THREE OF A KIND.......

me......1951

the daughter......1976

the granddaughter.......2008

THE PERFECT LOAF..................

Today I made the perfect loaf of bread...I don't know how I managed to do that but since I started baking this no-knead version this has to be the very best looking loaf...as for the taste I can't say. I was very tempted to keep it and immediately upon removing it from the oven slather it with Plugra butter but this loaf was destined for the "K" family to the left of us....Big "D" was ever so kind to drive me to the grocery store yesterday as she had more gas in her car then I did. We are still in the middle of a very big gas shortage that they say will last until October 13th. Me and the Boss were able to fill up the Bug today after waiting in a very long line for 40 minutes.....in the heat......and had to pay $4.40 a gallon. This is $1.10 higher then friends and family are paying up in Jersey.....A few weeks back "D" said she has never met anyone who thought New Jersey was the Promise Land.....referring to me, ofcourse.......after today and it costing $49.50 to fill up a V.W. Bug I do believe it is the Promise Land.....and we weren't even on empty!

IT'S MIDNIGHT AND I'VE LOST THE DOG.....

every now and then I'll get up late at night and I can't find the dog....That happened tonight when I looked in all his usual spots, the kitchen by the air conditioning vent, the bathroom by the air conditioning vent, the bedroom by the air conditioning vent.....he's nowhere to be found. I start to panic. This happens every time. He's 135 pounds he's big and he's white. Only I could lose the dog......the dog is never really gone, I just think he's gone. We don't have a large house but I always seem to get fooled....He was sound asleep sprawled out on the L.R. rug. When am I going to learn..................

SEEN AROUND TOWN..........

BIG GAS SHORTAGE HERE IN COBB COUNTY...

So me and the Boss have been stuck home the past couple of days due to the gas shortage here in the home state. With the bug running on 1/4 of a tank we can't go too far. When I did make a short trip this morning up to the fabric store....(they had $17.95 Simplicity patterns for $1.99!) I noticed that all the stations I passed had up yellow tape and bags over the pumps....No gas for us. Luckily that 1/4 tank will get me up to Publix atleast 4 times so we aren't going to starve, a sigh of relief from the Big Guy......we heard tonight on the news that it could be another 7 to 10 days before gas is delivered.....why, we don't know. I just got in from taking the Boopster for his midnight walk and picked up the paper that they throw, uninvited, onto the front lawn. It's called the East Cobb Neighbor. Front page headlines read...."Panic at the Pumps"...with a picture of a women, arms flailing and mouth opened yelling at someone, cars all around. The smaller headline read...."anxious consumers the reason for the gas shortage"....Oh, I had to read this. It seems a Mr. Richard Cobb who is the executive director for the Georgia Petroleum Council said that the gas shortage in Cobb County and Atlanta is the results of anxious consumers, not the Gulf refineries that were shut down prior to the hurricane. I guess he's not in favor of off shore drilling.....He went on to say that "worried" drivers who continue to "top off" their tanks have drained supplies and caused gas stations to shut down.....Okay Mr. Cobb, then how do you explain that the day before the hurricane our gas prices were around $3.55 a gallon and the day after the hurricane....that would be one day later, the price spiked up to $4.19......I guess those station owners knew all the people would be topping off their tanks....Some people are waiting in lines up to an hour, cars are in line 30 deep....I don't know about you but I wouldn't wait 5 minutes to "top off" my tank just to keep it on full..When I was out today I did notice that it looked like a Sunday morning on the roads, no cars........I wonder what Cobb County Mr. Cobb is talking about?

THE DREAM HOUSE......

Loveladies....Long Beach Island, N.J.............................it has an elevator!

AROUND THE HOUSE.......

Real "Ivy League" ivy....compliments of Cornell

No shortage of big trees in Atlanta....we must have over 20 on our front lawn.......

A fond reminder of our Jersey home.....the corner of Jefferson and Sycamore.

Rocks...................on our pine island

Always Patriotic

An old re-cycled window found at Lakewood Fairgrounds flea market....My attempt at painting!

I love the American flag.......

Broccoli and Cheddar Strudel.......

