Another predator....................

The headline reads that he "quit in disgrace". I do not believe that for one minute.
He quit because he got caught. Damnit I am so pissed about this.

Get the bastard out of office NOW!!!


Congressman resigns after e-mails questioned

From wikipedia*……………blog = noun

a personal Web site that provides updated headlines and news articles of other sites that are of interest to the user, also may include journal entries, commentaries and recommendations compiled by the user.Typically updated daily, blogs often reflect the personality of the author.
an online diary; a personal chronological log of thoughts published on a Web page; also called Weblog, Web log Weblog; also called blog.

Many blog for their own personal enjoyment. Some blog for practice to improve their web development skills. Many blog to rant, it’s OK to rant, no condemnation from me here. Others use their blog as a journal or a scrapbook of sorts to keep family and friends current.

I blog because it is FUN!!! And it keeps me off the streets and outta the bars….shrugging ones shoulders.
It was because my niece “little bird” had a blog http://malteseparakeet.blogspot.com/2005/03/so-here-we-are.html
And then my sister started her blog http://frenchbenefits.blogspot.com/2005/10/streets-of-bakersfield-or-how-i-became.html
Not one to be left behind in the techno community, god forbid, I jumped on the very crowded blog bandwagon. And if you blog then you know how crowded it is in the blogsphere world.
I started my personal blog on October 2005 http://tombstonetumbleweed.blogspot.com/2005/10/in-beginning.html
And because “little bird”, sister moon and I thought the world need ANOTHER blog we started a food blog. Penut Butter Etouffee. More about that in a minute.

Now the food blogging community is worth knowing, . They range from how to make a grilled cheese sandwich to some of the finest chefs in the world. And some of the most passionate, wonderful people I have had the pleasure of meeting. Well not meeting cause we haven’t actually met, but you know what I’m saying. I bet if you googled your favorite chef he or she has a blog also known as a web site. I digress.

I have a passion for cookbooks, always have, and long before blogs were popular. I would read my favorite cookbook like most would read a novel. I know I have well over 100 cookbooks. Husband just thinks I have the booksthat are on my bookshelf. Think he forgot about all the ones I have in storage. I don’t know if there is such a group as recipes anonymous, but if there is, I should be the president or at least a card-carrying member in good standing.

Until a few months ago the hundreds of recipes were spread around my house in various forms. Like most other recipe junkies I have gone to websites, seen recipes that I liked, printed them out. Also I have saved many tear outs from magazines and stuffed them in a file box. You get the picture it was a mess. I had to clean off my hardrive just recently and discovered I had way too many recipes on there as well. One cannot have a passion for cookbooks and recipes in general and be a slob about it. So I decided to clean up my act, organize those files. I will tell y’all how to go about doing that another time. Just know that there is hope for cookbook recipe junkies.

In the coming months I am going to introduce you to a different food blogger as well as supply you with some useful information. Let me say the food blogging community is a wonderful supportive group, and they provide great inspiration, advice, ideas and motivation. This is a community growing by leaps and bounds. Also if you do visit and like the blog or the recipe or the beautiful photo that may accompany the blog, let the blogger know. They love the feedback.

Let me start off with our own food blog Peanut Butter Etouffee http://pbetouffee.blogspot.com/. Three of us contribute when we can. It is a mixture of cooking, food reviews, and other things we think are important. So check it out.

Aspiring chefs or just wannabe chefs write many of the food blogs. But this next blogger is not one of those folks at all. She is a working gal that likes to cook when she comes home.
Check out Annie’s food blog for some great tips, recipes and food for thought http://constructivesalad.blogspot.com/

Thanks for visiting and for more on the subject at hand…………………stay tuna’d!

It was the cookies..................

As mentioned in a previous post, For Sale, our Real Estate agent held
an open house on Sunday. Thanks for the feedback and good thoughts
cause it might just be working.

