FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO DON'T KNOW WHO THIS IS...

...I am sorry. For those of you who do, "Namaste."

Check out Jorge's blog at dispatchesfromtheisland.blogspot.com

USELESS INFO TUESDAY

~ Richard Gere's middle name is Tiffany.

~ Eric Clapton, as guest artist, played lead guitar on the Beatle's 1968 recording of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps."

~ The human stomach produces a new lining every 3 days.

~ In cowboy slang, a skunk egg is an onion.

~The first villain Superman had to face when he made his movie debut in 1948 was Spider Lady. She appeared int he 15-episode "Superman" serial adventure.

SAYING GOODBYE TO LOST...

Yes, last night was the finale of LOST. You know how much I love that show. But, it was time. And now that I have had some time to think about it, I can appreciated the way the producers ended it....still open to interpretation. Anyway, enough about that...

This is Jenfer. Her and I are LOST geeks, dweebs, nerds, what ever you want to call us. She his the nail on the head last night when she said, "Now I understand what Trekkie's felt." We watched the finale together, and of course had s spread....
...this is her daughter Kadie. She made us an awesome cake! (She did not want her picture taken)

We ate before the finale. Whenever we get together we eat! I made Mexican Pile-up dip....

...Jennifer made Southwestern Egg rolls (to die for)...

...and Kadie made us the cutest cake! I think the phone is ringing and it is the Dharma Initiative wanting me to join!

I am such a nerd that I make a sign to put on the door that said "NAMASTE." That is how you were greeted when you arrived on the island!

I need help!

CONVERSATIONS WITH POLLY - HOUSE PAINTING

Recent 2 conversations with my mom. First was a phone call to her while I was at Tim's having a beer with him and Lois....

P: Hello
LL: Hey
P: Hey
LL: Were you sleeping?
P: No
LL: Well, do you remember who you paid to paint your house?
P: Why?
LL: Lois and Jimmy Dawes are looking for someone to give them a quote on painting their house.
P: I think the company that painted mine went out of business.
LL: Oh, OK.
P: What about pressure washing? I think that would be the way to start.
LL: They don't need pressure washing, there house is wood and it needs to be painted.
P: I meant your house.
LL: We aren't talking about my house, we are talking about theirs. I will talk to you later.

....the next day, I get this phone call at work....

LL: This is Laura.
P: Hey
LL: Hey
P: This is your mother
LL: Hey
P: Well, I guess they found someone.
LL: Who...what are you talking about
P: You know, the young couple looking for a painter.
LL: What do you mean you guess they found someone?
P: Well, I drove by their house and there was a guy with a van walking around and looking like he was giving them a quote....

So, now my Mom is stalking Jimmy and Lois, or at least their house....You gotta love her!

SOUTHERN FRIED THURSDAY - PICKLES

Most Southerners love pickles. We will pickle almost anything....cucumbers (of course), okra, squash, beets, watermelon rind, tomatoes, carrots, eggs (gross), even pigs feet (grosser).
I have done a good bit of canning pickles. But, I wanted to share this quick and easy recipe that makes a really delicious pickle, and there is no hot sterile jars, lids or rings to deal with.

Pickles
1 QT whole Heinz Kosher Dills
2 cups sugar
1 cup water
1/4 cup white vinegar

that's it!

Rinse pickles in cold water. Wash jar in hot water. Cut dills into 1/2 inch slices and return to jar. Bring sugar, water and vinegar to hard boil. Pour liquid over dills and seal with lid (wipe rim first in case the sticky liquid got on the glass). Let stand until cool. Refrigerate at least one week before eating.

Trust me, they are yummy. I even gave them as Christmas presents to my work friends one year! Enjoy.

USELESS INFO TUESDAY

~ LOST is the greatest TV show EVER!

~ The first nation in the world to elect a woman prime minister was Ceylon (now known as Sri Lanka), in 1960. Her name was Sirimavo Bandaranaike.

