Random Thoughts From Marybeth

Talk the Talk

Some of the talk blogging today is about talk radio. (Here and here.) I don't listen to the radio much, usually only when I'm in the car, and if I do listen to talk radio it's usually public radio. I enjoy many of their programs...the non-political ones but I should know by now to change the station when the show has a political theme.

I was driving to the store a few days ago, listening to a discussion on the radio about filibustering. One caller was the mother of two preschool children and she was telling about her worries (that without the ability of a minority party to block judicial nominations) that her daughter would grow up in a country where she wouldn't have the right to choose to have an abortion. My daughter is nine and I don't think this concern has ever occurred to me. I guess I just don't think ahead, coping with the immediate problems of child rearing that each age brings is enough for me to handle without dwelling on their future (one hopes fairly distant future) sex lives.

Her worries for her son were that he would be forced to fight in a war in which he didn't believe. It was then that I began yelling at the radio. Had I missed something or had she been asleep since the early '70s? Last I heard, no one was being forced to join the military. Again, this isn't something that I have stayed up nights worrying about even though I have two sons. If either of them chooses to join (an honorable decision of which I would be proud), I'll worry about their safety then...although don't you worry about the safety of all your children regardless of where they are or what they do? It's just that when they're in the military you have a better idea of where possible danger may come from. The parents of the 9/11 victims probably thought their children were safe in their offices.

Not that she mentioned that she would be worried about his safety, just about him having to do something he didn't agree with. I hope that parenting philosophy doesn't extend to the more mundane aspects of her children's lives...homework, brushing their teeth, showing respect for other people and their property. If it does, that's something she should really be worried about.

Cheesecake for Conor

Today is Conor's 12th birthday and he asked for a cheesecake as his birthday cake.

Cheesecake

40 vanilla wafers
1/4 cup melted butter
1 T. sugar
3 8-oz. packages cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 T. flour
1 t. vanilla
1/4 cup milk
3 eggs

Crust:
Crush the vanilla wafers into fine crumbs. I put them in a large zipper storage bag and had Emma them with a rolling pin but you can use a food processor instead. (I'd rather use the energy - especially if it's someone else's energy - to crush them with the rolling pin than to use my energy to wash the food processor.) Add the 1 T. sugar and the melted butter to the bag/processor and mix well. Press crumb mixture onto the bottom of a springform pan.

Cheesecake:
Beat cream cheese, 1 cup sugar, flour, and vanilla with a mixer. Beat in milk until smooth. Add eggs and stir just until mixed in. (Overbeating can cause cracks in cheesecakes.)

Pour filling into pan*. Place pan in a shallow baking pan and bake at 375 degrees until edges are puffy and done and center jiggles slightly:
8" pan - bake about 40 - 45 minutes
9" pan - bake about 35 minutes

Cool on wire rack for 15 minutes. Run a sharp knife around the edge of the pan to loosen the cheesecake from the side, cool 30 minutes more. Remove the sides of the pan and cool cheesecake completely. Cover and refrigerate for 4+ hours.

*Conor wanted a raspberry swirl cheesecake. The recipes I found said to mix some seedless jam with a portion of the filling and swirl that in (similar to how chocolate marble cheesecakes are made). I had had a raspberry swirl cheesecake once at a restaurant that had more of a jam swirl and wanted to try to duplicate that so I melted 1/4 cup of seedless raspberry jam and swirled that in.

Take Your Kids...

Tomorrow is Conor's 12th birthday. He requested a cheesecake for his birthday cake (not one like his brother got). I'll post the recipe later tonight or tomorrow.

Tomorrow is also Take Our Daughters and Sons To Work Day. It began as Take Our Daughters to Work so that girls could learn about employment opportunities. Boys were included a few years ago because they should have the opportunity to skip school "be encouraged to reach their potential by participating fully in family, work, and community" also.

I work from home on my computer so my kids "go" to work with me all the time. I get much more done when they are in school or at night after they have gone to bed. I have some questions for people who work outside the home and take their kids to work.

Do you actually get anything done on this day? How long before your co-workers spoke to you again? What do you think the kids get out of it? Have you asked them what they learned? Was their answer something work related or more along the lines of "Joe in accounting has hair growing out of his ears."? Why don't they do this in summer when fewer children would miss a day of school? Did you remember to order you official gifts and decorations for the day?

