My Daughters Lite Punishment

If you have listened to the show you are probably well aware of the fact that my beautiful daughter Rachel who just recently got her drivers license and a car, got into a small fender bender. Her mistake was leaving the scene and not reporting the accident. She claims she didn't know she had hit the other car. As much as I love and believe most of what my daughter says.....she comes from my gene pool and I most likely would have done the same thing. Keeping that in mind. I levied the punishment of having to wash the guys cars all summer long, whenever he wants. She was not charged with anything major by the police but she did receive a citation that she needed to appear in traffic court. Now I remember having been to traffic court numerous times and have had fines and penalties handed down to me that hurt not only my wallet but my driving status as well. It hurt so bad I tried extra hard not to do it again. My daughter appeared in court yesterday. The Judge handed down a punishment of having to collect 75 canned goods for charity. Now I am down with the helping charities stuff. But really, what kind of punishment is that? Knowing my daughter she will go to the Giant and buy 75 cans of corn and be done with it :)

The Best Discovery Ever.....

Closing in on the big 5-oh I have started to eat more veggies than cheesesteaks. The price of produce, however, has gone up big time. Until now. I don't know if you have ever entered the Produce Juction in Whitehall but when you are looking for great quality and great value when it comes to fruit and veggies their is none better. I don't know how they do it, but you can get some really good fruits and veggies for little coin. And the real hard to find stuff too. The kind that is hard to find out of season is there all year. Just an FYI.

Bailout My @$$!

I am trying really hard to figure this whole bailout thing from our wonderful government. First they spent billions helping out corporations that just simply wasted money to start with. Then the promises of helping people with mortgages and loan problems to avoid foreclosures is all over the news. Do you know anyone who has been helped? I certainly do not. My friend, his wife and three kids just lost their home to foreclosure because they could not get refinancing to make their payments more affordable. Well isn’t that what the help is supposedly for? People who are working to get back on their feet, are gainfully employed and just need some help from the banks to refinance a mortgage? They are not looking for free money. They are not looking for someone to make the mortgage payments for them. They just need some help with a simple restructuring of an existing loan that has been paid religiously for the past several years.
The catch 22 of it is. You need excellent credit or a ton of home equity to even get a return phone call. Well I don’t know about you but the second you are late with even one payment to a credit card or mortgage company your credit score drops down so fast it will make your head spin. Then you magically are on the NOT QUALIFIED list with mortgage companies. Then there are the state assistance programs which are a joke. In most cases there you also need good credit to get the States help. You need to fill out a ton of paperwork proving your inability to make your current payments. That goes to a committee and a looooonnnnnggggg processing period. The odds are that you will most likely lose your house before you get an answer. How does this help anyone?

My Dog Plays Me

I just sat back and watched my dog in action the other night. It was amazing on how he got to know my routine and now plays me for as much food as he can get. Example. When I sit down to dinner, usually in front of the TV, I fill his bowl with his favorite "Dad's" dog food. Get him fresh water and then I start to eat. He will eat a couple of bites of his food and then sit and stare at me. So I will throw him a biscuit or something. I watched him take the bread and walk around looking for a place to hide it. He won't do anything until I am not looking at him. Then he will hide it behind a cushion or behind the couch. Then he returns to get the remainder of the scraps from my plate. When I am done and now relaxing I will watch him go find the biscuit he hid, eat that, and then finish his dog food. Is he a player or am I just a sucker?

How Holidays End Up Being Work Days

You look forward to the holiday weekend. You start smiling ear to ear that Friday when you know that just hours away is a three day weekend and you can relax. Yeah Right!? Here is what always happens to me.
I get 900 phone calls from friends and family to come over to eat and drink. My significant other takes my three days off as a signal to get work done around the house. And to top it all off if your like me you invite people over for a little grillin. Here is my story.
*Worked at a nightclub Friday night.
*Slept 2 hours and drove to NYC to visit with friends.
*Spent the day in the Big Apple, then drove home and went to another persons home to have dinner.
*Went back to nightclub to deejay.
*Went home and slept for 5 hours
*Made the rounds to the list of family and friends that have requested your presence.
*Came home and did repairs around the house until dusk.
*Went back to nightclub to deejay.
*Came home and slept for 4 hours.
*Got up and began preparing for guests to come over on Memorial Day.
*Cooked food for 5 hours.
*Guests came over ate and left.
*Cleaned up after the carnage from the guests and passed out with a glass of sangria in my hand.
The next thing I remember is my alarm going off to return to my job Tuesday morning. So much for relaxing.

To Rib or not to Rib

Most of you that have gotten to know me over the years know I love to cook and of course eat. I consider myself a good cook except when it comes to ribs. I cannot begin to tell you how many racks I have gone through experimenting with cooking times and various sauce combos only to come up disappointed. Finally, after lots of wasted ribs I have come up with two solutions. The first is in the future breaking up the rack into little pieces and then experiment with the sauces. This way I don't waste a WHOLE rack. And the second is my recipe for great ribs. If you want it here it is....

Make a tin foil tent around the rack of ribs.
inside the tent underneath the rack place a half stick butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup minced garlic
seal the tent and cook in oven at 175 for one and half to two hours

Sauce:
3-cups Ketchup
1-cup brown sugar
1-cup cooking sherry
1/4 cup of Worstershire sauce
1 Tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp onion powder
let the stuff simmer

When the ribby's are done in the oven. Take them out of the tin foil tent and throw them
on the grill and start basting. Its up to you how you like up done from that point. They should break off nicely.

Have a great holiday.

My Girlfriend is Miserable

Things have been rough around the house lately with my girlfriend. She has been actively trying to find a job for over a year. As most of us know jobs are not easy to come by right now. Most of the employers in the Lehigh Valley use those temp or placement agencies to screen and hire potential employees. She has interviewed several times at those temp employment agencies for a job. The problem is that most of these places are a joke. They pump you up with false promises of employment and then after you go through the application process, drug test and person to person interview most of them give you that standard line “Expect a call from us in the next couple of days”. The calls never come. Then I have to deal with a heartbroken, very angry girlfriend who got her hopes up and then was crushed. Why don’t they just tell you up front what your chances are of getting a job? Not give you false hope and leave the wreckage for the rest of us to clean up.