Tuesday Tunes – “I Think It’s Going to Rain Today”

This hauntingly beautiful melody is done to sheer perfection by Norah Jones:
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Sunday Funnies: Fun With My (Adult) Kids

My parents didn’t get to have the kind of fun that my generation is having with all of the new media. Instead of getting newspaper articles in the mail (for our kids to roll their eyes at, then throw away), we can instantly send them well-meaning articles and then pat ourselves on the back for having done our job. Our kids, of course, just delete those posts without reading them, but the important thing is WE TRIED.

It’s fun to see what great senses of humor our kids have – Sarah sent me this a while back:
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Foodie Fridays – Not Your Ordinary “Spring” Roll

SAMSUNG.
This recipe has been in my recipe box for at least 30 years – I got it from a package of egg roll wrappers way back when Paul and I were students in college; I haven’t been able to find a recipe like it out there since.

I’m not sure why this is called a “spring” roll, as it looks nothing like what most people associate with that term.  It’s not a traditional egg roll recipe, either, as it doesn’t call for cabbage or carrots.

That’s probably why my family has always liked this recipe….

I had to quit making this when we went gluten-free, as traditional egg roll wrappers are chock full of wheat.  I was, however, able to find traditional spring roll wrappers, and I have used those with a modicum of success – they don’t fry up very nicely, but since that’s about the only thing I’ve found that can be used, I make do.

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Tuesday Tunes – “Kissing A Fool”

This is just a lovely song from an artist with a truly amazing voice. George Michael’s song “Kissing A Fool” has been a favorite of mine for quite a while now.

There were videos out there with better sound quality on them, but I’ve always been partial to this one; however, the only way to get this version of the “official” video was to copy this one with subtitles on it – there are some sort of restrictions on the original in the US (go figure).
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Play Ball! (Opening Day, 2014)

Baseball 25 - Coco Crisp

A** over Teakettle – typical around this place….

I don’t follow baseball all that closely (I’m a football kind of a gal), but I’ve always wanted to see a YouTube video with one of my favorite “baseball” songs – “What A Game!” from the musical Ragtime, mixed with pictures from baseball games/players/fans. I just love the humor in the lyrics (even though some of the words used are less than politically correct in this day and age), and it always seemed like a song that would be ripe for such a video treatment.

I missed Opening Day by a couple of weeks last year, but I still wanted to pay tribute to America’s Pastime. I had a lot of fun putting this together – I hope you like it (click on the icon in the lower right corner if you want to view it full-screen):

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When I saw this, I knew I had to include it for my friend Liesel:

Baseball Art 6

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Sunday Funnies: Why Does This Thing Keep Blinking “12:00”?

The following post is a reprint from July, 2011:

If any of my children were stand-up comics, I would be giving them plenty of material to use in their act.

I used to laugh at all of those comedians who told stories about their parents and grandparents not being able to work a VCR or figure out how to use an answering machine.

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Foodie Friday – King Ranch Chicken

King Ranch Chicken 3.
We’re going to finish up our month of “Texas” recipes with an old standby – King Ranch Casserole. Legend has it that this recipe originated at the King Ranch in Texas – that’s what my mom told me years ago when I asked her about it.

This was a favorite of mine growing up – again, our family doesn’t care for “spicy”, so instead of the traditional can of Ro-tel tomatoes, I always substitute a can of plain diced tomatoes.

Since Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup has wheat in it, I use Progresso’s C of M soup instead and add some gluten-free flour to it to give it the consistency of condensed soup. (If I’m in a really inspired mood, I’ll make my own with GF flour, butter, mushrooms, chicken broth, and cream 🙂 )
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Happy Birthday to my BFF!

Who let the (old) broads out?

The first day of high school (Fall, 1974), the girl sitting in the desk in front of me in my first class (German II, with Herr Suhr) turned around and said, “Hi! I’m Becky.”
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Tuesday Tunes – An Elvis “Two-fer”

Last year, we were having fun introducing Rebecca to a wider range of movies. Whereas before she was primarily interested in the animated flicks, last year she started developing a taste for the offbeat humor that us older folks enjoy.

One of her favorite “grown-up” movies is “Ghostbusters”, but she also took a shine to the original “Men in Black” movie. One of my favorite musical moments in that movie is the tunnel scene when Tommy Lee Jones pops a toe-tapping tune into the 8-track player.

Now, I haven’t kept up with all of the Elvis songs, so I wasn’t familiar with that catchy little number, but thanks to the internet, I took a couple of the words that I heard – “Swing down chariot” – and entered them on the Search line, along with “Elvis”.

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Sunday Funnies: Why I Love SpongeBob SquarePants So Much

One of the great things about having kids is that you get to watch cartoons without anyone thinking you are weird. One of our family’s favorites the past few years (it first aired in 1999) has been SpongeBob SquarePants. He’s such a sweet nerdy character, and the writing on the show is very clever.

I used to think that I was a truly odd duck – thanks to the Internet, I have discovered that there are a WHOLE lot of people out there who share my nerdy, offbeat humor. It’s been great! The best part is that I am able to surf the net and find lots of quirky stuff that I never would have known about otherwise.

I recently ran across a wonderful blog written by a delightful young lady named Vi Hart. She makes math FUN (my Aunt Gloria – a high school Calculus teacher who saw “math” everywhere she went – would have loved her). I had a great time looking through her YouTube videos, but these are extra special:
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