I would like to suggest having a Go to School With Your Kids Day. It could be a real eye-opener.

Proud Mama

Conor brought home his mid-term progress report. All A and B grades (3 A+!) so I'm a proud mama and just a little surprised. It's not that I thought he wasn't capable of getting good grades, I know he is smart. It's just that of my three kids, he's the most difficult to get up and ready for school. When I ask him if he has homework his reaction is about the same as if I had asked him to donate a kidney.

On second thought, I think he would be happier to give up a kidney than he is to do homework...especially if the bed he was confined to afterwards was near a TV and video game console.

Carnival of the Recipes #35 & 36

I collect cookbooks, recipes clipped from various sources and now thanks to the Carnival of the Recipes I also collect links to recipes. I like keeping track of all the recipe submissions by listing them in the extended entry section of my Carnival posts so I can search for recipes by searching the category. I missed posting on time for a couple of Carnivals so it's catch up time!

Carnival of the Recipes #35
Carnival of the Recipes #36

Recipe List for Carnival #35:

Orange Julius
Margaritaville Margaritas
Guacamole
Mango-Habenero dip
Hot Olive-Cheese Puffs
Upstate Artichokes
Penne and Spinach
Pasta Salad
Salad Numero Uno
Swedish Meatballs
Smothered Cabbage and Sausage
Smothered Cabbage and Potatoes
Grease Pizzalets
Chicken Chilli Burgers
Sag Paneer
General Tso's Chicken
Burrito
Spicy Peanut Chicken
Asparagus
New Orleans Braised Onions
Melt In Your Mouth Cookies
Apple Pecan Cake
Apple Pie
Sugar Free Apple Pie
Red Beans and Rice
Sneakeasy's Special Combo Meal (crockpot recipe)
Spicy Lamb Stew
Roasted Vegetable Soup with Goat Cheese
Elephant Stew
Brandied Venison Tenderloin Steaks

Recipe List for Carnival #36:

Frocken Fool
Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting
Frozen Orange Dessert
Chianti-Poached Pears
Cat Litter Cake
Strawberries and Cream Cake
Death by Chocolate cookies!
Fudge Pie
Flan
BLT dip
Almond Tea
Ego's Hula-Hula Beachfloat
Tex-Mex Soup
Black Bean Salad
What NOT to cook : Sam Gyup Sandwich
Tuna Salad Sandwich (The Carnival link is to the blog so I'm adding the link to the post here.)
Mary's Secret Baked Haddock
Chili Beef
Paella
Pork Diane With Chili Salad
Shrimp Jambalaya
Whole Lotta Ribs
Techno Gypsy's Spicy Thai-Like Noodles
UK-Style Shepherd's Pie
Incredibly Delicious Fiesta Chicken
Stovetop Taco Pie
Sweet and Sour Chicken
Cocoa and Paprika-Rubbed Tenderloin
Herbed Rice
simple pot of pinto beans
roasted garlic corn on the cob
Morning Glory Muffins
Easy Cheese Blintzes

Stormy Weather

We're just coming out from tornado and thunderstorm warnings. I haven't heard of any injuries or damage anywhere and most of the storm passed us by. Most of these spring storms seem to follow the same pattern. They split into two parts, one part goes just north of us along the Ohio River and the other part goes just south of us. As much as I want need to move into a larger house, the micro-weather pattern here is one benefit of staying where we are.

Good thing the worst of it passed us. There were reports of large hail and if it had hailed on my new car.... Not that I think hail damage is more dangerous than a tornado or that I don't take the warnings seriously*, the odds of hail just seemed higher than the odds of a tornado.

*By taking it seriously I mean that I told the kids to take cover. I stayed in the kitchen and made chess bars. I don't like my plans to be interrupted and I kept the TV on just in case.

Update: There are some reports of damage coming in. Not sure whether or not there have been any injuries or how severe the damage is yet.

Happy Birthday, Emma!

Today is my daughter's 9th birthday. When she gets home this afternoon we're going to make a Fudge Pie. She asked for that instead of a birthday cake and she also asked to help make it. It's a good thing that the pie only takes about 40 minutes to bake, I think we'll have just enough time to make it between the end of her Brownie troop meeting and the time she needs to leave for her gymnastics class.