Four interested parties, two of the four need to sell their home,
so that would mean a contingency contract and we don't do those.
It would take our home off the market and in light of such a crummy
market for real estate right now that just is an option.
Another is just in the beginning of looking and have yet to get their
ducks in a row in terms of pre qualifying, but that should be done in
the next couple of weeks, there lies a possiblity.
The last interested party was a mom looking for her son. He is
being transferred to this area. There again she just started l
ooking so she has no idea what's available but she loved the house.

Bottom line is the agent that we have is aggressive,
thinks outside the "box", and works hard. This is the first positive
sign we have seen in this dismal market

And let me say a special thanks to Laura Rebecca for the advice
and "little bird" for the reminder. I do think it was my delicious
oatmeal cookies...................stay tuna'd!

And all along I thought I was retired

little did I know. A friend sent this in an email.....sweet.

CHILDREN ON GRANDPARENTS A teacher asked her young pupils how they spent their vacation.

One child wrote the following:

We always spend our vacation with Grandma and Grandpa. They used to live here in a big, brick house, but Grandpa got retarded and they moved to Florida and now they live in a place with a lot of other retarded people. They live in a tin box and have rocks painted green to look like grass. They ride around on big tricycles and wear name tags because they don't know who they are anymore. They go to a building called a wrecked center, but they must have got it fixed because it is all right now. They play games and do exercises there, but they don't do them very well. There is a swimming pool too, but they all jump up and down in it with their hats on. I guess they don't know how to swim. At their gate there is a dollhouse with a little old man sitting in it. He watches all day so nobody can escape. Sometimes they sneak out. Then they go cruising in their golf carts. My grandma used to bake cookies and stuff, but I guess she forgot how. Nobody there cooks, they just eat out. And they eat the same thing every night: Early Birds. Some of the people can't get past the man in the dollhouse to go out, so the ones who get out bring food back to the wrecked center
and call it pot luck. My Grandma says Grandpa worked all his life to earn his retardment and says I should work hard so I can be retarded one day, too. When I earn my retardment I want to be the man in the dollhouse. Then I will let people out so they can visit their grandchildren. ~ author unknown

FOR SALE!!!

OK I hesitate to ask this cause I’m not sure it will work BUT!!!! here goes.

I need a favor……..could we all do a collective prayer or whatever it is that you do to attain that one thing you really, really want to happen.

Our Real Estate agent is having an open house this Sunday. As you all know our home has been on the market for a while now and you probably know that the market sucks – but you cannot say our agent is not trying.

We, the husband and I have also done all the right things, at least we think we have. We buried St Joseph in the yard, a friend sent a St Joseph medal that I am to carry in my wallet (?), I have people all over the country saying a prayer now and then.

So here’s what I’m gonna do……….I’m off to Home Depot to buy some nice fresh flowers for the front and back garden. Make it look more like fall even though the temps are still in the high 80’s and the humidity is still here. That should make a nice impression. I made a new wreath for the front door that is fallish, put on a few fall decorator items thru out the house.

But maybe the clincher will be a fresh bowl of candy corn and peanuts………….stay tuna’d

Well now this is downright annoying!!!

to say the least! What the hell! I am a tad pissed about this. And let me also say I have been for years. But - there's that but again.............what the hell am I gonna be able to do about it.

You may have heard this news already, WalMart, my least favorite company in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD is lowering their generic drug prices to $4 a bottle. OK what does that say - the bastards have been ripping y'all off for a bazillion years and why oh why have we been putting up with this BS. Because our government says we should.

You know as well as I that WalMart is making a profit on $4 a bottle - trust me they are not doing this out of the goodness of their teeny little hearts.

It is a disgrace - a slap in the face to millions of Americans WHO CANNOT AFFORD their drugs.

Why doesn't Walmart and all of the other retailers jump in and help those folks.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14927896/

I am so very pissed about this..................stay tuna'd!

You really do learn something new everyday!!!

I did today. I called my Aunt in Indiana this a.m. cause I hadn't spoken
with her in a few days. She used to email periodically but since her husband,
my uncle, passed away last spring I don't think she much into the computer. I couldn't believe an 80 year old was emailing but she did and for that I and my sister and I'm sure her children were quite happy.

