West Nile Anyone?

I was always taught by my mother to be a good host (hostess, whatever). But I would like to draw the line at one place. Mosquitoes!

I have always been the family bug host. The one that everyone looks at with pity while I slap away at flies, gnats, mosquitoes, etc. I think that every family must have one. And then all the other sweet souls get to stare, shrug their shoulders and say stupid stuff like "hmm...I haven't gotten bit once" and "are you sure they're mosquitoes"? Argh!

Everyone in my family has their own personal curse - Dad can find the one cherry pit in any pie. Even McDonalds cherry pies...and I'm not real sure that those are real cherries!

Tonight, even though I was in the midst of a lovely group sitting on the dock at the river, I had enough. After spraying every inch of my skin...and then every inch of my clothing...they were still snacking on my tasty flesh. You win this round bugs...but I shall find a way!!







I'm gonna find some serious toxins to bathe in this weekend...anyone know where I can get some black market DDT?

Random Topics

 I was trying to decide what to blog about tonight and decided to hit Google for a random topic. Since I was there...I typed in "random topic generator" and would you believe it...there are some!! First going to try "Blogtap's Random Topic Generator" - which even has subjects to choose from. Going to be brave and select from "All". And the topic is (drumroll) - The Wright Brothers. Seriously...that is what popped up first.


At least I know something about the topic (unlike a topic suggested to me earlier today - diminishing Arctic ice...which I will need to research first). I have even been to the Wright Brothers Memorial in Kitty Hawk, NC because it is in the area that I vacation. I will say that the $5 I spent when I visited several years ago was  about right (it is down to $4 now!). At the time, the museum was housed in a couple of trailers but had very informative exhibits. Then you could walk over the area that the First Flight took place. There are markers showing the distances achieved in the first flights that Orville and Wilbur took. I learned that the brothers had made hundreds of glides - the flight in December 1903 was the first heavier-than-air powered flight.

One thing that I always wondered about - how did they decide that Orville was going to be on the flyer? Rock, paper, scissors? Flip a coin? Chicken wishbone?

One more Random Generator: Random Questions at Conversations Starters.com - and the questions is (drumroll...) What was your favorite subject in school?  Really?

Well...I was quite the nerd in school, so I can't go with the goofy response of "lunch". And being an uncoordinated nerd, my answer can not be "gym" or "PE". I think that the answer would depend on what grade we are examining. In first grade, my favorite subject was definitely Math. I grasped the whole concept of numbers, sets, addition and subtraction very quickly. I had a really cool teacher who let me keep going in the workbook and by the end of the first 6 weeks...I had run out of math to do. So she arranged for me to join up with the second grade math class. That teacher didn't let me get ahead of the class and I got bored. By third grade, after memorizing the multiplication tables (which took the rest of the class FOREVER) - I was bored again.

I always liked reading - I read to my kindergarten class because my older sisters had taught me to read when I was 4. That was pretty advanced back then. I think my four year old nephew and niece are reading Spanish now. One day I went to my first grade homeroom and she said that they were moving me to the second grade. So I spent the last 6 weeks of that year in a new class. The reading teacher spent part of the first day assessing my reading skills and when she found that I could read all the way up to the silver books, she put me in charge of my reading group. I wasn't trying to be smart - I just wanted to keep reading new stories...and I had finished all the ones in the other levels.

But if I had to answer what my favorite subject in high school was...it would probably be Advanced Algebra. Not because of my love for math...but I got to sit next to Derek Jennings...and he was cool. Or maybe it would have been English because I sat in front of Kevin Parr.

I did enjoy some of the subjects in high school. I liked Chemistry because the teacher was a short wacky woman who let us play with chemicals and stuff. I loved Creative Writing but the teacher was pretty tweaked out on coke most of the time (not the stuff in the can...). Speech class and typing class probably gave me the most useful skills that I still use today. Journalism was fun...I was layout editor of the school newspaper. We actually did physical paste-ups then. It was printed on the presses of the local paper. We only managed to get about 4 editions out that year...but I enjoyed working on The Amherite.

This has been an interesting look back....thank you Random Topics!!

BCC Please

I blew one of my free passes yesterday in my challenge to post every day for 30 days or have to give $100 to the Romney campaign. 1 strike. It shall not happen again today!

I know that my posts are often rants about my personal pet peeves...this is no exception. Question: Why can't folks grasp the concept of BCC (blind carbon copy)? I cannot tell you how many emails a day I get with giant lists of other people's email addresses. It isn't just the fact that on my Blackberry I have to scroll through the endless list - although that is indeed tiresome (and starting to wear out another trackball!). It is really rude to share your friends' email addresses with everyone that you want to share "The Irish Friendship Blessing" or "How Shania Twain got cancer from a water bottle she left in her car" or "How to separate an egg with a water bottle (hopefully non-cancerous).

Do not get me wrong - I enjoyed receiving the email itself (especially the egg separating one...that was cool!) and I'm glad that I have friends who send me generous angels who will bless me with cash and perfect mates if I send it on to 11 of my closest friends (I never do...I hate emotional blackmail email...but usually the blackmail comes after some sort of lovely thought that I DO enjoy)! It is the careless spreading of my email address to people who I don't know.