~ There are 14 chemical elements on the periodic table that are represented by a single letter:
B Boron
C Carbon
F Fluorine
H Hydrogen
I Iodine
K Potassium (I never got this one)
N Nitrogen
O Oxygen
P Phosphorus
S Sulfur
U Uranium
V Vanadium
W Tungsten (what the hell is that)
Y Yttrium (ditto)

~ Helicopter parents are overanxious parents who hover over their children and monitor all aspects of their lives.

~ Four U.S. states are officially know as commonwealths: Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia

~ When baseball phenom Barry Bonds joined the San Francisco Giants in 1993 he wore a size 42 uniform. Ten years later the scandal-tainted (steroids) slugger was wearing a size 52. During this same time his shoe size increased from 10.5 to 13.

LICENSE PLATE

I took Tim to pick up his jeep at his mother's the other day. We were stopped at a red light and noticed the license plate on the black Mercedes in front of us. It read "I AX HM." We were laughing and trying to take a picture with the phone when the driver (female) opened the door and hocked the biggest luggie on the street. For those of you not in the know, that means she spit a bunch of phlegm, noisily. I bet she is one of those people who enjoy using "K" when we all know it should be "C"...and you know what a pet peeve of mine that is.

SOUTHERN FRIED THURSDAY

"All I can say is that there's a sweetness here, a Southern sweetness, that makes sweet music. . . If I had to tell somebody who had never been to the South, who had never heard of soul music, what it was, I'd just have to tell him that it's music from the heart, from the pulse, from the innermost feeling. That's my soul; that's how I sing. And that's the South." - Al Green

The American South is a geographical entity, a historical fact, a place in the imagination, and the homeland for an array of Americans who consider thmeselves southerners. The region is often shrouded in romance and myth, but its realities are as intriguing, as intricate, as its legends. - Bill Ferris

"Within the South itself, no other form of cultural expression, not even music, is as distinctively characteristic of the region as the spreading of a feast of native food and drink before a gathering of kin and friends." - John Egerton, from "Southern Food, at Home, on the Road, in History."

"Southerners can't stand to eat alone. If we're going to cook a mess of greens we want to eat them with a mess of people." - Julia Reed

"The North isn't a place. It's just a direction out of the South." - Roy Blount, Jr.

BLACKBERRY WINTER

I have been hearing a lot of people refer to the cold weather last week as "Blackberry Winter." I had to find out more....

...from Wikipedia...

...an unseasonally cold period in spring. This may be called a blackberry winter as it may coincide with the time when the blackberries bloom. It may also be called a dogwood winter. In Tennessee dogwood winter and blackberry winter are two separate occasions. Dogwood being first and blackberry a couple of weeks later

USELESS INFO

~ Johnny Cash won a Grammy Award for Best Album Notes in 1969 for writing the notes to Bob Dylan's country-rock album Nashville Skyline.

~ On the Drew Carey Show his mother's license plate read "#1 MOM."

~ Gerald Ford, who was known to accidentally hit spectators with wayward golf balls once joked, "I would like to deny all allegations by Bob Hope that during my last game of golf, I hit an eagle, a birdie, an elk, and a moose."

~ Glass was produced in the first factory established in what is now the United States, in Jamestown Colony in 1608.

~ Marco Polo's famous dying words were "I have only told half of what I saw." These words were told to a priest who urged him to confess and retract his "fables."

CONVERSATIONS WITH POLLY

I had this conversation with my Mom on the phone at work Friday...

List of Characters:
Me
Polly (Mom)
Rachel (daughter - working at PetSmart)
Chrissy (Rachel's friend - also working at PetSmart)
Andy (Mom's dog)
Spike (my dog)

P: Hey, I have an emergency.
LL: What is it.
P: I am out of dog food and I don't feel like getting out. Can you stop and get me some?
LL: I am not coming straight home. We are going to Tami and David's to see BJ. By the time I leave there, the pet stores will be closed. I can bring you some of Spike's Iams food.
P: Oh no, I don't want to change Andy's habits. He likes Science Diet.
P: Is Rachel at work?
LL: Yes.
P: I have been trying to call her to get her to bring me some.
LL: She can't answer her phone at work, plus, she doesn't have any money.
P: What if I call Chrissy?
LL: Well, Mom, I doubt Chrissy would front the money for your dog food.
LL: I will text Rachel and then transfer her some money to buy the food. She can drop it off on her way to Tami and David's.
P: OK, that sounds great. I only need dry food...I HAVE PLENTY OF WET.