Fudge Pie

3 large eggs
1 1/2 c. sugar
1/3 c. flour
1/3 c. cocoa
1/2 c. butter, melted
1/2 tsp. vanilla
3/4 c. pecans
1 unbaked 9" pie shell

Whisk ingredients together the first 6 ingredients. Stir in pecans. Pour into pastry shell. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes or until pie is set, shielding edges with strips of aluminum foil to prevent excessive browning, if necessary.

This is good served with vanilla ice cream.

My oldest son, Trevor, had his 16th birthday. At Emma's suggestion we made him a cheese cake. No, not that kind of cheesecake...this was a block of cheese with some canned cheese spread on top. (If Trevor could create his own personal food pyramid it would look like a wedge of cheddar.)

GIGO

A few people will be racking up some frequent flyer miles at bargain rates. U.S. Airways mistakenly sold tickets for a few cities at $1.86 plus fees. They're blaming this on a "computer glitch".

It made me think about how willing people are to blame errors on computers. We didn't make a mistake, it's the computer's fault! Would this work with any other machine? If it's a nice day and I somehow drive to the park instead of work, will my boss believe that it was due to a "car glitch"?

Watching the Watchers

The Minuteman Project is a group of volunteers who are watching the Mexico/Arizona border and reporting sightings of illegal immigrants to authorities.

The ACLU has labeld the group "vigilantes" and decided that the Minutemen need watching.

"Under the Constitution, every person regardless of immigration status is entitled to due process, and private vigilantes are not permitted to take the law into their own hands," said Lucas Guttentag, Director of the ACLU Immigrants’ Right Project.

If the goal of the Minutemen is to report illegal immigrants to the border patrol, isn't "due process" what they are providing them? And making sure that it happens in a timely manner.

I disagree with the "vigilante" label. From what I have read, volunteers who have any contact with the immigrants (good, bad, or indifferent) are asked to leave. I think Tom Delay's comparison of the Minutemen with a neighborhood watch program is more accurate.

I'm having a hard time understanding the ACLU's logic...American citizens watching their border and reporting an actual crime (illegal immigrants, drug smuggling) is bad. Americans watching other Americans doing this because they may witness a crime (threats or harassment) is good.

Even if the ACLU finds little to report, they have that covered too. "We feel that our presence has already had an impact in terms of deterring illegal behavior and that is why it is so important that we continue our activities through the month of April." (Caroline Isaacs, the executive director of the American Friends Service Committee in Tucson)

Funny, I read her quotation and if I didn't know it came from the ACLU group I could have just as easily believed it was from a Minuteman volunteer. The only difference is that we know there was illegal behavior - immigrants and smugglers crossing the border - before the Minutemen arrived and that it has declined since they have been watching. We don't know that there was illegal behavior by the Minutemen, just that the ACLU thought it was a possibility.

If this is true, maybe the ACLU needs to turn the cameras on themselves if they are so concerned with harassment and illegal activity. With behavior like that, I guess it's no surprise they assume ill intent on the behalf of others.

Morning News

Are all local morning news teams as witless as the ones where I live? They used to really irritate me but the senseless blather doesn't bother me anymore. Maybe I'm getting older and more tolerant. Nah. It's the idea that if I wake up one day with the IQ of a grapefruit I could still find a job working with them.

Tax Day

Worked on taxes this week...wrote the checks to the federal and state treasuries yesterday...mailed it all today. I need a vacation. Unfortunately once those checks clear I won't be able to afford one. I'm settling for a good book and possibly a nap.

Naps are good. Not two-week cruise good, but at least I don't have to worry about finding someone to take care of the cats during it.

What's Up With the Savannah Search?

I kept seeing these weird referrals in my stats. I'm not talking about the kinky-weird, those are common enough that I don't really take much notice of them anymore. I'm talking about referrals from a Google image search. The first picture there is from here but if you click on the image in the search it says it's from here.

This morning is the first time I've seen the picture and I have no idea why Google would think it was on my site. The text under the thumbnail in the search results has the correct URI.

