Thanksgiving Photos

Sorry these are a bit late, but here's a few photos from Thanksgiving this year. Enjoy!



Mike getting ready for parking lot football



Our Thanksgiving Table


Selena and Vicki in a Thanksgiving hug

Surprisngly enough, that's all the photos I have that are worth sharing!!!

Local 506 - TONIGHT

So, here's a positive piece of local news - a great concert is going on tonight in Chapel Hill at Local 506 - come see our buddy Steve and the rest of his awesome bandmates, The Dry Heathens. Concert is free and starts at 9. Rock on.

Bye-bye, Burt's Bees

It’s a sad time here in Durham. The Clorox Company has announced they will purchase Durham’s own Burt’s Bees for a cool $925 million in cash. According to Clorox executive Donald R. Knauss, “The Burt's Bees brand is well-anchored in sustainability and health and wellness, and we believe it will benefit from natural and "green" tailwinds… It's in an economically attractive category with a margin structure that will be highly accretive to Clorox."

It appears that Clorox is purchasing Burt’s in an effort to take on a more green hue in the market and try to increase profits to offset their declining margin in the cleaning biz – the price of commodities has made production costs rise significantly which in the end contributes to less change in Clorox’s pocket. They feel that purchasing Burt’s will give them a stronger brand name in the beauty market and help fill their profit gaps.

Now here’s the problem Clorox – many of us out there bought Burt’s Bees because of their environmentally friendly production methods and lack of animal testing. I felt comfortable buying their products because I knew they weren’t dropped into the eyes of bunnies or doused over the skin of mice. I felt morally and ethically comfortable with paying a bit more for Burt’s products because there was no hidden corporate conglomerate hiding behind the brand name torturing and killing animals in the name of product testing. But here we are, November 2007, and Burt’s Bees will now be backed by Clorox.

Clorox is regularly listed on advocacy websites as one of the worst offenders for animal testing in the business. Between petroleum, chemical, rubber, and plastic manufacturing, these folks are dealing with tons of toxins, and they are testing them on thousands of animals every year – maybe even millions. Do we really need to drop chemicals in the eyes of rabbits so it will take me 30 seconds less to clean my bathtub?

It angers me that big corporate conglomerates want to become known as “green” to merely get a chunk of the market, not because they actually want to or are “green.” Clorox, do you really think that by purchasing Burt’s Bees that those who are informed about environmental issues are all of a sudden going to say, “Wow! Clorox is so environmentally friendly!” NO. You know what many will say? (including myself) Why on earth will I pay $4 for a tube of chap stick claiming to be safe to the earth and all who inhabit it when I know their parent company routinely kills animals just to make a buck? For goodness sake, this merger is like sewing fake fur onto calf leather. The “natural” Burt’s Bees is now soaked in the blood of its parent company’s regular behavior of needless injury and slaughter.

Burt’s – you guys were awesome, and you had a great run while it lasted. I don’t know why you decided to sell – maybe you’re tired, maybe Clorox gave a really good sales pitch – but I will be sad to see you go. Because for me, Burt’s is now a product on my “do not buy” list. It saddens me to see a local business go big time corporate, and it also saddens me that the Clorox folks actually think I am stupid enough to continue my brand loyalty knowing that the mission of Burt’s is completely undermined by the practices of their parent company.

I’m done with Burt’s, and man, that’s a shame.

For further reading:

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/11/burts_bees_sell.php

http://www.forbes.com/markets/2007/10/31/clorox-burts-bees-markets-equity-cx_af_1031markets15.html

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/story.aspx?guid=75013FA6402342F09D719D008308A907&siteid=reut07

Looking for a local charity?

I ran across this today, and I thought it was an interesting thing to consider for local giving. If you aren't from the Triangle, check your local power supplier and see if they have something similar:


Duke Energy's Share the Warmth Program
text was copied directly from the Duke Energy website

At Duke Energy, our commitment to our customers goes beyond the delivery of safe and reliable energy. For over one hundred years, involvement in our local communities has been among the principal standards by which our own success is measured. Nowhere is that success better demonstrated than through Duke Energy’s energy assistance program - Share the Warmth.

