USELESS INFO TUESDAY

~  Only three Westerns have won the Oscar for Best Picture:  Cimarron (1931), Dances With Wolves (1990), and Unforgiven (1992).

~  The rear view mirror was introduced 100 years ago at the very first Indianapolis 500 race.  It was on the winning car, a single seat Marmon Wasp driven by Ray Harroun.  All the other cars in the race had a mechanic in the passenger seat serving as the rear view mirror.

~  "Little Women" was originally going to be titled "The Pathetic Family."

~  In 1985 Rick Springfield wrote an autobiographical song about being mistaken for Bruce Springsteen, called "Bruce."

~  In elevation, Sante Fe, New Mexico is the highest U.S. capital at 7000 feet.  (I have been there - it is a beautiful city)

SOUTHERN FRIED THURSDAY - JACK STYLE

What could be more Southern than Jack Daniel's Whiskey?  I have been to the distillery and loved the tour.  It is so peaceful up in the mountains.  If you have never been, put it on your list.

Being fresh out of ideas for today's post, I thought I would share some recipes from their web site for summer drinks that I found interesting...

Classic Lynchburg Lemonade
1 part Jack Daniel's
1 part triple sec
1 part sour mix

Jack Daniel's Tennessee Apple
1.5 parts Jack Daniel's
.5 part apple liqueur
1 part sweet and sour
.5 part Sprite

Tennessee Tea
1 part Jack Daniel's
1 part triple sec
1 part sour mix
2 parts Coke

Cranberry Jack (must try)
1.5 parts Jack Daniel's
1 part Chambord
1 part cranberry juice
2 parts sweet and sour mix
Splash of Sprite

Gentleman's Tea
1 oz Gentleman Jack Rare
2 oz lemonade
2 oz tea
Splash of Sprite
Lemon or lime slice

Tropical Swing
1 oz Gentleman Jack Rare
1 oz simple syrup
.5 oz fresh lemon juice
1 oz pineapple juice

The Georgian
2 oz Gentleman Jack Rare
.5 oz peach liqueur
2 oz Sprite
3 sprigs fresh mint
Muddle mint and liqueur in bottom of glass.  Add Jack and Sprite.  Strain into a highball glass filled with ice. Yum!

MISS YOU

As most of you know (at least those of you who have been around me for 2.5 seconds since May 15th), Rachel is in Goshen, Indiana for the summer.  Do I miss her?  You bet your sweet a** I do.  I was looking at pictures of her on facebook and came across some that her high school friend Clark took.



I had never seen this on before.  I love her smile!  So fresh and sweet.

This is one of my favorite that Clark took.  It was the night of prom.  I think this picture invokes thought...like you can't really tell if she is happy or sad....love, love, love the eyes.

Never saw this one either, but I think I am going to have it blown up and framed.  Love the color!

Hello Beautiful!  Mommy misses you.  Love.

USELESS INFO TUESDAY

 ~  The horseshoe crab chews its food with its legs.  I does not have jaws or teeth, so it uses small pointy spines at the base of the legs surrounding its mouth to tear and grind food wile moving it upward toward its mouth.

~  Before he invented the hotdog bun, concessionaire Anton Feuchtwanger gave his customers gloves to help them eat his sausages at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.  Gloves helped them no burn their hands or get them dirty.  When customers routinely walked off with the gloves, he had his baker brother-in-law make special dog-size split buns.

~  Because of its shape, France is the European nation known as the hexagon.  In recognition of this, there is a hexagon design on its one and two euro coins.

~  In updating ancient Latin, the Vatican gave the modern definition to the term tempus maximae frequentiae as "rush hour."  The phrase is in the Vatican's "Lexicon Recentis Latinitatis."

~  Theodore Roosevelt's inaugural parade featured Geronimo and five other Native American chiefs in full tribal regalia riding on horseback down Pennsylvania Avenue.

HARTSELLE COOK OFF

Had a wonderful time at the BBQ competition Saturday, but boy my sinuses are paying for it today!  LBOS came in 12th overall!  Shout!  I thought I would share some moments I captured!  I did take a pic of the "brown licker" traditional shot after all meat is turned in, but I took it with A AndyRandy's camera, so I don't have it....

