The ones we lost in 2009

We lost a lot of “famous folks” in 2009. Here's my list of the ones that touched me in one way or another.....some hurt me badly. I get attached to people; even those I've never met. Here we go:

• Sam "Bluzman" Taylor (October 25, 1934 – January 5, 2009) – Blues musician

• Don Galloway (July 27, 1937 – January 8, 2009) – Actor

• Ricardo Montalbán (November 25, 1920 – January 14, 2009) – Actor

• Andrew Wyeth (July 12, 1917 – January 16, 2009) – Artist
  

  
  
  
  
  
  His painting Christina's World

• Gordon "Whitey" Mitchell (February 22, 1932 – January 17, 2009) – Jazz bassist & Television producer

• Bob May (September 4, 1939 – January 18, 2009) – Actor

• John Updike (March 18, 1932 – January 27, 2009) – Novelist

• Billy Powell (June 3, 1952 – January 28, 2009) – Musician

• Clint Ritchie (August 9, 1938 – January 31, 2009) – Actor

• Dewey Martin (September 30, 1940 – January 31, 2009) – Musician

• Philip Carey (July 15, 1925 – February 6, 2009) – Actor

• Paul Harvey (September 4, 1918 – February 28, 2009) – Radio broadcaster

• Natasha Richardson (May 11, 1963 – March 18, 2009) – Actress

• Dan Seals (February 8, 1948 – March 25, 2009) – Musician

• John Mayhew (27 March 1947 - 26 March 2009) – Musician

• Irving R. Levine (August 26, 1922 – March 27, 2009) – Journalist

• Lou Perryman (August 15, 1941 – April 1, 2009) – Actor

• Beatrice "Bea" Arthur (May 13, 1922 – April 25, 2009) – Actress

  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Vern Gosdin (August 5, 1934 – April 28, 2009) – Musician

• Dom DeLuise (August 1, 1933 – May 4, 2009) – Actor/Comedian

  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Ean Evans (September 16, 1960 - May 6, 2009) – Musician

• David Carradine (December 8, 1936— June 3, 2009) – Actor

• Peter L. Bernstein (January 22, 1919 – June 5, 2009) – Economic historian

• Johnny Palermo (March 1982 — June 8, 2009) – Actor

• Ed McMahon (March 6, 1923 – June 23, 2009) – Comedian/Announcer

• Farrah Fawcett (February 2, 1947 – June 25, 2009) - Actress

  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Michael Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) – Musician

• Billy Mays (July 20, 1958 – June 28, 2009) – TV Pitchman/Host

• Karl Malden (March 22, 1912 – July 1, 2009) – Actor

• Walter Cronkite (November 4, 1916 – July 17, 2009) – Journalist

• John Hughes (February 18, 1950 – August 6, 2009) – Film maker

  
  
  
  
  
  My favorite John Hughes movie
  
  
  

• Ted Kennedy (February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009) - Politician

• Patrick Swayze (August 18, 1952 – September 14, 2009) – Actor/Dancer

  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Henry Gibson (September 21, 1935 – September 14, 2009) – Actor

  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Mary Travers (November 9, 1936 – September 16, 2009) – Singer

• Soupy Sales (January 8, 1926 – October 22, 2009) - Comedian

• Oral Roberts (January 24, 1918 – December 15, 2009) - Evangelist

• Brittany Murphy (November 10, 1977 – December 20, 2009) - Actress

• Arnold Stang (September 28, 1918 – December 20, 2009) - Actor/Voice actor for animated cartoons

May they all Rest In Peace.

It's almost over

2009 is almost over. Did you do everything you expected to do? How about wanted to do? I know it was a crazy year for us and I'm actually really happy that it's almost over! I hope 2010 brings a much different time for us. And I hope it brings you all you want in life.


Countdown-Clocks

Here we go again

Is there some problem with cleanliness? Do workers find it too difficult to follow basic food safety precautions? Is it hard to wash your hands? Is it too inconvenient? Do they even care? Do I sound upset? Well, I am.

I'm upset because 248,000 pounds of beef have been recalled because of E-Coli. TWO HUNDRED AND FORTY EIGHT THOUSAND POUNDS.

The beef was shipped mainly to restaurants in Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, South Dakota and Washington. The restaurants that are listed (even though the story says the "beef products sold primarily to" which means these are not ALL the restaurants it was sold to) are: Moe's, Carino's Italian Grill, and KRM.