The Share the Warmth fund has raised more than $1,000,000 each year since 1995 for families and individuals facing financial adversity; this year is no exception. The Duke Energy Foundation will match each individual contribution on a dollar for dollar basis up to $50. In total, The Foundation will grant $500,000. Additional funding will be provided from Duke Energy’s Bulk Power Marketing revenue share.

One hundred percent of these donated funds are given to local assistance agencies for distribution to those individuals and families that need help paying their winter energy bills.

Despite the success of recent campaigns, more often than not, annual applications outweigh available funds. To assure that every deserving individual stays warm this winter, continued customer involvement is paramount. If you would like to share the warmth with those less fortunate in 2008, you may make a tax-deductible donation to the program at anytime throughout the year. Here is how:

Mail a check or money order made payable to Share the Warmth to:

Share the Warmth Fund
The Duke Energy Foundation
P.O. Box 35469
Charlotte, N.C. 28254-3429

Learn more about the many ways in which Duke Energy is working to enhance and support your community by visiting our Community link.

Cannot stop giggling

It's five seconds long - but so cute and silly. ENJOY!

Baking bread

Thanksgiving pics will be coming soon - I promise. In the meantime, here is to wishing you all a Happy POST Thanksgiving, and I hope your holiday was meaningful and lovely!

Mike and I had a nice low-key weekend. Besides a 4am trip to Kohl's, Circuit City and Target on Friday, we did a lot of relaxing. So much in fact that I decided to take my new $25 faux-Kitchen Aid mixer from Target's doorbuster sale and put it to work making a loaf of bread.

I found an easy beer bread recipe online - I chose Sam Adams Winter Lager for the beer (Mike's favorite seasonal lager). I used my new silicon loaf pan and baked the loaf - the house smelled amazingly wonderful. Even though it was chilly in the house, my insides actually felt warm by just smelling the bread.

I decided to use an egg glaze to give the top of the loaf a lovely shine. It looked like something out of a professional bakery. It was the first loaf of bread I have ever made myself, so you have to understand my wonder here!!! It was beautiful. I couldn't wait to dig in. Shortly after, Mike arrived home, and we cut open the warm bread. We happened to have some honey butter on hand, so we used that to top the slices. Absolutely fantastic. The bread had a great consistency - a bit thicker than store bought bread, but not heavy - and the beer added an earthy taste to the bread.

We snacked on the bread a bit throughout the day, and on Sunday Mike cut two slices and made a leftover Turkey sandwich. With the bread I MADE. It may seem silly, but I had an overwhelming sense of joy and accomplishment from 1) making the bread and 2) seeing someone enjoy eating the bread. There was also a great deal of satisfaction for making something of substance and use for my family (family being Mike!!) . Making things from scratch is so very fulfilling to me. Being connected to what I'm eating and how it is made is starting to become more and more important to me. Some may find it obnoxious, but I am really enjoying this journey. Learning to cook is so much fun.

It's not that I didn't know how to cook before this - my Mom taught me how to make a lot of stuff. I can make a killer cube steak with mushroom gravy and mashed potatoes, ground beef chili, fried or King Ranch chicken. But, as a vegetarian now, that isn't helping me much!!! I am having to learn how to cook without meat, and I am trying to use as few faux meat products as possible. I need to change my taste to better appreciate natural foods rather than processed ones. It's tough, let me tell ya! My waistline has suffered from all the processed crap I'm eating, and I need to get that under control. It's been over 2 years of vegetarianism, and it is about time I started really cooking like one!!!

Thanks for listening to me rant about this - you will probably hear much more down the line. Hopefully between my own personal eating habits and my final paper, something good will come out of all of this!!!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING (eve)!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVE, EVERYONE!!

During this crazy time of travel and eating overload, I just wanted to take a minute and thank you all for reading my ramblings so often and adding to the discussion of a lot of topics. It's a real treat for me to write this stuff and know other people are reading it day after day.

This year, Mike and I will be staying in North Carolina for Thanksgiving and going over to our friends Ben and Alissa's house for dinner. It should be a grand gathering of a lot of our friends, and we will all be cooking a few dishes to share around the table. It is sad to not be with my traditional family for the holiday, but it is also quite fun to be spending this fun day with my non-traditional family. I will take plenty of pics and share them next week.

