Apple Crisp Recipe; The Best! Mom’s Apple Crisp
My mom’s recipe collection had this Apple Crisp recipe in it. I am pretty sure it is a recipe she got somewhere else and made her own, but I don’t know for sure. She was pretty good with recipes and things, especially Apple Crisp!
Anyway, I made this the other day and it was definitely the apple crisp of my youth! I love this time of year. 
Dexter, Iowa Is It the Next Ethanol Boom Town?
Alternatives to fossil fuels continue to attract attention from both environmentalists and financial interests. One of the leading alternatives, in fact arguably the leading alternative as far as availability goes, is ethanol. Ethanol is already widely available in some . . .
Brady Lesbians; Marcia Brady and Jan Brady Were Not Lesbian Lovers!
There is this rumor going around about the “Brady Lesbians” saying that Maureen McCormick and Eve Plumb (Marsha (or is it Marcia?) Brady and Jan Brady) were lesbian lovers during some of the time the Brady Bunch was on. But those are just internet rumors. (How do these things get started?) Someone suggested that the “Brady Lesbian” rumors got started to hype Maureen McCormick’s new book. But that is not coming out until next year, plus they squashed the rumors.
So everyone can stop repeating that now, Marcia and Jan were not in love or lesbian lust with each other. I don’t even know whether or not they were friends. But I will probably read her book when it comes out next year.
I just hope it was better than, “I Was A Teenage Greg” by Barry Williams!
Sometimes I’m Thankful for ADHD
Tonight Charlie and I were watching TV and had this conversation:
CHARLIE: Mommy, I’m sad.
ME: Why are you sad?
CHARLIE: I want my Mommy
ME: I’m your Mommy, I’m right here.
CHARLIE: No, I want my Daddy.
ME: Oh.
CHARLIE: Where is he?
ME: He is way far away.
CHARLIE: Can we go see him?
ME: No, sweetie, we can’t.
CHARLIE: But I want to. What’s that?
And he points to a robot on TV, and that’s the end of that conversation.
I’m sure it won’t always be so easy to wrap up that conversation, and there’s a lot of painful realization to come. But thank God that was it for now.
Apples and Pies and Parks and Trains!
Charlie and I have been having a great time this fall. A week ago Friday I bought a large amount (a “peck?”) of Jonathan apples from an apple orchard here in Iowa. Since then we have eaten a lot of apples every day, plus I’ve made an apple pie (never made a pie before!), apple sauce and today I made apple crumble. There are just a few apples left that I think we will eat (as opposed to using in a recipe). Then I’ll probably get one more “peck” before fall is over. Anyway, we also went to the park last weekend in Dexter, Iowa, and to see some trains this weekend in Boone, Iowa. Here are a lot of pictures:
Big Brother 8 Amber Anti Semitism; Did Dick Cheat and Burn Jen
Did Dick cheat on Big Brother 8? What about Amber’s anti-semitic speech that was seen by thousands of viewers on the live feeds? What about Dick’s “abuse” and coded letter from his son? And why did Big Brother 8 never address this? A little iced tea and mysogyny anyone?
This year’s Big Brother, U.S.A. (Big Brother 
arguably has been the worst season of Big Brother ever. Long-time fans are disappointed, some vowing never to watch the show again. Rumors of it not coming back next year have been going around, as it had . . .
Andrew Meyer Tasered; Kerry Pleads to Answer His Questions while Meyer says, “Don’t Tase Me, Bro!”
Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m appalled. What country do we live in again? This student, Andrew Meyer, asked Kerry 3 questions and as soon as Kerry started to answer, police started “restraining” him (restraining him from WHAT?) and even as Kerry says, “Let me answer his question,” the police pull him backwards to the back of the room, begin to handcuff him, and taser him after he says, “Don’t tase me, bro” and “I’ll walk out of here.” What is wrong with police? But here, see for yourself. Here is the video:
Big Brother 8 SPOILER; Who won? Dick or Danielle?
