Regardless of what the calendar might say, spring doesn’t begin for me until I embark on the tedious task of digging out spring/summer clothes from the attic. This year, that was Sunday. While the boys ate lunch, I dug out the 6 boxes full of clothes I had tucked away in a corner of the attic. Some of them I knew for a fact would not fit before I even opened the box. Those went in my e-bay pile. The boys and I then spent a large chunk of the afternoon trying on clothes. I don’t usually have anything for the twins to try on, but a friend of ours brought us a huge trashbag full of all kinds of clothes. There were a few shirts in their current size in there, but most everything will fit next year. Alex, as usual, has almost everything he needs. I don’t usually have to buy him anything, but he will need a couple of pairs of shorts and some pj’s. He’s at that weird stage where 4T fits fine in the length, but is too small around the middle and 5T is too long, but fits fine around the middle. Sometimes I wish they didn’t make kids clothes so cut and dried…they need an in-between size. Fortunately, they’ve started making adjustable-waisted pants. That’s been helpful for the twins. They are skinny and have no butt, so pants that fit them lengthwise fall down to their ankles and I have yet to find a belt that actually fits them the way it’s supposed to.

Now I have the daunting task of sorting everything that doesn’t fit (about 2 boxes worth), taking pictures, and listing it on e-bay. Ugh!

Family, the kids | No Comments »

I was so sad to hear on the news update on Jet radio today that Chuck & Ginny’s is finally closing. This is such a great place to eat. Their food is better than any Italian place I’ve eaten. But, here it is, up for sale on e-bay.

It is sad, to be sure. For $200,000 you can get the restaurant, the parking lot, an apartment, everything in the restaurant, and the recipes, including their famous sauce. I am sad to see this restaurant go, but I do hope someone buys it and keeps it going.

I wish the best of luck to it’s owners.

Erie | 4 Comments »

As I’m sitting here watching the OSU/Memphis game, I am once again hearing talk about Greg Oden. A phenomenal basketball player, to be sure. The talk is whether he will stay at OSU, or turn pro, now that he’s one year removed from high school. SO I sit here wondering if he should go pro. No, I’m not making an arguement either way. I am asking for your opinions. The benefits to having a college degree are obvious. With that being said, do you think college athletes should graduate from college before turning pro? Do you think the NBA and NFL should have rules on the books about it (graduating, I mean)? Again, I’m not advocating either way. I can see why an athlete would leave the NCAA and go pro. There’s a lot of money to be made. I guess I just wonder what happens to them if, God forbid, they get hurt and end their career?

Ok, so what do you think?

NCAA, NFL, Sports | No Comments »

I haven’t said much about my brackets, but that’s because they are pretty bad. Only 4 of my 8 Elite Eight teams are in, and I only have one Final Four and Championship team still in. That’s OSU. I was pulling for Pitt Thursday night, but they just couldn’t hold out My women’s bracket is shaping up the same way. I have already lost 2 of my Final Four teams, one of those being in my fianl bracket. They are not, fortunately, who I picked to win it all. I picked Purdue. I think they have the best chance, though with Duke being knocked off today, anything is possible. It’s been fun comparing myself to my friends, and even dh. He’s faring about as well as I am, so it looks like neither of us will have bragging rights, lol. At least not in the men’s bracket. He is still slightly better than me in the women’s bracket. That’s as of now, anyway. That will most likely change, given the number of people who picked Duke to go to the finals and win the tournament.

NCAA, Purdue, Sports | No Comments »

Free Fun Quizzes at FunQuizCards.com

Uncategorized, fun | No Comments »

Free Fun Quizzes at FunQuizCards.com

fun | No Comments »

I have long thought that we are too PC. We try so hard to be neutral, to not offend anyone. We are told we shouldn’t say this because we might offend this person, or we shouldn’t say that because we might offend that group. I’d like to know where in the Constituion and Bill of Rights it says we have the right to NOT be offended? I certainly can’t find it in my copy anywhere.

This seems to be something we all struggle with, I think. And, I’m not alone in that thinking. An article in the UK paper Telegraph seems to express as much. I don’t always take stock in the fact that what is happening here in America is happening in other places around the world, or vice versa. But I think this article brings up a very good point, and something I’ve felt for a long time; being too PC is killing our freedoms.

The article specifically targets European culture wars over climate change, cheap air travel, Islam and free speech. But I think much of what it says can be applied here, as well. For instance, in the article, the European Commission President José Manuel Barroso is quoted as saying

“We should be aware of people who, sometimes for good reasons, try to establish what I call private moral codes, for this or that, be it climate change, religious behaviour or any kind of social behaviour,” he says.

Mr Barroso, a former Maoist student firebrand who fought against the Portuguese dictatorship in the early 1970s, still regards himself as a freedom fighter, even when the calls for bans or restrictions are in a worthy cause, such as global warming or respect for Muslim communities.

He’s right. We should be aware of these people. Does it make them wrong? No. Does it make them right? No. The thing we need to do is listen to what they all have to say (both sides) and discern for ourselves what the truth is. The truth may be something different for each of us. Some of us may lie on the extreme left, some on the extreme right, and the rest somewhere in between. To each his own. The point is, we have the right to make up our own mind. We should not be told what to believe or how to feel.

“…If there is an excess of freedom, it is better to have excess than less.”

