My Jack O Lantern Gets a Spa Treatment~Happy Halloween From Southern California! Cool and Crisp? I Don't Think So!

I try, I really try to bring the seasons to my home. Christmas (winter) is insane! I'll post my gorgeous over the top Christmas decor soon. I strive for a Griswald Family Christmas, to say the least! LOL

Come Spring, I bring out the bunny banners, garden statuary and pastel egg colorations, in every shape, form and fashion. I change the front door decor and many other table tops and display cabinets in my home.


Halloween and Fall? I'm having a dilemma! Here is a brief recap of my problematic fall decor...

Oh sure, I have my beautiful fall wreath on my front door, and my front porch decorations, are lovingly placed for all my trick or treaters to see. I have a cute glamorous witch sign, some nifty fall topiaries and a gorgeous black cat right at the entrance of my house. On All Hallows Eve, costumed visitors will even be treated to a talking wizard in a crystal ball. Yes, I am ready for the little tricksters.

Alas, my poor decorative outdoor pumpkins, part of my festive fall decor, are shriveling beyond recognition, thanks to the over 90 degree temps we have had in my neck of the woods, FOR WHAT SEEMS LIKE FOREVER.

I am so sick of this heat....but, I digress.... I heard soaking them in water will perk them up.

This one got a Spa Treatment today!

I live in a beautiful part of California. We are blessed with Mediterranean temperatures, and ocean breezes, rolling hills, hot air balloons and wineries, right in our own back yard.

However, the past months have been brutal, with regard to daytime heat indexes. Every single day has been 87-100 plus degrees since....well, since the middle of summer. Now, I grant you, our nights finally cool off to the fifties or sixties, and that makes early morning jogs euphoric. However.....there is something wrong when the temperature reaches 90 degrees or more at the end of October!

You end up with pumpkins that need re-hydration!
I'm running a spa for pumpkins, people!

Only in California!

Ah, the things we do in the name of beauty!

Vote! Don't Let This Happen To You!

Nancy Ellyn thwarts the election! Video seen here!



I discovered this last week and sent it to a bunch of my friends! It's pretty fun (especially for my Democratic peeps) and your buds will get a kick out of it, I'm sure!

WHATEVER YOUR PARTY or PERSUASION......PLEASE VOTE ON TUESDAY, NOV. 4!

She Said She Had Breast Cancer~But, She LIED!

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and I have been pondering what kind of post I should make, recognizing this important cause.

This story hit my gut so hard, I decided this was the one I should post.

Please support all survivors, victims, sisters, friends, aunts, husbands, brothers, mothers and daughters who have been touched by this dreaded, yet common disease.

How do you feel about this fraud? I find it so disturbing, I cannot even come up with a good excuse for this person, who claims to be a victim.

Here is a look at the amazing, awful story.~ My synopsis follows~

Meet Suzy Bass (pictured left), a popular high school math teacher who had her students, her friends, her co-workers and her family convinced she had stage IV breast cancer.

She claimed it had spread to her shoulder, her bones, her heel and that Chemotherapy no longer worked. The truth? She was making it all up! She was perfectly healthy and duped everyone, even her own family.

How shameful is that? Wonder if Karma ever entered her mind? What a sad situation.

Disgusting, morbid, sad and incredible. I pray for her. She is one mentally ill woman, obviously.

_____________________________________________________________

Read the COMPLETE story, courtesy of Glamour Magazine. brilliantly written by the author Erin Zammett Ruddy

Suzy Bass had less than a year to live. The Knoxville, Tennessee, high school math teacher was battling stage IV breast cancer, and it had spread to her shoulder and heel. Chemotherapy no longer worked; an experimental bone marrow therapy she’d tried as a last resort appeared futile. Her students and colleagues were devastated. Bass, then 41, was a popular newcomer to the picturesque private Webb School near the Smoky Mountains that fall of 2007. “Ms. Bass was the cool teacher,” says Michaelan Moore, 18, who was a junior in Bass’s Algebra II class. “Everyone just loved her immediately. We could tell her anything.”

Because Bass had recently moved to Knoxville and was single, two Webb staffers—Julieanne Pope, 43, and Terri Ward, 51—became her part-time caregivers. “I left my cell phone on my nightstand every night in case she needed anything,” says Ward, the dean of faculty. “On bad days I’d tell her, ‘We are going to attack this. We are going to fight.’” When Bass was too sick to teach, they’d cover her classes. And they kept a steady stream of casseroles and smoothies going to her condo. “We would visit and she’d be shaking, pale and so sick,” says Pope, Webb’s technology coordinator. At school Bass would cover her head—bald from chemotherapy—with a knit cap, and limp from the tumor in her foot.