Just when you thought you hated broccoli along comes a recipe that can really pack those pounds on...But who cares, it is fabulous. With the gas shortage down south this week I've had to stay home and when I'm home I cook. Today as a little afternoon "snack" I tried this strudel. It's simple to make and the taste and texture is wonderful.....

I preheated the oven to 375 and lined my baking pan with parchment. I lightly cooked up 1/2 head of broccoli, that I trimmed most of the stems from, in salted water until slightly tender. After cooking I removed all the stems and roughly chopped up the heads. I used a little olive oil and some butter and cooked for about 5 minutes 2 cloves of diced garlic and 2 sliced thinly leeks, using only the white and light green parts. I then added to the broccoli one egg, the garlic and leeks, salt and pepper, one teaspoon of Dijon mustard and 2 cups of grated cheddar cheese. I used about 8 sheets of phyllo dough brushing each piece with melted butter. I placed this mixture onto the phyllo sheets and rolled it up leaving the seam side down. I baked it for about 25 minutes then let it sit for about 10 minutes before cutting it.....You will not be disappointed...

COME ON GET HAPPY.......

SOPHIE READY TO AUDITION FOR THE REMAKE OF THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY......

GHIRARDELLI CHOCOLATE WHIPPED CREAM CAKE!!

What's for desert?? That's what I hear from the husband every night about 2 minutes after finishing dinner...trying to keep our weight under a ton I usually make something light and not too crazy with calories. I threw that out the window today when I made a devils food chocolate whipped cream cake...daughter bought me a while back a great cake pan from Williams Sonoma called a MaryAnn pan. It bakes with an indentation in the bottom of the cake and when it's baked and turned upside down you have this wonderful big well to fill with all kinds of good stuff. My stuff of choice today was chocolate whipped cream. Finished off with a drizzle of melted Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate....The best part about this cake is it's not too sweet. God knows how many calories it's filled with but we'll just forget about that...By using real heavy whipping cream and the bittersweet chocolate it makes for a very interesting chocolate combination....I did cheat again a'la Sandra Lee (how did she get her own show??) It's very easy to make and as you can see it's picture perfect......Milk anyone?

1 pkg. of Duncan Hines Moist Devils food cake mix
follow instructions on box then add in 1/2 cup of
Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate/or Nestle's chocolate chips
Bake according to directions.

for the filling.....
1 pkg of instant chocolate pudding (I used sugar-free, we are trying to diet!)
1 cup cold milk
mix the two with a hand mixer until thickened, this happens very fast because you are using only 1/2 the amount of milk needed..
Whip until thick 1/2 pint of whipping cream. I usually whip the cream before the pudding so I don't have to change the mixer blades.
Fold the two together and spread inside the top of the cake.

Microwave 1/4 cup of chocolate chips then drizzle over the cream filling using a fork.......

STAY OFF THE SCALE THE FOLLOWING MORNING.......

GRANDPARENTS.COM......SHAME ON YOU.

I have been seeing commercials the last couple of weeks advertising a website called http://www.grandparents.com/ so I thought I would check it out, being a somewhat new grandparent and all.....it's suppose to have fun things you can do with your grand kids and even though Miss B isn't old enough to do some stuff I thought I would read up for the future....What a surprise I had when I went onto the site and the first thing I see is a big article entitled "Grandparents and Grandchildren Unite for Obama"....my first thought was they're kidding right? I mean this is a website for grandparents to go and connect with other grandparents and read up on things to do with the kids.....I didn't expect one of the activities would be "Me and Grandma go voting"......why are they bringing children into politics. I thought it was extremely inappropriate. Today in the same spot on the page titled "news of the day" is an article about John McCain at the Columbia University forum talking about boomers getting involved in the community. A far cry from endorsing a candidate. This is one website I will not be going back to for sure.

THE "BIG" little "CHICKENS" OF MARIETTA......