Again, Mr. Barroso has hit the nail on the head. We should be proud of the freedoms we are given. Instead, we have people demanding that they be taken away. Take, for instance, California, who is trying to ban the traditional incandescent light bulb. A quote from the news article on Fox News:

Assemblyman Lloyd Levine says compact fluorescent light bulbs, which often have a spiral shape and are being promoted by Wal-Mart, are so efficient that consumers should be forced to use them.

Forced to use them, huh? I assume that this Assemblyman is then going to pay for all of the lightbulbs that can’t be bought by those who can not afford them? Are they good for the environment? Yeah, as far as we have been told. But that doesn’t mean that people should be forced into buying something they don’t want or can’t afford.

One more thing that stood out to me in the UK article was this:

Violent protests on the continent, in the Middle East and in Asia followed the publication in a Danish newspaper of cartoons caricaturing the Prophet Mohammed and the Pope faced calls to apologise after a speech on theology and the origins of Islam sparked international controversy.

But Mr Barroso backs the right to offend.

“We have to show respect for all communities but the fundamental right of freedom of expression is for me more important than other collective rights,” he says.

Ah, yes! There it is! We have the right to offend people! I agree that the fundamental right to free speech is more important than other collective rights. After all, it’s the first article in the Bill of Rights:

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Why, then, are we so nonchallant about defending our rights? Is it that we don’t care anymore? Are we really willing to give up our freedoms in the name of being politically correct? I don’t think any of us are…nor do I think any of us should be.

News, Politics | 14 Comments »

I have been having bloggers block lately. To remedy the situation, I went in search of inspiration. I came across a site called BlogInspiration.com. Some very interesting topics on there. This one caught my eye. Here is the idea:

Most of us have favorite celebrities, like singers, actresses, sports figures, politicians, or other public figures. We may love them, hate them, respect them, or admire them. And some of them we’d probably really like to meet, maybe get to know them as a person, etc. So, who would you want to meet and why would you want to meet those particular people?

I normally stay out of the Hollywood gossip arena. There are a few celebrities I’d love to meet, but most of them I could do without. In no particular order, here is who I’d like to meet, and why:

Rudy Giuliani ~ Giuliani fascinates me. I read his book Leadership and loved it. Here is a man who, in the face of personal scrutiny and challenges, never let it get to him. More importantly, for me, he is a man who looked terrorism in the eye. His city was attacked, his people, his friends. He lost many friends on September 11th, yet he found the courage to carry on. I have never met someone with that kind of courage. I would love to pick his brain about many things, not the least of which is September 11th.

Alton Brown ~ Ok, this choice may be cheesy, but I just love Good Eats. I am a Food Network junkie, anyway, but I LOVE his show. We bought one of his books, and some of his DVD’s. Why would I want to meet him? Well, he’s really turned cooking into something fun. There have been many things that I wondered about…cooking processes…why they do what they do…but could never find out the answers to my questions. Good Eats explains things in a way that even my kids can understand! I love to cook and bake anyway, but he’s made it much more fun and interesting for me. I’m more willing to try new recipes or techniques when I see him do them, or explain why they should be done. This is a fun choice for me. Hey, I didn’t say they all had to be deep and profound, did I?

I can think of two others I’d like to meet, too, but don’t really have a reason why, other than they are fascinating to me. Fred Thompson and Rush Limbaugh. Maybe it’s because I know they have the same political views I do. I’d really like to just sit and talk with them about politics, life, the world…anything.

There’s my list. I hope this inspires some of you to make a list of your own about who you’d like to meet.

General | 1 Comment »

I’ve often thought about growing my own herbs. I do a lot of cooking and many of our recipes call for fresh herbs. I typically buy them fresh, as I need them, but the problem with that is that I always have a bunch of whatever is it I have bought left over. I have remedied this to a point by freezing them, but, while they are still good, they have lost some of their color or aromatic quality.

While shopping the other day, hubby and I came across little “grow your own herbs” plants. This was the first time I had seen these in the store, and thought I’d give it a try. We bought a basil plant, since this is the herb I use most often in things like tomato sauce and pizza. The mint was tempting…VERY tempting. It smelled so good, too! But, the only thing i could think to use it for would be tea. I love mint tea, but not enough to buy a mint plant just for that. My first thought was maybe we can use it when we make ice cream in the summer, but I’m not sure you can use the actual plant for that. They also had parsely and cilantro. I do use parsley, but mostly as an aromatic in my turkey at Thanksgiving. I have never used cilantro, at least not yet.

So, I’m trying my hand at growing basil. If it works out, maybe I’ll start growing other herbs, too. It’s kind of fun to be growing my own herbs. Someday, I’ll have a garden to go with it, but for now, the kitchen sure does smell nice!

General, food | 2 Comments »

After a dismal start to the left side of my bracket, I thought I’d get some help in yesterdays games. No such luck. The best I can finish in Brendan’s pool is 5th, which, I guess considering I lost one of my final teams, is pretty decent. I’m out of the running for the t-shirt, at least as far as the mens pool is concerned.

I was pleasantly surprised by how well the Purdue men played against Florida yesterday. I picked Florida in my bracket, but had Purdue won, that would have been a bracket buster I could have lived with. They gave them a run for their money, that’s for sure. I think it says a lot about a team who hasn’t been that good in several years that they were able to hang with the big dogs right to the end. Purdue has typically been unable to finish their games this season. Meaning they come out strong in the first half, but flounder in the second. I didn’t see that in this game, though. They played hard and should be proud of themselves.

I’m not doing too bad in my womens bracket. A lot better than the mens, that’s for sure!

NCAA, Purdue, Sports | No Comments »