean-up crews, etc).

So this guy offered up a question asking his peers what "benefits" or perks do churches offer members, that "friends" of the church do not receive. I was a bit dumbfounded at the question at first.

I replied to him that the 'benefit' or 'perk' is that this place of worship & community will continue to exist. That giving financially brings hope that its services & buildings will continue to grow. It never really occurred to me to ask "what's in it for me?" because I thought that just went without saying. Obviously not.

He writes back and asks what if that is not enough for people. I wanted to say to him then maybe those aren't the right people to have in your church...but I don't know this guy from Adam, so I didn't take that path.

Instead, I pointed out that probably the best route would be to better encourage membership as opposed to just watching those faces of "friends" come in and out without having a conversation with them about what is holding them back from becoming members. It may not even be a financial issue. It may be some deeper spiritual reason that they could work out together. Even if it is a financial issue, maybe by approaching these "friends" more often, they can let them know of the various contribution options available which may ease them into membership.

This may be a bit more difficult task for our religion: Unitarian Universalist. For many of us, this may be the first time we're attending church as adult, contributing members. Many of us grew up in Christian churches, but strayed from them as we entered adulthood - for whatever reason. Now we've found a very accepting church, but we're just not sure about membership etiquette & that can be intimidating to some. It was somewhat for my husband & I, but luckily there was a New Member official who was there to answer all our questions and put us at ease.

Do parents teach their kids about church membership etiquette? I don't know. There is a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff that I never knew about. Until a few years back, I had no idea that there was this concept of 10% tithing in most churches. All I ever saw regarding finances was the collection plate passed around, and you never wanted to be the kid who let it pass by them, so you always had 50cents or a dollar to throw in. But as far as making regular contributions beyond the plate - who knew? Not me.

I really had to work through this tithing notion in my head when I first learned about it. I just couldn't believe you had to pay to go to church! But I'm one of those thinkers, who has to take something into my brain, let it swirl and settle, before it all makes sense.

Churches need much more than the collection plate to make ends meet - just like any other business. Looking at it from a business model, you work in the church or give money to the church in exchange for the worship services they provide. We don't generally like to think of church in that way because this is our spiritual place, where we can escape such things. But that doesn't mean the church administration can run away from bills.

Well beyond the issue of church staff compensation, there are many expenses that we take for granted that the church has the burden to bare: building/land mortgage, electricity, water, sewer, trash collection, phone service, internet service, building maintenance, ink/paper supplies, furniture R&M, Bibles/Books/Hymnals, etc. This can add up quickly & those few dollars we throw in the collection plate is really just bonus. Let's not forget all those members clammoring for new services and new buildings which require fundraisers that even regular contributions can't always make a dent in financially.

It takes not only faith & humanity to make a church work - it takes money. That's just a fact, and we have to deal with it. So whether you're a member or a "friend" of a church, don't take it for granted that all these expenses are taken care of - share in the financial responsibility of this place which brings you comfort.

I guarantee you that giving will bring you even more joy than taking ever did!

A Song for Marriage

2009-04-25T09:54:00.005-04:00

"Come to Me (Peace)" by Mary J. Blige

Listen here: http://www.playlist.com/playlist/additem/645795857

Sometime in the upcoming days I want to discuss "marriage"...the personal side & all the work & responsibility that comes with it. I was jammin' to this song on the way home Friday, and I think it speaks to a lot of what you have to do when you are married. So listen & enjoy, and I'll get to that subject soon.

Legal Marriage

2009-04-25T00:13:00.009-04:00

I promise to move on from the topic of marriage at some point, but with all that is going on with same-sex marriage issues right now, I feel the need to get all this out on "paper" so I can be done with it in my head.

There is marriage, and then there is marriage. Does that make any sense? Well when I think of marriage - in this day & age - I think of two very distinct issues that branch from that word. There is the very personal side which includes your life-long commitment to another person(s) & all that entails, and then there is the strictly legal side which includes how you navigate through the various legal entities (government) as a family unit.

Understandably (this is not a jab) it is my opinion that the straight folks have been getting married for so long, that they take many things for granted. It is very difficult for some to separate the two facets of marriage - the personal side & the legal side. They tend to look at it as one constant process that is inseparable - you fall in love, you get engaged, you purchase a marriage license, you have a wedding. This is a sequential process that follows (for them) in a linear motion with no branches which separate any part of it.

Because for most gays, there is no legal side to their marriage due to laws in their state, I believe it is much easier for us to look at the different branches - choices - of getting married. But then even for some of us due to our upbringing, it is entirely too difficult to separate the pieces.

