Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Congressional Energy Bill

watch this youtube video on the new Congressional Energy Bill as seen by one of our neighbors Representative Ted Poe of the 2nd District Texas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-LOtKIIKcg

I quite agree with Rep. Poe on how far is congress going to go micromanaging our lives.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

The Inn of the Mountain Gods

View down the fairway at the golf course at the Inn of the Mountain Gods


Grandson hitting his ball in front of the Inn of the Mountain Gods



The Inn of the Mountain Gods is a Casino and Hotel complex on the Mescalero Apache Reservation to the west of Ruidoso, New Mexico. It is just glorious up there. I cannot praise the high level of service of the staff at the Inn nor the food service for the convention highly enough. It was outstanding!!!



Grandson was on the winning team for New Mexico CattleGrowers and WoolGrowers Golf Classic Tournament. A really excited little boy when he called me last night to report how the team did. This is his second year playing in this tournament and the second year he has been on the winning team. I am so pleased that he likes playing golf, it is a good sport, good exercise, and he is a valued member of the First Tee of Pecos Valley.

Sunday, June 8, 2008

beat high fuel prices this summer

My best advice is to stay home!! Don't go doing any long distance driving especially with five dollar per gallon diesel prices in the southwest!

Go to the Army/Navy Surplus store and get a hammock or two, a simple charcoal grill and a couple of ice chests. Make one trip every couple of days to the Dollar Store to restock cold drinks, charcoal sack and starter fluid, and then to the grocery store for more grill stuff and ice.

Turn off the AirConditioning system and stay out of the house til mid October. You can live in swim suits for that long. Just hose them off every once in a while. It helps if you are in them when you do hose them off.

You can get the pre cubed meats and pre chopped veggies and thread them onto bamboo skewers. It only takes a couple of minutes to cook these things fairly well done. Get really creative and thread fruits, veggies, and interesting meats all on the same skewer. Watch closely and remove when tomato wants to fall off.

This way you are cheating the OPEC nations of their sky high oil prices. You are not driving your vehicle more than maybe five miles to the store then back. You are not cooling your house!

Try some shrimp, pineapple cubes, bell peppers, and pearl onions on a skewer. I think you will be surprised at the flavors here. Two foot long skewers should be enough for one person. Meat cubes, celery, pearl onion, and bell pepper are traditional. Try a pineapple chunk next to a pork chunk, Life gets really interesting. You can or not marinade the meats. I like them just sprinkled with a little lemon pepper and salt best.

Just don't go back in that overly hot house!!

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Today's Rant

Click to Mix and Solve

Walk in the crosswalks, do not J-walk! it can get you a ticket or in jail or the hospital most places.

Don't think you can get anything for free either!! Education is not available to everyone. You can only get 125 free credit hours, then you cannot even get a student loan!! It does not matter if you are an exemplary student or not. Go after the Scholarships now!!! get as many as possible lined up before applying for any aid at all for furthering your education.

A couple of years of college or University education will only get you as far as if you hadn't even bothered. You can go flip hamburgers in as many places per day as you have energy to do.

The various States lotteries don't help a bit either. That is just a sham to get people to go to the first year of college or University. Then they are cut off, like permanently. It just makes people hungry for more education but cannot afford it at minimum wage jobs.

Do not believe any of the Financial Officers of the various schools when they tell you "you can do this!", "it is totally covered as long as you keep your GPA over 3.5!" Do not believe anything those lying people say to you about financial affairs.

Monday, June 2, 2008

Red, White and Blue Cheesecake

Red, White and Blue Cheesecake

1/4 cup dry bran cereal crumbs
3 pkgs. (8oz) fat-free cream chesse at room temperature
1 Cup Confectioner's sugar
3 egg whites + 1 egg, separated
3/4 cup fat-free plain yoguart
1 Tbs + 1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp. grated limon peel
1 Tbs. cornstarch
1/4 cp Blueberries
1 Pint medium strawberries, trimmed to uniform size


1. Arrage a rack in the bottom third of the oven. Preheat the oven to 325F. Coat the bottom and side of a 9" springform pan with vegetable oil spray. Sprinkle the crumbs evenly over the pan bottom. Set aside.

2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the cream cheese and sugar. On medium speed, beat until smooth. (If lumps remain, use a spatula to smooth them before proceeding.) Reduce the speed to low, adding the egg whites and egg, one at a time, as you continue to mix. Add the yogurt, vanilla and lemon peel. Mix to incorporate, being careful not to overbeat. Add the cornstarch and mix until just combined. Pour the batter into the reserved pan.

3. Bake for 40 to 45 min. or until the top is well set, but the center is still slightly soft and the edge is light golden brown.

4. Remove the pan from the oven. Run a butter knife around the inner edge, but do not remove the pan side. Let stand to cool for 30 min. before refrigerating. Chill at least 4 hours before serving.

5. Remove the pan side. With the berries, decorate the cake to resemble a flag: Place the blueberries in the upper left, and then arrange the strawberries in horizontal rows to cover the remainder of the cake. Cut and serve.

Sunday, June 1, 2008

American Disabilities Act non functional

I just got a note from a friend telling of one of her friends who was fired from Wal Mart for checking his glucose levels and asking for time to get his meals or snacks in a timely manner in order to maintain good Diabetes glucose control.

He was fired for trying to take care of his health while working to pay his bills!!

http://www.diabetes.org/for-media/pr-ada-urges-congress-pass-legislation-to-end-discrimination-111507.jsp

It seems like the Disabilities act doesn't have any teeth and the courts will not allow for fair hearings.

But Wal Mart is to blame too! They are the "family friendly" employer. They are supposedly an equal employement business. Well, guess what? They fire a guy for doing his job and attempting to take care of his health? All he asked for was breaks every 3 hours to check his glucose and to have a snack.

I had heard from others that they didn't get time to take coffee breaks or lunch breaks, but hadn't thought this happened any more. I thought OSHA had put an end to sweat shops!! Boy was I wrong!! I have not talked to many Wal Mart Associates who get coffee breaks or even lunch breaks. These people are expected to work straight through an 8 hour shift on their feet the entire time. ?????

I recommend we hurt Wal Mart by not shopping there!! I know there will be some expense with this, but we had other places to shop before Wal Mart came into our lives. We may have to pay a bit more for some things elsewhere, but we can and should avoid shopping or patronizing a business that doesn't play by the rules.

Write your congressmen and include the link above about this problem. We can threaten to vote for another person in November if our congressional people won't fix this problem.