I doubt many people on Thursday will sign on to doing one of my favorite traditions of Thanksgiving - going around the table and having everyone say what they are thankful for. So, just in case that doesn't happen, I will provide my list here:

This year, 2007, I am thankful for the following:
- I am thankful that Mike is in my life and continues to make me smile and laugh every day - he makes each and every day in my life complete; I don't know what I would do without him.
- I am thankful that my family is happy and healthy - even though they are far away in Texas and Florida
- I am thankful for all the wonderful friends and family that I am surrounded by each and every day - I am honored to have the coolest, smartest, funniest and most caring friends in the whole world
- I am thankful for all the friends I don't get to see very often - in Texas, Georgia, Maryland, Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Kansas, DC, North Carolina, South Africa, India, England, Greece, Ecuador (and all the other places slipping my mind at the moment) - I miss you all very much but am thankful for the technology which allows us to stay better connected
- I am thankful for new career opportunities, avenues in which to grow, and opportunities to better serve my community and the communities of others
- I am thankful for all the healthy babies born to my friends this year - I can think of at least 6 that arrived in this world this year - and if the genes worked out right, that means the addition of 6 more ultra cool people in this world - congratulations, parents, and welcome, little kiddos!
- I am thankful that my three kitties are taking very tiny baby steps every day to better live with each other
- I am thankful that this year has been rather free of any negativity - besides minor life annoyances, I have had a relatively stress free and productive year

That's it for now - it's not an exhaustive list, but it gets the point across. Feel free to post in comments what YOU are thankful for!!!

Have a great holiday, everyone!

Now, an ode to canned cranberries...


nataliedee.com

Fall in Durham

Mike and I took a hike out at the Eno River State Park this past Sunday afternoon, and we took our camera equipment with us. Here are some of the photos - enjoy!! (If you want to see each photo better, just click on 'View All Images' at the bottom right corner of the viewer)

Vegetarian "Sausage" Cheese Balls

A favorite treat for many people around the holidays are Sausage Cheese Balls. I believe that Bisquick made these famous with an "on-the-box" recipe. I've had them once before, and I thought they were awesomely tasty. Mike frequently relies on Amy to make these any time we have a weekend out at a cabin or a holiday together. Well, the holiday cravings have struck our household, and today Mike requested some sausage cheese balls. Being the wonderful guy he is, he suggested we make them and use the Gimme Lean Sausage. I was a bit hesitant as to how this would work, given that the fake sausage isn't going to have the fat to be able to hold these little morsels together. Only one way to find out.

I searched the internet to find a good recipe for sausage cheese balls, and I found a myriad of choices. Some seemed too bland, too dry, and none called for fake sausage. I eventually realized that the way to get closest to success was to consult the original. So, I used the recipe posted on the Bisquick site HERE. Of course, no regular sausage, but the fake stuff. Here's the recipe:

1 roll Gimme Lean "Sausage"
3 c Bisquick
4 c cheddar cheese (I used finely shredded)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary leaves
1/2 teaspoon parsley flakes

The recipe as stated above will make about 7.5 dozen. As this was merely for Mike and I to snack on all day, I did half the recipe. The prep is easy - dump it all into a bowl, wash your hands, dry them off, then use your hands to mix everything together. Once you have the ingredients well mixed, roll the mix into inch sized balls and place on a lightly greased pan. I used a cake pan which would give some heat from the sides. No need to space them to far from each other - 1/2 inch in between seemed to be plenty of room. Pop in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for about 18 minutes. I jacked up the heat to 370 for an additional 5 minutes at the end to get some real browning.

Here's the result:
AWESOME. Absolutely wonderful. They were fluffy, had the flavor of sausage without using actual meat. I thought they were wonderful, and Mike agreed that they were excellent. In fact, I think he said, "Did you put crack in these?"

SWEET. Give this a shot for your holiday parties folks - you could make these and put 'em out a party for meat eaters and vegetarians alike. The meat eating folks would have no idea that these bad boys included no meat. They are hardy, tasty, easy to make and great party food. Bon appetit!

