Yay! The Southern Fried Carnival is up! We were given a theme this time - sweet iced tea. That’s a natural for all of us Southern folk, but there are as many stories as there are Southerners, so go take a gander. If you’d like to participate next time, you can find out how to submit your post by going to Southern Fried Carnival.
My cousin Rebecca had cosmetic breast surgery a few years ago. She had gotten through her teen and young adult years with breasts of noticably different sizes, but it always bothered her. She was painfully shy and hated to look at herself in the mirror. When the opportunity arose for her to correct the size descrepancy, she chose to take it. I think we can all understand that. Self-image shapes every aspect of our lives, and I’m happy to say that hers has improved greatly since her surgery. She’s more outgoing and self-confident now than she was when we hung out together as teens. Rebecca is in her forties and has been happily married for many years. She wasn’t trying to impress anyone else, not even her husband. She opted for surgery in order to feel better about herself and to be more comfortable in her clothing. I’m pleased for her that it did the trick.
Because I understand Rebecca, I can also understand why some women might elect to have labia reduction surgery. Most of us are concerned about how we might be percieved in an intimate situation. If our self-image is not a good one, we may hesitate to allow intimacy to develop. Even within an established relationship we can be self-conscious of our most intimate parts. I would be as supportive of a woman in this situation as I was of Rebecca. There can be practical health reasons for labia reduction, too. Restrictive clothing and sexual activity can cause pain and inflammation with enlarged labia. The bottom line is that the reasons for electing to have the surgery are personal. Only a woman and her doctor need to be satisfied that it’s the right thing to do.
Warning: The website linked above is a valid medical site and contains links to pages containing photographs that illustrate before and after situations. This is adult material and should be handled as such. The site also has information about other cosmetic surgery to enhance your feelings of femininity. This post is sponsored by the Laser Vaginal Rejuvination Institute of Atlanta.
My pest control business is 100% dependent on a thriving real estate market, which we haven’t had in Hawaii for quite some time. The market is up a little this month (yay!) but I’m still hurting for income. Little America is a great resource for finding online income opportunities. The site owner must know what he’s talking about, because he made $1000 in February with his blogs. I’m not crazy about the idea of Adsense and Affilitate marketing, as I don’t care for the look of blatant ads on blogs, but never say never! It is something I have been considering because my income is so out of whack. I’ve seen it done quite attractively, so maybe I’ll be incorporating those into my blogs someday. His recommendation for marketing through niche blogs is an outlet I was already working on, as I have three new domains resgistered and soon to be online. Check out Little America if you’re interested in generating online income. While his own take is impressive, he’s still a small fish. There are folks making six figures out of blogging. Why shouldn’t you and I join that happy throng?
My friend Angie has just started a new blog on her own domain. Now you know I have to give her some support, because so many folks have given me a hand with getting my own new domain up and running. Angie is braver than me. All I did was move. She’s starting off from scratch, kind of like moving into a new house with no furniture. She’ll be blogging about her life as a single mom, student and soon-to-be-teacher. Angie is a very girly-girl, living in the Florida sunshine and has a mission to help others, especially single moms, starting up small businesses. Go visit Suncoast Scribe and give the gal a hand! Well done, my friend! Well done!
Technorati Tags: friends, blogs, small business, single moms
The Carnival of Family Life has been posted for this week at Digital Rich Daily. I’m embarrassed to say that I had such a busy week I’m still not quite done reading all of the entries from last week. If you have a post you want to enter next time, go to Island Life to read the guidelines, then you can make your submission through Blog Carnival.
Now go read! Lots of great posts guaranteed!
Technorati Tags: blog carnivals, Carnival of Family Life
My garden is getting unruly. I’ve neglected it shamefully lately. Something has been chewing up the parsley. I’ve seen a few grasshoppers near there, so maybe they like parsley. Despite my occupation, I hate the idea of using pesticides in my herb garden. I’ve gotten by this long without wiping out the small critters, but might have to do something soon if the ravaging continues. The parsley was a big, bushy looking thing a few weeks ago. Now it’s a tough stem, about as big around as my thumb, with some leggy stems and mottled leaves. Not very impressive at all. I won’t be garnishing any plates with home-grown green frills any time soon. The nearby garlic chives are doing well, though beaten down by recent heavy rains.
