My Thanksgiving Desserts

Took some pics of my baking! :) I'm proud. :) They looked good and tasted YUMMY!!!!

My Rainbow cookies, I broke from the traditional white, green and red, and went for more autumny colors, red, orange and yellow. And OF COURSE with chocolate on top :)






Pumpkin Bread in the shape of a PUMPKIN! With the great Pumpkin pan and cream cheese frosting with a little food coloring. I made The pumpkin orange with stems and leaves! Pretty! And REALLY YUMMY!!! :) I LOVE Pumpkin Bread.








You can see more of the top here, a better effect from this angle.










A birds eye view of the Great Pumpkin! :)






And last but not least, my Apple Crumble Pie. And the Yummys keep on coming..... :)

Happy Thansgiving Back

I was thinking aboot the supermarket scene in You've Got Mail!


Anyways, tomorrows Thanksgiving and YAY for Thanksgiving. It's a good time for me right now. I'm moving forward in my life and making scary yet good changes. Today was hard to leave and say goodbye at work, but I'm still excited to move on. I need the change. Even though I hate change. I know, it's quite a paradox. I've been struggling with it myself for the past 3 weeks. But now it's here and I have 4 days to regroup before I start my new job, my new bright future. :)

Thanksgiving is a great way to do that. I'm so excited to spend time with my family and have wedding talk and just enjoy each others company over good food and a warm atmosphere. Then up to VT for the weekend for visiting Rob's family. I Love VT, I always feel relaxed and peaceful and it's such a good place for me to take a brain break and refresh before I stary work on Monday. But for tomorrow, I'm doing a lot of dessert this year, as I LOVE to bake. :) I'm apple pieing, Pumpkin Breading and Rainbow Cookieing. I LOVE these recipes, bake them all year round for various functions, get lots of YUMMYS! I've posted the pumpkin bread and Cookies before, but I'll refresh, as I don't remember exactly where it is on the BLOG. I think last Thanksgiving. But oh well, I can repeat it. This way neither of us has to go searching through 18 months of BLOG posts. (Has it really been that long??? WOOW!!!!) Hope you enjoy!


Anyway, first for the pie crust. From Allrecipes.com.
BEST EVER PIE CRUST (Their name not mine, though it IS pretty good, and REALLY easy. MUCH easier than I ever thought pie crust could be!)

INGREDIENTS
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup shortening (or butter)
1/2 cup water

DIRECTIONS:
-In a large bowl, combine flour and salt.
-Cut in shortening until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. (I'm a hands-on baker, I break up the softened butter into small pieces and do grabbing and squeezing of the mixture until it's all incorporated. It kind of looks like wet sand.)
-Stir in water until mixture forms a ball.
-Divide dough in half, and shape into balls.
-Wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.
-Roll out dough on a floured counter.
-Don't over work it. Use as directed in pie recipe.

Note: If necessary, use a little less water than called for in recipe. (I ALWAYS use less)


And then the Apple Crumble Pie :)

INGREDIENTS:
1 (9 inch) deep dish pie crust
5 cups apples - peeled, cored
and thinly sliced
1/2 cup white sugar
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup white sugar
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
6 tablespoons butter

DIRECTIONS:
-Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C.)
-Roll out your pie crust (I do it between sheets of wax paper for some added ease.)
-To get the rolled out crust into the piepan, fold in half then again so you have a 1/4 circle. Then it's easier to lift and put into the pan, center it and then unfold.
-Arrange apple slices in unbaked pie shell.
-Mix 1/2 cup sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over apples.
-Mix 1/3 cup sugar with flour; cut in butter until crumbly. (same technique as with the pie crust)
-Spoon mixture over apples.
-Bake in preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until apples are soft and top is lightly browned.


