THE NEW V.P. PICK......

Yes, that's right the big guy is smitten with the Governor of Alaska...Ever since John McCains announcement yesterday he hasn't been able to stop talking about her. I have to say I'm pretty impressed with her also. Daughter thought it was a lame choice but I think when she learns more about this lady she might come around. Some seem to think he picked her just to get the women's vote. He could have picked Tom Selleck if he wanted to do that......Some are saying he's crazy, others are saying he's brilliant....This is what I think.....you probably know by now that she's 44 and the mother of 5 children, the new baby has Down Syndrome. Her son enlisted in the Army last year on September 11th. and will go to Iraq this year on September 11th. She was 2nd. runner up in the Miss Alaska pageant and she's a life long member of the NRA, right there is a big hit with the men.........what you probably don't know is she was about to give a speech in Dallas in April when her water broke right before going on stage.....she was having contractions...but she went ahead and gave a 30 minute speech then went to the airport for a commercial flight back to Alaska where she gave birth to her son....and then.......she was back on the job 3 days later!!! Can Joe Biden even come close to that?? Don't think so.....When she became Governor the previous Governor had a private plane (I'll assume at the tax payers expense) she went ahead and sold it on E-Bay....this is one smart cookie...she has a sea-plane, she hunts, fishs, plays hockey and was on the cover of Vogue.....but more importantly she managed to get corrupt politicians (Republicans, her own party) out of office...I think she's just what this country needs....and if we find out she can also ride a Harley, well, I'll be expecting divorce papers in the mail.........

THE REASON MITT WAS PASSED OVER FOR V.P.

No...it has nothing to do with him being a Mormon or looking like a used car salesman. No, it seems Mitt is on the hot seat with the ASPCA folks....apparently he saw National Lampoons Vacation once too often....back in the same year 1983, Mitt took the fam on a vacation from Boston to Canada, a 12 hour ride. He loaded the kids into the wagon and I guess for lack of space, no other logical reason, he put the family dog in a crate up on the roof......Yes, you read that right. Poor Seamus the family Irish Setter got put in a crate and got strapped to the roof of the car....FOR A 12 HOUR DRIVE!!!!! With that kind of sense how did this man become a billionaire or how ever much he is worth......I hadn't heard this story all during the primary and only read about it today in an editorial in the Times...I guess they were holding back just in case he was chosen as V.P. Shame on you Mitt......

VERN YIP.......IN THE FLESH.

We finally made the trip up to the outlet mall today after putting it off for many months. With the price of gas (yes, even a V.W. Bug costs $50.00 to fill) and the horrible heat we managed to miss the Memorial Day sales and the 4th of July sales......with a Williams Sonoma gift card burning a hole in my pocket I insisted we drive up to Dawsonville this holiday weekend....It didn't disappoint...Fabulous sales, many purchases, including those Madras Sperry Top Siders I've been wanting forever, and a Vern Yip sighting....We were wandering the aisles of the Pottery Barn outlet when I kept seeing this guy, handful of sale tags in hand, zig zagging between all the furniture bargains......My first thought was "Hey, that guy looks just like Vern Yip".....I think I even must have said that out loud, to no one...then I thought, how ridiculous, what in the world would Vern Yip be doing at the Pottery Barn outlet in Dawsonville? That was a dumb question for even me to ask! First he's a decorator and second he's from Atlanta.....that would be two good reasons why he was there......I say to the big guy...."Hey, I just saw Vern Yip"....to which he replied...."Who the Hell is Vern Yip".....and he promptly pushed his cart in the opposite direction...I, ofcourse, followed Vern and caught up with him in the lamp aisle. I have to report that he is an extremely pleasant man and very friendly. We chatted for a minute and when I told him the husband didn't know who in the Hell he was he just laughed, I explained that the husband is not really into HGTV........a nice unexpected celebrity sighting and a good day all around......

HOW TO TRANSPORT A MASSIVE DOG......

TOP DOWN......................

VINCENT D'ONOFRIO......AN EMMY WORTHY PERFORMANCE.