This was shortly after I arrived, and L BigDawes, Btut and A AndyRandy were getting the rib presentation put together.  Boy those girls worked long and hard making sure the meat looked "just right" in the boxes.

Team LBOS hard at work!  Wino bill is over there dipping into the ribs!  R AndyRandy and TCW were discussing exactly where to cut the ribs apart....

...whole team hard at work...but for some reason I never got a picture with Bear or his cute family in it!  Sorry.

TCW, J BigDawes and R AndyRandy discussing the pork.

Great day for LBOS!  They had their name called twice!  10th in chicken and 3rd in brisket (for 3rd they got a check and a plaque)!  And I got a new official title other than number one fan and taster....I am now the official Brush Washer-Upper Water Pourer!  Try to top that!

STOP - DROP - AND ROLL!

OVER THE RIVER AND THROUGH THE WOODS....

....TO A BBQ COMPETITION WE GO!

Ok, not over the river, more like over the Flint Creek....and maybe not through the woods, but down Highway 31...

I know the picture above is dark, but it is showing Randy AndyRandy's trailer packed with 3 Green Egg Grills, tables, etc. ready to be transported to Hartselle.

Yes, LBOS (Lil' Bit 'O Smoke) is competing in a BBQ cook off there this weekend!  Here is a SHOUT OUT and Good Luck wishes to TCW, the Big Dawes, AndyRandy, Bear and Btut....

.... more to follow!

SOUTHERN FRIED THURSDAY

"If I'm going to hell — and I can't deny that, because it's not for me to judge — it won't be for telling ghost stories; I have far greater shortcomings than that."

^{KATHRYN TUCKER WINDHAM}

USELESS INFO TUESDAY

~  It is rumored that Roman poet Virgil hide his valuables in bee hives to keep them safe.

~  Humphrey Bogart founded and led Hollywood's original famed Rat Pack.  His group of hard-drinking buddies were known as the Holmby Hills Rat Pack, named for where they lived.  Frank Sinatra, who was a member, recast the group with his own friends - Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and Peter Lawford - after Bogie's death.

~  Ernie is the name of the cartoon elf that serves as chief baker and spokesman for the Keebler Company.  He and his fellow elves were introduced in ads in 1968.

~  The estimated age of the oldest-known plant in the world is 11,700 years.  A creosote bush found growing in California's Mojave Desert was aged based on radiocarbon dating and the plant's known growth rate.  That means that the bush, known as King Clone, has been growing since the last ice age.

~  My Boo has left me for Indiana where she will spend the summer.  I miss her dearly.  She also made the UAB Dean's List for Spring 2011.  I am so proud

SURVIVOR!

YAY!  MY BOSTON ROB WON! (much to the Tut's dismay)....

We had a nice get together of us Survivor Diehards at TCW's last night to watch the finale. We had taco and pile up dip.  Lisa TutB was glad to spend time with me (she didn't want Rob to win).  Btut was so happy to see me (and loose $5 to me because she bet against me and Rob).  Wino Bill didn't seem that interested.  TCW is so done with Survivor and its Redemption Island that he is never watching it again!

 I was so happy my guy (Boston Rob) won!  This was his 4th time to play. 

HAPPY FRIDAY THE 13TH

Most people consider Friday the 13th unlucky.  I have always considered it just another day.  It is funny because I tend to be pretty superstitious, but I have never really fallen for the Friday the 13th doom and gloom. 

I do, however:

*  pick up my feet when riding in a car over train tracks
*  never watch friends or loved ones leave until they are out of my sight (I turn around or go inside)
*  throw salt over my shoulder when I spill it
*  knock on wood
*  say "God Bless You" when someone sneezes
*  never open an umbrella in the house or walk under a ladder 
*  never give knives as presents unless accompanied by money
*  try to enter and leave a house by the same door
*  believe placing a hat on the bed is bad luck (get this from my Grandmother Lawrence)
*  believe bad things come in 3's

Notice, I don't believe in any superstition involving a back cat - To quote J Big Dawes "I am like Jesus.  I love all cats." (he actually said dogs)

Have a good weekend!