This year I have the GREAT PUMPKIN PAN!!!! A gift from Williams Sonoma. :) Pumpkin bread shaped like a pumpkin! How cute! :)

Rena's Pumpkin Bread Recipe

INGREDIENTS
1 teaspoon each of:
cinnamon
nutmeg
cloves
baking soda
baking powder

3 cups of sugar
3 and 1/4 cups of flour
4 eggs
1 cup of oil (you can use butter or margarine too, same amount)
1 cup pumpkin. (but I use the whole of the small 15oz can)

DIRECTIONS
-Mix butter sugar and eggs.
-Mix separately the flour, aking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves.
-Add to the wet ingredients a bit at a time.
-Stir in the Pumpkin
-Bake in 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes to an hour until the toothpick comes out clean etc).

It makes 2 loaves, or ~24 muffins (depending on the size), or 2-3 small cake pans, or a great pumpkin with some left over after triming the bottoms so you can fit it together. Either way, it makes A LOT. and good thing to because it's YUMMY!!!


Rainbow Cookies

Makes 8 dozen (96 servings).

INGREDIENTS
8 ounces almond paste (I use almond filling)
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
4 eggs, separated
2 cups all-purpose flour
6 drops red food coloring
6 drops green food coloring (or whatever colors you want)
1/4 cup seedless red raspberry jam
1/4 cup apricot jam
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips, melted (I use dark chocolate)

DIRECTIONS
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
-Line three 9x13 inch baking pans with parchment paper.
-In a large bowl, break apart almond paste with a fork, and cream together with butter, sugar, and egg yolks.
-When mixture is fluffy and smooth, stir in flour to form a dough.
-In a small bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form.
-Fold egg whites into the dough.
-Divide dough into 3 equal portions.
-Mix one portion with red food coloring, and one with green food coloring.
-Spread each portion into one of the prepared baking pans.
-Bake 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, until lightly browned.
-Carefully remove from pan and parchment paper, and cool completely on wire racks.
-Place green layer onto a piece of plastic wrap large enough to wrap all three layers.
-Spread green layer with raspberry jam, and top with uncolored layer.
-Spread with apricot jam, and top with pink layer.
-Transfer layers to a baking sheet, and enclose with plastic wrap.
-Place a heavy pan or cutting board on top of wrapped layers to compress.
-Chill in the refrigerator 8 hours, or overnight.
-Remove plastic wrap.
-Top with melted chocolate chips, and refrigerate 1 hour, or until chocolate is firm.
-Slice into small squares to serve.

This has been a family favorite for as long as I can remember. It's an Italian bakery cookie/cake, but I like the homemade recipe betterer. It's got a milder Almond flavor. It's not hard, just time consuming, but SO worth it! YUMMY YUMMY YUMMY!!!! :)

Anyways, so if you try out any of these I hope you enjoy them. If not, then I hope whatever you are making is wonderful and enjoyed by all. May this Thanksgiving be filled with warmth and love, family and friends, food and fun.


More after the weekend!!! Happy Tofu Turkey!!!!

One Day More...

Another day another destiny.
This neverending road to cal.....zzzzzzzzzzzpppppp

oops.. Got a bit carried away. It IS my favorite some from Les Miserables though. I LOVE that show. Know it by heart. But once again I digress...

Today is my last day at work. I am leaving the inner-city of Bridgeport for the super-duper overwealthy town of Greenwich. It's a change, and not one that is easy to make, but well, circumstances are circumstances. The job kind of stumbled upon me and when I went to check it out, they made me an offer I just couldn't refuse. Significantly higher salary, with significantly less weekends and MUCH closer to home. So with gas prices being as they are, not quite $3+ a gallon but still high, and putting 50 miles a day on my car was getting expensive. My loans are killing my budget, and every other weekend was getting REALLY tiring. I REALLY missed Shabbat. It was SO hard to give up. And yet with all that, I didn't want to leave. I LOVE the hospital, I love the trauma and burns and open heart surgery and all the awesome things you get to see and learn in a Level 1 Trauma Center, a hospital with all the interesting diagnoses etc etc. I love my coworkers and leaving them is so hard. ESPECIALLY knowing that I am leaving them yet another PT short.

But more $$, one weekend day every 6-8 weeks, and 6 miles away, round trip 12, I couldn't pass it up. All the benefits of Bridgeport just couldn't compare for what I needed to do for my financial stability, and for my sanity. Between my monthly expenses, and saving for a wedding, and hopefully being able to put a down payment on a house in a couple of years, I needed to be paid more and spending less on gas. And Greenwich hospital is REALLY great.