My favorite t.v. actor of all time is Vinnie D'Onofrio.....yes, that fat guy from Full Metal Jacket. In his defense, he is in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the actor who gained the most weight for a movie role.....What a great excuse to eat!!......... Anyhoo, the season finale of Law and Order Criminal Intent was on last night. It was so good I watched it twice, at 9:00 and midnight. The writers brought back old story lines and old characters to make the viewers think Goran is a serial killer. He was brilliant especially when he was face to face with Captain Ross and Ross confronted him on being the killer. The look he gave the Captain was priceless, a look only Vinnie could have...... I do watch all the Law and Orders but CI happens to be my very favorite. I was surprised when NBC took it off their lineup to move it to the USA network considering all the crap that's on t.v.
Vinnie isn't just an actor, he's movie quality, not television quality. The other actors on the other Law and Order franchises can't come close to his acting ability. He is so convincing as a nut that you would assume he must be a tad like that in real life, but not if you see other things he has done on the big screen.....He's probably wacky yes, crazy, no......He is perfectly paired with Katherine Erbe as Detectives Goren and Eames...to see this tiny person always trying to protect this huge guy is brilliant casting.....If Hollywood was smart his name will be first on next years list of best actors for the Emmy Awards.....and in the meantime I will be spending the rest of the summer watching all 65+ episodes I have on tape......pass the snacks.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOO.................

Today is the Boopster's 10th. birthday.....It's hard to believe that it has been ten years (on October 31st.) since we rescued him from a mud pit with no shelter and no water up in the good old North Georgia mountains...We had gone the weekend before and after looking over the place and seeing Boo's mother and father in an old chicken wire fenced in area, matted fur beyond belief, we left without getting a pup....There were only two left, Boo and his scrawny litter mate. We talked about him all week about the cons of getting a pedigree dog living in such awful conditions. The people were nice enough, country folk and Boo's parents were "herding" dogs for their sheep, but it still wasn't any place were you would buy a dog, let alone one that came with papers..... I also, for some strange reason, had a hard time deciding that if we did buy him what would we call him?? I have no idea why this was confusing me so......On Friday the 30th...a day before our 28th. wedding anniversary (yes, we were married on Halloween) I was walking into the post office and a women was walking out. I held the door for her and noticed a sweatshirt she was wearing.....There it was in big orange and black letters....BOO.......perfect I thought, we'll call him Boo.....So on Halloween 1998 we drove the two hours back to that ratty old farm and Boo was there waiting for us....The farmer tried to make us a "good deal" if we took both dogs off his hands but we declined and left with only the Boopster.....On the ride home we stopped at a Hardee's and got him some mashed potatoes and gravy.....he seemed very happy and spent the rest of the ride home with his chin resting on the husbands shoulder.....That night he slept behind my head on my pillow shivering and shaking and then moved on over the years to just getting into bed between us....At 135 pounds we had to finally break down and upgrade to a king size bed...When he could no longer make that jump onto the bed we went out and bought those fancy doggie steps...they collasped under his weight on the first try.........Ten years have gone by very fast. He's been, at times, a royal pain in the ass, and most times a wonderful companion...He took away Buster's loneliness and tormented him all at the same time. He became second in command and the one that could most scare away the Fedex man....There was the time when the mailman came to the door to deliver a package and when the husband answered Boo was behind him and promptly stood up and put his paws on the husband's shoulder, yes he's that tall...... Poor Wang thought we were harboring a bear.....Boo hasn't been doing to good these days. He's having trouble walking and we realize that he's getting up there in age.....We hope next year this time we will be celebrating birthday #11 but in the meantime I promise to tend to his every needs....that includes cooking him chicken when he doesn't feel like eating his dog food, taking him out the front porch so he does'nt have to climb those big back stairs, even if it's 3:00a.m. and raining....and letting him have as many cookies as he wants....HAPPY BIRTHDAY BIG GUY...........

GIADA'S HOMEMADE RAVIOLI......MY VERSION.

