Monday, August 31, 2009

Countdown to New Years!


Which is THIS COMING SATURDAY :  UGA v Oklahoma State ( 3:30 ABC )

Let's start with a pop quiz! :

FAULKNER CHARACTER, GEORGIA BULLDOG OR SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE ( answers on link below)

1. Chester Adams
2. Samuel Adams
3. Henry Armstid
4. Josiah Bartlett
5. Maury Bascomb
6. Benjamin Franklin Belue
7. Carter Braxton
8. Goodhue Coldfield
9. Virginia Sartoris Dupre
10. Joseph Dupree
11. Benjamin Franklin
12. Cleveland Gary
13. Elbridge Gerry
14. Lucius Hogganbeck
15. Winford Hood
16. Morris Lewis
17. Wycliffe Lovelace
18. Theophilus McCaslin
19. Lewis Morris
20. Ulysses Norris
21. Caesar Rodney
22. Frank Ros
23. George Ross
24. Roger Sherman
25. Ernest Talliaferro
26. Todd Williams
27. William Williams
28. Grover Cleveland Winbush
29. John Witherspoon
30. Will Witherspoon


( thank you DAWGSPORTS.COM )

THE B.V.M. ... in Kudzu!


KUDZU MONSTERS... or the Blessed Virgin.. your call. A link to childhood nightmares, hat tip to the B.Day Blog

"Everything is a sign, when you are looking"  - Eudora Welty

Right On Time....

The high temperature is going to be 69 degrees today... chilly at night




Smells like tailgate....

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Where have you gone August Escoffier ?





( with apologies to Mr DiMaggio...)

At long last we made it to see JULIE AND JULIA this afternoon.... we are behind. Very good, every second that Meryl is on the screen is just pure joy. A little bit of an odd ending, but just let art flow. Insipred a little bit of cooking for dinner. 




Very close to my favorite supper, you know, when you add in a couple of bottles of wine. Not Neil's so we will have to have some meat and potatoes asap!

There was a BEAUTIFUL rainbow in the sky as we left the theater.




Friday, August 28, 2009

Dinner


Chicken and rice, with farm stand....

Another reason to ♡ Tom Colicchio


Ok, Wednesday Night, 1/3 of this seasons team rainbow on TOP CHEF went off on the fact they were having to cook for a wedding, when she and the other two gay contestants could not get married !  ( that and the fact that it is BRAVO ) Andy Towle has the LINK

Today, bear icon-ette, Chef Tom Colicchio weighed in:


"I’m going to go out on a limb and say a few words about same-sex marriage: First of all, part of the problem with the issue is that it is framed by opponents as a discussion of whether gay people should get special rights. This is specious – yes, special legislation or court decisions grant them the right to wed in a particular state, however this is done to ensure that they share equal protection under the law by finally being able to avail themselves of the same rights as everyone else. They are not seeking special treatment, just equitable treatment. Second, religion has no business being part of the discussion. When a couple is wed in a house of worship, the officiant may be performing a religious rite, but as far as the law is concerned, that officiant has been authorized to perform a civil function, plain and simple. And even were same-sex marriage to be legalized by the state, no one would be holding a gun to the heads of the clergy to require them to perform a ceremony that their faith or personal creed does not condone. Just as some rabbis would not perform my marriage to my wife because I wasn’t Jewish, clergy can decline performing same-sex marriages; gay couples can either find clergy willing to officiate or can be wed in a civil setting. The idea that religious leaders are continuing to shape state law is just wrong. The institution of marriage should be available to all. The idea that you can have a life-long partner and not make decisions for them in a hospital, not share in insurance benefits, not automatically have parental rights unless you are the birth parent, is just flat-out wrong."

Thanks Tom !

Et tu, New York Times ??



Not the way for a proud member of the Bulldawg Nation to start of the day : Saint Tim on the front page of the New York Times

Florida’s Star Wants to Make a Difference

Go ahead, read it... and know, " yes, he is better than you and I are"


Thursday, August 27, 2009

Dinner

Spicy pork chop, brown rice, veggie filled black beans, farm stand salad.

Life in Mendon

Pookie sleeps twenty three and a half hours a day. There really is not a whole lot to do when you are an 18 year old dog, having a happy, peaceful Autumn of your life. BUT, if I leave her alone, for more than two minutes, the garbage will still , even at this late moment, be overturned. There is a little bit of spunk left yet , and chicken bones to be crunched.... 
The Anglican Yenta's at their Thursday Morning Kaffee Klatch.... 

" I love you, so much..."