A Saturday Experiment

How to Charge an iPod using electrolytes and an onion

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Mental Stimulation

This week has been one of mental stimulation. Seems like every day I have learned not only a small nugget of information, but I have been privy to several different situations that had my mind reeling (or at least moreso than when I am watching I Love New York). Here's a summary:

Tuesday: I attended a talk by Harvard Professor of Biology and Zoology, Dr. Richard Lewontin entitled, "Human Nature: Bad Biology and Bad Social Theory." He gave a wonderful talk to an auditorium that was standing room only. His whole premise of the talk was (as I understood it) that science is on a slippery slope of making broad generalizations to describe "human nature" to our own detriment. Assuming that by mapping the genome of individual creatures we will unlock the answer to all nature's mysteries is untrue and destructive to our understanding of the world. The description of his talk is posted on the link above if you click on the speech title. It was really interesting and a lot of food for thought. It was also one of those super cool talks where you felt like you were really witnessing the diatribe of an absolute genius. I love those moments in academia.

Wednesday at work: At our monthly staff meeting, we had an open discussion on the subprime housing market crisis. If you don't know much about it, you can check out some info HERE. The gist of the deal is that a lot of people got caught in the "boom" of the housing market by obtaining loans they were not able to replay (bad underwriting and predatory lending), overtaken by ARMs on their loans (start at X% for the first 3 years, and after the three years, your rate becomes x+y%, making the payments too high), or just got over ambitious about the market and are now sinking. This has resulted in a crisis level of foreclosures, threatening neighborhoods and families all over the country. What was so cool about this meeting was that our CEO Martin Eakes gave a 20 minute presentation about some ideas to deal with the crisis - then the floor was opened up for an employee discussion about the issues at hand. It was an honor to be part of the discussion, although the outcome of this whole situation is proving to be bleak - no matter what is done.

Wednesday evening: I had an artistic mental stimuli last night. As many of you know, I have been a volunteer at the Carolina Theater for about 3 and a half years now. It's a wonderful way to see great shows coming through Durham for free. Last night, I worked as an usher for the Ani diFranco show. Ani has a huge following in many circles - I, though, am not a member of that fan club. I had never heard any of her music, but her reputation was familiar to me. I wanted the experience of seeing her live. The performance was good - I don't think I will start following her on tour, but I enjoyed it well enough. I also got to spend the first few songs in the pit doing security, so that was a treat - it's always cool to be that close to the stage. A bit too political for me (imagine that), but she has a great voice, a self-deprecating sense of humor, and she doesn't seem to take herself too seriously. I appreciate that a great deal. The big surprise of the night was the opener, Buddy Wakefield, a spoken word poet who has won the Individual World Poetry Slam Title a few times. He was beyond phenomenal. I really enjoyed his energy, his touching and funny lyrics, and his ability to see the world for what it often is - deep, yet superficial at the same time. Now, he, I will keep an eye out for and hopefully see him perform again.

Three events like that in one week is often a rarity. Something to be thankful for in this season that we give thanks.

OH - And today is a WOOT off. That always makes for a fun day :-)

I win a prize!!!!

I don't drink cow's milk - haven't for a very long time. It sometimes sounds good, but after the first sip and the tummy flip, I realize it is not a good idea. Anyway, I know I probably don't get the protein I often should, so I try to get soy milk into my diet when I can. I say this, but I rarely follow it at all. Overall, I think it is just the consistency of anything with "milk" in the title that grosses me out most of the time.

For a short while, I found that the Whole Foods brand boxed chocolate soy milk was heaven in a container - unfortunately, they stopped making it, and I have yet to find a suitable chocolate soy replacement. In the meantime though, the Soy Mocha flavor has a special place in my heart. I can only find it at Whole Foods, where I rarely go to shop anymore, so it is rare I even get this milk anyway. But when I do, it isn't cheap, and I have a VERY bad habit of drinking about a quarter of the container then letting it go to waste. That's $3 down the drain, and just a moral waste of sustenance anyway.

I gave up on the stuff for a long time but managed to bring home a carton several weeks ago after Lauren and I made a trip to Whole Foods. Mike's reaction?

