Saturday, February 28, 2009

PANIC!



Snow is likely in metro Atlanta on Sunday, with accumulations of 1 to 2 inches possible, the National Weather Service said.
There won't be a loaf of bread or a battery to be had from Macon to Chattanooga. City will be shut for three days. 

Snow Ice Cream:
1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup white sugar
1 gallon snow (clean)

OR

Snow
vodka or rum
1 banana
some frozen peaches ( it is Georgia) 
fruit and booze in blender... pour over clean snow...

The Duchess in the White House!



His Orangness, His Highness, The Duchess of the Runway ( as well as Project Runway!) MICHAEL KORS designed The First Lady's dress for her first official White House portrait!
At first glance , I loved the picture. She is such a pretty woman, so very classic. LOVE the Blue Room setting, the flowers, the play with the black and white , the pearls. Love Jefferson in the back, love the focus. Her wonderful smile. It is a beautiful photograph.
Then I had a tiny quandary with Mr. Kors dress. Michelle is going to go sleeveless, get used to it. February in Washington DC and Mrs. Obama was sleeveless at the address to Congress. She works out every day, and is proud of her work . As well as she should be. BUT, I had a smidgen of doubt about the cut of the sleeve, but only for a moment ( crisis averted!!). At first it looked to me to be too " tankish" and not "shift-ish" enough. And then I realized that its Mrs. Obama big ole muscles that make the dress look like that, on a sickly thin Hollywood actress it would look totally different. Her athleticism changes the dress, so it was my fault , for thinking that all dresses should look like runway models, size negative ones.... 
So, I was back to loving it. 

Dinner


Chicken, black beans, spicy peach salsa. Chopped Salad. I am going to keep posting these.. keeps me honest. ( I mean if Brett can give up Del Taco Taco Bell, I can be good as well!!)

Mendon Movie Mews:

Last night we piled up on the Sofa in our SNUGGIES to have a movie night. All four of us, well, Koda was unsnuggied, Pookie was under mine. ( also Koda will not sit beside Pookie, so Neil had to sit in the middle.) 

Wow, It always sort of fascinates me that Hollywood is just fascinated by the working poor. My life is as much realism as I need in the day! This movie was nominated for two Oscars : Best Actress - Melissa Leo and Best Writing - Courtney Hunt ( She was also the director) They were both very good, but the top 5 of the year?
Poor family lives in a truly nasty part of up upstate NY , with only a river between them and Canada, well, and an Indian Reservation. The father ran off with the money the family had saved to buy a new trailer ( he gambles) The mother works at the dollar store. Ummmm, is this a movie or just another day at the Moose Lodge in Winder ? Stuff happens, people drive across the frozen river. NOT a feel gooder.
See it IF gritty realism is your thing. All the critics, who I am guessing have never been to the dollar store, LOVED it...
Fine, not as good as the first, seemed some corners were cut, and they just sort of JUMP into the story. BOOM talking moose or what ever. I have never read any of the other books in the series, only LWW, they are around here I should. Ummm, sort of the exact same story, without the  fablous Tilda Swinton. Always good to see Peter Dinklage in anything. It would have been a fine movie, but I really liked the first one. It cleared a little over two hundred mil at the box office, so I am guessing we will see the rest of the books.

and current state of mind....


I need some much needed sleep....( thanks J-MB )

Dinner....


health , health , health and Anglo-Catholicism ( Friday's during Lent...)

Reason #916 this native Atlantan ♥ President Obama.




From Time Magazine:
Late last year, Obama's nascent Administration worked out of transition offices in a downtown government building, which was serviced by only Pepsi-brand vending machines, according to three people who worked in the building. Two Administration officials have told me that a group of Obama aides, frustrated by having to run the security gauntlet to go to the corner store, stocked a refrigerator with Diet Coke in open rebellion against the available options. The pattern has continued at the White House. In his West Wing office, as in his previous office at Harvard University, Summers has a refrigerator stocked with cans of the decidedly non-Pepsi beverage. 
Though Pepsi is available in the West Wing mess, it is rarely, if ever, seen out in the open. On Thursday, the recycling bin outside White House spokesman Robert Gibbs' office contained six cans of Diet Coke and one can of Sprite Zero, which is also a Coca-Cola product. In another part of the building, I asked a White House official, who had a can of Diet Coke sitting on his desk, if the Obama Administration had a clear bias for Coke over Pepsi. "I think that's true," the official responded, with a smile. "Don't most Americans?"