It's BEAUTIFUL first of all. I've had hotel rooms shabbier than that hospital. Carpeting in the hallways, wood floors in patient rooms, wood paneling on the walls... Almost all the patients have private rooms, and all of them have flat screen TV's, with direct TV, Movies on Demand and Internet Hookups. The only thing that makes it look like a hospital room is the bed. There are computers everywhere, everything is charted on the computer, so no more trying to read doctor's handwriting. And I'll have access to test results, MRI's, xrays, etc, which is REALLY useful to me and almost impossible to find out sometimes with paper charts. The staff satisfaction is awesome, there's little turnover, and the patient satisfaction in in the top 1% in the country. They are financially stable so they are able to provide so much for their staff and patients. The Rehab staff seems really nice, I like my new boss so far, and well, I get my own desk, computer, and locker. Sometimes it's the simple things that are REALLY nice. PLUS it's in the same "health system" Yale New Haven health System, so I get to keep ALL of my benefits without missing a day. Which is a HUGE plus. Being without health insurance for 3 months would have been horrible. With some of my medical needs right now, I couldn't do it.

So I made the switch. Today is my last day. I start on Monday.

I'll be around on a per diem basis, and I'm probably STILL working Christmas there, but it's my last time as a full time employee.

I am SO going to miss the staff at Bridgeport. I love working with them SO much, and I'm really close to a lot, and I'm going to miss our conversations and advice and well, just seeing them. They've all been really great though. They all understand why I'm doing it, not upset, and realize that this is a good thing for my life. And they've given me a nice send off. I didn't expect much being right before Thanksgiving. But we had a happy hour last night, and they all pitched in to get me a gift certificate to one of my favorite stores, Williams Sonoma, (tee hee!!!) which I'll probably be registering at.. which they KNEW!! Secret spys... :) And a couple of people got me small personal gifts that were really meaningful and they all got me a nice card. All standard stuff to do for someone who is leaving, but it still feels really special.

And that's that. My last day. I'll probably be bawling by the end of the day. But this is a good thing. I have to keep reminding myself of that. Change is hard, especially for me, but I need to do it. The card the staff gave me said this:

Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still.
-Chinese proverb

It's a perfect send off wish. And I thank them much for it, and all else they have given me these last few years.

Goodbye Bridgeport, and thank you. Hello change, Hello Greenwich.

Fun And Frustrating And Yet I Can't Stop!

I've had some TOUGH patients this past week. Some difficult because of diagnosis, some because of personality. It's been a strange mixture of fun and frustration. And through it all I still love my job. Go figure!

I mentioned not so long ago that I got one of my patients to take a step. Well, now he's walking outside of the parallel bars! I worked with him all weekend and some this week too. He's making such great progress I'm so excited. But he's REALLY involved and large so having a lot of treatments with him can be tiring. He had a stroke with some severe hemiplegia, and he has trouble speaking and swallowing as well. But he's such a great guy, always motivated, always ready to work. And we worked SO HARD in the parallel bars last weekend and now he's doing well enough to be out of them. I'm SO excited for him. :) That's why I love rehab. I love working with the same patient and seeing their progress, and getting them excited about their progress and just helping them achieve their independence again. TEE HEE!!!

I've had some fights with patients also. Dementia, cranky old men, advanced Parkinsons Disease, pusher syndrome, angry 7 year old boys... It hasn't bee a ton of fun and games.

One patient has a combo of Burns, Dementia, and Parkinson's Disease. Sometimes he's great and sometimes he's so argumentative, it's impossible to get him to do anything. "I'm a stubborn Irishman and you can't make me!!!" Kinda funny when you look at it from afar. But serious when you're trying to get him to do his exercises.