In October Webb students and faculty put together a team for Komen Knoxville Race for the Cure to benefit the local breast cancer charity affiliate. “Suzy’s Crew for the Cure,” they called it. But when race day came, Bass was too weak to even walk. “She just met us at the finish line so she could cross it,” says Pope. As Bass’s condition worsened, she sent an e-mail to Pope thanking her for her support and friendship, and in an attached document, she outlined her last wishes. She asked that she be cremated, her ashes scattered in the Cayman Islands, with no tears: “I want whoever is sprinkling to be enjoying friends, family and loved ones, laughing and just having fun,” she said.

Inspired by Bass’s brave battle, Webb’s students dedicated their prom fund-raiser to her, raising money for Komen for the Cure by selling T-shirts bearing the charity’s logo. “Everyone wanted to support Ms. Bass,” says Eliza Dawson, 17, a student who helped coordinate the event. The students planned to present a check to the director of Komen’s Knoxville branch—with Bass by their side—during prom, and their efforts were covered by the local newspaper.

A week before the big dance, though, the school received a series of troubling phone calls. The callers were intimately familiar with Bass’s devastating saga. But they weren’t upset about her deadly illness—they were furious.

Read the rest of the story here~http://www.glamour.com/health-fitness/2008/10/she-said-she-had-breast-cancer-but-she-lied

My Blog Log Deleted My Blog~Move Along~Nothing to See Here!

I'm trying to claim it and get it back. They tell me I have to post a new post and include some sort of tag. Okay, here it is. I hope it works.

Here's a little visual, to make this less boring..... I love John & Kate Plus 8 and little Joel is my favorite.....here's a clip of the little cutie!

Now, for those of you who don't know, he is one of six!

A major multiple birth story, he has three sisters and two brothers, all from the same "litter". I don't mean that to be rude, but I don't know the PC term. Anyway, he is the youngest of the six sextuplets.

So, he has all these semi similar siblings (how's THAT for alliteration?) around him! Plus, he has two older twin sisters.

I'm sure his dad was trying to explain to him the differences between him and all his sisters. So sweet and so innocent. I love it. What a precious baby!





Undergoing MyBlogLog Verification

(My Blog Log IS a Wiener for deleting me and not adding me back!) BlogLog! Please fix my account!

I am Nancy Ellyn and I approved this message.

Jackson Browne and Warren Zevon

Watching this video of Jackson and Warren Zevon warmed my heart. I know Jackson is close to the family, and seeing those two together so long ago, you can see their mutual admiration for each other. Watch when they make eye contact, and the smiles between them.





Mohammed's Radio
(Warren Zevon)

Everybody's restless and they've got no place to go
Someone's always trying to tell them
Something they already know
So their anger and resentment flow

But don't it make you want to rock and roll
All night long
Mohammed's Radio
I heard somebody singing sweet and soulful
On the radio, Mohammed's Radio

You know, the Sheriff's got his problems too
He will surely take them out on you
In walked the village idiot and his face was all aglow
He's been up all night listening to Mohammed's Radio

Don't it make you want to rock and roll
All night long
Mohammed's Radio
I heard somebody singing sweet and soulful
On the radio, Mohammed's Radio

Everybody's desperate trying to make ends meet
Work all day, still can't pay the price of gasoline and meat
Alas, their lives are incomplete

Don't it make you want to rock and roll
All night long Mohammed's Radio
I heard somebody singing sweet and soulful
On the radio, Mohammed's Radio

You've been up all night listening for his drum
Hoping that the righteous might just might just might just come
I heard the General whisper to his aide-de-camp
"Be watchful for Mohammed's lamp"

Don't it make you want to rock and roll
All night long Mohammed's Radio

BACK By Popular Demand! Chewy, Traditional LOW CARB Pizza Crust!

Okay, folks YOU ASKED FOR IT....Here is THE ORIGINAL VERSION of Nancy's Low Carb Pizza! HAND TOSSED STYLE!

I added an extra egg to make a slightly chewier crust. This is like a traditional, hand tossed pizza!