Friday, February 27, 2009

Mendon, New York 9:00 am ish





We have gone to almost no snow at all, a good thing , ( other than my slackness in my leaf raking last fall.. shocked that the snow fairies did not take the dead leaves with them!) . Now all that is left is ICE. When it snows as much as it did this year, after a while, it becomes ice, just by its own weight. The trail is still a very long narrow hockey rink, makes walking a little bit wobbly.
BUT, the weather gurus say that Winter is back with a vengeance this afternoon. 

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Meet Dave Schultheis!



A walking piece of pig shit.... ooops, got a little ahead of myself.
Dave is a State Senator representing the 9th district of Colorado.
Dave is old school, as in Old Testament school.... wrath of God , that sort of thing. This is what ole Dave had to did on the floor of the Colorado Senate yesterday:
"Yesterday Colorado state Sen. Dave Schultheis voted against a bill paying for the HIV screening of pregnant women because only sluts get AIDS.
Democrats were outraged Wednesday morning when Republican state Sen. Dave Schultheis said he planned to vote against a bill to require HIV tests for pregnant women because the disease “stems from sexual promiscuity” and he didn’t think the Legislature should “remove the negative consequences that take place from poor behavior and unacceptable behavior.” The Colorado Springs lawmaker then proceeded to cast the lone vote against SB 179, which passed 32-1 and moves on to the House.
When stunned journalists asked Schultheis to clarify his statement, he went even further:
“What I’m hoping is that, yes, that person may have AIDS, have it seriously as a baby and when they grow up, but the mother will begin to feel guilt as a result of that,” he said. “The family will see the negative consequences of that promiscuity and it may make a number of people over the coming years begin to realize that there are negative consequences and maybe they should adjust their behavior.”
Poor little aids ridden baby, there were LOTS of drugs that would have kept you from getting the HIV virus, drugs that stop the passing of the virus from the mother to the little unborn baby.. BUT, that baby has to pay the price for his dirty dirty nasty  slut of a "mother".
Lets look at Senator Compassion's web site:
On why he entered politics: "To stand firm for the preservation of traditional values of faith, family and freedom, which have been under increasing attack for over 30 years " That way old traditional value of the Mark of Cain... I told you OLD SCHOOL...
His number one issue is.. like I have to tell you, abortion. Keep that little baby!  HIV and all... ( God is Love) "Thus rape and incest do not justify creating a second victim."
"Dave, a true conservative in every sense of the word, is committed to valuing human life from conception to natural death"
The most mouth dropping comment of this whole thing is where he " HOPES" the baby is born with aids. God save me from your followers.... 

Guitarist for famed Athens band Pylon dies

PYLON.
AJC.LINK
From the Athens banner herald:
"The Athens music scene lost a respected and influential player Wednesday, when Randy Bewley - guitarist for legendary Athens band Pylon - died two days after suffering a heart attack.
Bewley, who was in the cardiac intensive care unit at Athens Regional Medical Center, died shortly before 5 p.m., friends said.
He was driving on Barber Street on Monday evening when he suffered a heart attack, bandmate Vanessa Hay said in an e-mail to supporters and friends.
Funeral arrangements were incomplete at press time.
Bewley and bassist Michael Lachowski founded Pylon in Athens in 1978, recruiting drummer Curtis Crowe and Vanessa Hay - then Vanessa Briscoe - as vocalist. The band debuted in 1979 at a party above an Athens record store just about a year after the B-52's played its first show. R.E.M. formed a year or so later.
Pylon's music was distinct - a punk aesthetic that couldn't be categorized. It earned members the respect of their peers and many Athens bands that followed them and, according to the All-Music Guide, repeated plugs from R.E.M. that Pylon was a major influence on its alternative pop music."

Then:( from Athens GA , inside and out)


12-7-07

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Sous-Vide-ing is just wrong.



Come on folks, its boil-n-bag!. I know, controlled temp.. blah blah blah. 
Poor Carla!... but I have to tell you, out of all the reality constants , or at least the gay Bravo shows that I have seen, She needs her own tv show!  Cooking, talking, hair-do's. We need MORE Carla! You folks in DC are lucky for so many reasons!
Even though I voted a few times for cute-as-a-button Rich for the fan favorite, I am hoping that Carla gets it.
I am giving the victory to Atlanta's own RICHARD BLAIS......

Recession? We ain't got no stinking recession.....


Someone paid TWENTY EIGHT MILLION DOLLARS for THIS  chair........