Classic

You scored as Jet Black. You are jet black. You hate the people who are constantly happy and positive. You are mysterious and dark. Jet Black 63% Carrot Orange 63% Royal Violet 63% Turqoise 50% Bright Yellow 50% Gloomy Grey 50% Lime Green 38% Pure White 38% Blood Red 38% Hot Pink 25% Which Crayon Color Are You? created with QuizFarm.com

Found via The Cheese Stands Alone.

Verbal Anarchy

A couple of days ago Michelle Malkin wrote about a political blog that has several ad hominem attacks about her in the comments. I know this type of thing isn't the province of just one side of the political spectrum but it is ironic when it comes from the side that promotes PC behavior and is supposed to be the side that cares about people and their feelings.

Defenders of these comments talk about free speech or say that the blog author doesn't have control over what people post in the comments. I'm all for free speech but this is more like verbal anarchy. Setting limits on language isn't the same as banning the free expression of ideas and opinions...at least not the kinds of ideas and opinions that require thought and actually support a position rather than denigrate someone.

As a reader I can just avoid blogs (left of right) with language that offends me. As a blogger I would like to see weblogs gain more acceptance from the general public as forums for discussion. I don't see this happening as long as this kind of behavior is allowed, or possibly even encouraged, on some of the more popular blogs. Rant and rave all you want, it's your blog but know that you'll only be preaching to the choir. Joe and Jane Public will take one look and think that blogs really are as bad as the MSM says and you will have lost your chance to influence their opinions.

Do you blog to promote ideas or promote yourself? I guess it comes down to keeping your commenting posse happy (and stroking your ego) or trying to make a real difference and risk upsetting some of them by asking them to behave with some civility.

Carnival of the Recipes #34

This week's Recipe Carnival is up at Aussie Wife.

Recipe List:

Mushroom-Onion Focaccia
saute of corn and zucchini
broccoli salad
Sesame Green Beans
Spinach Salad
Tasty Rice
Basic Bread
Dead Dough
lasagna
"Something to Eat with a Nice Zinfandel"
Oven-Fried Whole Wheat Chicken
Chicken Riesling
"See No Weevil" Chili
Home (State) Cooking
Uncle Jack's Fire Steak
Chicken Kabobs
Rotini and Sweet Pepper Primavera
Straight Up Baccala
Quick Spicy Asian Chicken Soup w/ Pot Stickers
Basque baked beans from Louis's Basque
The Devil's Spaghetti
Paul's Crab Quiche
Roast Lamb
Fresh Strawberry Pie
bread pudding
Pope Cake
Raisin Cookies
Chess Bars

Turtle Surprise

I took Emma over to a friend's house about an hour ago. When I was almost home I saw a turtle near the edge of the road. I didn't get a good look at it as I was driving by and assumed it was a box turtle. I pulled over as soon as I safely could and ran back to move it away from the road. (I really like turtles and didn't want one to become roadkill if I could prevent it.)

I was surprised to find that it wasn't a box turtle but was a red eared slider. So, instead of just moving him away from the road I brought him home. There's a wooded area with a small creek behind our house and we took him there. I hope he decides to hang around there...it's better than the road and we might have a chance of seeing him again.

Chess Bars

A sugar pie-like bar cookie. (Good thing.) And it's very easy. (Even better!)

Chess Bars

1 box plain yellow cake mix
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
1 egg
1 box confectioner's sugar
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix cake mix, butter and 1 egg; press into 9x13" baking pan. Combine sugar, cream cheese and 2 eggs. Pour over cake mix mixture. Bake 35 minutes or until golden brown. Cut into squares when cool. (Store in refrigerator.)

SlashNOT

You've heard of Slashdot, or at least the nerds among you have. Now there's SlashNOT. It looks similar in a Twilight Zone sort of way. It has a poll - the current one is "What do you think about the iPod?" (Possible answers - It's my favorite type of pod; it r0x0rs; it's a mind control plot; Still doesn't make Apple cool; Journalists seem to like it; waiting for lower priced ePod; Is there a superbowl shuffle?; Albatross)

It has articles.

SCRaTCH writes: Leading music distributors have announced that they have joined forces in the latest attempt to rid the internet of the parasitic plague dubbed "File Sharing".

In an astonishingly original report published today, it has been revealed that they are going to destroy File-Sharing by the end of next month by only releasing music that is of such poor quality, no-one would want to download it in the first place.

Satire or just an accurate observation of the music industry?

