Bouillon de Culture

These 10 questions originally came from a French series, "Bouillon de Culture" hosted by Bernard Pivot. It is probably more familiar to many as the question James Lipton asks at the end of "Inside the Actor's Studio."

I've found these questions interesting among friends. It's amazing what the simple answers to these questions reveal about a person's thoughts, feelings and beliefs.

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01. What is your favorite word? Two actually...Dinner's ready!

02. What is your least favorite word? Good-bye

03. What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally? Music

04. What turns you off? Lies

05. What is your favorite curse word? shitfire

06. What sound or noise do you love? Rain on a metal awning

07. What sound or noise do you hate? Dogs barking and other people's children crying

08. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? Medical Examiner

09. What profession would you not like to do? Landscape Maintenance

10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? Welcome, please come in. What took you so long?

Please feel free to post on your blog and leave me a link or you can post your answers in the "Comments" section.

The Cupcake Verdict

We, the jury, in the above entitled action do hereby find the defendant, Barefoot Contessa Coconut Cupcakes, NOT WORTHY, of a clogged artery. So say we one, so say we all.


While I enjoyed making these cupcakes since I haven't done any baking in a long time, the end result wasn't worth it. I used all the finest ingredients I could find (just like a REAL chef) and followed the instructions carefully. Maybe part of the problem is that I really don't like cake.

The best part was the cream cheese frosting but I ended up with enough frosting to do another cake - maybe a carrot cake. That would be really good with cream cheese frosting.

Sam doesn't like coconut, so he won't be eating these. He asked me to leave the coconut out but I explained that they wouldn't be Coconut Cupcakes without coconut.

In the final analysis, I would much rather have spent my calories on a brownie. Not just any brownie, either. These brownies, which we refer to as Alton Brown-ies in our house.

Having said all that, none of it stopped me from eating two of them. Sigh....

Ina Garten is excessive...

For a long, long time I have wanted to try the Barefoot Contessa's

Coconut Cupcakes. Ina made these for a birthday celebration

and they looked YUMMY! I read the recipe (available on the Food

Network website and here) and thought, "What a way to die!"

This recipe has:

6 sticks of butter

5 extra large eggs

an entire pound of full fat cream cheese.

This afternoon I made them - from scratch - not the mix that is

now available at places like Sur La Table. Let me just say for you

coconut haters out there (and you KNOW who you are), this is

NOT the food for you. There is enough coconut in these cupcakes

to feed a Survivor tribe for all 39 days! Sadly, (well, not really)

Mike made a spectacular dinner tonight and I ate too much of

that so the long sought after cupcake will have to wait.

I'm sure they'll be just as good for breakfast tomorrow.

I'm a Black Belt

After 5 1/2 years of hard work, on Friday, March 2, 2007, I earned my black belt in Chun Kuk Do. I also just used 4 commas in one sentence. Whew! It was a tough night and I gave everything I had but the accomplishment was well worth it.


This is during basics...

and this is one-steps.

And this is when it was all said and done!!!

A Sad Day for Ana

Based solely on genetics, I've known for many years that there would come a point where Sam would be taller than Ana. Sam's birthfather was 6 feet tall and was only 16 years old when Sam was born, so who knows how much taller he grew. Alas, Ana's birthfather was 5'9" tall and well into his 20's at the time of Ana's birth.

Today, that day arrived.

She is quite forlorn that her 10 year old brother is now 3/8" taller and she is more than 3 years older.

All I can say is - they're BOTH still shorter than me! I'm sure that won't last much longer either. But I've been expecting it so it won't bother me.

Today's Inspiration

Ability is what you're capable of doing.

Motivation determines what you do.

Attitude determines how well you do it.

Lou Holtz - American Football coach

Quote of the Day

"I guess if a person never quit when the going got tough, they wouldn’t have anything to regret for the rest of their life."

Lance Armstrong in Dodgeball.


Hmmm.....the going is tough right now. Only a few days until my black belt test. I'm nervous and excited all at once. I can't wait to get out there and do my thing. My black pants and black-trimmed jacket are washed and ready to go for Saturday. All I need now is the black belt to complete the outfit.

Ana's karate test

Last night Ana tested in karate for rank advancement. She has been promoted to Green with a stripe. After all the hard work of forms, basics, one-steps, jump kicks and fighting, she got to the fun stuff: breaking boards. She broke one board easily. This is a photo of her breaking two boards at once. A little tougher but she did it!! Great job, Ana.

A Slow Day at the Massage School

It was a slow day at the massage school today. Ana and I arrived at 7:30am with our "2-for-1" coupon in hand. Normally, a one-hour massage costs $32.00, which I find to be a completely reasonable price to pay. With our coupon, we get a one hour massage for $16.00 each. This counts as an even better deal and I am absolutely willing to pay it. The drawback is that on a normal weekend (the only time massages are offered) the line is usually quite long. We can end up waiting an hour or more. The wait is not too bad because we sit and chat. It's nice to have my teenager without an escape route for an hour! This Sunday, the wait was only about 1o minutes. How nice! We both had what we classified as "the best massage I've ever had here" massages. On our way out, one of the supervisors asked us if we would like another massage for free. Free? Did you say free? Yes, she said free! We got back in line (behind only two other people) and filled out our paperwork, went to the waiting area, and before we had walked down the hall, our massage therapists were ready for us. Apparently, there were more students needing to massage than there were clients, so they were taking anyone who was willing to have a second massage.