Take me out to the Ball Game - 2009


This is the new Shea Staidum, Citi Field , home of those Amazing Mets. 
CITI Field... as in Citi bank. Citi bank ... as in THREE HUNDRED BILLION bail out Citi bank. See the connection? Let's dig a little deeper. 
Just this week, a big Chicago bank, Northern Trust, got a spanky for being the last in a long line of these Masters of the Universe  types who are still living life like its 2008 with their golf trips and sea weed scrubs. This Northern Trust threw its self a big ole ATTABOY party, hired the king of Columbia Record Club band CHICAGO to play the party, etc. Not real smart Mr. Banker , at least hire some ABBA cover band and not CHICAGO....
Northern Trust got 1.6 billion dollars in bailout.. a drop in the bucket compared to the big boys, BUT, the powers that be in DC, Barney and his pals, are NOW deciding to hold the New and Lingwood oxford covered feet to the fire . Make Northern Trust pay back the money for swilling mojitos and dancing the night away to " Does anybody really know what time it is"... even if this party cost 1 million dollars or so, that is not THAT much money....
Citi Bank is paying...... 400 Million ( !!! ) to get the rights to CITI Field. Now , I do not know if Congressman Frank is a baseball fan. If he is, I am sure he is a REDSOX fan.. so he may LIKE the Mets. But if people are going a little crazy over a party, are things looking ok for the Mets? Do the American people who are NOT in the tri-state area want to own a ball field for four hundred million dollars?
This time of year, it's all about baseball , readers. It gets us snow bound folks over the end of Winter and Mud Season....

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

The Non State of the Union....


So, back in love, and SO needed to hear ALL of that. 
More tomorrow... we healthy people go to bed early..... 

A better red carpet....






While all eyes were on the commie homo lovin' set out in Hollywood, another group of all the well heeled gathered in Washington, D.C. the President and First Lady hosted their first formal dinner Sunday night. The Obama's invited the nation's governors, in town for the National Governors Association meeting, and their spouses to the White House. Michelle looked fantastic, LOVE the two necklaces. It is a massive strand of pearls worn over a large "diamond" ( could be real, looks faux ) necklace.This is fashion forward.... Very Michelle, beautiful.
 Their menu, was designed to reflect the season and represent the American spirit. It included red dragon carrots from Ohio, beef from Nebraska, watermelon radishes grown in the Washington area, and sea scallops from Massachusetts. The dessert featured huckleberries from Idaho. 
The evening was not without its fashion faux pas: Supriya Jindal, wife of Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal, and Marjorie Rendell, wife of Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell, were wearing similar, if not identical, one-strap red gowns




The People ... United...



We shall over come.....
In a stand that upholds the power of the American Courts, the same courts the gave us Brown v Board, yesterday, ( Feb. 23 ) the NAACP issued a statement in support of the overturn of Prop 8. From their website:
"The NAACP’s mission is to help create a society where all Americans have equal protection and opportunity under the law. Our Mission Statement calls for the ‘equality of rights of all persons.’ Prop. 8 strips same-sex couples of a fundamental freedom, as defined by the California State Supreme Court. In so doing, it poses a serious threat to all Americans. Prop. 8 is a discriminatory, unprecedented change to the California Constitution that, if allowed to stand, would undermine the very purpose of a constitution and courts - assuring equal protection and opportunity for all and safeguarding minorities from the tyranny of the majority.
 National Chairman , and former Atlantan, JULIAN BOND ( !!!!!) will be the keynote speaker at the HRC Los Angeles Dinner on March 14th.
Too much was made of  African Americans tipping the scales in favor of prop 8 right after the election. First reflection was that is was all their fault. That proved to be wrong. Yes, older Africans DID vote overwhelmingly against gays and lesbians, but the their over all numbers were not enough to change the outcome. YES, we need more outreach and education within the African American community. 
This is a wonderful start.
The people united, will never .. give into fear...

If it's Tuesday, I must be fat.....




HAPPY MARDIS GRAS!
A happy 58 degrees, bright and sunny in New Orleans today.... 12 and sunny here. 
THROW ME SOMETHING, MISTER!
and since I am fat, we are off to the  Jim , gym ? .. more on this later on.

If it's Tuesday, I must be fat.....deux





Mea Culpa on the absence of red carpet blogging. I know as the go - to homo for some of you, it is my job, but... this is what had happened: Dahn and I were going to sip Champagne and do shots of Lemoncello when anyone said they were wearing Elie Saab , which LOTS of ladies did at the Golden Globes and other shows. We figured we could ease our way into a nice safe buzz for Hugh Jackman. Well, no one that was asked WAS wearing Elie Saab, SO, we decided to take a shot any time anyone said: "Who are you wearing......." Things went a little down hill from there, OR uphill, just depends on your point of view. A day and  an exorcist, some laser tattoo removal and a chiropractor later, ALL IS WELL.
Now it turns out that MY personal best dressed of the night, WAS wearing Elie Saab, which at the time, I did not know. Perfection, and Brad Pitt as accessory:

This is perfection that only comes with BIG time star and confidence, being double nominees does not hurt either. Clean , timeless, " fad-less" EXPENSIVE, again: perfect. Others I liked were , ( duh!) S.J.P. , in what was.. well, pure S.J.P. ( and Matthew makes a wonderful accessory too!)