When we first moved to Marietta some 24 years ago it was a bit tough getting around. It's a big place to begin with, far bigger then any towns we grew up around in Jersey. And to add to the confusion they tend to name different streets by the same name. Roswell Road being one of the famous ones. For years I always had to ask, when getting directions "Which Roswell Road"?? But that brings us to asking for directions. You always get directions to anywhere by starting at the "Big Chicken". You are either north, south, east or west of that damn chicken. As "D" calls it.....a Southern Icon. I don't know exactly how tall it is but if I were guessing I would put it at 3 story's high. On a good day it has googly eyes that roll around and a big beak that opens and closes, on a good day. Beneath the chicken is a KFC.......Even Tom Snyder on his old late night talk show has mentioned the Big Chicken....I don't know about it being an Icon, I would call it a roadside oddity. So in honor of this big bird and stealing the idea from New York City and their painted cows the town of Marietta erected 15 of these Lil' Chickens (their words not mine) and positioned them nicely around the town square. Today me and the favorite neighbor went down to check them out and also have a lovely lunch at one of the quaint restaurants on the square. I have to say, and not only because I'm a Yankee, that dressing up the cows made more sense...The chickens are very cute and certainly colorful but how much can you do with a big triangular blob with a beak. We still had a ton of fun and took lots of pictures for your viewing pleasure. The best part of the day....ice cream sundaes from Brusters on the way home!!

PTMS.............

DON RICKLES................
THE BIG BOSS..........I'M JUST SAYING..
Sophie says "Who in the hell is this guy and please tell me we're not related"

I slept today until 12:30.......I just couldn't wake up. Finally I staggered up, turned on the t.v. to check out the poll numbers and promptly fell back asleep on the couch. The Boss got up, as he is the late sleeper in this family, and told me to go back into bed which I didn't argue with.....Around 2:00 daughter called and I managed to wander back into the kitchen and make us some lunch.....This is strange behavior even for me as I usually can just bound up out of bed and immediately be ready to go...Why was today different?? Then I realized I was suffering from PTMS.....or as we call it here at the house.....Post Traumatic Mike Syndrome. You see last night I tried to give the Big Guy some relief and I made that twice-weekly call to DAD.....that would be the "Big Boss".....at 87 years old his favorite sport is marathon talking. The husband calls him 2 times a week at which time he talks for well over 2 hours. I don't think women could even find that much to talk about. It seems Grandpa repeats himself over and over and over again.....I had to hear it for myself. The phone call started something like this....."Hey Sue, I woke up this morning and there was snow on the ground, I hope the tomato plants didn't die"....He loves to call me "Hey Sue" and usually starts every conversation this way. When I asked could it have been hail on the lawn he quickly assured me that no, it was snow....This was the start of a phone call that lasted one hour and twenty minutes....And it went downhill from there....He was all over the map. I heard about two Jersey cops that died this week while on the job. I don't know, one was speeding going 93 mph another had a 16 year old in the car that was killed. He thought the cop might have been driving too fast? Apparently Cindy McClain (as he calls her) was 43 when she married John McClain 30 years ago.....that would make her 73 and we all know that John McCain is 20 years older then his wife.......He prefers her hair down to up in a pony tail....then there was the Mayor of Newark, the infamous Clark Circle that is no longer there because they installed traffic lights to help you get around the circle without getting killed, the price of chicken breast at the Shop Rite....Cremation was a topic about how cheap someone must be to send a family member off to be cremated without the use of a coffin....then came the family members that he's unhappy with...Cousin Judy repaved her driveway when the driveway she had was perfectly fine and her air conditioning unit is too large and who owns all the cars in her driveway....Cousin Georgie's father just died and he went directly to Atlantic City to gamble and why doesn't he move into his fathers house in the retirement community.......Oh, wait he can't because Georgie has two small children (no he doesn't, Georgie is in his 60"s)......He was never any good anyway, always was asking his father for money and what do you think about him collecting Social Security......Can you get the picture? Is your head spinning? Have you gotten a migraine just by reading this? The man sucks the life right out of you...I know what your thinking that he's getting old and you should give him a break....Well, this might be true but he's been telling these stories for years. Cousin Judy must have repaved that damn driveway 10 years ago....Georgie has always been a bum and Big Mike has his own weather system going on over on Villa Place....I have alot more patience then the husband so I guess I may have to start making more of these calls....My head might hurt for a few days but atleast I will know things *not* to do when I get old......And a note to daughter....when it's summer and I call and tell you that there is snow on the lawn, please, have me put in a home.

WHO'S THE REAL OBAMA??