More than a little bit maudlin, but I was in way high cotton yesterday, with 24 hours of focus on the Kennedy family. Most of it was pretty good... even though general wisdom is that Jack Kennedy just popped up, post war, like some 2009 reality star. Not at all, the Kennedy's had been a mainstay of the " Society columns" for years. ( you younger readers will have no idea what I am talking about.. but there was a time when Miss Chapin grads ruled the airwaves- well, pages , not slutty pop stars.. google Brenda Frazier sometime....Jackie herself was " Deb of the Year...totally pissing Lee off...) The family's comings and goings were all over Life and Look and other coffee table mags of the day. Joe Sr's mistress was the biggest movie star in the world..... 

My favorite moment of the entire day was Mike Barnicle's story of going to visit the family yesterday afternoon... Sticking true to their VERY Irish roots, they have brought Teddy home. He is right there in the sun room, overlooking the ocean that he so loved,  with three photographs. One of him and his kids, one of him and his wife Vicki ( who is a Louisiana girl! a Theta at Tulane...) and one of him throwing out the first pitch at this seasons RED SOX season opener. I had forgotten the deep deep connections between the Kennedy/Fitzgerald family's and the Boston Red Sox. The Senator's grandfather , Rose's father threw out the VERY FIRST pitch at Fenway Park. The memorial there for Ted was very touching, and seemed heart felt , from the crowd.

I think I may raise a glass to the Senator this afternoon as well... More than a little Irish in me as well....


Wednesday, August 26, 2009

America , the Beautiful.

This is the photograph that I was looking for.... There is a very similar one taken in the White House, but this is the morning after the 1960 election. All Joe Sr.'s hard work. money and arm twisting has paid off. Such an amazing purely American story..... 

I know today is all about Senator Ted Kennedy, but it is a celebration of an entire family. Even in this photo , I think.... only three? are still alive. I'll have to get to googling, but first, let's see how I do on my own.... 

  1. Ethel is still with us.. and , I think may even still be living at Turkey Hill, [ HA! HICKORY HILL.. not Turkey Hill , that is Martha's old CT house...] there must be 100 grand and grand grand kids...  
  2. Steve Smith died pretty young
  3. Jean is the last remaining core family member
  4. The President
  5. R.F.K.
  6. Pat Lawford... not sure when she died... 
  7. Sargent Shriver... still with us, but suffering from extreme Alzheimer's, a fantastic career... Was the VP candidate for McGovern  in 72, Ambassador to France.. now, sadly, most well known for being Arnold's father in law.... Hollywood....
  8. Joan.... who looks so old in this picture... as far as I know, still with us.. pickled, but still here
  9. Peter Lawford.. the first divorce... not really a major player, but good for invites. Not sure when he died either
  10. Eunice, who just died last week... That is what will get lost in today's coverage of the Senators death, this is the second family loss in a month. 
  11. Joe Sr.
  12. Rose.... who lived to be .. 104 wasn't it? Out lived almost everyone 
  13. Jackie... who in this picture is 31 years old... people forget how young she was in the White House... JFK jr isn't even born yet
  14. Ted..... also very young... 
1960.. a brand new decade.. Such a fresh new start. So much history and sadness to come. But here , " on the pulse of this new day" It is their apex. Now, let's see how I did:

  1. Ethel Skakel Kennedy
  2. Steve Smith 1927 - 1990
  3. Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith
  4. JFK 1917 - 1963
  5. RFK 1925 - 1968
  6. Pat 1924- 2006
  7. Sargent Shriver
  8. Joan Bennett Kennedy
  9. Peter Lawford 1923 - 1984 ( did not know he was married so many times...)
  10. Eunice Kennedy Shriver
  11. Joseph P. Kennedy , Sr. 1888 - 1969
  12. Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy 1890 - 2005
  13. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis 1929 - 1994
  14. Senator Edward Kennedy 1932 - 2009
TRIVIA : there are 26 living first cousins. ( Three have passed including JFK , Jr ) If it keeps raining out, you will know how many second cousins.....

Edward Moore Kennedy 1932 - 2009

In the Senate since November 7 1962.

Only one person in this photo is still alive, Jean Kennedy Smith, the little girl with the ribbon in her hair. How very odd it must be for her. Sure there are 3000 cousins, but just so melancholy.

As I have written here before, I went through a period where I was OBSESSED with the Kennedys. It's very late, I will write more later.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

don't pick at it....


I have been being a good duck as of late, and letting all the health care debate farce roll off my back like so much water. Summer is coming to a lovely end here in Upstate New York, mornings are cool, days are sunny and not too hot. All that wonderful fresh produce.. just letting the joys in life wash over me. In with anger, out with love.....