"Yeah, I'm sure you will finish it. HA! Right." Not those exact words, but close enough.

"Really?" I said. "What happens if i finish it?"

"You get a prize," he said.

Awesome. And I'll be damned - I finished the WHOLE carton of mocha soy milk last week. This morning, my prize was ordered: http://shirt.woot.com/friends.aspx?k=4107



I get a cool shirt!!!! I was all excited to buy the next carton of soy milk and get my next prize, but I was unfortunately informed that the prize for finishing milk was a one time deal. Damn it. Guess it's back to quarter cartons then. KIDDING!!!!! Thank you, Mike, giver of wonderful prizes for things I should be doing anyway without having to be bribed. I love you, dear!

RENT

It was fantastic. I had never seen RENT performed live (only the movie), so it was a treat for me to see the live performance. John was out there right from the beginning, and Mike, Taylor, Lauren and I were all giddy to see him on stage. We have dubbed him the most likable Benny of all time. After the performance, we waited for John outside the stage door. The rest of the cast had already come out, and they all did a double take when we busted into applause as he came out the door.

John signing autographs for young fans in the lobby

A lot of John's family was in town for the performance, as were his friends from Davidson, and his former admissions buddy (i.e. Mike). There were tears, hugs and shouts of joy. Every single one of us is so proud of him! The tour is taking a toll - it's tiring and it is hard to be away from home for so long, but he is making the best of the experience.

John, it was wonderful to see you perform, and we wish you the best of luck in getting bigger roles - closer to home!!!

The Davidson Boys: Mike, John, and Taylor

Writers Guild Strike

This is just terrible. There are only 2, yes TWO episodes of the Office that have been filmed and not yet shown on TV. That means we will not be seeing any Office for quite some time if this strike ends tomorrow, let alone if it takes weeks. Watch this video, and learn a little something about the entertainment industry. While the online episodes of your favorite shows may be convenient, they do not compensate the writers involved at any level. Millions of dollars of advertising revenue is earned by the networks when posting ads next to and during web episodes. Do your part and boycott the online episodes for a while - rent a DVD or just wait til this gets resolved.

Although we often think that everyone in Hollywood is driving a Mercedes and lives in a condo with a seaside view, such is not the case. There are a lot of people being hurt in this strike - and it's all because of what we want as consumers of their product. Sure, it is often hard to take Hollywood seriously, but if we want to continue watching brilliant TV at all, then we need to be paying attention to this. So, watch the video below. Ciao.

Walking the walk

So, you have seen the proposal for my MALS final project. I am writing about how we eat and what we eat - and attempting to find a more ethical way for us to do so. Since I am working on this project, I am starting to experiment more with how I prepare food, where I buy it and what effects my shopping and consuming habits may produce.

As it has finally started to cool off here (last night it was below freezing), I decided to make some vegetable soup. Not Campbell's in a can, mind you, but actually make the soup. As Mike and I are huge fans of Alton Brown, I pulled his recipe for Garden Vegetable Soup off FoodTV. At Trader Joe's on Sunday, I picked up a few items for the soup - organic veggie broth, organic tomatoes, organic green beans, organic corn (still on the cob) and fresh garlic. I decided I was going to make the soup from all organic ingredients - that was, until Mike and I went to Harris Teeter last night. Since the Farmer's Market is only open on Saturday, I didn't buy any of this stuff before hand. Therefore, I had to hit the Teet.

Organic vegetables are ridiculously expensive. I admit, I normally buy conventional - I wash my veggies thoroughly and keep my fingers crossed that nothing too weird made it into the internal parts of the veggies. I needed: carrots, leeks, celery, and parsley to finish my ingredients list. After price checking, let's say the only organic vegetable that ended up in the cart was the parsley. The leeks were astronomical in price, the carrots were about $3 a bunch, and the celery looked like it had already been chewed.

So yes, I do understand that even if the veggies look rough, they are still probably good a lot of the time - but I have been groomed to look for the most perfect, the most round, the greenest, the most intact vegetables in the store - even though I will chop them up into unrecognizable pieces. How on earth did we get to this stage???