Only read this if you want to know who won Big Brother 8. This is a SPOILER ALERT!!! Scroll down to see whether it was Dick or Danielle who won. Again - spoiler alert. Scroll down to see whether it was Dick or Danielle who won Big Brother 8. You have been warned!
Are you sure you want to know???
Go no further if you are not sure you want to know!
This is it:
It is:
Dick.
Big Brother 8 Final Show Predictions; Who will win? Dick or Danielle?
Well, I wasn’t going to watch the final show of Big Brother 8 because I am so disappointed that it has come down to Dick and Danielle. But I actually do have an opinion on who I think will win and who I want to win. So I am going to make my predictions here. What would the Big Brother 8 season be without the final show and, of course, predictions about who will win? Even if it is Dick and Danielle. (Yuck)
Going against what I had thought before, I think Dick will win. I think that nobody liked the tactics of either one of them. But Danielle was a bit more underhanded and nasty at times. And at other times she was TRYING to be underhanded but was quite transparent. Especially in her “making friends” with whoever she thought could do her some good that week. At least Dick would say something like, ‘Ok, we don’t get along and we don’t like each other, but it would be beneficial for us both to align this week for this reason…’ Danielle on the other hand would say stuff like, ‘Aw, you’re so cool. I like your shirt. We have a connection even if we didn’t talk about it before. We should stick together.’ (Paraphrasing.) And it was all bullshit and seen through eventually.
I think people will also see that Dick carried Danielle for much of the game, including when she was cheating on her boyfriend with Nick and doing nothing but laying under the covers with him for weeks at a time and kissing him and crying over him. How many times did even HE say to her “you need to start playing this game.”
As far as my personal opinion, I hope Dick wins. The reason is that I think that neither of them deserves any of the money, but if he wins it, he is likely to just blow the money and it will be gone (probably on alcohol, cigarettes and partying).
I would love to see him win and then crash and burn within a year. And that is not because I wish ill will on just anyone. It’s because he is nasty to people even when it has nothing to do with the game (as Julie even pointed out), he is disrespectful of women, he is incapable of winning a game without resorting to negative and despicable tactics, he made the game personal by attacking people personally instead of just keeping it about the game, and I consider dumping iced tea on Jen’s head to be assault.
Dumping iced tea on Jen’s head was invasive of her personal space and a physical act that caused her physical discomfort. That is NOT ok. And if someone is grabbing for your cigarette, pulling it away is ok. Burning them deliberately is not.
Then there is the “cheating.” Dick received (by his own admission) coded letters from his son when he was HOH (you can receive letters from the outside when you are head of household, provided they do not contain information about the game) which told him which members of the house to look out for. For some reason, Big Brother has said they don’t consider this cheating. I think that is a huge “WTF?????”.
So yeah, because of the cheating and the physical “assaults” and the unecessary roughness, I don’t think Dick deserves any money whatsoever and I would LOVE to see him make an even bigger clown of himself and blow all the money and wind up as bad or worse off than he obviously was before.
As for Danielle, the bitch who looked at Zach’s crotch in a picture and said, “There’s the angry inch” - and a whole slew of other crap, including the cringingly nasty business of basically sweeping her boyfriend under the carpet for someone she’d known two weeks and publicly humiliating him - well, at the very least she will get $50,000 and will probably make it go further than Dick’s $500,000.
But hey, life’s not fair and you have to suck it up.
And the only redeeming thing about tonight’s show will be getting to see everyone’s reaction when the “America’s Player” twist is revealed. That should have been a huge deal and really cool, but unfortunately it will be overshadowed by all this Dick and Danielle crap.
So much for Big Brother. Unless they change producers and/or address the cheating and abuse and/or promise big changes for next season (if there even is a next season) I seriously doubt I will watch Big Brother 9.
Emmy Award Nominations 2007: Focus on James Spader
James Spader, who has already won two Emmys (in 2004 and 2005) for playing Alan Shore (once on ‘Boston Legal’ and once on its parent series ‘The Practice’), is nominated again this year. If he wins this year, it will be his third Emmy as “Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series” for playing this role. He has also been nominated for . . .