I received an email from my eye doctor's office last week inviting me to vote for him in a local magazine for "Best Bedside Manner" - once again, not offended by the email itself...he really is a fantastic optometrist and I am happy to spread that word far and wide. But his staff mistakenly sent out some of the email batches as CC instead of BCC. So in this case - I had about 50 of his patients email addresses (and you know, with a lot of email addresses...the names are not hard to figure out). I emailed him and he not only promptly apologized to me - he later sent out an email (properly BCC) to the clients who were affected and apologized to them as well. That shows real class.

If you are interested in being kind (and protective) to the people who you email - here is all you have to do to use BCC when emailing, forwarding, etc. in several of the most popular email interfaces.

If you are using Outlook - just put the addresses on the BCC line instead of the "To" line. If you don't see that line, click Options, Show Fields and then BCC.

In Hotmail - once you've opened a new message or hit forward on the hilarious video of cats flying around the room....look in the upper right hand corner and click on "Show CC and BCC" - then put the addresses of your victims in the BCC line. (no, you don't have to put a recipient in the "To" line).


In Gmail - once you've started to compose, you'll see the Add BCC button directly under the "To" line.




I understand that AOL's BCC button is easy to find...I wouldn't know, never used AOL! Thank you for listening to my latest rant. Next rant will probably be about chopping the extra 14 headers off when you forward the National Friendship Day email. I'm sure glad you're my friend - but I'd feel even more friendly if I didn't have to dig so far down to know why!

A Post On Beating Hamsters

I almost screwed up and wasted one of my free passes. A few days ago I rashly promised that I would post every day for the next month (felt guilty because I had not posted for 2 weeks). I am allowing myself 3 free passes. The punishment if I fail is that I will give $100 to the Romney campaign. When I realized I was slipping up - I decided that I would write a little post on The Hamster Beaters.

The Hamster Beaters are my Fantasy Football team (winner of the 2011-2012 season in our league). My team has been named that since the year I changed it from The Big Johnsons (that year I drafted an entire team of people named Johnson or Jones. Well, my kicker was Hanson - which I decided was Swedish for Johnson).

Fantasy Football is pretty simple - you gather a bunch of friends and "draft" members of the NFL. Only one team can own Peyton Manning, or Reggie Bush, or the Eagles defense. Then each week you "start" a team of one quarterback, two running backs, two receivers, a kicker and a defense. How the player performs in the NFL game determines how many points you score. I remember a time when I had to add up all the scores by hand - reading the box scores in Monday's sports page. Now the website does it all automatically - and in real time! For only $179 a year! (Ouch)

Tomorrow afternoon is the draft. It is not exactly a painless process. We try to make it fun - food, beverages, good natured ribbing... But with 10-12 teams each drafting 15 players...it takes time. And unless every team owner stays glued to the draft board (which is impossible considering the food, beverages, etc.) people lose track of who has been picked and who is still available. So by the tenth round, somebody is usually trying to draft a player who went in the 3rd round. And things grind to a slow halt while they catch up their cheat sheets.

Some teams take it all very serious. And although I won the league last year - I don't take it very serious at all. I'm just hoping somebody makes meatballs!

I believe this legitimately counts as a post. Take that - Romney!
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device from U.S. Cellular

I Want Another Furry Friend...

I love animals. Even my completely rude cat. (and yes, I also love dogs...the bigger the better!)

I have a couple of Facebook friends who work with Humane Societies, animal shelters, pounds, animal fostering programs, etc. From time to time they will post pictures of animals that need homes. Because at least one of my housemates is NOT a big pet-person - I am limited to housing the one rude cat (who at this moment is lying with her arms crossed wearing a look of disdain like a petulant teenager. Rude.)


Recently I have had great desire to trade-in my rude cat for a kinder and gentler cat. The first to capture my heart was Ty. A gorgeous tabby cat who lost both eyes to infection. Oh my - my heart just stopped. Blind kitty.

After a trade-in was rejected, I still got to see posts about Ty - including this one: "What's the best fun you can have in the morning? Watching a blind cat with a case of the zoomies pinball around the house." And then a nifty picture of Ty In Box. No matter how you feel about cats - I think it would be hard to resist loving that one.


And then tonight was the real kicker - I got to virtually meet Slider. And I want that cat. Slider even has her own blog that tells her whole story. But basically...Slider slides because the back legs don't work. If that sweet face doesn't make you want to dive through your computer screen and hug her...you are made of stone, my friend.


So - if anyone would like to take possession of Rude Cat...I can take Slider! Since I've already bent the household rules by allowing Riva Cat to take up residence at the Riva Howse...I better not push my luck by bringing another cat home. So many kitties, so few homes. PLEASE, spay or neuter your cats. (and some of your friends) And when you can - give a cat a home.

with the exception of the pic of Rude Cat - all these pictures were shamelessly stolen from my friend's FB page and Slider's Blog. Sorry.

Culinary Arts - An Idea in Motion

Twenty minutes goes a lot faster that I think it will.