Anyway, Mike and I were having spaghetti and salad for dinner last night, so I spent a good 20 minutes chopping veggies for the sauce and the salad. Once dinner was ready, we ate that and watched a bit of TV. After we caught up on an episode of Boston Legal, I headed back to the kitchen for the 45 minutes of prep Alton gave me for the soup. Alton - YOU LIE. I think I cut vegetables for at least an hour and a half - maybe longer. Peel and cut the carrots. Peel and cut the potatoes. Clean and cut the celery. Clean and snap the green beans. Clean and cut the leeks (which are very dirty, let me tell you). Clean and cut the tomatoes. WAIT.

The tomatoes. I bought organic tomatoes at TJ's. They tasted like crap. Luckily, we had in the cupboard two cans of San Marzano tomatoes. We actually got them on clearance at Kroger for $1 a can. Who on earth priced them like that must have been nuts - these easily sell for $3-5 a can, depending on where you buy them. Anyway, I substituted the San Marzano's for the TJ tomatoes. Again though, cleaning and chopping them as well.

Last was the corn. I cut it all off the cob and dropped it into the pot. My idea was to use the crock pot and cook the soup starting last night and through the day today. This may be a terrible idea - we will see!!!! When I get home about 6pm, I plan on turning the soup off and letting it get to room temperature. I am hoping that allows some of the flavors to marry a bit. Then, for dinner, I will reheat a few portions for us. I hope it is tasty.

The whole point of this is, no wonder Campbell's came in and saw a market to make a killing off soup. We all like soup, it's good for us, and it can be made in very large quantities. But making it from scratch takes quite a while - especially in our busy lifestyles today. After working all day, hitting the gym, getting groceries, making one dinner - THEN starting on the soup, I didn't really get to relax until almost 11:30pm. Cooking well is hard to do - so how do we find a good middle ground? I don't know, folks, I don't know.

NOTE: Please do not think Mike was sitting idly aside while I did all this. He was hard at work preparing a workshop for today, as well as the class he is teaching this evening. He needed work time, I needed cook time. It worked out perfectly.

Raleigh's "Great White Way"

If you live in the Raleigh-Durham area, surely you have seen or heard advertisements for Broadway Series South. This season's lineup is especially wonderful. I bought tickets to Avenue Q sometime ago, but that show isn't until the late Spring.

This past week, I was goofing around on the site for general tickets, and I found that students can show up to the theater an hour before the show start time and get tickets for $20. Lauren, Maggie and I trekked out to Raleigh on Sunday to catch the last matinée performance of Mamma Mia. Would I pay $36 to see it? No. Would I pay $20? yes. We showed up about 1pm for the 2pm matinée and bought three tickets for the show. We ended up 8 rows from the front, center stage. How awesome is that?? The show was a lot of fun. I'm not a huge ABBA fan, but the story was good, the music was fun, and the cast was excellent. After the show, we had dinner at my favorite Mexican place in Cary, Los Tres Magueyes (I haven't been there in years), and we hit Trader Joe's before heading back to Durham (I was out of vegetable shumai dumplings!).



Now, the extra cool thing happening is that this Saturday, Mike, Taylor, Lauren and I are going to go see RENT in the afternoon. Although I am excited to go see RENT, we are all very excited to go because a good friend of Mike and Taylor's from Davidson, John, has taken the role of Benny in the traveling cast! I have never actually known anyone who is performing on stage during a performance of this magnitude, so I (and everyone else going) am super super excited. John is going to be amazing, and we are all thrilled to get to see him perform. This has been a long time coming, and I hope this is only the first of many times we see him performing on stage. So, I encourage you to go and get a ticket to see this performance if you are in the area, too!!!

One of my favorite days of the year - ELECTION DAY!

I love the first Tuesday in November. Some years it is more exciting than others - like presidential election years. But now that I really feel like Durham is my home, local elections are pretty exciting for me now, too. Mayor Bell is up for re-election, and I feel like we have a special bond ever since Lauren and he danced the night away at the Washington Duke Inn Grand Opening a few years ago (dance the night away being one dance). A co-worker of my has been an instrumental part of the "Farad Ali for City Council" campaign, so there have been stickers and election paraphernalia around the office for a while. I'm also proud to live in a community where both of our mayoral candidates are black. May not seem like a huge deal to some, but how many other communities can claim that?