Included in the recall:

• Boneless Beef Sirloin Steak
• Boneless Beef Tips
• Savory Sirloin Tips
• Bacon Wrapped Beef Fillet
• Beef Shoulder Marinated Tender Medallions
• 75% Boneless Beef Trimmings
• Beef Trimmings
• Beef Sirloin Philly Steak
• EGN Boneless Beef Sirloin Steak
• EGN Boneless Beef Sirloin Tri Tip Steak
• KRM Boneless Beef Sirloin Steak
• Carino's Boneless Beef Outside Skirt Steak
• Carino's Boneless Beef Outside Skirt Steak Pieces
• Moe's Beef Steak

The Owasso Oklahoma company, National Steak and Poultry, voluntarily recalled the meat and said the "recalled products are in packages bearing a label with the establishment number "EST. 6010T" inside the USDA mark of inspection and packaging dates of "10/12/2009," "10/13/2009," "10/14/2009," or "10/21/2009." The company said the products were shipped to restaurants nationwide."

They say this is the first recall their company has ever had in it's 30 year history. While that's a pretty good track record, one time is enough for me. Six states, countless restaurants. And remember, E-Coli is spread through fecal contamination. FECAL CONTAMINATION. Yep. That's enough for me.

No more Tyra Show....thank goodness

I don't know about you, but I really can not handle the Tyra Banks talk show despite it being on for 5 seasons and winning 2 daytime Emmy awards. The good news for me? It's finally over.

Tyra told People Magazine that this is the final season of her "girl-power" talk show. People said, "Wrapping at the end of its fifth season in the spring of 2010, it will be lights out for the show that brought viewers memorable weave-exposing, cellulite-revealing and tear-jerking moments." I know those are things I can live without.

My picks for the worst of the worst?

Biracial People Who Hate One Side Of Themselves

Could There Be A "Cheating Gene"?

Meet The Grossest People In America

Are these seriously things that we need to talk about? I'll pass thank you.

Now THAT'S better

I was scanning the news stories a little while ago and it seemed like all I saw was bad. First case of highly drug-resistant TB found in US. Seniors worry about Medicare Advantage cuts. Jon Gosselin's NYC Apartment Ransacked. Weapon Involved in Charlie Sheen Domestic Dispute. It made me really sad.

I was about to just give up on the news for the night when a different kind of story jumped out at me. It made me feel a little better about the world.

It started out sad but it ended up warming my heart.

A woman in Italy went to retrieve the Christmas gifts she had hidden for her two toddler daughters and found they had been stolen out of the basement. Frantic, she rushed around town trying to buy new gifts from gas stations. She didn't want them to wake up on Christmas morning and not have anything under the tree. When the police found out what happened, they contacted a toy store owner in a nearby town. He opened his store at 4:00 a.m. just so the lady could get her daughters new gifts.

I hope they caught the low down thief that would steal presents on Christmas Eve and I hope they treat the toy store owner like a hero. If you ask me, that's exactly what he is.

Promises, promises

Hey y'all! I hope everyone had a great Christmas! I know I promised the other day that I was going to get caught up with everyone here in blogland and I'm sorry that I haven't been able to do that yet. Now that Christmas is over, I should be able to get back to normal tomorrow...I won't promise anything but I'm going to keep my fingers crossed!

While I've been away from Blogger, I've been playing around with Wordpress. It's pretty neat. So neat in fact, that I decided to move my cookbook over there. I like it much better. Check it out if you get the chance.

So....

If all goes well....

And everyone cooperates....

And no disasters occur....

I'll see you tomorrow!

OH YEAH! And yay! Yesterday was my Blogaversary for this blog! Woohoo! A year!! :) Thank you to Teena in Toronto who left me a congratulations message! That was very sweet and made me smile!

The reason I'm not here.....

Click here to find out :)
Merry Christmas everyone ♥

Christmas Cookie Rules

Hey guys! Sorry I've been away all week but I've been on a cookie baking mission! I baked right at 500 cookies for family members this week. Wait. It gets better. I cooked them all from scratch. Better yet... I cooked them all in a toaster oven. LOL True story. 8 cookies at a time... You KNOW I've been busy busy!! I finally finished frosting the sugar cookies and packing/wrapping the cookie packages up last night. Late last night. So now I'm back :)

But I'm tired.