There's one woman who had a CVA, but she's DIFFICULT because she's a pusher. What does that men??? Most of the time when you have a stroke and you have weakness on one side, you lean to your strong side, you rely on your strong side for balance, mobility etc. A pusher has the additional brain malfunction that the brain thinks that upright neutral is 18 degrees to the weak side. So for instance this woman has left side weakness/paralysis. So she is constantly leaning/falling to the left. It's REALLY hard to get her to sit upright in a chair. And the more you push a pusher to neutral, the more they push to that side. Think about it. This patient, her brain thinks that she is in neutral, and you're pushing her over. If someone pushed you over you'd fight back, so she pushes harder to the involved side. It's REALLY hard to work with a pusher. A lot of mirror work, a lot of reaching and balance activities all trying to get the patient to realize her position and self correct to upright. But at the same time it's SO INTERESTING because pushers are rare, and you have to throw everything you know about treating CVA's out the window and start with completely different tactics.

Don't forget the 7 year old shoulder burn patient who shouldn't have been playing with a lighter who didn't want to get out of bed for the sole reason that I asked him to. So he hit me, kicked me and tried to bite me. HARD! I actually felt kind of bad for the kid, there's a lot going on at home, his father just passecd away and DCF was involved with the case, and there's just a ton going on and I can see why he would be upset and angry. It didn't make hitting and kicking right, but somewhat understandable. Either way, it still hurt.

Oh yeah and then there was the incidents with the massive amounts of poop and projectile vomiting.

And to top it off I had the cranky elderly man who just didn't want to do anything and required a TON of encouragement to get him to participate at all let alone the whole 3 hours a day. And it's funny, whenever I gave up and said fine you don't want to participate I'm bringing you back to your room, he suddenly wanted to do the therapy. It was EXASPERATING!! He was a sweet man at heart and he realized we had his best interests at heart and he said he wanted to participate, but when it came down to do the exercises and to do the walking, he just didn't perform. I like him as a person, and I want so much for him because I know he has the potential to go far with his rehab if only he'd believe in himself and the process enough to do it. So that's been frustrating and rewarding all at the same time.

And that was my week. Fun and frustrating. Awesome and happy, and yet cranky at the same time. I guess it's just a part of being a PT. You get SO frustrated when a patient isn't doing as well as you'd want and yet it's such a thrill when a patient meets a goal or blows through goals in his progress. It's like a drug when that happens. You get so happy and excited for your patient and you're trying to convey it to them and all the hard stuff, the complaints of others, the back pain from all the lifting and arm pain from the kicking, it just disappears. It's the PT thrill, and I love it. :) Being a PT is great. Yeah it's difficult sometimes, but still, it's great and I wouldn't trade all the poop in the world for another job. :) I guess I'm just lucky that way.

YAY for PTing!!!!

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

I love Harry Potter. Anyone who knows me knows that I know the books practically by heart, I've read them over and over and over, and I've listened to them on tape over and over and over. I can discuss every and any detail, Harry Potter philosophy and plot points etc etc etc. I love getting lost in the story, the magical world, everything is so specific, and yet it doesn't seem so, everything is thought of, almost NOTHING is left to the imagination, unless of course JKR wants it to be. And if there is a string untied that she didn't mean to be untied, undoubtedly she has an answer for it. And with all that I still feel that I can have full imagination of the magical world, what Hogwarts looks and feels like, what doing magic is like, what playing Quidditch is like etc etc etc.

So if I LOVE the books, I've disliked ALL the movies. I've been pretty disappointed. They claim to be "true to the books" and well, often they're not. Sometimes things are word for word from the book and other times things are grossly changed. Even small details that didn't necessarily need to be changed are changed. For example, the snake in the very beginning of the first book that Harry accidentally let out of his cage at the zoo, he was from Brazil, but in the movie they said Burma. Or when Harry was asked to be on the Quidditch team in his first year, Professor McGonagall took the captain Oliver Wood out of Charms with Flitwick. In the movie it was DADA with Quirrell. Things like that bother me almost more than the gross distortions of the book.

I understand that you can't fit ALL the details of the books into a movie. And how do you turn a 800+ page book into a 2.5 hr movie? So I understand the plot changes and all that. But I still don't like them. The movies are good and well made, but I'm loyal to the books, and well, I feel that the movies rush through things and take the "magic" out of the details of the story by glossing it all over.

