“You know… PO-TA-TOES… boil em’, mash em’, stick em’ in a stew?”

Anyone who has read my bio might have discovered that the potato is my absolute favorite food. It is a wonderful vegetable full of meaty goodness! It’s everything the body needs! Ireland proved this in the 1800’s with a substantial portion of their population existing solely on a potato diet. Sadly for them, in 1845 their entire crop failed for six straight years due to an airborne fungus. Thus began what became known as “The Irish Potato Famine”. During the course of the famine, over 1 million Irish men, women and children perished from starvation. Another 1 million Irish immigrated to the United States to escape the death & misery taking place in their native country. So if you’ve ever wondered how America obtained such a rich and wonderful Irish tradition/population, you can thank the potato for that!

Although I do enjoy my potatoes boiled, mashed, even in a stew… fried taters holds the key to my taste buds. I’m not talking about french fries here, I’m talking about pan fried potatoes! Over the years, through trials and tribulation, I’ve perfected my dish of choice.

What’s this you ask… Mike can cook? You can wager your knickers I can cook, better than Wendy too! Heck, I’d be willing to bet she would admit it if you asked her! My taters have become somewhat of a family legend. Everyone keeps asking me what I season them with but I shall impart that knowledge to only a “select few”. So without further delay, I present you with 10 reasons why my taters RULE!

* Nice meaty chunks… Pure olive oil is the only way to go.

* Onions diced, minced, pulverized. Adds the flavor without the “Onion Chunks”. Extra sharp Cracker Barrel cheese shredded.

* Porterhouse steaks… seasoned to perfection!

* Cooked at a super-secret temperature setting to ensure just the right crispy texture.

* Patented, copyrighted, top secret seasonings added! Pssstt… Phyllis, I incorporated that Nantucket seasoning you gave me into the recipe.

* Whip up some corn quickly to trick the wife into thinking we are eating healthy!

* Add the cheese… Oh baby.. YES! YES!

* Check it out!

* One lucky little boy.

* Even the Cheez-Wizzer can’t resist! Don’t tell him there was a pill in that bite.

Since many of you have inquired about the status of Chee’s Vet appointment, here’s the scoop. She took blood from him to ascertain if the dosage of Digoxin she had prescribed was correct. Apparently the stuff can be lethal if not given in the correct amount.

She listened to his heart confirming that he indeed still had his murmur but still could not hear any fluid in the lungs (Which is good). She told me that his heart-rate was down to 150. The last visit it was up around 200. I’m assuming the 150 and 200 refers to beats per minute. She also indicated that this was a good sign that meant the Digoxin was doing its job of making the heart beat stronger and more efficiently. She asked me about his Hacking (coughing). Indeed it has been noticeably less than what it had been for which she prescribed another medication.

So the Cheez-Wiz is now on four prescriptions.

* Digoxin
* Torbutrol (cough suppressant)
* Lasix
* Enalapril

So… all in all, he’s shown steady signs of improvement and I’d like to say I’m hopeful but the last couple of days have me worried as he seems to have lost his appetite. I think I’ll try to tempt him with some Porterhouse Steak tonight!

Just 60 days left until we get treated to the next Harry Potter movie. I’m holding out high expectations for this flick because it’s one of the best books of the series so far.

Has anyone seen the Trailer yet? Did you know there is a second, VERY AWESOME Trailer which was just released? I got extremely giddy watching this one. Among other things, it shows…

* The Beauxbatons flying carriage
* The ship of the Durmstrang’s
* The Goblet of fire
* Fleur Delacore, Viktor Crum, Cedric Diggory
* Madame Maxine
* Mad-Eye Moody
* Cho Chang
* Rita Skeeter
* Merpeople
* Hungarian Horntail
* Deatheaters at the Quiddich World Cup
* The Yule Ball

The clip is over two minutes long and very good quality.

Download it here

I hope the movie is nice and long and rich in detail. That is certainly a complaint I had about the Prisoner of Azkaban. It was certainly good… they just left out so much! When Peter Jackson did the Lord of the Rings, he released the theatrical versions which were long enough, but they also made available extended versions with their DVD releases that were so much better. Why can’t they do that with Harry Potter too?

Look at this cute little dragon I made! Phyllis sent me the link and I printed him, cut & folded him.

Now this is not just any ordinary dragon, he’s special. His head is folded in a concave manner which produces quite an amazing optical illusion.

Check out the link, it even has a video that demonstrates the trick this fella can do when assembled correctly!

Dragon Link

The last few days have been really rough for me. I think I must have slept wrong or something, maybe my head was hanging off the side of the bed, who knows? In any event, the kind of stiffness and pain ensued to make my life miserable for 4 days. When people addressed me at work, instead of turning my head to look at them, I’d have to rotate my whole body. I’m sure I looked quite foolish!

This has happened to me at least a few times that I can remember and people that I talk with seem to be able to relate to the phenomenon. How about anyone else… can you relate?

Whew! what an exhausting but fun day. Timothy had his 10th birthday today & the theme was Pirates! Each time one of our boys has a Birthday, Wendy will ask them what kind of party they wish to have. Usually they will choose Starwars, Lord of The Rings, or even Harry Potter. However, Timothy has been hooked on a computer game I bought called Sid Meier’s Pirates and made his choice. I must say, it made for some interesting entertainment and activities.

Besides all the “kewl” party favors, I devised a treasure hunt in order for him to obtain his present. I printed out a bunch of “clues” on the computer using an old-style font. I designed them so that one clue would lead to the next and finally to a Treasure Map I made denoting the location of his present. It took him nearly 1/2 hour to find it! hehehe

Tim didn’t want a birthday cake, he wanted a birthday Pumpkin Pie. And he didn’t want just plain ole ice cream, he wanted Cookies and Cream Drumsticks. Finally, we did the ritual Pinata breaking ceremony. The kids always love that. Wendy actually found a Treasure Chest one!

Pix 1 - - The Pinata & Party Favors
Pix 2 - - Mark the Pirate
Pix 3 - - Timothy on his Treasure Hunt
Pix 4 - - The Treasure is Found

And finally, a short vid of the
Pinata breaking ceremony

(Singing)…

Ophelia, you’re breaking my heart
You’re shaking my confidence daily
Oh, Ophelia, I’m down on my knees
I’m begging you please to go home.

Anyone recognize that tune? Ten NightOwl points to the first to guess it!

As of right now, the projected path brings her my way. Go figure, just the other day we were giving Stephanie the “what for” regarding this!

Take a moment and reflect on the date, a terrible anniversary indeed.

I recall the generation of my parents claiming that they all remember what they were doing the day that President Kennedy was assassinated or the day that Elvis Presley died.

9/11 is such a day for me. I’ll always recollect with great detail how that morning passed in my life.

Hey all…

I wish to run an idea I’ve had by you and solicit your input. I was thinking that most of the visitors that frequent my blog are not HTML’ers, hence don’t have a site of their own. A blog by it’s nature is geared towards the blogger (that’s me!) having control of post topics and may choose to allow people to comment.

I do have the ability to add a Forum to my site. This would be a seperate area where anyone can post a Topic that folks can respond to. (A Thread)

Before I do such a thing, I want to be sure that it would be utilized. So tell me what you think. Would everyone enjoy having a place to come and post whatever their heart desires?

I’m sending this one out to my “Home-Slice” Phyllis who recently valiantly attempted to send me a funny along the same lines… Sadly, the attachment didn’t forward and she had cleaned her browser cache.