Ingredients for crust~

4 Eggs
3 Cups Shredded Mozzerella
1 Cup Shredded Cheddar/Jack Combo
1/4 tsp Garlic Powder
1/4 tsp Basil

Mix all this in a bowl until all the cheese is coated with egg. I do it by hand, like when you make a meatloaf

The extra egg makes a traditional, substantial crust.

Your cheese egg combo will feel wet, but just pat, pat, pat it out onto your pam sprayed pan.

Bake at 450 for 10-15 minutes

Here is a picture before baking

Once it is baked it will look like this

Now, add your toppings

I used

1/4 cup marinara sauce1

1 cup shredded mozzarella

1/4 cup shredded cheddar/jack

12 Italian Meatballs sliced into quarters

1 onion sautéed

Top the pizza and run it under the broiler at 500 until cheese is melted.

Here's what my finished pizza looked like! ~~~~~ I know you're drooling!

This yields a slightly thicker, chewy crust with crispy edges. I

t makes a huge 16 inch pizza.

It yields 12 to 16 slices with a very low carb count depending on toppings.

If you like a classic, chewy crust, this one is for YOU!

Is this what we call food porn?
Enjoy with a side salad or some yummy broccoli!

DINNER IS SERVED!

Hope you will try it, especially if you low carb, or avoid gluten. No
flour of any kind in this yummy pizza!

Jackson Browne! on ~the Cover of the Rolling Stone!~

I don't know how many years it has been since

I've seen Jackson Browne mentioned on the cover of Rolling Stone.

There he is!

I got the new Rolling Stone today, and I was thrilled to see Jackson featured on the cover "blurbs".



I open up and there is a multi page interview with him.

"The Easygoing Patriot" Jackson Browne on Obama's chances, what he learned from Dylan and living off the grid, By David Fricke.




Great read and it has a really personal picture of Jackson, sitting on the floor of his bedroom, playing his electric guitar.




How about that picture?



Thrilling that his album is in the top 20, and he is featured in a multi page story in Rolling Stone!

His upcoming birthday is mentioned as well.

He'll be sixty in a few days. Time didn't conquer Jackson Browne, that's for sure!


From the text~

Making music is one of the greatest pleasures I've ever experienced — and I'm one who sought pleasure," Jackson Browne says with a quiet laugh on an early-autumn afternoon in a New York hotel room. But, he adds, "the heart of my activism is the belief that these pleasures are for everybody. If we continue what we're doing as a country . . . " He pauses. "We're all in the same boat. That's always been the subject of my songs. We only have a little time. It's a mess, so you do everything you can."

That urgency also runs through Browne's new studio album, Time the Conqueror, one of the best and most important records he has made because it combines his folk-rock romanticism and his political idealism in songs that are both pointed and reflective.

In the late-Sixties high of "Off of Wonderland," named after a street in Los Angeles' Laurel Canyon, Browne looks back on his own merry adolescence. But he follows that with the dark, brisk march "Drums of War" that, Browne says, "is a call to arms. We've just been accepting someone else's description of who the enemy is." In the nine-minute Hurricane Katrina postmortem "Where Were You," Browne pursues the trail of failure with the detailed fury of Bob Dylan's "Masters of War." "Everyone wants to get to the bottom of things," Browne insists. "They want to decide and know. It's natural."

Born in the former West Germany and raised in Los Angeles, Browne — who turns 60 on October 9th — was a precociously successful songwriter, covered by Nico, Tom Rush and the Byrds, even before he released his 1972 debut album, Jackson Browne. By the late Seventies, Browne had defined the indulgence and interior examination of California-rock life on bestselling albums such as 1976's The Pretender and 1977's Running on Empty.

But then he turned acutely topical, addressing America's imperial capitalism and swing to the right under Ronald Reagan on 1983's Lawyers in Love and 1986's Lives in the Balance.

Now, Browne says, "One of the great affirmations is to play a really old song next to a new one, to hear how they resonate with one another."

He is doing that on his current tour, with a full band, connecting the pleasure and patriotism, history and new headlines in his work. "'Lives in the Balance' was about U.S. policy in Central America," Browne says, "but it's about much more. If I play it now, it's obviously about Iraq." But Browne looks forward to the day when he no longer needs to sing it. "Hopefully, it will become an artifact of the distant past."

How do you define a successful topical song — one that works as melody and message, not just protest?

Strategy is important. You want to reach people, and you want to reach people that don't necessarily agree with you. People stand up and cheer in the middle of "Lives in the Balance" when I sing it now.