WEDNESDAY WOUNDS

This is Sally (or in this case her split personality - Evil Zlid)...

...and this is RayRay (or in this case Sassy Missy Missy).  They have a love/hate relationship (I believe it stems from jealousy over my love).

 Sally has been known to attack Rachel on two previous occasions:  1) one day when Rachel was sick home from school Sally just scratched her while she was laying on the couch; and 2) Rachel was doing her homework at the dining room table, we had been arguing, I was ready to strangle her, Sally just jumped up on the table and scratched her.  (Don't tell Rayray this, but at that time I thought to myself "Good, way to go Sally!")

This is $40 worth of Dead Sea Salt hand conditioning treatment that Rayray was suckered into buying while at the mall on Saturday.  Yes, the woman at the kiosk saw her coming from a mile away... 

...and this is what Sally did to remind Rachel not to be so haughty and vain!  When Rayray called me at work yesterday you would have thought that Sally (or Evil Zlid) had been chasing her around the house with a butcher knife...I mean, really, Rayray.

Sally...keeping it real!

USELESS INFO TUESDAY

 ~  Fingerprints are used to identify people, but did you know that nose prints are used to identify cattle?  Each animal's nose has a distinct pattern of ridges and grooves.

 ~  A Kashmir goat produces only 4 to 6 ounces of cashmere fiber annually.  It takes from 10 to 12 ounces of the goat's soft, fine undercoat to make a woman's single-ply cashmere sweater.  (No wonder it is so expensive!)

 ~  A sumo wrestling tournament is known as a Basho.

 ~  In "The Adventures of Tom Saywer" Tom's half-brother's name was Sid.

~  In the wild, a Komodo dragon - the world's largest living lizard - eats generally once a month.  The carnivorous lizard consumes up to 80 percent of its body weight in one feeding.  It stores fat in its tail to keep going without another meal for a month or more.

Mother's Day Checklist

1.  Mother - check
2.  Kid - check
3.  Cards - check
4.  Presents - check
5.  Eating out - check
6.  Feeling Loved - Priceless

Hope you all had a nice Mother's Day!

SATURDAY SURPRISE

Wanted to share a funny before I forgot...Rachel brought home a snack bag full of condoms from school.  The "safe society" people were handing them out to all passers by on the Green.  I was looking at the message about practicing safe sex (which of course I totally am for) and I noticed the most ingenious words printed on each condom...

"Required for Entry"

...brilliant!

MY HAPPY PLACE

Due to the recent disaster that hit our area, if you are like me, you have been trying to think of "happier" times.  Just like all of you, over the last week I have prayed, worried, cried, thanked God, but most of all counted my blessings that all my friends and family are safe.

I was trying to find my "Happy Place" today.  It has been a long 2 days back at work.  I think one of the happiest, peaceful times I have ever had was when we visited Delphi, Greece in the summer of 2008.

Delphi is supposed to be very spiritual, magical and powerful.  The ancient Greeks thought it was the center of the universe where all things sprang.  The oracle was kept there in the Temple of Apollo.  I swear you could feel the majesty of just being there.  I thought I would share some pictures with you.  Notice how high it sits up in the mountains.  There is nothing else up there for miles....

...rebuilt Treasury of Athens...

...the Theater (look at that view!)

...the Tholos...

 ...the Temple of Apollo...

...reconstructed Treasury of Athens.

If you ever get a chance to visit, I highly recommend it!

Have a nice weekend....and let me know where your "Happy Place" is

FEELING THE LOVE

I am so thankful that all my friends and family are safe after the terrible tornadoes we had last week.  I am slowly getting back to normal at home and at work.  Blog should be going full steam ahead tomorrow (Friday), but until then, here is an email from avid reader Lisa TutB...

LL -


I know things have been crazy this last week but I need the blog! I have been everyday this week hoping to see what you did while the power was out (we drank for 3 days) or what a real dumb ass Agent Pink Panties is on Survivor - Or how everyone on the damn tribe is not smart enough to figure out you have got to get rid of Rob - Sorry - I know you love him. So please - have a heart - take a minute and make a girl happy!!

love love love


lisatutb