Picture Worthy Zucchini?

Yesterday, I was visiting my sister-in-law when she happily gave me some veggies from her garden.  When I arrived home and went into the kitchen, I yelled out to Lola who was in another room, that I just brought home some garden fresh tomatoes and zucchini.   Lola gave a shout out from the hallway that she would love to make her yummy pasta sauce with the zucchini I had just brought home.  I shouted back, "Sure, go ahead, that's a great idea!"  When she opened the fridge door, she got quite the surprise! 

Lola gets a picture of the zucchini before chopping.

See that small green thing in Lola's right hand?--That's a zucchini from my garden!

Meanwhile....many chops later.

The end.  Lola's delicious zucchini pasta sauce.

Hooked On Honey Boo Boo!

Wednesday evenings are quickly becoming my favorite night of the week.  Well, make that my favorite T.V. night of the week.  Call me crazy, but I'm really loving the new TLC show, "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo!"  I know, I know.  I've listened to the critics bashing this show.  But this family from small town Georgia is funny, and I don't mean that in a condescending  way.  Actually, they are just downright hilarious.  The experts bashing this show are rich and removed from reality, they truly are clueless about life amongst the lower class.  The kind of life where you have to make due with what you have and/or work hard for.   
Honey Boo Boo is a six year old beauty pageant contestant that makes the rounds with her mother-June, a.k.a."Mama Bear",  3 sisters, and usually her father, Mike, aka"Sugar Bear".  They live in a small town in Georgia, with a high speed train that frequently runs beside their house.  Honey Boo Boo is a cute, active, very happy and silly little girl.  She is funny without realizing it, very animated. I just can't stop  laughing.  This family is honest and open about everything.  And I mean EVERYTHING! 
 "Keeping up with the Kardashians" is above and beyond reality, as reality families go.  Spoiled, selfish millionaires living in their own little world.  They have nothing but their mirrors happening in their lives, sitting around all day and night staring at their cell phones.    Why does anyone watch?  This isn't reality to most TV viewers, it's not a life any of us will ever attain.   Million dollar weddings, million dollar cars, million dollar mansions.  I watched one show where Kim lost her $70,000 earrings.  Who cares?  And who needs to know that?  The big ass girls in that family are the first to blow their own horns to tell their viewers how hard they work and how smart they are to be millionaires.  No, its not how smart or hard they work, its neither.  Its how stupid the viewers are that keep watching and purchasing their junk that keeps them rich. I don't sense a whole lotta love in this family, they're very focused on money, not on each other, so much so, that the mother is the founder of a church that gives them a nice, big, fat tax write off.  On the other side, there's always a whole lotta laughter and love with this family in Georgia.
I listened to Nancy Grace and her panel bashing this family, stating how outrageous and downright deplorable this show was.  Nancy Grace was outraged with this  family, especially with mother June.  People with loads of money, degrees, and titles are clueless about the lower class.  They get chauffeured to work or drive their luxury car to a six figure job,  have nannies that raise their kids, have assistants that run their errands and live with 2.2 people in a 10,000 sq. ft. home.  Is this real life?  For them it is, but for most of America it is not.  This Georgia family is the new real America.  This is what America is now.  If you think these people are stupid, who's really at fault here?   Corporate America is taking over and they certainly don't care about the poor or lower class.  That's so beneath them.  Can't afford a college education? Well, who can?  Only the rich.  If you're a kid from a poor family, why go to college?  When you get out, where will you get a job, how do you pay back your tuition? 
This is what I see when I watch this show.  I see an obese mother, and yes, she is the first to tell you she's fat, but she is there beside her children through thick and thin.  It's not an act.  Mama Bear  has stated she doesn't believe in marriage because men tend to come and go.  She believes in her children, stating they're her true family, knowing they'll always be there with her and for each other.  Her children have the utmost respect for her.   Compare again to the rich, spoiled Kardashians and the manner in which they speak to their mother.  It's embarrassing to watch.  They disrespect her, call her names, and put her down every chance they get.  Mama Bear doesn't put up with that, she gives her daughters the look and they know.    Have to admit, they are definitely grounded.
 This is our America now, not the stuffy, spoiled rich perspective, but the hard working, struggling poor class is the new reality.   This family is the real thing.  It's not just in Georgia, it's everywhere.  Who can afford designer clothes, purses, cars, etc.  Who cares?  Not these people.  They don't fly to Bora Bora for family fun, they go to the county fair or on their quads to play in the mud for some family fun.  Their meals are home cooked, the mother clips coupons , the father works 7 days a week, and yes unfortunately, the 15 year old daughter is pregnant with no baby daddy in sight.  Mama June told her, the boyfriend wouldn't stick around 'cuz he only wanted a piece of her biscuit and then he'd be gone'.  As mothers go, you couldn't get more blunt than that tidbit of advice given to a teenage daughter.  Guaranteed June will be at her daughter's side during the pregnancy and birth of this new 'Bear' clan member.  So move over all of you stuffy, snotty rich people.  Here comes Honey Boo Boo and her family, and from what I can see-they're the real thing.