At the time, they weren't sure they wanted to go there. Also, I used to make the mistake of introducing the song, talking about it. Suddenly, you're a civics teacher, and that isn't cool.

You have to be stealthy. Sting's song "They Dance Alone" [on 1987's Nothing Like the Sun] is one of my favorite examples of how to speak to people. He magnified an appropriated image [demonstrations by women in memory of the men tortured and murdered by Chile's military junta in the Seventies] and passed it on to the world. So did Marvin Gaye in "What's Going On." No one was expecting an anti-war song from him. But it was a moment in time when people were willing to hear it from anybody, if it was heartfelt. And who better than the person who has talked to you about love and desire?

When you wrote "Where Were You," did you sit down and think, "I have to say something about how the White House failed the people of New Orleans"?

It began as an idea I had literally in the middle of a cloudburst in California. It was raining so hard, I thought, "These people in the street, where are they gonna go? They're gonna wash away." I had this guitar lick, and when I played it with the band, I thought, "I know what this can be about." I spent a lot of time researching what happened, the timeline.

I wrote a lot of stuff that I threw out: "This does not bear singing over and over again."
Passion is always the thing that motivates you. You're trying to get to the truth, what matters. There is a natural sense of politeness: "I don't want to bum you out." We all have that in certain measure. But isn't politeness one of the things punk musicians railed against? "F**k you! I'm talking about something that matters here."

When Kris Kristofferson became political, it was astounding. He made an album of great songs and understanding about what was going on [1990's Third World Warrior], singing these songs to the most conservative audience America has. I thought it was one of the hippest records anybody ever made: [affects Kristofferson's deep, slow growl] "They're killing babies in the name of freedom/We've been down this sorry road before....I've just got to wonder what my daddy would've done/If he'd seen the way they turned his dream around" ["Don't Let the Bastards (Get You Down)"]. That's a strategy — no apologies. Tell them what you know, in this undeniably authentic, American voice.

How American — and authentic — is your voice?

One of the great things about America is there are so many freaks and oddballs, instances of uniqueness. I would hope I'm unique [laughs]. I'm certainly American. I grew up in a Mexican neighborhood, in a house people referred to as "the church" because it looked like a mission. It had stained glass and a chapel with a pipe organ in it. Underneath that was a dungeon. We had a full array of metaphysical metaphors, right there in the house.

My grandfather — my father's father — built that house in a countryside between Los Angeles and Pasadena that was inhabited by a lot of odd people. He was from the Bay Area and played jug-band music. He made a grandfather clock by hand, carved out of wood. And the house was filled with Indian artifacts, because he collected them. I have an ever-present example in my life of someone who was bohemian, making the world what he wanted it to be.

Read the rest of the story here:

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/23415857/the_easygoing_patriot

Your Friday Levity

After my rant yesterday, I decided I better lighten up today!
This little baby gives a "speech" that is hilarious. Too cute.

Charming Jackson on the Colbert Report

Jackson Browne totally charms me. I don't always agree with him politically, but I love his passion and dedication to his beliefs. This interview with Stephen Colbert is fabulous and you can see why so many people love him! Oh gosh, Jackson is so composed and trying so hard to get his points across, but that Colbert is running the show! So special to see Jackson in this genre.

********Be sure and watch both the interview and his performance. Scroll past the transcript for the second clip. You don't want to miss this stunning acoustic version of this song.********

Jackson Browne on Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, Tuesday, September 23, 2008, ©2008 Comedy Central.



Transcript:

Stephen Colbert: A huge longtime fan, which makes it even harder to do what I have to do right now, which is tear you a new one, my friend. Now, you're suing John McCain, because he used "Running on Empty"? Tell me about it.

Jackson Browne: Yeah, well, he used my song in an attack ad, attacking Barack Obama, and he didn't —

Colbert: So??

Browne: — ask for it, nor would he have been given permission. He didn't get permission, he didn't pay for it.

Colbert: How do deny John McCain anything? Need I remind you who else denied him their song rights? The Việt Cộng! [laughter] The man gets anything he wants now.

Browne: Evidently.

Colbert: Yeah, evidently he does. So, what's your problem with McCain? You've got a few differences of opinion, I'm guessing. What are your concerns that he doesn't share?

Browne: Well, uh, besides copyright, besides honoring artists' rights to their property —

Colbert: Oh, it's "free" everything, "Free Love!", "Free Speech!" — but not free songs.

Browne: That's right.

Colbert: That's right. That's very selective with your freedom there, Jack!