In my situation, my husband & I already had the wedding with our preacher, our family, our friends with "official" ceremony. However, in our state, there is no legal instrument for our relationship, so as for the technical marriage process that was it. We did eventually draw up wills, living wills, power of attorneys - you know, all those things that are legally available to us when death occurs - there's not anything for us while we're living though (ironic eh?). But that was it.

And I want to discuss the personal side of marriage and all my opinions of grandure on that subject, but I want to just touch on the legal side tonight.

Through the many, many, MANY conversations I have had over the years with the diverse people about the marriage issue, I have found there are many misconceptions & more education is definitely needed. I guess this may be why I bring this up tonight.

Many people still believe that this "gay marriage" agenda has something to do with the gay community forcing churches to recognize & perform gay weddings. Now I certainly have no right nor any desire to speak on behalf of the entire gay community; but that is definitely not part of any gay marriage agenda I have been a party to. My husband & I happened to find a religion/church that fit our beliefs very closely. They also happened to celebrate all marriages - gay ones included. So that is how it came to be that our preacher presided over our wedding. It never entered our minds to visit any Baptist, Catholic, Methodist, Buddhist, etc. church/temple and demand or even request that they perform our ceremony. For me, I cannot imagine being a member of any of those churches in the first place, because I would find it very hard to reconcile being a homosexual and also being a full-fledged member of a religion which believes that homosexuality is a sin...but I suppose if I were a member of such a church, I could see how I may desire to make such a request to the church leaders. So that may be why there are some homosexuals who are pushing for some of their churches that they are members of to actually perform the weddings. However, I just can't see a gay couple rolling up in a church where they are not members, and knowing the beliefs of the religion regarding homosexuality, and asking them to perform a very sacred ceremony. I see that as a lose-lose situation for everyone. For me, such a ceremony should be one of the happiest days of your life, and nothing about it should be forced, or uneasy, or attached to drama. But I do not believe the gay community is asking for churches to set their beliefs aside and perform ceremonies which contradict their teachings. If this is happening, it is wrong, and I'll be the first to stand by the church and defend their right to run their church according to the beliefs of their members.

Now what ARE 'most' of the gay community looking for with this 'gay marriage agenda'? Again, I can't speak for the whole community, but for my husband and I, we simply want to purchase a license which costs all of $36 here in Kentucky. That's it. We go to the county clerk's office, fill out a few papers, pay the money, and it's over. We keep on living as we always have, except now we have a legal document which helps us navigate more easily the treachorous legal waters of the government that runs the country, state, county, town. We're not going to take this license to the Southern Baptist church on the hill and say "hey you have to accept it now, nah nah boo boo". What would even be the point? I think those folks should have all the same rights as us, and to be able to live peacefully side-by-side without all this dramatic discourse.

But if I have to have surgery on my broken hip, I want to make sure there is no question that my husband will be by my side. Yes there are medical Power of Attorneys and we have drawn those up (of course it cost more than $36) but those can be contested by biological/next of kin family. Usually, marriage licenses are hard to contest & are on equal legal footing with next of kin.

Then there is the whole messy tax code which may be or may not be advantageous for us to file jointly. I have never actually run the numbers, but I believe President Bush signed away that 'marriage penalty' clause, so now it truly is beneficial (in many cases) to file jointly. Not to mention the fact that legally married spouses can give tax free gifts of money/property to one another up to certain amounts. Even most inheritances after death pass tax free from one legal spouse to another. There is no legal instrument in existence for my husband and I to make that happen. Zero, zilch, nada. The ironclad IRS has nery a loophole for such a relationship.

The list of legal benefits/drawbacks of being legally responsible for one another via a marriage license goes on and on - and many of them are very detailed, specific situations that may or may not ever be an issue for us. But it would be nice to know that for $36, my husband and I could ensure that our legal responsibilities to one another are set and no matter what comes up, legally, we can do what we need to do without crashing and burning with the government.

Now I really have no idea how that desire is going to be the destruction of marriage as we know it. That idea makes no logical sense to me. Again, the only thing I can come up with is that people are unable to separate the branches of marriage because it has always been a linear process for them and it is too easy for them to jump from the legal issues into hellfire and brimstone religion.

One last bit of idealism, and then I'll quit typing...

Truly, I am 100% opposed to the government having complete control over the legality of my personal relationships. I like to consider myself conservative - not neo-conservative - just conservative - meaning, the smaller the government, the better.