Just two quick observations: 
  • This morning on Morning Joe ( sans Mika, it sort of sucks.... ) Congressman Marsha Blackburn, proudly representing the Tennessee Seventh ( which is a wildly gerrymandered district) was  letting the DEATH PANEL malarkey fly. "Seniors will be mandated to go to meetings on how they are going to kill them". THIS IS NOT MY USUAL HYPERBOLE, she is saying this. "Seniors paid to live, and Barack Obama wants to kill them "  None other than Joe Scarborough and Satan's doppelganger Pat Buchanan told her that she was wrong. Pointed out in the bill exactly where she was wrong... and she just would not hear. We have come to a point , at last, in America where facts and truth just DO NOT MATTER. Opinion does. I have to know more than you to, because am a white Christian Republican. You know... again, with out much good ole Southern hyperbole : How does a Democracy thrive when we can not even agree on UP and DOWN and Black and White???


  • Michele Bachmann. That should be all I have to type, and really, I don't think about the insane nut-jobs out in Topeka, and I don't think about the Queen-of-all-Loonies in Congress, Ms Bachmann - there is just no reason to give them any time in my brain. BUT today, she is even out doing herself. JESUS WANTS THE POOR TO GO WITHOUT HEALTH CARE. Now, Neil is the big Christan in our family.. today, I am a proud Druid.. or Taoist... or Zoroastrian..  It's Tuesday ?    Druid.. ( trees!! )  "
On Wednesday Rep. Michele Bachmann was part of a star-studded “teletownhall” meeting to discuss health-care reform. The event, billed “Keeping Faith with the Unborn,” was sponsored by the Susan B. Anthony List, an anti-abortion advocacy group. The organization’s president, Marjorie Dannenfelser, claimed that there were some 350,000 listeners on the line.

Bachmann was joined by North Carolina Rep. Virginia Foxx, most famous for calling Matthew Shepard’s murder a “hoax,” and former Colorado Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, who made national headlines by refusing to concede after losing her re-election contest November. But even with such veteran political pugilists sharing the phone line, Bachmann managed to distinguish herself during the 90-minute phone call.


Ok, now seriously, you would have to look long and hard to find three smaller minds than these three Puritan bitches ( sexist? you bet your ass.. I would have used another word, but this is a family blog)  Congressman Bachmann called for everyone to pray and fast to keep any health care reform from going through. Please read this whole article. I can not post anymore.... must go back to my happy place...

Productive Day!


One episode of HOARDERS last night, and I am getting rid of everything....

Dinner


Very Peek of Summer, and a little bit odd. Left over chicken on a big salad full of just picked juicy warm tomato and again, corn. The corn is just so fresh and sweet.. I am thinking ya'll are going to be seeing it every day for a while.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Dinner: Sunday Night



Koda and I went to the farm stand. SUMMER AT LAST.. she is really getting some good product ....

I don't know why I was in such a cooking mood today. 
  • Roast Chicken, ( here seen stuffed with lemon and bay leaves , covered in bacon..)
  • rice and chicken gravy
  • green beans
  • more curried eggplant
  • some YUMMY corn ! Just picked this morning. Diced some onion, red pepper and carrot all about corn sized, cooked with , yet again, bacon. After the veggies got all soft I cut the corn and milk off the cobb and just added to the pan... so sweet, so flavorful... not tooting my own horn, just how good the corn is this time of year!

Neil's plate.

Kyle's plate.

S-A-TUR-DAY NIGHT.....



Tuna and Macaroni Salad

4 oz. drained canned tuna
3 oz. peas, cooked
1/2 c. cooked celery
2/3 c. cooked enriched macaroni (other pasta may be used) ( other pasta???  sure.. if your plan is to burn in hell )
1 tbsp. diet mayonnaise
Combine all ingredients and chill 1 hour. Makes 1 serving.





We went to a lovely birthday party for Neil's BFF, Don tonight, in what may have been the cleanest house in the known world. I am pretty sure everyone is hoping that some of it rubbed off on me. 
A very nice early evening, it is fun to watch Neil with his old friends, they really have had some adventures. I was DD as we are in double secret anti DUI week here in the greater Rochester area. 

Saturday, August 22, 2009

CRIME WAVE HITS MENDON !



Seriously, you look up " middle of nowhere,with snow " and there is a picture of our little Hamlet. Peaceful , down right Bucolic.....AND RACKED WITH CRIME!

Either last Sunday or Monday ( or Tuesday ) our next door neighbor called and said that their CAR HAD BEEN STOLEN!  Yes, they left the keys in it.. but so DID I , all the time. Never even thought about it. It's MENDON...