I have made Giada's ravioli before and they were good but not great. Your typical cheese ravioli with not much taste. Even after seasoning the ricotta it fell short on flavor. So tonight I tried something new and it was a hit. I did make my own dough, something Giada doesn't do. She uses wonton papers and I think that's cheating. And believe me I love to cheat.... I saw one of her shows where a relative in Italy made the dough from scratch and it looked very simple. It's just flour and water, how hard could that be??......and then I decided to make a meat filling. We love veal and I was lucky to find just a half pound package of ground veal at Publix on Sunday. This is what I did with it........
butter and olive oil to saute the onion and veal
1/2 pound ground veal
1/2 medium onion finely chopped
1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup Italian bread crumbs
1 egg
dough........
2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup of very hot water
saute the onion for about 5 minutes and then add the veal until pink color is gone, do not brown.
Remove from heat and add the egg, cheese, bread crumbs and salt and pepper. Pulse in food processor until a smooth consistency, set aside.

add 1 cup of very hot water to flour and mix until it forms a dough, I used my Kitchen Aid with the dough hook. Form into a rectangle and cut into 3 individual pieces. Work with one piece at a time and keep the rest covered in saran wrap. I formed the piece into a log shape then, on a floured board, I rolled out the dough horizontally first until it was about 18" wide then rolled it vertically until it was about 8". Drop a heaping teaspoon of the veal mixture on the middle of the dough working evenly from left to right. You should have room for 7 or 8 ravioli. Fold over the dough from top to bottom and use your finger to make an indentation between each veal section. You can now use a ravioli cutter or a pastry wheel to cut your squares. Place the ravioli on a corn meal dusted plate. You can freeze them at this point if your not going to cook them all. Bring salted water to a boil then slip in half the ravioli at a time. Cook for 5 minutes, they will float to the top. Serve with your favorite sauce........These are really tasty, Boo even enjoyed them.......
One more thing.....the original recipe for this can be found on the Foodnetwork site under the name Ravioli Caprese.

GEORGIA IN THE NEWS............AGAIN.

Can we go a week without some nut making news down here in the Peach State.....today's news conference on Fox News showed two boobs from North Georgia claiming that they found "BigFoot".....of course they won't disclose where in Georgia they found it (more then likely in Cobb County) but they do have it in their freezer until further tests can be done on it.....This is almost as embarrassing as when the Governor and his Peeps held a prayer vigil to pray for rain....And they say people from Jersey are crazy....

SOPHIE MEETS GREAT GRANDPA.........

We flew in from Jersey last night and we already miss the girls....We had a wonderful 2 weeks babysitting Miss S. and seeing the daughter. During the week we went to Great-grandpa's house for him to meet our little lady. Long story as why it took a year for him to see her.......As soon as he saw her he remarked that she looked exactly like daughter did when she was little.....so his memory is still sharp. She behaved beautifully despite the fact that Grandpa does not turn on his air conditioning. Our time went by far to fast and we are already talking about when we will be returning.....We're hoping that on one of these trips the baby will recognize us when we get off the plane. It still takes her a few days to get used to us.....which is good considering that most people never get used to us....except for the cat.....the cat still loves me!!

AARP MODEL SEARCH.......VOTE NOW!!!

Hard to believe I'm over 50, where does the time go........I know, it's all in the hair dye....Approaching 58 in October I am a subscriber to every old age persons handbook....AARP magazine. In the last issue I saw where they were having a contest to pick their next "over 50" models for an upcoming publication. I tried to enter my dear friend Janice's picture, as she is a bit older then me and looks absolutely fabulous, but you can not enter someone other then yourself. Yes, that's right, only you can enter yourself......seems like you could be construed as being full of yourself....Okay, Denise, I know what your thinking......Anyhoo, I thought I'm going to Jersey and the daughter takes great pictures so why not. They ask that you send in a head shot so today we had a back yard photo shoot. First I did daughter for her pictures to be used when she goes into New York for her "extra" work in the movie and t.v. business.....yes, she does work as an extra....Where's Law and Order?? She could play the dead person......Then she took pictures of me. We couldn't decide so below are our 6 choices for best picture. Ofcourse there's my favorite hat shots, we love our hats what can I say.... And then the famous "George Clooney" head tilt......Please vote and let us know what shot I should send into AARP.......Who knows, I could make the cover of their real people model issue......or not.

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