So on that note Rob and I went to see the 4th movie yesterday afternoon. Besides the theater being full of talking children which I CAN'T STAND, when ANYONE talks or whatever, but I was, as expected, disapointed with the movie. Rob wanted to see it, and I wasn't totally opposed, so we went. I could have waited for video or HBO to tell the truth. The movie was significantly different than the book, the major plot points were there, but still, it was all different. It wasn't BAD, and it wasn't unenjoyable, and I didn't not have a good time (WHOOPS double negative) but I guess I just have high expectations. I love the books too much. I've always been that way. I'm a bookworm. Can't help it. Oh well.

So if you love the books you'll probably be as disappointed in this movie as you may have been with the others. But if you loved the movies and don't know all the details of the books or haven't read them, you'll enjoy the 4th movie as you probably enjoyed the other 3. But if you haven't read the books, I HIGHLY recommend that you do. They are completely awesome.

And on that note, time for work. Only 3 more days.......

Interesting Parenting Tactics

Listening to the radio this AM. Heard another interesting news story.

A teenager in Oklahoma City was slacking off, not doing her homework, talking back to her teachers etc. Her Mom, tired of the continued problems in school, made her stand on a busy street corner with a cardboard sign that said:

"I slack off in school and I don't do my homework so my parents are preparing me for my future. WILL WORK FOR FOOD"

Kinda funny, kinda scary. I'm not sure what to think, but without real thought because I'm too tired right now, but it did give me a bit of a laugh this AM when I was REALLY sleepy and coming in to work.

Anyway, Have a good day! :)

Found this in my archives....

It brought back some fond memories of childhood.

"We are the children of the Eighties. We are not the first "lost generation" nor today's lost generation; in fact, we think we know just where we stand - or are discovering it as we speak.

We are the ones who played with Lego Building Blocks when they were just building blocks and gave Malibu Barbie crewcuts with safety scissors that never really cut. We collected Garbage Pail Kids and Cabbage Patch Kids and My Little Ponies and Hot Wheels and He-Man action figures and thought She-Ra looked just a little bit like I would when I was a woman. Big Wheels and bicycles with streamers were the way to go, and sidewalk chalk was all you needed to build a city. Imagination was the key. It made the Ewok Treehouse big enough for you to play in. With your pink portable tape player, Debbie Gibson sang back up to you and everyone wanted a skirt like the Material Girl and a glove like Michael Jackson's.

Today, we are the ones who sing along with Bruce Springsteen and the Bangles perfectly and have no idea why. We recite lines with the Ghostbusters and still look to the Goonies for a great adventure. We flip through T.V. stations and stop at the A-Team and Punky Brewster and "What you talkin' 'bout Willis?" We hold strong affections for The Muppets and The Gummy Bears and why did they take the Smurfs off the air? After school specials were only about cigarettes and step-families, the Pokka Dot Door was nothing like Barney, and aren't the Power Rangers just Voltron reincarnated?

We are the ones who still read Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys, the Bobbsey Twins, Beverly Clearly and Judy Blume, Richard Scarry and the Electric Company. Friendship bracelets were ties you couldn't break and friendship pins went on shoes - preferably hightopVelcro Reeboks - and pegged jeans were in, as were Units belts and layered socks and jean jackets and jams and charm bracelets and side pony tails and just tails. Rave was a girl's best friend; braces with colored rubberbands made you cool.

The backdoor was always open and Mom served only red Kool-Aid to the neighborhood kids - never drank New Coke. Entertainment was cheap and lasted for hours. All you needed to be a princess was high heels and an apron; Sit 'n' Spin always made you dizzy but never made you stop; Pogoballs were dangerous weapons and Chinese Jump Ropes never failed to trip someone. In your Underoos, you were Wonder Woman or Spiderman or R2D2 and in your treehouse you were king.