[laughter]

Browne: Well, you know, I'm also pretty tight with my endorsements. I don't endorse anybody who comes along.

Colbert: You didn't endorse me when I ran for President, and I didn't even use one of your songs. I used Devo's "Whip It!" — and I got some trouble for that. Yeah, they were pretty mad at me, but I think it was a perfectly valid use for the song, because, you know, as the lyric says, "when a problem comes along, you must whip it!"

Browne: Yeah, one of the great rock lyrics of all time.

Colbert: So, you're no fan of nuclear energy, are you?

Browne: No.

Colbert: What are your problems with nuclear energy, other than the fact that there might be an accident or a meltdown or fallout from a terrorist attack? Other than those three, 'cause I've named them —

Browne: Other than that, it can't pay for itself. It needs government subsidies, which basically will result in a sort of socialized corporatism that the American people would pay for and Wall Street would profit from —

Colbert: They're getting used to paying for things that Wall Street profits from.

Browne: Exactly.

Colbert: So I think it might be easier in the future, to sell that idea.

Browne: The problem is, they still don't know what to do with all the waste. They act as if, "Oh, we're gonna work that out in the next little while," but it's been 50, 60 years now —

Colbert: Why don't we just spread the waste evenly from state to state? Or do you have something against mutants now?

Browne: Exactly.

Colbert: "Everybody should be accepted, except people with psychic power"?

Browne: That's it, that's it.

Colbert: You have a new album called Time the Conqueror.

Browne: Yes.

Colbert: Is it safe to assume that that is about a time-traveling conquistador?

Browne: Sort of, yeah, no, it's about that time is the one thing that will conquer all of us, and conquer —

Colbert: That's why we should stay in Iraq for 100 years, because that's the best way to conquer it, just throw as much time at it as we possibly can.

Browne: That's the other thing I really differ with McCain on, you know. He should not — we should be out of Iraq as fast as we can. We should be leaving —

Colbert: Whose side are you on in this war??

Browne: That's a very good question. I asked that —

Colbert: It's an excellent question.

Browne: I asked that question in my new album. I asked that question in "Drums of War," that's right: Who is the enemy? Who is the enemy?

Colbert: The "Blame America First" crowd.

Browne: No, who — [laughter] — no, no: who is the enemy who's trying to crush us? Who's the enemy of peace and justice? Who's the enemy of truth and freedom? Where are the courts when we need them? Why is impeachment "off the table"?

Colbert: Oh, just because it rhymes doesn't make it true, Jackson! It's not fair! I don't have a rhyming dictionary back here!

Browne: We'd better stop them, while we are able.

Colbert: Will you come back, and rhyme with a guitar?

Browne: Sure. Sure.

Colbert: Thank you, Jackson. Jackson Browne — he'll be right back.

____________________________________________________________________

In part two, he performs "Going Down to Cuba", a new song from Time the Conqueror. I love this song. Jackson is always so serious, so it's a real treat when his sense of humor comes thru. Lovely performance, and a favorite of mine. I think I love it more than the version on his new record.




Going Down to Cuba
(Jackson Browne)

I’m going to down to Cuba someday soon
Following that Caribbean moon
It’s been too long since I’ve been there
I’m going down there to see my friends
Down where the rhythm never ends
Where women wear gardenias in their hair

People will tell you it’s not easy
You’re not supposed to go, they say
They say that Cuba is the enemy
I’m going down there anyway

I’m going down to Cuba to see my friends
Down where the rhythm never ends
And no problem is too difficult to solve
Yeah times are tough down there it’s true
But you know they’re gonna make it through
They make such continuous use of the verb to resolve

They’ve got to deal with that embargo
Enough to drive any country insane
They might not know the freedoms you and I know
They do know what to do in a hurricane

Maybe I’ll go through Mexico
Old Jesse Helms don’t have to know
Anyway all the allies of the USA
Travel to Cuba everyday

I’m going down to Cuba to see my friends
Down where the rhythm never ends
Where by comparison my trouble will just unravel
I’m North American, you know
Don’t like to hear where I can’t go
Free people will insist on the freedom to travel

I’m gonna drink the ron añejo (no, no, a mojito)
And walk out on the malecón
In one hand a monte cristo
And in the other an ice cream cone

I’m going down to cuba with my band
We’re going to formulate a plan
By where we obtain that cultural permission
If I told you once I told you tres
It’ll put a smile on your face
to see a Chevrolet with a soviet transmission