Hail To This Man...

I am so very very proud!

(actually, I'm totally verklempt.)

~~~

xoabb

expect everything!

America, America!!

President Lincoln is his chosen legacy...

President-Elect Obama, may you emulate all the 

goodness of President Lincoln and his presidency...

And may you never ever repeat its end.

Abraham Lincoln

~by Berton Bellis

Down thru endless ages,

Came a soul from others apart - 

Incased in a body of awkward appearance;

But in a true heavenly made heart.

He was born in a hewed log cabin, 

Grew up simple and plain;

This life - on earth a sacrifice, 

To remove from liberty a stain. 

No pen can give him due credit - 

No words the good of his mind;

But his love is forever burning, 

In the hearts of all human kind.

The world now bows to his honor,

And hail this emancipator's name;

Columbia is proud of his memory, 

He lives in everlasting fame...

...His life is a lesson for the living,

Show democracy is strength and sand,

That a good mind no matter how humble,

Can spread peace and love o're the land. 

"In God we trust" - our nation all - 

Our reward was grand and kind, 

For we'll always live and never fall!

By following this wonderful mind.

...to the children

~~~

xoabb

expect anything!

He's Goin' to Disney World!

For whatever reason this really tickled me...(forgive me)

And I actually paid to be able to post this here. I'm so honest!

~~~

xoabb

expect giggles at times!

Poison Ivy!

ABC Wednesday - it's a P!

It's Poison Ivy!

It comes in many colors

Beware! It's all bad!

But oh so very beautiful!

You may not be sensitive now...

But someday you will be!

Leaves of three, let them be!

~~~

ABC Wednesday

do join us!

~~~

Barak Obama has just been elected. 

And as MP Mama noted, Senator McCain's

concession speech was superb in its healing tone.

Blessings to both of these fine men, just blessings...

And that's as political as I'm gonna get!

~~~

xoabb

expect anything!

Signs of the Times...And Then Some Lunch

It's really quite depressing...

Picked up our local newspaper, The Hour; turned to the back and started reading.  {Side note - whenever I read any newspaper, I always start with the obits (my favorite section, have no idea why so please don't ask), next read the classified (next favorite section, see previous for reason or lack thereof) then the rest of the paper.} Got through the obits and turned to the classifieds. I was totally stymied. This section, which has averaged at the least 3 to 4 pages in length for as long as I can remember, was all of a page and a half long. The help wanted section, that has always taken up at least 3/4 of a page, had exactly 5 (that's five) ads. And three of those ads were for jobs at the newspaper itself! I find this very frightening, as well as depressing. I hope things begin looking up soon...for all of us - but I don't know....

And now on to a more pleasant subject...

The above is a photo of my Tuesday working-kind-of-gal-that-I-am lunch. (And I'm just sure all of you are thrilled to see that!) It's (obviously) leftovers. It's from last weeks Sunday Family Dinner when we dined on sauteed chicken, spaghetti and a stir-fried zucchini-veggie mix.

I'll have you know, the zucchini and red pepper you see in the above were from my garden, well, such that my garden was - don't get that excited, the whole garden venture was rather pathetic as you can count on one hand the harvest numbers of each, but it's more than we've ever grown before, so I'm very pleased! (Our tomato crop was outstanding! For the first time ever I could share the bounty and that felt mighty good!) Below you will find my new favorite throw-'n-go way to prepare my veggies along with the accompanying chicken: 

For the chicken: 

Pound chicken breasts until no more than 1/4" thick. Season both sides with salt, fresh ground pepper and Italian seasonings to your taste. Heat about 2 tablespoons olive oil in an iron (or stainless steel if you must) skillet over medium-high heat. When hot, saute chicken (don't crowd the skillet) for about 5 minutes on each side. Transfer chicken to a rack place on a cookie sheet and place in a warm (250 degrees) oven. 

Now on to the veggies: 

a red pepper, sliced into about 1/4" x 2" pieces   

an onion, coarse diced

3 or 4 cloves garlic, minced

zucchini, cut in half length wise, then sliced about 3/4" thick

good handful fresh chopped parsley

good handful fresh ribbon-cut basil

salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

olive oil 

When oil is hot, add the pepper and onion to the skillet. Cook, stirring often, for around 5 minutes. Add the garlic and saute for an additional 3 or so minutes. Add the zucchini and cook, stirring often until the zucchini are browned around their edges and al dente (cooked through but firm), or to your taste. Throw in the herbs and s/p and stir to evenly distribute everything. Taste and correct seasonings to your personal taste. Have you said Yummmmmm yet? 

We served the above mixture over spaghetti (whole wheat of course) - and it was delicious - with the chicken on the side. Of course, we also had homemade spaghetti & meatball sauce for those who wanted to have their sauce and veggies too. Comfort food at it's finest! 

At least with all the financial woes and uncertainties in this world of ours, you can still have a wonderful and comforting meal that is shared with family and friends!

~~~

xoabb

expect anything! 

Best Question Ever...

Cartoon courtesy of John Darkow of the Columbia Daily Tribune

~~~

To reiterate: 

Why would anyone want to be president?

~

Can you possibly imagine being willing to take over this mess?

Whoever does (and I do have my unspoken vote already cast),

May they be well enough learned to have the ability to correct, 

And then sustain this great country of ours.

~

Funny thing - I'm usually not overly moved by political cartoons. I enjoy the heck out of the ones I understand, but a lot of them are just too much for me to analyze in the short term. However, this Mr Darkow...he is good!  The only other time I've felt moved enough to publish a P.C. here, the artist turned out to be the one and only Mr. Darkow. Imagine that! We fellow Columbians...such brilliant minds! (Well, at least  Mr. Darkow's mind is.)

~~~

xoabb

expect anything!

Some Dressing for those $5'ers??

cartoon courtesy of John Darkow of the Columbia Daily Tribune

(SIGH....BIG. FAT. HEAVY. SIIIIIIGH.)

I just returned from the grocery store - the one in our area where "weekly specials and wonderful prices abound". It's also the place where "The Customer is Always Right". (By the way, there are animated critters throughout the store singing that ditty to you while you shop just to remind you. It's very special.) My bill came to $128.00. I bought 23 items. Only one of those was from the butcher shop and that was 2 lbs. of chicken breast fillets at $2.99 a pound (weekly special). Do the math. Any way you look at it, it stinks!

~~~

P.S. I've already washed my $5'ers and thrown 'em in the old salad bowl. They're perfectly dressed in vinegar & oil and ready to go...get me a fork! Gotta keep my fiber consumption up! Want to join me?

P.P.S. I found the above cartoon in my local CT paper. I was delighted to then discover it's from a political cartoon artist that's really making a name for himself and who is from my home-town newspaper, the above mentioned Columbia Daily Tribune! (I grew up in Columbia, MO.) NEAT!!

P.P.P.S. The above mentioned grocery store, Stew Leonard's, really is a very unique and very neat place to go - truly a tourist stop for anyone visiting us here in the Northeast - but their prices.....

~~~

xoabb

Happy Birthday Alice Paul....

Along with Lucy Burns (a close friend) and others, she led a successful campaign for women's suffrage that resulted in the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920.*

*Credited here

Thank you for that, Alice. Where would Hillary (and all of us females) be without you?

Alice Paul

12/11/1885 - 7/9/1977

"There will never be a new world order until women are a part of it."

“I never doubted that equal rights was the right direction.

Most reforms, most problems are complicated.

But to me there is nothing complicated about ordinary equality.”

~~~

xoabb