Tonight was the first night for JIFF and we had the opportunity to introduce the plan for having Culinary Arts classes this year. I discovered that very few of the students (grades 3-8) know what the word "culinary" means - but they all like to eat, and some of them even like to cook!

We began the classes with a contest - how many kitchen tools can you name in 2 minutes? Go ahead, take the two minutes...we'll wait... Most of the kids came up with 8-10 items and the most often named items were knife, fork and spoon. Sometimes they wandered off into lists of ingredients...but I have to admit, without food...there would be no cooking! All four groups came up with things like microwave, toaster and whisk...the most unusual items were ladle, garlic press and sink. How was your list?

I will now take two minutes and see what I can come up with: knife, fork, spoon, spreader, spatula, slotted spoon, wooden spoon, whisk, garlic press, mallet, meat tenderizer, kitchen shears, baster, pot, pan, skillet, blender, food processor, mixer, oven, stove, microwave, dishwasher, measuring cups, measuring spoons, mixing bowls, meat thermometer, candy thermometer, deep fryer...time's up. Wow...two minutes goes by quickly too!!

After that contest we talked about the fact that we would be trying some new things - both skill sets and tastes. Then we had a little tasting plate to begin the adventure. That was my sister Denise's idea - and a pretty darn good idea it was! I was proud to see that most of the students at least tried everything on the plate.


We had 3 different cheeses - Smoked Gruyere, Chevre and Parmesan; 2 fruits - a dried apricot and a slice of kiwi; 2 types of cracker - wheat thin and Club cracker; and for the adventurous ones we even had a small piece of roasted garlic. We tasted the cheeses by themselves and with the crackers, explored the kiwi - learning that you can indeed eat the little black seeds, talked about dried fruits....and without fail, ran out of time in every session!

I'm looking forward to having a whole 90 minutes with each group in the kitchen.

But knowing me...we will still manage to run out of time!

Till tomorrow - keeping my promise!

A Post and A Promise

Oh my goodness...it can't be possible that I haven't posted since August 3. That is completely ridiculous. I offer the following explanation:

It was a dark and stormy night. A shot rang out...

No, wait...try this one: I was on a hill outside the lights of the city when I saw a strange glow in the western sky. It grew brighter and brighter until I realized that it was not just a formless light - it was a spaceship! I tried to run but I found myself rooted to the spot that I was standing. Terror fought with curiosity in my mind - what would the inhabitants of this strange vehicle look like? Be like? Alas, I cannot recall anything that happened between the time I saw the ship and when I awoke last week in the strange land called "New Jersey." Fortunately the aliens dropped me off in a friendly neighborhood near the NJ Light Rail.

Okay - enough excuses and wild tales...I have been a bad blogger and you, my faithful readers (are there still more than one?) deserve a decent apology. I'm sorry. And you deserve a decent post. I'll try. Somebody get me a topic! To the random topic generator!!

Instead of a completely random topic, I will share with you that the JIFF (Juniors in Fun and Fellowship) program begins again tomorrow night. And since my last wild idea worked out pretty well...I've had another one! It all began in early summer when I was watching an episode of Restaurant Impossible. If you've never seen the show - host Robert Irvine is challenged to turn around a failing restaurant with a budget of $10,000 and two days. This was a special episode with a unique challenge. First Lady Michelle Obama challenged him to renovate a DC center that provides neighborhood kids with mentoring, tutoring and nutrition. Part of the challenge was to be provide healthier food choices...including utilizing a nearby patch of donated ground for a neighborhood garden.

The whole time I was watching the episode I kept seeing parallels between that program and our JIFF program. And something kept poking at my consciousness - our students need opportunities to learn more about food. They need to know where it comes from, how to prepare it and how to make better choices.

As a person who is pretty good at ignoring poking from my consciousness...I promptly pushed that thought to the back of my mind. Then a few days later I saw ANOTHER episode of Restaurant Impossible. This time he was working to turn around a high school's student-run cafe. Because of diminishing budgets the culinary arts program at this high school had declined to the point that their cafe was serving a lot of re-heated frozen food and the student body and faculty had stopped eating there. Without the income from the cafe, the program was in danger of being folded altogether.

I got the hint. And so I decided that I needed to try this wild idea. I am going to teach JIFF kids how to cook. And yes, we are even going to learn knife skills. As I told my doubtful brother - if you don't teach them, how will they learn?

Each week I will have a different group of students (3-5 grade girls, 3-5 grade boys, 6-8 grade girls, 6-8 grade boys) for the entire hour and a half. Our first session will compare the taste differences between box macaroni and cheese and that made from scratch. During that, we will learn the first of the "mother sauces" in French cuisine - bechamel. And then how that becomes a cheese sauce. We will have the opportunity to discuss the cost differences, ingredients to add to mac & cheese to turn it into a main dish, etc.

What will the other sessions be? If you have ideas - let me know.

As far as my infrequent blogging is concerned - I am making this promise: I will post every day for the next 30 days. I will allow myself three "Free Passes" - days that I can post "I am using my Free Pass" instead of a real post. If I fail in this promise then I will give $100 to the Romney campaign. And I'd rather cut my arm off.