So today I'm just going to share an appropriate email that I got from my mom last night. Her timing couldn't have been better! I hope you're all having a wonderful holiday season! See you tomorrow!

Christmas Cookie Rules

1. If you eat a Christmas cookie fresh out of the oven, it has no calories because everyone knows that the first cookie is the test and thus calorie free.

2. If you drink a diet soda after eating your second cookie, it also has no calories because the diet soda cancels out the cookie calories.

3. If a friend comes over while you're making your Christmas cookies and needs to sample, you must sample with your friend. Because your friend's first cookie is calorie free (rule #1), yours is also. It would be rude to let your friend sample alone and, being the friend that you are, that makes your cookie calorie free.

4. Any cookie calories consumed while walking around will fall to your feet and eventually fall off as you move. This is due to gravity and the density of the caloric mass.

5. Any calories consumed during the frosting of the Christmas cookies will be used up because it takes many calories to lick excess frosting from a knife without cutting your tongue.

6. Cookies colored red or green have very few calories. Red ones have three and green ones have five - one calorie for each letter. Make more red ones!

7. Cookies eaten while watching "A Christmas Carol" have no calories because they are part of the entertainment package and not part of one's personal fuel.

8. As always, cookie pieces contain no calories because the process of breaking causes calorie leakage.

9. Any cookies consumed from someone else's plate have no calories since the calories rightfully belong to the other person and will cling to their plate.

We all know how calories like to CLING!

10. Any cookies consumed while feeling stressed have no calories because cookies used for medicinal purposes NEVER have calories. It's a rule!

So, go out and enjoy those Christmas Cookies!

AIRG and your pc

I get asked all the time how to get to AIRG from your computer. I decided today to just tell you here that way there is always a place you can go back to and find out.

First of all, let me tell those of you that have no idea what I'm talking about that AIRG is a chat site. It's a ton of chat rooms that are supposed to be accessed through cell phones but I've always been able to get there from my computer.

You used to be able to go through the Opera browser, put in the address and be there, but AIRG has taken that option away. Now it's a little more complicated but not impossible. I'm going to show you step by step...

1. Download Mozilla Firefox browser 3.0 or earlier. You can update later but if you go with the newest version this won't work. It has to be 3.0 or earlier to use the add-ons that you'll need. You can copy and paste the following address to get there...

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-older.html

2. Now you need your add-ons. You are going to need the XHTML Mobile Profile 0.5.3 add-on. Just follow the instructions that they give you...

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1345

3. You also need the Quick Preference Button 0.1.8.1 add-on....

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1851

4. Once you've done all of the above, there is a 'button' on your toolbar that says Prefs. Click it. Choose Spoof then Keep Out.

5. Now simply put airg.com in the address bar and you're there!*


*Do not put www. or http:// in front of the address. Just airg.com

So I hope this helps those of you that are trying to get there. Let me know if it did or if you have any questions. I'll do my best to help you! Have a great day and have fun chatting!!

New look

I got to playing around last night and ended up changing my blog layout. I do this every now and then. If you've followed me for a while you already know this :)

In some cases I don't ever change my layout. For example, I really like the layout that my personal blog (Happy at Home) has. It's been that way quite a long time now and I have no plans on changing it. I like my cookbook (The Eat Food NOT Money Cookbook) layout as well but I have been searching for one with multiple pages for several months. I haven't found one yet so it will remain the same for now.

But I digress...

I've been looking for a different layout for this blog and finally found one that I like last night. How do you like it? Is it better or worse?

I took out several of my widgets. The Freebie Reporter and the Dead or Alive feeds that I had here were two of them. Should I put them back? Were they something that y'all used?

My music player is still at the bottom of this page and I still have it set to not play when you get here. I can't imagine a world without music but I know some people don't like it. If you're like me and love it, just scroll down to the bottom and hit play.

I've also added links on my sidebar to some of the other sites I visit. My personal pages and some of my favorite blogs. They are by no means all of my pages or all of the blogs that I read. That would put us three pages deep if I listed them all.

On a personal note to Doris. I read your comment you left yesterday and I think what you're talking about is the Link Within widget. That widget puts other posts of mine that are related to the current post at the end of it. Sometimes it really works and puts posts that have the same tags or same content and sometimes it's really out in left field and puts posts that I can't figure out how they are related. But I have it on all my blogs and kind of like it. It reminds me of posts that I sometimes forget I even wrote.