Mike once told me that he always carries his voter registration card with him because it is really the only document that can prove you are a US citizen. I had never thought about it that way, and it made me more mindful to carry my card with me at all times, too. On election day, I love going to my polling place, filling out my ballot and getting my sticker when I have turned in my ballot. On my visor in my car, I have four "I Voted" stickers pasted just to get me ready for the next election day. Primary or regular election, I'm always there. The right to participate in the selection of our leaders is a privilege too many people take for granted. I am excited by it, rejuvenated by the process, and honored to be able to make my decision heard. It's only one vote, but if no one went, there would be no general voice. Make your voice heard on election day. You get a sticker!!!!!

More poop in the meat....

Yet another beef recall in less than a week!! Good job, Cargill.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/11/03/beef.recall.ap/index.html

And people ask why I don't eat meat...

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/11/01/pizza.recall.ap/index.html

I love me some Totino's Party Pizzas. They were a staple for me in college. Now, the pepperoni is being recalled due to e-coli.

To get a better idea of where these nasty bacteria come from in meat, watch:


OR, for you literary types, read some excerpts book here:
http://books.google.com/books?id=yNFN1OpnkBkC&dq=fast+food+nation&pg=PP1&ots=l_mgox6q1Z&sig=AW-8--Jfw-NtFftw2GYL_frxvLI&prev=http://www.google.com/search%3Fq%3DFast%2BFood%2BNation%26ie%3Dutf-8%26oe%3Dutf-8%26aq%3Dt%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26client%3Dfirefox-a&sa=X&oi=print&ct=title&cad=one-book-with-thumbnail#PPP1,M1

OR, buy it here:
http://www.amazon.com/Fast-Food-Nation-Eric-Schlosser/dp/0060838582/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/105-3781624-8646843?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1194026512&sr=8-1

And if you don't want to do any of that, I'll spoil it for ya. It's poop, ya'll! Yup. Shoddy slaughtering practices and sloppy meat packing. Intestines are unintentionally cut and spilled onto the meat during packaging resulting in - e-coli contamination!!!!

eww.

Subprime Lending Action Alert

From a Center for Responsible Lending Memo at Self-Help:

Dear Reader, If you're reading this message, chances are you've heard of, been affected by or been concerned about predatory lending, and you're certainly aware of the growing subprime disaster. Now—today—you have a chance to make a difference. Congress is actively considering two bills that will help struggling homeowners avoid foreclosure and enact common-sense lending rules to keep the subprime disaster from happening again. Time is short—the bills may be voted on as early as next week—and the lending industry is lobbying hard to dilute or kill these bills. But if enough of us speak up now, we can encourage Congress to halt widespread foreclosures and protect families and local communities. These bills are best chance we have of helping millions of financially-desperate subprime borrowers stay in their homes, prevent losses in property values for all homeowners, and protect future subprime borrowers. These bills must be passed without amendments that would weaken their effectiveness, and without a clause that would prevent states from passing stronger protections in the future. The first bill would allow struggling homeowners to prevent foreclosure and continue paying their mortgage. H.R. 3609 ("Emergency Ownership and Mortgage Equity Protection Act") would give homeowners access to the same bankruptcy relief that people already have for their boats, vacation homes and investment real estate. The second bill, H.R. 3915 "Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act of 2007"), would establish common-sense standards to prevent the kind of reckless lending that took place in 2005-2006 and now has so many families in danger of losing their homes. Reckless subprime lending is harming everyone—families who lose their homes, all homeowners who lose value in their property, and the economy as a whole. Reasonable bankruptcy relief and common-sense protections will help millions of families that struggle financially. If you want to stand up for homeownership and combat predatory lending, the time is now. Please send both letters today: Take action on H.R. 3609 (extending bankruptcy relief to homeowners). Take action on H.R. 3915 (preventing continuing abusive lending in the subprime market). Mike Calhoun President, Center for Responsible Lending

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