Category: entertainment

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Sad News of Mindy McCready Passing Tonight

You might have heard about Mindy McCready’s domestic and personal troubles over these past 5-6 years. The saddest news came tonight that she was found in Arkansas with a fatal, self inflicted gunshot wound, on the porch of her house, next to her dog. R.I.P., Mindy, and I hope you have finally found the peace that you so desperately needed but never had here on earth.

Mindy was a country singer whose personal life spiraled out of control after just a couple of hit songs. My favorite was “10,000 Angels” and it seems a fitting song tonight to pay tribute to her. She had a sweet, soft voice and was very pretty. Too bad she could not find a good man to share her life with, and too bad she had to overcome such a horrible abusive childhood. And then the law had to get involved and mess up everything even worse, ending up with the State taking away her two children. It is a sad, sad story and a very bitter ending for this poor woman who just couldn’t handle it any longer.

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Chinese New Year Starts Next Week

Next week is the Chinese New Year. It is the biggest holiday for people in China and many Asian countries, and also for people who live in many big U.S. cities that have their own Chinatown districts. I have been to Chinatown in San Francisco, Oakland and Washington, DC. Each one is a treasure trove of great food at authentic Chinese restaurants, natural medicine shops and imported gift items.

The cities have big parades, firecrackers, and many traditions and superstitions that everyone must honor and observe. The one that I like is you cannot sweep your house on New Year’s Day or you will be sweeping all the good fortune for the coming year out of your door and you will not have good fortune.

Next year will be the Chinese Year of the Water Snake. I don’t know very much about what birth years are included in the Year of the Snake, but I will try to look them up and see what calendar sign is related to my own birthday. You should do the same!

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What On Earth is Celery Root?

I just watched a Paula Dean cooking show and she had a guest on the show who brought out a thing called celery root. I have never in my life seen anything that looks like that, and this guy claims that we can all buy it at our local grocery stores. I seriously doubt that, but maybe it is something that I have just never noticed before. So next time I go shopping I will be asking the produce manager for celery root and see if they have it around here.

He says you have to peel the celery root and that causes a lot of waste. The idea of wasting a lot of food bothers me, so that is Strike One against buying celery root. After you peel it and make sure everything you cut into is thoroughly clean, you slice it into big chunks and boil it in water on the stove top. After you cook it for 20 -30 minutes, you have to push it through a hand tool called a ricer. That is Strike Two – I don’t have a ricer and I can’t think of anything that I might have in the kitchen tool drawer that would be a good substitute.

Then he adds the cooked and riced celery root into a big pot of boiled but drained white potatoes. Mixing them together with some butter and whole milk, and you have a big pot of tasty mashed potatoes.

I don’t think all that extra work is worth it for me to make this in my own kitchen. If someone has a restaurant and they want to do this and put it on the menu, I’ll be happy to order it at least once and try it. But in my kitchen, I don’t feel the need to add celery root to my mashed potatoes. I’ll do fine with my own way of making that.

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I Play to Relax

Lately everything has been so pressured and rushed that I can’t wait to get away from work and get home to my own little sanctuary. But I have been so stressed out that even after I get home my mind is racing and I am distracted with things that have to do with work instead of focusing on my dinner and whatever movie happens to be on cable that night. And then when I go to bed, I can’t seem to fall asleep.  I just stare at the ceiling and worry about things.

That’s not good and it has been going on for about a week. I love my job, but I need to find a way to close off what goes on at work and decompress. I need to have some fun and relax. I used to call that “recharging my batteries,” so that when I wake up each morning I feel energized (pun intended!) and ready to face the day. So I decided to do something less passive than sitting on the couch watching a movie. I am going to start doing something that forces me to engage my mind and focus. I think I found the perfect way to do that: online games.

I have a laptop at home and I can sit on the couch, get online, and play a few rhands of Hearts. That would be so much more relaxing than watching those awful TV shows and movies that I’ve already seen a few times. Every game is different and fun when you have new online opponents from all over the world. I log in and join a game and the next thing you know I am not thinking about work or problems anymore. I am just having a few minutes of fun.

I have tried that for the past 2 nights after work and I have found myself falling asleep right away instead of laying awake and trying to count sheep. What a difference a good nights sleep can make in how you greet the day and handle all the little annoyances that crop up. The key to a better attitude is making some play time for yourself and having some fun.

 

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Too Dry for Fireworks?

We have been in a terrible drought this summer and several places are having a lot of wildfires. The one in Colorado is really scary – I have friends that live in Colorado Springs and that is where my brother lived for 2 years while he was in school. It makes me very sad to see the thousands of acres of mountains and all those beautiful homes being burned. And all those poor animals – it is a real tragedy!