I guess that's about all I wanted to tell y'all. Please let me know what you think of the new look. Even if you think it's awful and I should immediately begin looking for something else! I hope everyone has a great Saturday and I should see you tomorrow!

Is it working for you?

Yesterday I put a poll in my post and I'm not sure if it's letting people vote. Please let me know if you can vote or not. If you can't, I'll find another poll. Thanks guys!

Which is your favorite?

Last night I watched several of my favorite Christmas specials and it got me thinking about all the things I love to see and do this time of year. It also got me thinking about all of you here in Blogland and what things you like to see and do at Christmastime. So I decided to put up a poll and find out! Let me know how you voted by leaving me a comment please. Merry Christmas everyone!

Quizzes by Quibblo.com

I ♥ Big Brother

Yes, I mean the television show.

I have been a big fan of Big Brother since it's debut in 2000. A big fan. As a matter of fact, I'm such a big fan that I follow them on MySpace, Twitter and Facebook. I've had the live feed several times. I get upset if I miss a show. Very upset. These people are my friends after all. I don't want to miss anything they say or do.

Ok, maybe they have no clue who I am or would ever call me their friend, but I am a fan and I do become emotionally involved with each and every one of them during the season. Because of all of this, it should be no surprise to you that I became very excited while reading a story on People Magazine's website this morning.

Let me show you what caught my attention...

Big Brother’s Jeff & Jordan: Officially Together!

Yes! I totally adored them on the show and thought they would make a terrific couple in real life!

When asked if they were together, Jordan said "Yes we are!". Jeff told People "“I liked her on the show, that was obvious, but after the show ended I liked her even more. I get in trouble when I say that, because Jordan is like, ‘You didn’t like me on the show, and now you like me!?’ but what I mean is that I like her even more now that I see who she is outside of the BB house.”"

I am so excited!! I hope it works out for them.

Do you really mean it Google?

Every now and then I pop over to my Google account and look up what search queries bring people to my blog. Sometimes I'm surprised by what Google says. Like today.

Top 5 search queries that bring people here according to Google

1. hate kara dioguardi

Now I know I said I hated her here once, maybe twice, or um three times, but come on Google. Is this really number one???

2. somtimes love comes around

Awww, I like this one

3. but to me this is what i call life

Makes sense...

4. botie call

Um. Ok. Is this perhaps BOOTIE call? What have I written to have this make the list? Was it perhaps the one time I mentioned not being a prude?? Oh my.

5. life and death

I do write about both...

So there you have it. Did one of these search queries bring you here?

Santa's Helper? Not quite..

It is the Christmas season so really I was not too surprised to come across a story this morning about Santa. Ok, it was about a mall Santa not the real Santa. Well, it was about a mall Santa and an Elf. About a bad Elf. A very bad Elf indeed.

Specifically the Santa was a Southlake Mall in suburban Atlanta Santa and the Elf was 45-year-old William C. Caldwell III who decided Santa might like some dynamite for Christmas.

Caldwell decided he wanted his picture taken with Santa so he donned the Elf costume and stood in line with the kids at the mall. When it was his turn, he told Santa he had a bag full of dynamite. Santa decided he didn't want to take any chances and called security who showed up and detained the bad Elf until police arrived and arrested him. The mall was evacuated but alas, the bad Elf was also (thankfully) a lying Elf because no explosives were found.

I think this picture sums up my thoughts about that bad Elf...

Exactly.

Feeling just a little grinchy

I haven't quite gotten into the Christmas spirit yet. As a matter of fact, I really do feel just a little grinchy...



Maybe it will hit me soon....

Don't let your computer catch a virus this winter

The newest virus circulating is
The UPS/FedEx/DHL Delivery Failure...

You will receive an email from UPS/Fed Ex Service along with a packet number.
It will say that they were unable to deliver
A package sent to you on such-and-such a date.

It then asks you to print out
The invoice copy attached..

DON'T TRY TO PRINT THIS.
IT LAUNCHES THE VIRUS!

Pass this warning on to all your PC operators
At work and home.

This virus has caused Millions of dollars
In damage in the past few days.

Snopes confirms that it is real.