So we are on the phone this a.m. and checking to see how the
rest of the loony relatives are. We have a male cousin who we
are quite fond of as is our Aunt. Cousin was over last nite to replace
some light bulbs in a ceiling fixture.
Aunt goes on to explain it seems they burn out quite often and she
was wondering why. Cousin told her to get on the internet and find out.
She did and she found this.


Read the very last paragraph................boy who woulda thought!

I am amazed that Aunt found it #1 and #2 that proves you can google just about anything.

A phone call that solved a mystery - I think!!!

OK here is the short version of this mystery.

A couple of months ago I did some volunteer work on a Friday, lunch is usually included. And a nice lunch I might add. Lunch consisted of grilled shrimp on a bed of mixed greens, a vegetable,mini key lime cheesecake and iced tea. Someone was kind enough to bring me a plate while I was still working my shift. So I kinda ate on the fly. Food was lovely and the presentation was very pretty. Jump ahead to shift over get in the car drive home. Ate nothing more that evening other than having a glass of iced tea. Wasn't hungry and stomach felt just a bit quesy.

Now it is one a.m. and I am in the bathroom sick as a dog.I will skip the details, but this went on for three and a half hours. Husband was quite undone, needless to say. What made husband the most upset was I kept passing out. More about that later.

Now it is about four a.m. and I am totally wiped out and sleeping like a log. I know I should have gone to the emergency room right then. I didn't OK.....no scolding please cause I got enough of that from my doctor on Monday.

Now it is Sunday, I am having my usual conversation with my sister I tell her the above in detail. I think she was shocked that I didn't go to the emergency room. But I felt better. And being the "know it all" I am we came to the conclusion that it was food poisoning probably from the shrimp. Sounds logical now doesn't it.

OK monday a.m. and I think ya know maybe I should call the doctors office and see what his nurse says. All she said was "get your butt in here now"!!! Well excuse me that scared me......god maybe I am having seizures or who knows what.

Here I am a couple of hours later with my doctor absolutely furious that I had not gone to the emergency room........hey that is behind me now so let's figure out why the good doctor says. He threw my sorry butt in the hospital. This is funny, the nurse put me in a wheel chair and wheeled me over to the hospital because doctor was afraid if left up to me I woudn't go. Well now I am a tad frightened. Maybe a brain annuerism......LOL And husband has got the look on his face like "what the hell is going on?", deer in the headlights look. Bless his heart!

They check me in and proceed, in the span of 23.5 hours, to administer a whole battery of tests. Brain, heart the works.

Results came back all OK!!! This was probably just one of those horrid food poisoning things that just happened. And the fainting that occured is usually
when not enough oxygen flows through your blood and into your brain. You lose consciousness, or "pass out," for a very brief time -- just a few seconds or minutes.
Sounds scary, especially when it happens seven times in the course of a few hours.

OK let's jump ahead to last week when there was a BIG scare for bagged spinach.I get a phone call from the person that is in charge of the docents where I volunteer. She tells me that I was not the only person that got sick on that meal, two other women did as well. And here is the mystery............the shrimp was served on a bed of mixed greens and spinach.

The woman that called knew I had been sick because I had phoned her after my bout of sickness just to make her aware, she thought as did the doctors, the shrimp served may have been bad. But I must add here that the shrimp never tasted bad. You KNOW when shrimp is bad. So I was always a bit suspicious of saying the shrimp was the cause. I thought it could have been the dressing on the greens. Who knew it could have been the greens.................stay tuna'd!!!

History could repeat itself

and not always in a good way.

Senator Daryl Jones is an OK guy but he and I and his aide at the time he was Senator had a disagreement that almost came to blows. His aide was gonna punch me out big time, OUCH!!!

At the time I was the campaign manager for a county wide politician and we (the candidate) were running for our second term. This candidate was very popular with the constituents but did have a few opponents that would like to bury him. Politics is ugly no matter where you go local or national.