The Road ToThe Historic Bridge

Heading home from our last camping adventure, I saw an exit sign on the interstate that would lead us to a historic bridge.  I visualized an old, wooden covered bridge-the type from the movie, "Bridges of Madison County"  when I told Mr. B. to pull off the highway.  We took the exit and drove two miles, but no further signs and no bridge could be seen.  We pulled into a gas station and the clerk told us to keep going straight, then said, "there's a county park, turn at the park sign, and oh yeah, it has an old bridge."    
  She made it sound like it really wasn't a big deal.  I started wondering  if this was worth the inconvenience, but we kept driving, spotted a county park sign and turned.  We ended up in a housing complex with no sight of a park or bridge to be seen. We kept driving.  We saw another park sign, and turned left.  This time we ended up in a biological preserve area, but again no bridge.   I began to get angry with the person  in charge of putting these highway signs up.  An inpatient me turned to Mr. B. and shouted, "Who in the hell put these signs up and where in the hell is this historic bridge?"  The ever calm Mr. B. said, "I don't know, but we can't go back the way we just came."                             "Why not?"  I asked.   "But we'll get lost."   An optimistic Mr. B. replied, "because we know the bridge is not that way, we already checked."  So Mr. B. and I kept driving, deciding to travel the opposite way we came and head back towards the interstate.  At this particular, frustrating point, I began composing a letter in my head to mail to the city manager suggesting better signage if they wish to attract more tourists to their historic bridge town.  Well, heading back to the interstate, there it was.  The county park and the Historic Bridge sign we had just spent 45 minutes looking for.  We took the road to the right and found our bridge.  It wasn't want I had hoped it would be, but it was old.    The year 1886 is definitely historic!

Mr. B. standing on the historic bridge

If You Have The Time....You'll Find It!

One of my favorite places to go is my local trade-a-book bookstore.  It's filled with some of the most interesting and long forgotten books, mostly paperback, that I've seen in a long time.  I was looking for a certain book published in 1964 when I first discovered this treasure of a store.  My first trip to the store, I asked the beautiful, white-haired 86 year-old woman that owned the store if she had this particular book I was looking for.  She looked at me and laughed.  She told me nothing is listed or cataloged, the titles and authors are in random order.  She said in her quiet voice, "You never know what you'll find in here, if you have the time to search, it's probably here."   She was right, after a two hour search, and many fascinating book titles... I found it!

Bathrooms, Washrooms, Restrooms...Where Is It?

Coco on her long walk to the restroom.

I don't know why, but every time Coco and I get together the same question comes up, "which way to the restrooms?"  Probably because we're female, right?  It's always so complicated en- route, never just a simple to your right, or to your left.  While at this past weekend's wedding, the question came up. We were told the bathrooms were located in a large building about two miles from the wedding.  Not really that far, but seemed like it when you really gotta go!  So Coco and I walked ran together to find the bathrooms, and when we got to the large building, the doors were locked-that is all the doors.  We met a young bewildered dad with his young son trying to figure out how to break in to get to the restrooms, which for them, much easier to use the outdoor facilities-if you know what I mean.   I didn't mention this as we were complete strangers.  After what seemed like 10 minutes of trying all the doors, we finally located the bathrooms at the back, on the outside of the building.  Whew!  That was a close call!

You Really Should Do An Ad...

..for my kitchen cabinets, Belle.  Actually, you could do an ad for your hair in front of my kitchen cabinets, or..... Either way.. 'you oughta be in pictures'! 

Eyes Wide Open

Lola keeping those eyes pried open looking at baby sister Belle's camara.  Hey-your nail polish matches Belle's dress!

Fun can be had at weddings.  But it's a challenge when you've been up since 4 a.m. and worked a 10 hour shift in a hectic healthcare setting.  But a weary Lola made it.  She kept those blue eyes open a few more hours!