Well, today, I was out mowing the front yard, when I saw a pile of Neil's Chargers and his small head phones out in the front yard, sort of in some bushes. Odd... Neil then checked the car and realized that HIS GPS WAS MISSING, and possibly one of my cameras!!!!!  Seriously.....

We are not sure at all when it happened... sometime after we got back from Pompanuck, but that was a week ago. I have been making sure to lock the car up at night, after Joe's call. They did find our neighbors car a ways away. Two sheriffs just came by and took all our info and stuff.... 

I blame the video games and allowing kids to wear shorts to school.. and somehow the Republicans.

Dinner, Friday Night, with laundry...


A domestic still life

Countdown


Let's get started with an SEC Quiz!  

( I did not do so well...but it is early)

Friday, August 21, 2009

Your Thoughts ??



  Yes? No? In? Out?

We all liked him.... but, I for one, just think we have seen this too many times. Well that and living in real fear of DAY GLO and black Madonna gasket bracelets. Last Sundays NYT predicts the return of 80's Fashion.  Wake me up, before you go go.....

Not at all  crazy about the new Lifetime PR page. Can not get pictures of the two dresses that I really did like. ( the short one with the geometric looking top, older designer and the flesh colored long one with the black ribbon belt ) If you are watching the show and NOT reading the often linked PROJECT RUNGAY boys.. you are missing half the fun.... 

I really should find them and at least buy them a drink or something...

ah - ha!  look what i found, thank you HUFFPO for a lovely recap with some really nice pictures!






" Oh, Toto......"


The two bright blue coasts had a group head explosion this week.

We all tried so so hard to believe that we really had - AT LONG LAST - got the hell out of Kansas, and that this was the Lollipop Gang dancing around us. Our dissolution started with Rick Warren , continued with GOP members in the Cabinet, epically Gates at Defense and the NO CHANGE in the Mid East. Took a huge drop with the DOJ DADT memo... and came to a huge field of poppies with this past weekends bomb shell of " we don't need no public option" Water was thrown on our progressive Elphba, and damn, but we were back in black and white . If not Kansas, then stuck in Iowa with Grassley.

President Obama is losing the battle for Universal Health Coverage , if he has not already lost it, and I know why. JOHN STEWART is doing a better job at promoting UHC ( universal health care) and de-bunking the idiotic lies that are out there, that the entirety of the White House. HELLO ?!?  

THE DAILY  SHOW (via HuffPo.. I had some trouble watching this....)

I am going blue in the face yelling at the TV, asking the President to STAY IN THE WHITE HOUSE... has he not yet come to realize that the country will come to him? That he has this FANTASTIC SET , yes, still with BUSH II's rug, but still... He has the worlds best soap box ??? Why won't he go on television at 8pm NOT in a press conference, but sitting behind his big old power desk and say " THIS IS WHAT I AM GOING TO DO " and while he is at it, call every single gun toting, sign waving, right wing nut job out there, ... well, a sign waving , right wing nut job. How is it that the " best politician of his generation" is so so damn bad at getting his message across??  Why is he letting the right define this bill?

Why don't we progressives matter ?

Where is his fear coming from? Everyone's favorite Noble Prize winning bear asks the same question :

( From the NYT )

August 21, 2009
OP-ED COLUMNIST
Obama’s Trust Problem

By PAUL KRUGMAN ( ♥♥♥♥ )
According to news reports, the Obama administration — which seemed, over the weekend, to be backing away from the “public option” for health insurance — is shocked and surprised at the furious reaction from progressives.

Well, I’m shocked and surprised at their shock and surprise
. ( read  on......)

As did Uncle Frank this past Sunday:


Fear is a dangerous thing. Fear of our nation's elderly that they are going to lose their health care. Fear of the middle class that they are going to have to pay more to the Government. Fear of some white folks that " this is not their country anymore". But, what about a little progressive fear... that this President, that our President... has no intention of " dancing with the one what brung him" 

Some fears, like Pigs, are more equal than others, and this time around we all really REALLY wanted the Wizard to be the real deal.

Dinner, someone elses


( And maybe a wee bit more exciting than last nights stewed chicken )

My very good pal Paul has been working on and off in PARIS,FRANCE this year. Nice work if you can get it. He just posted a FANTASTIC restaurant review/ food love in on his blog. So, here at lunch time on a hot Summer's Friday - take a quick trip to the City of Lights. Bon Appetit!


( show him some blog love if you enjoy his post....)


Thursday, August 20, 2009

Dinner



Man, it has been forever since I made a real dinner. 

