(Published on surfKY News on March 29, 2012)
Since I do not have any little ones around anymore, I am not sure how
popular peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are in this day and time.
But after sending a self-created survey through text messaging to
several of my friends that have kiddos, I discovered that, in my small
circle of friends, the PB&J is now DOA.
I used to love
PB&J sandwiches. I also loved putting peanut butter on bananas,
celery sticks, crackers and many times would just eat it right out of
the jar. These days, I enjoy cooking with peanut butter and I have a
favorite, killer, peanut butter pie recipe that is a hit anywhere I take
it.
During World War II, peanut butter and jelly were on the US
Military ration menus so many soldiers added jelly to the peanut butter
to make it more edible. Peanut butter was also used as an alternative
to meat, since it was inexpensive and high in protein. When the soldiers
returned from the war, the sales of peanut butter and jelly soared in
the US. It also helped that peanut butter was not on the list when the
nationwide food rationing was instituted in the US in 1943.
(Published on surfKY News on March 22, 2012)
One of my favorite episodes of Seinfield is the one about George double dipping a chip at the wake of his girlfriend's aunt. Obviously, George did not think he did anything wrong when he dipped his chip, took a bite then proceeded to dip it again. But his girlfriend's brother Timmy, gets a little bent out of shape and proceeds to scold him about his practice of double dipping.
Every time I am at a get-together and see dip on the food table, I think about this episode and I wonder how many people actually double dip. Anyone that does double dip, is it out of habit? Or is it to spread those microbes in the dip? In reality, double dipping is comparable to kissing everyone at the party. So in the future, you might want to check out the guests and then decide to just spoon a little dip onto a plate to prevent becoming too friendly with the others in attendance.
(Published on surfKY News on March 15, 2012)
After I went through my phase of raising pygmy goats, I decided to try my hand at raising chickens. I borrowed a few friends that had knowledge of how to build roosting boxes, it helped that they also knew how to use a hammer and a drill. We built several boxes and mounted them inside the barn which once housed my goats. I then got feeders and water containers ready for my new chickens. Now, all I needed was chickens.
I made several trips to the local flea market and to a few friends chicken coops and soon acquired my first group of chickens. After introducing them to their home, I started naming each of them-Tammy, Loretta, Tanya, Patsy and Reba. After settling in, they started laying eggs for me and I felt like I was going on an Easter Egg hunt each and every day. The girls loved their big barn and huge field that they could roam in anytime. I was enjoying the chickens so much, I decided to add a few more to my flock-Wynonna, Dolly, Shania and Martina.
(Published on surfKY News on March 8, 2012)
Several weeks ago, a friend sent me an invitation to a website called Pinterest, which is a site for setting up boards to post things that you find while surfing the internet. At first I was not very interested in Pinterest, but I started reading about it and checking out what others are posting to their boards and then I became addicted.
We are creatures of habit and lately, I have noticed that my surfing habits lead me to the same sites day after day. I check my email; I check my twitter feed, CNN, Facebook and a few other favorites. But I am not one to venture too far out of my comfort zone, even if it only consists of a few strokes on the keyboard. But Pinterest gives me the opportunity to “follow” people that I know or that have the same interests as I do. I have found many new sites that interest me just by checking out the boards of the people I follow.
(Published on surfKY News on March 1, 2012)
I have had many animals in my lifetime. I have had gold fish which eventually went belly up and were buried in a swirl of a flush of the toilet. I have had many cats and dogs, pygmy goats and chickens. I currently live in between two farms, one with cows and one with horses. I have close friends that have several reptiles, including snakes, bearded dragons and a gecko. And then I have some friends that have two pet pigs.
Radio, born on Valentine's Day five years ago, had a twin brother named Forrest Gump, but Forrest did not live very long. My friend says that Radio and Forrest were victims of inbreeding and they just could not give up on saving Radio. Their other pig, Porkchop, turned one this past November. Radio and Porkchop live in a Pig Condo with lots of sweet feed and comfortable bedding. Radio prefers straw bedding but Porkchop has a favorite blanket that he has to get just right before he lies down.
(Published on surfKY News on February 23, 2012)
Thirty days hath September,
April, June and November;
All the rest have thirty-one
Save February, she alone
Hath eight days and a score
Til leap year gives her one day more.
Nearly 2000 years ago, Julius Caesar decided to reorganize the calendar and add an extra day every fourth year. Since the Earth takes 365 days, five hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds to travel around the sun, if an extra day was not added, the calendar year would not synchronize with the solar year. Nearly 1600 years later, Pope Gregory XIII made the system even more accurate by ruling that centurial years (1700, 1800, 1900, etc.) should not be treated as leap years unless they were divisible by 400.
(Published on surfKY News on February 16, 2012)
The first time I heard about random acts of kindness was on the Oprah Winfrey Show. She was talking about how people were performing selfless acts for others, for no reason other than because they can, with little or no recognition for the acts. The phrase, “Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty” is claimed to have been written by Anne Herbert onto a place mat at a Sausalito, California restaurant in 1982/1983.
One of my favorite movies is “Pay It Forward”. It stars Helen Hunt, Kevin Spacey and Haley Joel Osment. The plot of the movie is centered on a class assignment to devise and put into action a plan that will change the world for the better. Eleven-year-old Trevor (Osment) develops a plan based on the networking of good deeds, rather than paying back a favor, the recipient “pays it forward” and asks that person to continue to pay it forward, creating a pyramid of acts