It is also a problem for a lot people who have big plans for this weekend and for the Fourth of July. I have heard rumors that the police and fire departments are canceling their community fireworks shows and not allowing private citizens to shoot off any fireworks in their yards or neighborhoods, either. What a shame, but I totally support them in being careful about not wanting any wildfires here. We can celebrate in other ways and maybe next year we won’t have to worry about a drought.

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Cinco De Mayo

Have you ever noticed how Americans celebrate every holiday, even those that don’t belong to us?  Take for example Cinco De Mayo.  We go out and drink as much alcohol as possible and eat in local Mexican restaurants to celebrate this holiday that originated in South America.  It is crazy how much we like to celebrate.  I wonder if part of that has to do with the long hours and hard labor we put in all week long. Our work schedules; especially in busy metropolitan areas; can include work weeks made up of 50 or 60 hours. Not including commuting to and from work and going home to a family of kids to feed and bath.

In other parts of the world I’ve heard that certain countries will stop all labor from about 2:00-4:00 P.M. in the afternoons to rest. Life is made up of more leisure and a little work. Where as in the states it is made up of a lot of work and a little bit of leisure. We are definitely a country made up of workaholics and alcoholics when there is a reason to celebrate.

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Receiving Mail

I don’t know about you but I love receiving unexpected mail from friends and family.  It brightens up the day when a letter is stuck between all those bills. Today was one of those days when an unexpected card came in from my little Niece. The letter read something like this.
Dear Aunt Michele I love you so much. You are the best aunt in the whole world. I wanted to send you a letter to remind you that my birthday is coming up. I would really like to receive cash for my birthday and no presents. I was hoping to save up some money so I could buy myself something. Okay I have to admit it’s cute, but for a young child to want money and not a gift. This world really has changed. Sending money really does make things easier, but I remember always wanting a gift wrapped up in a box that I could open. To this day I still want gifts that I can open. Times definitely have changed.

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What do you Really Want?

Have you ever noticed that there is always a little good in every bad?  And vice versa  you can always find a little bad in every good as well.  The thought crossed my mind today when I was reading about a famous movie star who is struggling with depression.  My first thought of course was what does she have to be depressed about?  The obvious things that depress me she has not a care in the world about.  But then reading further down the article and catching a glimpse of her struggles and personality I recognized something.  I recognized the fact that as humans we really are all alike in many ways.  The same emotions run through all of us and fame and fortune may make certain parts of life easier yet it doesn’t make living any easier.  That was a quote I read by Bruce Springsteen that really hit home.

Since my brain was focused on this topic of success I began reading some quotes on the topic.  One in particular stood out to me which read something along the lines of…..Behind all the fortune and fame there is a deep, dark, emptiness.  I began to see the irony in what our imaginations tell us about the famous and what reality is really like for famous people.  My point is; much of us have been protected from such a life.  Although many believe they have been cheated out of a life of luxury.  Never forget that saying be careful what you wish for you just might get it.

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Asking for What You Want

Today is the first day of my vacation.  I decided I needed a break from work and asked my boss for a few days off.  Why is it so hard to ask for what we need?  I really feel I needed this break since I’ve been suffering with headaches and feeling tired constantly.  Asking my boss was the most difficult part.  It sometimes makes you feel like you can’t handle life or working full-time when you need to ask for a break.

I’m just wondering why we as Americans are like this.  In other cultures and societies they spend a lot of time in leisure activities and far less time at work.  In some European countries their work days are stopped between 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. for rest.  When we were in preschool we got a 3 hour nap after lunch.  Why as adults are we so inclined to go nonstop even on weekends?  I wonder how things will change in the upcoming years.  Since things are alwys changing I can only hope that the next generation is not overloaded with long work hours and fewer and fewer fun activities.

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Change is in the Air

Today was a good day overall. Nice, beautiful weather and a pretty easy day at work. But deep down I have a sense that something is about to change. It is about time though. I think a change would be pretty nice right about now. Things have been running smoothly but now I need some excitement in my life.

I can’t help feeling that with summer around the corner an indoor job is not going to cut it. I have always wanted to try something unique for work even if it is only for a few months. Last year I wanted a break from the bar scene and the south. This year I want a break from the office environment and the nine to five. In fact I would like a break from having a boss at all. I think that might be what the next change is going to be about. Self employment and running my own company. I get excited thinking about it. It makes me feel motivated. Time to get to work and start planning my new adventure.