In the Eighties, nothing was wrong. Did you know the president was shot? Star Wars was not only a movie. Did you ever play in a bomb shelter? Did you see the Challenger explode or feed the homeless man down the street? We forgot Vietnam and watched Tiananman's Square on CNN and bought pieces of the Berlin wall at the store. AIDS was not the number one killer in the United States. We didn't start the fire, Billy Joel.

In the Eighties, we re-definied the American Dream, and those years re-defined us. We are the generation in between strife and facing strife and not turning our backs. The eighties may have made us idealistic, but it is that idealism that will push us to be passed on to our children - the first children of the twenty-first century. Never forget we are the children of the Eighties!!"

Fans Can Beam Up Words With Scotty's Ashes

I found this on the news this morning. I thought it was perty cool beans :)



John McKay
Canadian Press
Monday, November 14, 2005

TORONTO -- Scotty's ashes are heading for orbit.

And his legions of fans can go along for the ride. Or at least their best wishes can. Following the precedent of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, some of the remains of Canadian-born actor James Doohan will be launched into space some time in February or March.

It was one of the last requests of Doohan who died at 85 last July and who memorably played chief engineer Scotty of the starship Enterprise on the original Star Trek sci-fi series and subsequent big-screen adventures.

"You know, it's the final frontier," says Susan Schonfeld, a spokeswoman for the Houston-based Space Services, Inc., which has been arranging memorial space flights for several years now. "I think space is just so loved by people. It's a thing that's inbred in human beings when they look up at the night sky and they see the stars."

In a phone interview from New York, Schonfeld said that the Space Endeavor Center at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base has given them a launch window for their sixth memorial spaceflight some time during February or March. Details will be posted online (www.spaceservicesinc.com) where fans of Scotty can also post a few words of tribute that will be digitized and sent up as part of the Falcon 1 rocket's payload at no extra charge.
Some fans have already done so (see also www.scottylaunch.com). "Thanks for exploring the final frontier and inspiring many others," wrote Philippe Drouin of Montreal.
"You were an incredibly talented man," wrote Kevin Gordon of Denver, Colo. "I wish we could see you in action one more time."

The actor's widow, Wende Doohan, has issued a formal invitation to fans to attend the launch and the memorial service that will take place the day before. If not, they can send their tribute message. "I can't think of a more fitting sendoff than having some of his fans attend this, his final journey," she writes on the website. "For those who wish to attend the launch, you are more than welcome. And for those who can't, just look to the heavens on launch date and know that you are sharing a worldwide memorial for James (Scotty) Doohan."

Also included in the Explorer launch capsule will be some remains of early Star Trek writer John Meredith Lucas, country music singer-writer Randy Vanwarmer - who wrote for the likes of Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton - and some 170 others including rocket scientists, plus someone well-known whose identity won't be released until launch day at the family's request.

Here's how the memorial works.
It costs anywhere from $995 US to $5,300 to send some cremated remains up on the rocket packed in a tube integrated into the flight hardware - basically a thousand dollars per gram (the payload available to Space Services is limited).

The aluminum capsule will be launched into orbit where it will remain for dozens, perhaps hundreds of years, before re-entering Earth's atmosphere as a shooting star. The ashes are not scattered in space.

"Everything that goes up must eventually come down," explains Schonfeld. "Whether it's 10 years, 30 years, 50 years, that all depends on where it's released in space."........ Their maiden launch in 1997 carried remains of Roddenberry and writer and LSD-promoter Timothy Leary.
Schonfeld says such alternative funerals - it's been called thinking outside the box - are growing in popularity. "There are funeral homes throughout the world that now carry the space memorial flight service," she says. "It's a very popular thing these days for people to plan ahead for their final journey. "These type of services have become more mainstream."

The Vancouver-born Doohan died July 20 at his Redmond, Wash., home with Wende, his wife of 31 years, at his side. He had retired from public events last year after announcing he had Alzheimer's disease.

© The Canadian Press 2005

Wedding Update

Still no decision on a date or place. We have a couple more meetings this week, and HOPEFULLY we'll make our decision by the end of the week. I'll feel a lot better and a lot less stressed when I know when and where I get to celebrate my marriage to Rob.