The rosemary bush continues to grow with wild abandon. I need to prune it severely and pass on the trimmings to the neighbors once again. I have one of those wonderful pork loins from Costco in the freezer. I’ll cook it buried in rosemary and it will be savory and sweet and wonderful. Picking little broken stems off before serving is a pain, but totally worth it.
My lavender bushes are hiding in weeds. I think they’re healthy, but I can’t see them very well, so there could be problems I’m missing. I saw several wild tomato plants growing among them. Those always seem to attract a lot of bugs. I don’t know if the insects that feed on tomato plants will feed on lavender. I should look that up. I’d like to grow my own lavender and make little sachets for Christmas gifts. I bought the buds last time. There would be a special pride in really making the whole thing myself next time out.
Over in the corner, I have a little hope growing. I’ve been trying to grow mint ever since I moved into this house ten years ago. The tropical sun burns it up before it gets big enough to survive. I bought two little plants a couple of months ago, one peppermint and one spearmint. I planted them between the rosemary and the fence, thinking that the rosemary would filter the sun. The peppermint didn’t make it. The spearmint is holding its own, but not growing very fast compared to my other plants. My mother had spearmint growing in our back yard when I was growing up. She used to pull out handsful of it because it would grow so quickly that it smothered the other nearby plants. If it can grow that wildly in New Orleans, why am I having such a difficult time with it in Hawaii? When Mom would thin her mint crop I would make a mint tea by boiling the leaves, straining the resulting liquid and pouring it over ice with lots of sugar. It needed the sugar because it had a bitter aftertaste. When I was older I developed a more sophisticated taste. I would crush a leaf or two and stir them into my sweet iced tea. Now that’s tea at it’s finest! I’d like to enjoy that again soon, and not with a few sprigs of mint purchased at the market.
We’ve had heavy rains the last few days and my garden likes that. I think I’ll weed tomorrow. I’ll haul the pork loin out of the freezer and let it thaw. While it waits, I’ll pour myself a tall, icy tumbler of tea and carry it outside. There will be many applications of the cool, wet surface against my forehead, and multiple trips back inside to refill my glass with ice and tea. I’ll pull the weeds from around the mint, maybe give it just a little shot of Miracle Gro. I’m looking forward to a walk down memory lane sometime soon, with a sprig of mint tickling my nose as I sip that sweetest of all elixirs.
I love my friend TW. She’s a great gal. We have a lot in common and she’s very, very smart. She’s got an interesting webby-kinda job and also a couple of blogs. If I were to call her in the middle of the night because my computer crashed and I couldn’t get it back, she would grumble and then tell me what to do. She wouldn’t be happy about it, but she’d do it, I’m sure. That’s just the kind of friend she is. She can do no wrong.
HA! That’s what I thought until I saw a piece of blasphemy that she has cast out into the blogsphere. It’s out there now, probably spreading like a virus and doing infinite harm. I’m shattered to learn that the goddess has feet of clay. But, then, it’s kinda, sorta okay, too, because this time I get to come to HER rescue. You can be the judge of the enormity of her error. Go read her recipe for a Grilled Cheese and Bacon Sandwiches. You’ll like her place. It’s just the best cooking site in the blogsphere, chock full of all of those fifties and sixties recipes that Mom used to make. You know, back when they all wore dresses and frilly aprons and heels and pearls in the kitchen, just like June Cleaver? Goofy Jello concoctions and fruity things that were supposed to fool kids into trying new foods. Yeah, those recipes. They’re all at Retro-Food.Com, which you should bookmark because you will want to go back next time you want old-fashioned meatloaf or a carrot souffle. But don’t stay there right now. Just go look a the bacon and cheesy thing that is not a grilled cheese and bacon sandwich, then get back over here.