Yeah, not much of a emregency...but wait, it gets better...

P: What are they serving at Tami's?
LL: I don't know, it is not a sit down dinner.
P: Well, if you pass anyone selling raw oysters pick me up some...
LL: Yeah, Mom, I won't

SOUTHERN FRIED THURSDAY

"Wherever I look I see beautiful flowers. I want to pick one. And I do."
- Tennessean B. B. King, on having 15 children by 15 women

"They used to say whiskey and watermelon don't mix. Maybe so. But the mixture ain't ever bothered me...I've mixed up all kinds of elements together and gotten away with it."
- Ray Charles

"You see, rock-and-roll may have saved my life, but Southern Rock made it worth living."
- Mark Kemp

"If you go to Atlanta the first question you are asked is 'What's your business?' In Macon, it's 'Where do you go to church?' In Augusta they ask your grandmother's maiden name. But in Savannah the first question people ask is 'What would you like to drink?'"
- John Berendt

I HAVE A WAD PROBLEM...

...WADS of money that is! (How is that for getting your attention!)
I was getting a dollar out of my purse for a coke to drink and found I had all these piles of different dollars in different parts, pockets, middle of my purse. It seems I have an aversion to putting my money back in my wallet. If I am buying something and receive change I don't take the time to carefully put the dollars away...I just shove them down in my purse.

You would think this would lead me to have a lot of money stuck in various places that I did not know about....but NO! No matter how many piles and how many different denominations I have I always know pretty much to the dollar how much cash I am carrying.

My May 2010 resolution is to put my money where my mouth is....no wait, not that, just to put my money up where it belongs. I need to start now, because I notice there are still two WADS in the pocket of my purse as I type!

USELESS INFO TUESDAY

~ Kelso, the great Thoroughbred was honored a record 5 times as Horse of the Year. He held the title from 1960 to 1964.

~ The California town of Rough and Ready was named for Zachary Taylor. That was his nickname as an army officer.

~ The only two mammals native to the Hawaiian islands are the Hawaiian monk seal and the Hawaiian hoary bat.

~ "To Kill a Mockingbird" (1960) by Harper Lee was voted the best novel of the 20th century by librarians across the U.S.

~ The phrase "nudge, nudge, wink, wink" originated in a 1969 skit that comedian Eric Idle wrote for the British TV show Monty Python's Flying Circus.

And this last one is test material for Andy Thomas who says he does not like "Useless Info Tuesdays." Please ask him to answer this question the next time you see him! Andy, feel the knowledge!

~ In the days of yore, was was the job of a clodhopper? He was a plowman or farm laborer

WAITRESSES SAY THE DARNDEST THINGS...

Yesterday I had lunch with TCW. We were going to go to Cracker Barrel, but when we pulled up there were about 2800 people waiting outside for a table. I wanted to say, "Don't you crazy people know there is bad weather coming! What are you doing here? Go home." Instead, we left to find quicker nourishment.

We ended up at the "Home of the Fried Green Tomato." You know where I am talking about - on 6th Avenue. Boy, what a crowd you can find in there....

...but the real surprise was our waitress. After she had delivered our food and we were enjoying a delicious meal of country fried steak, mashed potatoes, fried green tomatoes, she proceeds to go to the counter and fold up silverware. Well, not really fold, but shove into these lovely plastic bags. Anyway, she is talking to some customers sitting in a booth somewhere behind us and she states (for all the wold to hear), "Well, I ain't gonna let him get me in trouble. I ain't going back to prison." I just about choked on my mashed!

Needless to say, I left a hefty tip!