Senator Jones was up for re-election at the same time.All candidates running in the election would often be thrown together for debates, Q & A's, meet and greets, etc. so as to save time and $$$. During one of these Q & A's I overheard the good Senator consulting with his campaign person about an issue that was important to our (my candidates) impending race. The advice she was giving the good Senator was wrong and a damn lie. So being the good person that I am I pulled the person aside after the event was completed and let her know about it. She was about to scratch my eyes out when my candidate appeared on the scene. Let's just say my parting words were "you will never get elected in this county again, end of discussion".

And they didn't!!! She, the campaign advisor, ran for public office and lost as did the good Senator.

So let's hope that Senator Jones, who is now a running mate to the candidate running for Governor of Florida, let us just hope Mr. Jones has some better advisors. Cause personally he is a great guy!

This is definitely a...........stay tuna'd

http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060915/NEWS/609150337

it's tough being

a Dodger fan living so far away from Los Angeles. Right now I am watching the Dodgers and the Cubs on WGN.
We here in Florida don't get a lot of Dodger games. But got lucky the other nite and got to watch the Dodgers pummel the Mets.

So I'm gonna go put my lucky t-shirt on..stay tuna'd

too funny.............

And they are not even Japanese……………a friend from California shared this wacky youtube site. Makes one wonder how many takes it took?

thanks beader

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pv5zWaTEVkI

Must share with y'all more stuff about my trip

cause I have more snaps to share.
So here we all are gathered together to what, EAT again!!! We meet up at niece little birds house. We being sister moon, her hunky husband and me. We had decided that we would not cook but get take-out from a joint sister has been drooling over which would be Jr’s BBQ. If Wilson Pickett ate there it is good enough for us. Located not too far from niece’s house sister ordered when little birds dear husband arrives home from his place of work. Think she ordered half a cow and a portion of a pig cause it was a huge platter when we went to pick up our order. Crikey it would have fed the customers in the restaurant, BUT being the gluttons we are we marched that pig and cow right on home.
While readying said meal little bird sat to have some quiet time from her busy day and she chose to do her needlepoint work of art she is creating of course while chatting with us all . I love this snap – it happens to be of her youngest fur ball, who happens to be as precious as he looks. I think I have posted snaps of her Max and his big brother Multy but here are a couple taken on this past trip.

little bird and Max

Multy looking too cute!!!

And not to be outdone is my very favorite dog, that would be Buddy “the dog” cousin to my Buddy “the cat”. While visiting Buddy the dog had a visit by the groomer. Well something got lost in the communication and Buddy got more of a shave than a trim. But being the handsome pup that Buddy is, he looks good in anything he wears. He is one sweet pup!
Take a look at what sister posted. http://frenchbenefits.blogspot.com/2006/09/doggie-disguise_03.html

I must also add that sister madea a rustic peach tart, YUMMMMM!!! The peaches at that time were so very flavorful that we seemed to be eating peaches at every meal. I don't know if we have snaps of that but sister moon may post the peach tart - check in over at PBE ! I told ya all we ever do is eat or plan what we are gonna eat ;-)

There will be more I'm sure so stay tuna'd..........................

whoa is me

This came in an email............from one of my Canadian friends. Go ahead you can read it it's clean.

I am posting it as a test because I am having computer conflicts...........stand back cause I may be choking someone in the near future. Better yet save up some money for my bail. stay tuna'd..........................:-)

What Do Retired People Do All Day?

Working people frequently ask retired people what they do to make their days interesting.

Well for example, the other day Linda and I went into town and went into a shop. We were only in there for about 5 minutes. When we came out, there was a cop writing out a parking ticket.

We went up to him and said, "Come on man, how about giving a senior citizen a break?" He ignored us and continued writing the ticket. I called him a turd. He glared at me and started writing another ticket for having worn tires.

So Linda called him a sh##head. He finished the second ticket and put it on the windshield with the first. Then he started writing a third ticket. This went on for about 20 minutes. The more we abused him, the more tickets he wrote.

