Why is it . . .?

I love to cook and bake. During Lent, we, as a family, give up sweets. Why do so many interesting cake and cookie recipes cross my path when I'm not supposed to make them? Do you suppose it is my sweet tooth zeroing in more precisely because it wants feeding?

I guess the only way to deal with this is to finally start putting together my baking book for my children. Makes sense that I won't get any grease marks on the computer as I can't have a cookie near by to help me keep up my strength!

I've collected recipes for years and always get stopped short when I try to organize them. I'm thinking about starting with cookies and subtitling them with all the different ones that pertain to a certain method or ingredient. Since oatmeal cookies are a favorite, I think that would be my starting place. Actually, I need a bakery as I tend to bake more than our family can or should eat! Blessed are my friends for they shall be given cookies!

Speaking of cookies, my husband found out that when you surf the Internet for airfare, a 'cookie' is left at the site and when you come back, it automatically increases the cost. I suppose that this gets you to make a final decision lest it go up even further. I'm not a computer whiz but I guess it would be your 'browser' you'd clear in order to rid the site of the evil cookie track!

Facing the possible demise of our health care . . .

It has been going on for months, now. I'm wondering how it will all turn out or if we are facing the possible demise of our health care as we now know it. You have to wonder about the media who slavishly cater to the outright lies coming out of the discussions in the Senate and Congress over the proposed legislation. It just doesn't seem right that what the politicians think is good enough for the population at large, won't be one they will have to work with for their medical attention.

I read that countries who already have the one-payer system are aghast that the United States wants to change something that works to something that will gum up everyone's life for years.

Fretting won't help, however. Naturally, I'm contacting my representatives and praying. God's Will but I hope the world wakes up to the situation before it is too late. Lies and overspending won't save anything!

Time goes swiftly by . . .

At this moment, one daughter is winging home from college for Spring Break. She flies back and forth about three or four times a year. I should be freaking out at the thought but it has become the norm. She used to be my clingy child. She now thinks nothing of booking a taxi, packing her bags, and getting on a plane.

My other daughter is also getting on a flight this week. She is going to Europe with her college class. She is worried but I'm not quite so stressed. I know she can do it and, like her sister, she is growing up and doesn't need me quite as much anymore!

Where did the years go? Every time I see a young mother reaching the end of her rope in the store with cranky children or a sobbing baby, I feel like telling her, "Embrace the moment! Cherish the moment! It will be over all too soon!" But, like me, at that age, the young mom is engrossed in dealing with the present not knowing it will be a memory all too soon!

Royalty attitude . . .

I'm against the proposed legislation for a national healthcare system. Using the Democratic process, I have written several letters to our Senators and Congressmen explaining my concerns. Every reply is basically, 'Thank you for your input. I will take your thoughts into consideration when I make MY decision on this important vote.' No mention of the majority of the US being against this bill. No indication that anything anyone says will change his/her mind. Nope, just a first-person reply about how THEY will decide our fate based on how THEY feel about the proposal.

Then, Pelosi has the gall to state that we should just let it get passed and then we can all see what it is about. Huh?

Seems the Pilgrims left England and royalty behind yet our ELECTED officials have taken our vote and made us their serfs! Strange, new world with a lot going on that doesn't bode any good.

Pass on the word! We have the ultimate weapon - prayer and it is certainly needed now!

I like the third one best . . .!

"Reading made Don Quixote a gentleman. Believing what he read made him mad."
-- George Bernard Shaw

"The male is a domestic animal which, if treated with firmness, can be trained to do most things."
-- Jilly Cooper

"Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society."
-- Mark Twain

Makes me wonder . . .

A friend of my daughter's was recently in a bad car accident. It wasn't her fault. Some idiot decided to race through a red light in his high powered vehicle. Must have been pretty stupid to not stop and wonder if there would be the possibility of other cars in the intersection at that time since THEIR light was green and they had this idea it would be safe. In a matter of seconds, the guy's Durango t-boned the young ladies much smaller car on the driver's side. The victim has multiple fractures, internal bleeding, a bruised kidney, and emotional ups and downs. The perpetrator of the crash walked away, unharmed.

Sure, the guy did the right thing and owned up to the crash. Yes, I'm sure his insurance will pay up for the medical and car replacement for the girl. The owner will have to pay a hefty ticket, whatever his co-pay is on the insurance, and get his car insurance rates increased for a few years. The girl is missing out on her college classes, her job, and her social life. When she eventually heals, she will still have aches and pains and a tremor every time she gets into a car again.

Seems to me that insurance companies need to rethink the system in cases like this. Everyone who has the same insurance company as this guy will be, for all intents and purposes, contributing to the pay out. I'd like to see these insurance pay outs prorated according to who is at fault, what brought about the accident, etc. When someone does something as stupid as this guy did, he should be liable, out of his own pocket, for half the costs. Perhaps, if he had to scrounge to come up with it, have his salary garnished, etc., he'd drive like a responsible adult next time. He should feel a bit more than inconvenience considering what his reckless driving did to another human being.

Anyway, if anyone has a prayer for Julia, I know it would be appreciated!

Math and the Democrats . . .

It is certainly hard to understand the grasp the Democrats have on the basics of simple math. Right now, the United States has come forth in the majority to say that we do NOT want a healthcare reform as set out in the current proposal. Yet, every time I contact my senators, they thank me for my input but say that THEY will decide what THEY think is best based on what THEY perceive to be the right way. Uh, didn't these people get voted in by taxpayers like me? I don't understand how they can justify ruining 85% of the healthcare policies to cover 15% of the population. Seems to me that their problem is their desire to turn this country into a government-run nanny state with hopes of eventually being the head nanny.