Now, if you've been doing the math in your head as you read, you've figured out that we paid $8.00 each for one-hour massages. They way I figure it, I saved $96.00 today so I'm going to the mall!

Karen's Birthday

For my 40th birthday, my good friends, Debbie, Denise and Di took me out to dinner at the Melting Pot. It's not just dinner...it's a dining experience. We sat for several hours at our table and talked of many things, including the fondue parties of our youth which always included orange fondue pots with cans of Sterno underneath. After dinner we went to another of my favorite places, Starbucks, and gabbed at each other some more. It's the kind of gabbing that only takes place when all 8 of our children are SOMEWHERE ELSE!!!

A big thank you to my friends for such a fun-filled evening. It was worth the 7 month wait!!




Okay, so my pictures are a little out of proportion. A can of Sterno this size would engulf the fondue pot in an incendiary light show. I didn't have my camera with me so I had to rely on the internet and this is what I came up with!

Harbinger of Spring

I looked out my window this afternoon and saw these two beautiful robins. I have not seen a robin since I was a child. Where have they all been hiding? They weren't very happy about me being as close as I was and kept turning their backs!

Not Very Subtle

I very often tease Mike about trying to kill me by way of heart attack because he likes to grill things like ribs and chicken wings on the weekend. Because I am at higher risk of diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol and stroke (to name a few) I'm supposed to eat lean meats. I thought the electrical appliances in the bathtub were not very subtle.

If anyone wants to know WHY they are in the bathtub, you'll have to leave a comment!

The Boys

This is what the boys in our house do with a three day weekend. Mike has been spending time creating things with a 3-D animator. It recommened taking pictures of your puppy and uploading them to work with. He thought a Lego figure would stand still better than our chihuahua, Gizmo.

And, so, Sam got out the camera and began taking photos of his Bionicles.

Happy Birthday Sam!

Sam and his friends at Sky Mania for his 10th birthday party.

The presents!

For those astute observers among you, you'll realize that Sam's birthday was a little more than 3 months ago. It has taken me this long to get around to doing his party. He told me it was worth the wait. He had a great time! Whew!

By Request

By special request...

The grandparents really did visit. For some reason, the camera spent much of its time put away and not snapping photos. These photos were taken at dinner by Sam.

First Tuesday

Last night I took the kids to First Tuesday. The first Tuesday of each month, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department opens all of their substations for a community event. Last night we got to climb aboard the big truck with all the cool chemical, biological and other anti-terrorist "toys" in it. Very cool! I was hoping they'd blow stuff up, but no such luck! Maybe when they get the bomb squad is there. Hmmmm........

Mad Scientist

Sam earned a Third Place ribbon in his school Science Fair today. He did a really fun experiment to see if he could blow up a balloon using a decaying banana. Nice work, Sam.

Dreams? I wish!

You, and you, and you! Get out of my head so I can get some sleep!! All you people, places, events and animals are disturbing my sleep. These are the things I think of at 3 o'clock in the morning. At least in the summer I can watch the ceiling fan turn circles. In the winter it's just a starfish (Patrick?), or a snowflake, or a sheriff made out of a star, or a sheriff's badge, or a .... You see where this takes me. Not to sleepyland. Did I mention Patrick? I'm not a fan of SpongeBob. I like Sandy. She's from Texas, right? I've heard it said you're not a Texan just because you move to Texas. If a cat has kittens and moves them to the oven, they're not biscuits. Mike makes really good biscuits. I shouldn't eat them because they're made with refined flour. I haven't bought myself flowers in a long time.

And so goes the thought process when it's lunch time in Europe.

Aunt Karen? Not Me!

The teacher gave her fifth grade class an assignment: Get their parents to tell them a story with a moral at the end of it. The next day the kids came back and one by one began to tell their stories.

"Tony, do you have a story to share?" "Yes ma'am. My daddy told a story about my Aunt Karen. She was a pilot in Desert Storm and her plane got hit. She had to bail out over enemy territory and all she had was a flask of whiskey, a pistol and a survival knife. She drank the whiskey on the way down so it wouldn't break and then her parachute landed right in the middle of twenty enemy troops. She shot fifteen of them with the gun until she ran out of bullets, killed four more with the knife, till the blade broke, and then she killed the last Iraqi with her bare hands."

"Good Heavens" said the horrified teacher. "What kind of moral did your daddy tell you from this horrible story?"

"Stay the hell away from Aunt Karen when she's drinking."

More Benefits of Homeschooling

P.E. and Reading all at the same time!

This is my new recumbent bike that Mike and Sam assembled for me last night. No more excuses for why I can't exercise!!!