Personally, we didn't care. We came into town by bus!! We try to have a little fun each day now that we're retired. It's important at our age.

moon I can see your dear friend "D" doing this.

Now what was I supposed to tell you about……………………

Oh yeah the Orthopedic Dr visit I had. It seems because I was not completely off my feet after my clumsy fall I still have a bit of edema (swelling) and also a bit of a blood clot. But before you go and start scolding me, it is not life threatening OK! Just rest it for a bit more and this too shall pass. It will take awhile for ALL of the swelling to go down. Probably by Christmas I should be able to wear my dancing shoes. And by the way I took husband with me so I would have a witness to what the good bone Dr said.

OK that’s outta the way and knowing there will be no residual effects is a good thing.

Now the “Mustang flashback”! Sister has this Mustang – drop dead gorgeous car huh!!! They gave it to “little bird” my niece for her birthday this year……nice parents I say. Well this jewel of a mustang had not found its way to nieces garage yet whilst I was visiting so I had the opportunity to drive this sweet thang one day. Sister was off doing her docent work and I wanted to go do a little shopping. My sweet brother-in-law told me I could drive the Mustang….whooooo haaaaw!!! I sure didn’t wanna drive the 37 Chevy Sedan or the 50 something Chevy truck. So here I am greased up to the hilt with sunscreen cause the top is down. I get in, back it out of the garage drive down their street and get the strangest feeling. Ignoring it I motor over to the local Target because I know they have L A Dodger t-shirts and I needed to get a couple. I pull in to a parking space and two guys are getting into their big ass SUV and look at that pretty red Mustang and say “would you take us to lunch in your fancy car”. Hahahahahaha I politely declined. Coming out of Target get back in the car and drive over to their new mall in town. Quite nice by the way. On the way to the mall I realized the strange feeling I was getting and why…………once upon a time I had a 67 mustang – not nearly as nice as this sweet red one but it was mine and my first very own car. Two months after I purchased that car some dumb ass hit me head on and ruined my sweet little mustang and nearly ruined me too. So getting in the red Mustang with the same steering wheel brought back strange memories. It’s funny what makes you remember things.

THERE IS NEVER ENOUGH TIME!!!

Now having said that I have just returned from my vacation with my sister……poop.

We did get to do quite a lot and some things we didn’t wanna do like toddle off to the emergency room at the Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage which to those who do not know is in the desert near Palm Springs Ca. No we were not looking for Mel Gibson or Robin Williams, however that certainly could have been a bonus. No we were getting my knee tended to, scroll on down a bit where I wrote about my clumsy fall.
Well we got that outta the way so we could have a nice visit with Grandma Mary and little bird. And the visit was great as well as the food we got to eat. We enjoyed one place sooo much we went back for a second time. The four of us were able to squeeze in some shopping BUT the best part was we went to the spa. Four of us all set for one of those yummy massages – well being a bit tattered in the left knee I opted out of the massage (crap) but I got a nice facial. Think we went to brunch and then for a much needed nap. The four of us do that so well – my excuse is gotta get off that knee.
Drove back to L A to spend the nite and little birds and her hunky bunky cause the next a.m. we headed off to the Getty Villa. Let me say this, if you go to Los Angeles or live nearby for a day trip, get your self to the Villa. It is spectacular! I put in the link so please check it out. Oh yeah the food in their restaurant is equally spectacular! Wander over to PBE cause we did find a need to post about a delicious dessert we shared. See it’s always about food.
Sister has a terrific grill on her patio and a few nites we were able to sit out while grilling and laugh. Which we do as much as eat – we laugh a lot. Guess that is what I miss the most cause it just ain’t the same laughing on the phone. But I miss that sister, in fact I missed her the minute she pulled away from the curb after dropping me off at the airport at 5 a.m.
OK there is a lot more to share but I didn’t wanna drone on. Remind me to tell you about my trip to the orthopedic dude here in Florida, the magnificent farmers markets sister and I had the pleasure of visiting and also my “Mustang flashback”………..stay tuna’d………………………….