That’s not how you make grilled cheese & bacon! A grilled cheese and bacon sandwich is an uncomplicated thing. It does not have mustard on it. Mustard is for hot dogs or bologna sandwiches. The bread for this divine perfection of the sandwich world is not toasted, it is grilled, and there are two slices, not one. There is no such thing as an open-face grilled cheese and bacon sandwich! Sheeeeesh! Look at the name, fer cryin outloud! It’s grilled, not toasted and then pretend-grilled on a single, wimpy slice of bread. Here’s what you do:
Spread softened REAL butter on two slices of bread. Put the first slice, buttered side down, on a hot grill or into a hot fying pan. Cover with sliced or grated REAL chedder or jack cheese. Lay serveral slices of precooked REAL bacon across the cheese. Add another layer of cheese and top with the second slice of buttered bread, buttery side up. Cook on first side until cheese begins to melt and bread has browned. Turn it over carefully, because it’s not stuck together yet and you don’t want the goodies to fall out. I shove a spatula under mine and hold the top on with my fingers as I flip. Now allow the other side to cook until the cheese is all melted and the second side is brown. Voila! The perfect grilled cheese and bacon, especially if you used whole wheat or rye bread. If you want some pickle on the side that’s fine, but do not let that vinegary pickle juice get on the bread and make it all soggy. If you do that you have to throw it out and start all over. The final step is to call 911, because about two bites into this crusty creation your arteries will slam closed and you will try to die.
To make this delicacy in the office: small George Foreman Grill. Doesn’t take up much space at all and is perfect for cooking grilled sandwiches.
TW, I forgive you, sweetie. You made a mistake. I know that it will never happen again.
Yes! It’s time again for the Carnival of Family Life. This week the Carnival is hosted at Adventures in the 100 Acre Wood, and over fifty great posts have been contributed. I needed two days to read all of the entries last week, but not a minute of my time was wasted. Check it out. If you didn’t get your entry in this week, it not too early to sign up for next week. Check out the guidelines then go here to submit your entry.
Happy reading!
Technorati Tags: blog carnivals, Carnival of Family Life
This is not a sponsored post.
I haven’t left this island in eight years. Travel is difficult for me because of some health problems, but I never really decided that I wouldn’t travel again. It just sorta happened. For a really good reason, would I do it? Well, probably.
So here’s the deal, a way that y’all can get me off of the rock. I know that some of you have thought about joining PayPerPost and making a few bucks with your blogs. You’ve ask me for info, either here or through email, and you tell me that it seems like a pretty neat thing. If you’ve made up your mind that you want to do it but haven’t gotten around to it yet, now would be a great time to follow through. See the PPP icon over in my sidebar? And the little PPP bar/button at the bottom of each post? Click either one of those. The big icon will allow you to register as a full-fledged postie. The little ones allow you to “sample” PPP by writing up a review of the post where you clicked the button. Either way, you make some money and I get a referral. If I get the most referrals before April 12th, PPP will pay my way to PostieCon ‘07 in Orlando. How cool is that? Just by doing what you were wanting to do, you make money and I go to PostieCon and get to learn to be a better blogger.
Just to make sure you understand: being my referral does not mean you’ll be working for me, as in the pyramid recruiting schemes. I’ll get a one-time bonus when you qualify, but 100% of your earnings will go to you. I wouldn’t have it any other way!
If you want me to go to Florida, start clicking folks! You’ll get paid to keep doing what you’re doing and I’ll get to learn at the feet of Scoble and some other Rock Stars of the blogsphere. Good deal all around!
Technorati Tags: payperpost, PostieCon ‘07
It’s so easy to take privilege for granted when it’s all you’ve ever known. Events this week in Turkey brought that to mind. Turkey is an ancient land, steeped in tradition. Seeking admission to the EU has been a bumpy ride as different segments of society strive to find a common meeting ground that will lead to establishing a democracy. Freedom of speech was challenged a few days ago when a hateful and racist video aired on YouTube and was viewed by Turkish citizens. The courts took the situation under control by banning YouTube. As Americans we may find this overly reactive, but ours are not the voices that matter. What seems outrageous to us was seen as an appropriate response to an offense by those who made the decision. Public outcry was immediate, against both the video and the juidical ruling. YouTube could have reacted faster, but did eventually pull the inflammatory material, and the court decision has been reversed. Small steps, but important ones. The voice of the people was heard and respected. That’s democracy in action, an indicator of the nation’s sincerity as it seeks union with its neighbors. I wish them well as they work towards determining which traditions are profitable for modern Turkey and which should be relegated to history.
My friend Osman helps us sort it out from the perspective of a modern Turkish citizen who reveres and respects the history of his ancient land. Go celebrate the return of YouTube with him!
Technorati Tags: Turkey, current events
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