If we had a vote today on banning the government from issuing marriage licenses, I'd campaign and vote for it whole-heartedly. We do not need, nor have we ever needed, the government to tell us how we should form our relationships. They came up with the marriage license business because they believed it was in the best interest of the 'state' to encourage marriage of couples. That hasn't quite worked out for the best has it? It's because it's a flawed idea from jump.

We don't form personal relationships because there is a government license which legalizes it. We form relationships for a myriad of reasons - but none of which has anything to do with the sanctioning of said relationships by the government. Creating marriage licenses certainly has not been an effective program in encouraging marriage - look at the divorce rate. Legally banning recognition of gay marriages has not stopped gay marriage from occurring - my husband and I are very happily married, and will be so 'til death do us part; the government has no bearing on that.

Sure we need social contracts that 2 or 20 people can be a party to in order to handle issues such as property, child custody, and other financial situations. But that can be a simple contract that is executed in front of a judge in any local courthouse just like we do with any other contract. We do not need to invoke all of this emotion and religious outrage into it by defining it as "marriage".

I have relationships all throughout my family which I would like to be able to legalize with such a social contract because I will have responsibilities to these people down the road, and right now, there really are no legal instruments that make that possible. This goes way beyond legal issues that arise with my husband. I have a female family member who I consider my Mother, but we have no biological connection so therefore we have no legal bond to one another. But if her husband is not around as she gets older, I am her only child, and I will be responsible for her care. Why should I not be allowed to draw up a simple legal contract saying that? Why does the government get to decide that biological ties supersede other ties that have formed during life?

Ok so that was not a very small idealistic thought eh? I'll digress for now, but bottom line folks... the government overreaches entirely too far into our personal relationships by dictating what legal bonds we can/cannot create with one another in order to navigate through this red tape they have legislated. For me, that's really the issue with "gay marriage".

Go in peace, and laugh often :)

Miss Perez vs. Miss Californication

2009-04-24T14:39:00.002-04:00

Now this will be a helluva way to start out a new blog - with a topic that I don't even care about, but apparently people are being consumed with this thing, so not having seen any publications that really address what I'm feeling...so...well here I am.

What the hell am I talking about you say? Miss Californication & Miss Perez. If you've been outside enjoying good weather you may have missed it but here's the gist of it:

At the Miss America pageant, Perez Hilton (a judge, wtf?) asked Miss California's question. He wanted to know if she was for the legalization of same-sex marriage. She replied that her belief was that marriage is between a man and a woman. And from there it just got dumb. Perez has been berating her ever since on every forum he can imagine, and she is doing the tv circuit "defending" herself.

I've read blogs and stories from every angle on this. Oh the poor Christian beauty was crucified by the evil homo. Oh Perez is so right - that lil pageant princess should burn. Oh Perez needs to go away because he looks bad for the gay community. Oh Miss California lost the crown because of her honesty. Blah blah blah. So what do I do? I just add more to the blah blah blah.

My thoughts: blah. To me the whole thing is just part of the silly entertainment industry.

Perez Hilton - who I haven't heard much about til now - is just looking for another 15 minutes of fame to add to his small collection. Not a bad move if it is making him money, but giving him any more value other than entertainment value is just silly. He is not anybody's representative. He's not in Congress, he's not the homo community elected official, he's not the head of some mega-company, he's not in charge of squat except him, his blog, and his mouth. So just to be clear, Perez does not speak on behalf of all homos - whether some of us agree or disagree with his latest tyrade. We don't have a leader, we never will, we're entirely too individualized, and you'll just have to ask each of us what we think if you want to know.

Miss California is definitely getting her 15 minutes of fame. She's gone from making appearances at local grocery store ribbon-cuttings to national headlines on major broadcast networks. If that's what she was aiming for then she succeeded. She says she lost the crown because of the question. Now according to www.missamerica.org, that question is only worth 5% with all the categories far outranking that one question. It really does not delve into how they are supposed to judge those questions - is it based on content? based on the delivery? based on personal opinions of the content? But let's face it - Miss America is not our spokeswoman. That would be the POTUS. We do not elect Miss America (or Miss California) to do squat. She has as much ranking as Perez Hilton. But knowing what she knows about the contest, and knowing Perez is a homo, she - not the question - lost the competition for herself. Comprising her integrity you say? Hello...swimsuit competition - didn't she already give up her integrity?

Bottom line... these two people mean very little in the big scheme of things. If they want to parade around all over the net and news bitching at each other so they get a little bit more of face time with those willing to watch - fine. It's America, feel free to do so. But let's just all remember this is just entertainment - nothing more, nothing less. It's no big deal. Neither of them have any authority to do diddly.

So change the channel or turn off the tube, find your loved ones, and cook a big dinner & laugh about it.