Koda and I went over to the farm stand and helped her pick the tomatoes that are in the salad and the veggies. ( he peed on some green ones.. note to self WASH your tomatoes...) She had not picked them for the stand yet, because her husband, who drives a tow truck wrecked it, and it is hard to call a tow truck for a tow truck.

Chicken stewed with onions, chilies and canned tomatoes. YUMMY, I LOVE Chicken cooked like this

My friend Roja gave me a recipe for curried eggplant, BUT, it used some ingredients that I did not have.. mustard seeds and tamarind paste.... SO, I just wrapped up some eggplant and zucchini with garlic, salt pepper and Cajun seasoning and roasted. Added some fresh tomato when it came out . FANTASTIC!

Yellow chicken rice

Tomato and Cuke salad with lemon and sesame

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Heidi and Tim and Padma, oh my


TOP CHEF STARTS TONIGHT

PROJECT RUNWAY, ( at last ) STARTS TOMORROW!

Don Draper, father confessor


 I have tried a MAD MEN post about 10 times, and just can not get it right, LUKCY for me the PRG boys hit it out of the part, so I defer to my blogging buddies. 

Mad Men S3E1: Out of Town

Read it.. if you are a fan of the show.

Moxie.. or not


I ... and I know this may come as a surprise to some casual readers of the k+b, but, I can be a tad rigid in my thought. For example : I do not care for , nor do I eat deviled eggs. BUT, I make them , all the time, drop a hat and I am placing eggs in water and chopping onions. It is just what is done. This rigidity can lead me to be ... a little dismissive of opposing points of view. I tend to see people who disagree with me politically as a little less than human, I believe  the term " pond scum" has been tossed around, I am sure with too much ease. Forgive me.

That said, elections have consequences . We won, they lost, end of discussion.


Hands are wringing all over Washington DC , cloths ripped and the mirrors are all but covered as the mean girls of the House and Senate go  all over the country saying nasty things about the President. Health care reform is dead. Woe is us. 
"Why don't they like us?"
" Why won't they join us in singing Kum-bah-ya" 

The inmates are completely running the asylum over at the GOP, they have just flown so far off into right wing crazy land that they have become caricatures of caricatures. "He is a Kenyan born Nazi" yells the man with the freaking Uzi strapped to his back. The President smiles and goes on to yet another campaign event.....  

Enter Congressman Barney Frank:




AT LONG LAST! My very first reaction was a totally sexist , very MAD MEN like response of " COME ON , Mr. PRESIDENT , Grow a set like Barney!" But, I really am trying to temper my remarks.. ( even though I did just type it..) .

Barack, Nancy and Harry need to just ram this through. Screw every Southern white Republican there is. Who gives a flying fuck what some Jeff Sessions or any of their Fox Overlords think . WE elected you to do this. Come back from flying all over the Nation - feeling the love, and do the hard LBJ arm twisting that needs to be done. If you can not do it on your own, tell Senators Snow and Collins that you will park Michele with Sasha and Mallia in hand squarely in downtown Freeport for the duration of your term and make sure that they are not reelected. You are from Chicago.. you should know a little bit about playing hard ball politics. I do not care if one Republican votes for this...  at all.

CALL THE CRAZIES CRAZY. Take them on... come on , you beat the Clintons.. do you really think that Dancing Tom and Dickless Army can do you any harm? If doing this causes you to loose next time, SO BE IT... if it tosses Congress back to the GOP in the mid-terms, so be it. WE are in charge now. RIGHT NOW... today. Hard core, way way left LIBERALS , be the nightmare that they already think you are. 

Hopefully this headline from the NYT means that you are coming around on this.

Democrats Seem Set to Go It Alone on a Health Bill



Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Get into the groove...


Trying , trying to get back " into the groove of things" .

July was just a whiz and the train derailed. Neil was gone, he and I were both got  sick , and then off to the happy boonies for a week of food and fun. Sort of just pointing and laughing at the train wreck of good clean living.

The Dog Days at their doggiest. The doldrums of Summer, with the countdown to the new year already underway. At least I got some sleep last night! Nice healthy salad , well steak and a little blue cheese, but still a salad) for supper. This should be the last day that it is too hot to take Koda for a nice long walk. So, salvation is just around the corner.

Back into the sleep, salad, JIM'S House routine, asap. So, better blogging to come, just have to get the head clear and back on track.....

Monday, August 17, 2009

Dinner, Sunday Night



NEIL COOKED! and no surprise, It was delicious! 

Steak with peppers, Tom Cuke Salad, Asiany Dressing.