Will keep y'all posted.

Honk for Peace

On a happier more fun makes me smile topic (instead of annoying and pointless political arguments with people who don't respect other peoples opinions topics...)

EVERY Saturday, and I mean EVERY Saturday, for the past two years (or at least that past two years I've been there) there is a Senior Woman in Norwalk who stands in front of the Norwalk Town Hall with signs and banners saying HONK FOR PEACE!!!

I see her on the Saturdays I'm off from work and go to shul. (Which from now on is EVERY Saturday because I don't have to work Saturdays anymore! YAY!!!) We drive right past the Town Hall on the way to and from shul. And there she is. Rain shine, snow, freezing cold, WHAEVER, she's there EVERY Saturday with her signs and banners.

Honk for Peace! End the War! Bring our Troops Home!

HONK FOR PEACE!!!!!!

I LOVE IT!!!! I go by honking and honking and waving to her, and she's always so excited and smiling and waving, its so awesome. The noise on that corner is awesome from all the honks. Luckily it's not in a residential area. But still, it's pretty cool.

I love her enthusiasm, and I admire her dedication. I think it's so amazing that she cares SO MUCH about the world and others to spend EVERY SATURDAY in front of Town Hall saying Honk for Peace. If only everyone in this world shared her enthusiasm, caring and spirit. Imagine what a world we would/could live in. I love it!!! TEE HEE!!!!

Tax Dollar Clarification

Ahhhhhhhh......... It's always the political things that get people riled up. Even if I don't mean for things to be political. All I MEANT to write was how I was appalled at how someone was being treated while attempting to vote. I guess I was just being naive once again about the state of the world and peoples views. I always assume that everyone would wanted to be treated respectfully no matter WHO they are and WHAT they thought, but once again I was proven wrong.

I just would like to clarify this:

*The translators, and most other election day poll workers are VOLUNTEERS!!*

So you can relax that you tax dollars aren't funding what YOU might consider an unworthy cause.

And while on the subjext of taxes, I found this info from a website entitled The National Priorities Project.



For every tax dollar we pay, the US government spends 30 cents on the military, and yet only 4 cents on education. Or 3 cents on Veteran's benefits. Veterans associations estimate that they are 4.3 billion dollars short of the resources they need to care for our aging veterans, and our newly disabled veterans medical needs. 19 cents per dollar is spent on debt (half of that being military debt) and only 2 cents spent on natural resources, 2 cents on housing and .04 cents on job training. Only 11 cents is spent on Social Security and Disability Income. Less than HALF a penny is spent on energy conservation, and yet safe, reliable and affordable energy alternatives will ensure our country against future instability and conflict by releiving our dependence on fossil fuels.

YOU may be worrying about the government spending your tax dollars on something that it isn't spent on, like translators, but personally, I'M worried about the gross disproportion of the governments spending of my tax dollars.


Editors Note: You may have noticed some changes. I decided that you all pissed me off too much by being idotic assholes, and I didn't want to have to keep looking at your mean spirited comments and harassments. So I deleted them, and all but the true points of my postings. I admit to being wrong. I was wrong in my actions, I know it. But there are a lot worse things that could have been done and are being done even now. There isn't anything we can do to change the past except change for the future. It is something that I have been striving to do for a long time in many different ways, and it is something I will continue to strive for, for I am not and never will be perfect, nor anyone else in this world. My hope is that all of the cowardly anonymous commenters who seem to dislike me and my views so much will attempt to better themselves and change for the future as well. Either mend your ways and start being respectful persons, or please stop reading my BLOG. And if you must read, please keep your disgusting comments to yourself. At the risk of using an cliche, If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. Disagreement is fine by me, but there is a point when disagreement becomes rudeness, and I truly hope that you learn where that point is. For when you do, you will be one step further to being a better, nicer, and happier person.

What a morning...

It's been a doozy. I'm on the Rehab Unit today. So I'm fighting to keep on a set schedule, which I'm not used to having out in house. My morning has been a bit nuts and I needed some time to vent a bit so here I am, BLOGging away my lunch hour.