Dual Duel

YaGoohoo!gle - type in a search term and get a split screen with Google results on one side and Yahoo! results on the other. If you click on any of the links they will open in that frame so you may want to open a new window if you want to see the whole page.

Of course my test search was for "marybeth" (I say "of course" because I am that vain that I search for myself first). This blog shows up (at the time of this posting) as #2 in Google and #1 in Yahoo!

First Monday of the Month Book Club

Last month I joined a book club at a local bookstore. The book we read for that meeting was "The Jane Austen Book Club" by Karen Joy Fowler. I enjoyed that book and have since read another one by her, "Sister Noon".

The book for this month is "The Hot Flash Club" by Nancy Thayer. I didn't enjoy this one nearly as much. It was okay, a quick read and entertaining enough if I didn't think about it too much...maybe I shouldn't have read next month's book (Pride and Prejudice) right after it. Thayer's book had enough problems without having a much better one to compare it to.

The story is implausible, four women meet at a party and form a club to help solve each other's problems. Who begins sharing personal problems with strangers that quickly? Anyway, I can overlook a big implausibility, it's the details that bother me.

One character is an MIT professor, a paleobiologist who specializes in the study of trilobites. At one point she is thinking to herself, "No one knew why, 500 million years ago, all trilobites had been decimated." Decimated? Only 10% were killed off? Everyone else thinks they became extinct...she must be a super scientist to have discovered some still living.

Another character is an artist and tells a young woman about an artist named Maud Lewis. She says Lewis was from Quebec...but she was born and lived her entire live in Nova Scotia.

A third character is a vice president of a large company. She opens an email attachment and gets a virus on her company computer. I know that people do dumb things but don't spend half the book telling me how savvy she is and then have her do something like that. But that's not the worst of it. The virus sounds like a combination between the Secret Admirer virus and SirCam and after it executes by sending random files to everyone in her address book it puts an icon for itself on her desktop. What a nice virus, making it so easy to find. The woman gets in trouble for the emails but no one says anything to the company's IT department for its poor security.

These are just little details but there were more of them than I've mentioned...enough of them to be bothersome to me. Inaccuracies, either from poor writing or poor editing, make it hard for me to stay focused on the story the author is trying to tell.

New Phone

My husband had to go on a business trip to St. Louis last week. While he was there he won a new cell phone - a except in my sleep.

I showed him how to make ringers for it, something he couldn't do with his last phone (which had the most annoying ringer...I'm not sad at all to see that one go.) The first one we made was of Doris Day singing "Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better)". This is for calls from me. I'm not sure if he's mocking me with that or is just acknowledging my innate greatness. I'm leaning to thinking the former but he denies it.

Carnival of the Recipes #33

This week's Carnival is up at TexasBestGrok. There's a collection of tasty recipes and Heinlein quotations. Wow.

Recipe List:

Another Tight Sweater for the "Blog-Warriors" - drink with Kahlua, Frangelico, Amaretto, whipped cream
Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster - drink
Marge's Root Beer
finding the right wine to accompany your food
Pickled eggs
Butterflied Party Franks
Caviar Dip
Spinach Souffle in 3's
Bacon Wrapped, Pecan Stuffed Dates
Tamales
Bonnie Prince Charlie Chicken
Southwestern Stir-Fried Shrimp
Crown Roast of Pork with Apple and Sausage Stuffing and Gravy
Garden Chicken and Stuffing
Meatloaf Cake
Quick Shrimp Marsala
Mediterranean Vegetable-Cheese Pie
Macaroni and Cheese
Olive and Kimchi Omelet
Daffy, Donald, and Me
Shrimp Etouffee
Le Frutta del Diavolo del Mare
New England Clam Chowder
Nordic Stew
Vegetable Stew
Chickpea Stew
Thai Style Chicken Soup
Fine Soup
Caldo Verde (Portuguese Kale Soup)
Avocado and Cheese Sandwiches
Barbecue Shredded Beef
Silver Morning Sandwiches
Shortcut Mole
Pureed Baked Sweet Potatoes
Chilis and Cheese Grits
Peach Salsa
Orzo and Roasted Vegetable Salad
Aunt Lil's Sunshine Cake
Chocolate Dream Cake
Ginger Chocolate Chip Cookies
Gooey Cake