Some of the fashions were tilting just a hair too bridal for me, not red carpety enough, and as always fit and age appropriateness was an issue. This is what I mean, Meryl looks fantastic, its the fit and what is right for her, as the Queen of all that is good to wear.  She hit it out of the park. All the shows talk about the fireworks gowns, and that is what the red carpet is about, but, this is what looks good!
Others I liked were Tina Fey ( a surprise hit) , Diane Lane ( who ALWAYS gets it right), Taraji Henson, a fashionesta to be on the look out for? beautiful, fashion forward dress, perfect fit, and Natalie Portman, for dressing what she is , a YOUNG beautiful woman ( color, fit ......)
The worsts were the normal crowd of billionaire wannabes. Really, Miley and Beyonce... listen to someone OTHER than your mothers... get more gay friends. You need help.. there must be a 12 step somewhere... start looking in Chelsea or Weho.....

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Sorry, you know, about that demise of your marriage and all....


Happy One year Anniversary (paper!) to Kyle and Neil , who jumped the broom ( hockey stick?) one year ago today... way still in Honeymoon phase! From what I can tell, at least from the few that I know, heterosexual marriage survived... cheapened for sure, but survived.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Apollo and Diana....

No, really Tim and Heidi at the PR finale, which someday, Weinstein's willing, we will all see....
Don't forget, faithful, that the homo superbowl is tomorrow night, and I am leaning towards some LIVE RED CARPET blogging.... stay tuned. It will be just like we are all together! Take a drink every time you hear ELIE SAAB.....

ROUX

I am not good at making a nice dark roux.
I belong to the Dana Bass school of cooking food till you are ready to eat it, then its done. BUT, after the brouhaha on TC this week over the color of ones roux, I decided to just do it.
Has to be done in a heavy pot, I use some ancient Le Crueset, black skillet is fine too.
equal parts four and fat. I mixed this up, oil and butter, LOW heat and stir.
For normal folks this would be about a three beer roux, but the way I drink beer, three beers  would be barely eggshell approaching ecru. It was about half an hour, and I could have taken it a bit darker, but, ....




It got a little bit darker than this , and real life was darker than the pictures came out here.

Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler!


GUMBO!
I have not made gumbo in three hundred years, not sure why.. BUT, we are invited to a Mardis Gras party tonight, and I decided ( well, Neil told them I would bring something...) that I would make some, post TC in NO week!

Went to foodtv.com for some recipes. One from a crock pot gumbo, an Emeril ( who is from Rhode Island... I'm just saying....) and one from Rachel Ray. ( not someone I as a rule go to , but I liked hers.) Some don't use tomatoes, some no okra, I wanted both, so I just combined.
  • about two cups each of the trinity with a jalapeno tossed in for heat
  • 1 pack boneless chicken thighs, one large breast, cubed biggish
  • 1 smoked sausage, halved and sliced
  • bag frozen okra
  • 1 can diced tomatoes, I also used about a half cup of tomato puree
  • Cajun and creole spices, plus black pepper, old bay, cumin ( taste before salting at all, cause those spice mixes are pretty darn salty)
  • 1/2 of a lemon zested
  • 1 box chicken stock
the veggies added to the roux, soften
I had to switch pots for size, this is just seasoned chicken and the sausage.. 
toss in the roux and veggies , tomatoes, and okra



Darwin

Friday, February 20, 2009

One Dead Monkey


The progressive/liberal/non-nutjob world gave a collective thumbs down, well more like a bitch slap to the newscorp ( fox news) owned NY POST for running a cartoon that many see as racist. Not going to link to it, but you have seen it. Dead monkey, stimulus, blah blah blah.
Really? Now  you all get up in arms? This " cartoonist" is a RABID homophobe, but you know for Rev. Sharpton, et all, that is just fine. I have been REALLY trying to not link to gay outrage cases, just sort of focus on the positive. Wheel of Fortune weddings and not any stupid westboro crap. That little personal ban may end. Here is a link to some very typical "cartoons" from this idiot. You decide.
I can not believe that any one in NYC reads the post for anything other than page six and a very good sports page, so its not really that big of an outrage. And any backlash to this moron of a guy is good for the cause.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

I am having a better day than you are....



We don't have prostate cancer!
Neil had a biopsy last Friday, and we found out today that it was all , 100% fine. Well and Good! I thought it a bit strange that we even had to go this route , since the PSA numbers have been just fine.. BUT, like James Harvey keeps telling us , better safe than sorry. 
We celebrated the good news over a slice of Guida's Pizza...