My friends always tell me I have too much time on my hands and that may be true. I like to think of us as not being in the middle class but being in the "leisure class".....but with alot of time comes alot of information. I like to look at it as my personal responsibility to get this information out to you... I have refrained from blogging about Obama before now but I can't sit still any longer and not comment on this guy....First of all take a look at that picture.I don't know about you but I see one smug asshole. Plus I found out last night while watching his interview with Bill O'Reilly that not only does he plan to raise taxes on people making $250,000. and above, but he plans to raise it to 50%!!! That's more then ridiculous, this isn't Europe.....But forget what he looks like, he probably thinks he's just more important then he really is.....A legend in his own mind.....I get daily e-mails from a site called http://www.newsmax.com/ ......Saturday night around midnight they sent me a message about Obama having financial ties to the Saudis....there was also a link to a site called http://www.theobamafile.com/ With again, too much time on my hands I decided to check it out....It is a comprehensive look at this candidate, a timeline of everything from his family to his education at Harvard (that's where those wacky Saudis come into play) to his policies and everything else you could possibly want to want to know about this guy....Did I believe all that I read?? Well, let me just say for years now I have been saying that whatever the National Enquirer has on their front page is usually a story that eventually is true....You can read for yourself and decide or do what I did, start to question this stuff....I also came across a site called http://www.publicallies.org/ this is a national organization that both Barry and Shelly were on the founding board of and the Executive Directors of in Chicago. The organization recruits young people (described as "under-represented backgrounds) to train them for "community leadership" positions....very noble I suppose. Some of the financial contributors in the government sector, and there are very few, are.....City of Wilmington, Delaware Department of Health and Social Services, Delaware Department of Labor and the University of Delaware....Hey, wait a minute...Where is Joe Biden from?

THE GIANT BUZZARDS OF GEORGIA.....

As I have said before I have had to start walking the Boo out front since his leg was getting worse by the day....I got the brain storm a few days ago to bandage up the leg with the infamous "Ace bandage" and it seems to be working. It keeps his leg from buckling under his own weight. What does this have to do with buzzards......nothing. Except I was bringing Boo into the house today and as I was walking up the front steps I see out of the corner of my eye something very large sitting on the grass on the side of the house. I mean large....really big. I try to distract the dog so he doesn't rip my arm out of the socket and take chase. Like I said he's getting old, he didn't even see it. I pushed him into the house and ofcourse ran for the camera. Back outside the thing was still just sitting there. It was the biggest bird I have ever seen. The size of a small child. I got closer and closer....no zoom lens on the camera. At first I thought it was a wild turkey, as my good friend Crazy J from Jersey has wild turkeys in her cul de sac and I thought maybe that's what it was.....So I then go and do the next best thing. I go next door to Big D's house to get her opinion because by this time it had flown up into her tree......She is my mentor and expert on everything Southern......I thought for sure it was some strange bird indigenous to this region.....although I have lived here for 24 years and have never seen anything quite like it.... "D" follows me to the side of her house and with pure disgust in her voice she says....."That would be a Buzzard and they have those all over the world"........

THE SARAH PALIN SAGA....WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DAY MAKES.

The Big Guy has adjusted his thoughts on the Governor....yesterday we heard, as did the whole world, that the Governors 17 year old daughter is pregnant....This has not gone over well with the higher up...that would be the husband not the Democrats. The one thing I did notice the day of the original announcement was one unhappy child standing on that stage. I mentioned it to the boss and he said she probably isn't looking forward to possibly having to move to Washington. As a Mom I knew something more then that was going on. I saw a young girl that has had more responsibility put on her then she cares to have, while her mother is off running a state. Is she in charge of the younger siblings? You see this kind of thing with that wacky Duggar Family with the 16 or 17 or 18 kids. I lost count. Mrs. D. drops them out then passes them on to the next oldest child...Talk about building resentment. It is admirable to be a women, have a family and have a career but you also have to put those kids first. You can't give birth then pass them off for someone else to raise them....I have the same feelings for putting your babies in day care....not happening in this house. We will give the Governor the benefit of the doubt but it's not looking good. We're hoping John McCain didn't make a hasty decision or a decision for the wrong reasons. I just have to say that daughter is turning 33 next month and she calls everyday sometimes 2 times a day...just to check in. I'm thinking we must have done something right as parents.......And as for the Duggars, they are expecting #18 in January of 09'......someone please, make those people stop!!