My morning consisted of POOP, POOP, and lots of POOP!!! And not to mention projectile vomiting. It's a wonder my clothes are still clean. My hands are raw from all the washing though. Gotta go find some lotion.

On a good note one of my patients walked today int he parallel bars for the first time after his CVA! YAY!!!! It was perty exciting. He's making strides. I'm so happy. TEE HEE!!!

And on that happier note, I need to eat something, so off to the cafeteria I go.... Hopefully there will be less bodily fluids and functions this afternoon.

Have a good afternoon all, and Shabbat Shalom!

Elections Upset

Last night after work I went and voted. And I'm pissed. Very pissed. At one of the poll workers.

This woman was on a power trip or something, ordering people around yelling at people when they weren't sure where to go, just being plain rude and mean. This poor woman wasn't sure which table to sign in at because there were 4 districts in this one small room, and everyone was busy. She made the mistake of standing near the line of people who had signed in and were waiting to vote. This poll worker was SCREAMING at her that she's in the wrong line and she shouldn't be there and if she doesn't know where to go then she should ask for help. Like it was her fault that there weren't and signs and that everyone was busy and couldn't help her. Heaven forbid she stand waiting to ask in the wrong place.

But what REALLY incensed me was the incident with an elderly man. This man spoke very limited English. But he was obviously a citizen of this country as he was voting. (I DO think as a citizen of this country he should know enough English to communicate with the rest of us but that's a different argument for a different time.) ANYWAY, this poor man was SO confused about the voting maching, he was trying to make his vote but he couldn't understand the words, and the Chinese interpreter had stepped out to get supper. So this woman tried to help him but ended up yelling at him so much that he was more confused than ever. "YOU CAN'T DO THAT!" "NOT THERE" "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!!" "THAT'S WRONG" "I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU THINK YOUR DOING" and on and on and on.

Finally she bursts out of the booth and yells "WHERE'S THE CHINESE INTERPRETER!?!?!" He went to supper. So instead of getting the interpreter in the next room she went on yelling that he was wrong he has to make up his mind, there are people waiting and he's delaying things etc etc etc. Finally the man tries to convey that he'll wait for the interpreter to get back. "Not now, I wait" He CLEARLY said that. I don't know if this woman was so dumb she didn't understand or so angry that she didn't hear, or so rude that she didn't care. But she told him "You're done? Pull this lever" So this poor man thinking he was cancelling things so he could vote properly later pulls the lever and makes whatever random markings he pressed down his vote. I was SO angry with her.

So finally while I'm in the booth voting the interpreter comes back and the man wants to vote. She starts yelling that he voted, he pulled the lever he didn't cancel things, he can't vote again and he should know that. People were in an uproar behind me. She's yelling, other people are yelling, the interpreter is trying to explain things to the old man, it was mayhem. I voted and left in the midst of it, I didn't want to get involved in the fight. By this point the voters and the other poll workers were yelling at the woman that she rushed him, she was wrong, she should have gotten the other interpreter etc. She's yelling that he should know he can't hold people up, that he should know what he's doing, it's his fault, she didn't rush him etc.

I left, but I was SO incensed at this woman. How DARE she rush this man, yell at him because he doesn't know much English, and make him vote mistakes when he CLEARLY conveyed he wanted to wait and vote later with the interpreter. And them blame him for it? I was really upset. There was no excise for this woman to be so mean and rude to this man, and then to yell at everyone else in the room that he was wrong and she didn't do anything wrong and it's all their faults too. OY! This was one GROUCHY woman. She was rude to almost everyone I saw her interact with, but this took the case.

And come tho thing of it, there were similar problems I can remember in the past. There was a woman who was EXTREMELY rude to me last year when I couldn't figure out where to go because the room was so small and crowded. I wonder it that's the same woman?

So my question with all of this is; Is there some way to make a complaint? To let the election board know what happened and to better screen and then train their volunteers to be helpful and not rude on election day? I felt SO bad for the poor man, he never got to make an educated, informed vote, and he was yelled at too boot. That should be prevented from happening in future. Any Suggestions??