Monthly Archives: January 2013

Have It Your Way—It’s A Whopper!

After last week’s post I don’t know about you, but I feel invigorated. I have taken in a deep cleansing positive breathe, embraced the circle of life and released all negative thoughts.
 

Well, not exactly. I was doing great by the way until the very next day when I read an article on Yahoo about horses in Ireland and Great Britain. Oh, and it’s a whopper! I truly think that I am going to stop watching and reading the news. Things just get crazier by the minute.
 

Do y’all know about Mister Ed?
 

If not, I think you can still catch reruns on Nick at Nite or somewhere on the internet. It’s an old comedy series, but it came to mind after reading that Yahoo article. Its jingle went like this:
 

“A horse is a horse, of course, of course

And no one can talk to a horse of course

That is, of course, unless the horse is the famous Mister Ed.”
 

You’ve got to admit that’s catchy. 🙂
 

Anyway, the Golden Globe award winning television series was based on a short story written by Walter Brooks in the 1930’s called, “Ed Signs the Pledge.” Now you have to know that “Mister Ed” had an opinion for everything. If Wilber, his owner, got into a pickle about something, he always walked out to the barn and talked to “Ed”. Of course we realize that horses can’t talk, but if they could, I’d hate to think what Mister Ed would say about this.
 

Apparently, Burger King is huge in the U.K. and Ireland. In fact, they love their burgers as much as we do in the U.S., if not more. But it was announced last week that they’ve stopped using one of the firms caught up in a scandal of supplying grocers with beef that contained horse meat!? And not just a little horse meat. The hamburger contained twenty-nine percent horse meat.
 

Okay, does this…


 

Look like this…


 

No? Oh good, because I thought I was losing it for a minute!
 

I recall an incident in U.S. history when the Donner Party resorted to eating horse meat. But they were at the brink of starvation during a blizzard while crossing the Sierra Nevada mountain range in northern California in 1846. Granted, this example may be way over the top since there was a little cannibalism going on. The point is it wasn’t a pretty picture.
 

All we want is a good healthy burger. It that too much to ask? But horse meat?

Really? Are we that desperate?
 

The British food industry was rocked by this revelation—a $2.6 billion dollar scandal that has left them reeling with the aftereffects from the first major shock-waves after its discovery. Food safety experts say the horse meat posed no added health risks to consumers, but the discovery has raised concerns about the supply of our food chain and the ability to trace meat ingredients.
 

Well that’s interesting, because as you may know, the U.S. has had its own ground beef concerns with E. coli and Salmonella. Should we also be looking for horse meat in our ground beef too? Uh, this is not just a bunch of hamburger. This is a real concern, especially if you’re a beef eater, which accounts for most of the kill ‘em and grill ‘em population.
 

You see the vast majority of ground beef we purchase is from a few enormous meat-packing corporations that sell beef through gigantic supermarket chains. These meat-packing plants butcher thousands of cattle every hour. Meat and trimmings from all that cattle are combined, so any random package of commercial ground beef could include particles of meat from hundreds or even thousands of individual cattle. This, as you can imagine, makes it much more difficult to monitor the source of contamination or in this case horse meat.
 

So what can we do?
 

Well, as you know, I am into healthy and natural. Hello Sexy Kale! But, I too like a good juicy hamburger straight off the grill. Mmm, yummy!

Now that’s my kind of whopper!
 

Here’s what is suggested:
 

If you’d like to have it your way, buy food that is free of synthetic pesticides, antibiotics, hormones or other chemicals. Thus, the best approach to buying ground beef is to go directly to its source. Buy meat that is ground at the facility where you purchase the meat. That way you are assured of its quality and that the ground beef you purchase comes from one head of cattle, verses several thousand individual cattle. (And yes, that number is correct.)
 

I can’t tell you how much better organic beef is over non-organic. But this of course is a personal preference, although hubby and I have taken this one step further buying grass fed organic beef.
 

Now grass fed beef is a horse of another color. Please pardon the pun. I just couldn’t help myself. Yet, this is a subject I’d like to explore on a later post.
 

So until then, remember this:
 

“A horse is a horse, of course, of course

And no one can talk to a horse of course

That is, of course, unless the horse is the famous Mister Ed.”
 

If you want a “Whopper”, have it your way!

And that does not include eating a horse!

Of course, of course!
 

Hmm, I still wonder what Mister Ed would have said about this?
 
 

So what do you think? Do you enjoy a nice thick juicy Hamburger straight off the grill? Or do you lean towards vegetarianism? Does the safety of our food concern you? Do you grow some of your own food? What measures to you and your family take in order to eat healthy?
 
 

Thank you so much for dropping by and for all your wonderful comments!
Karen

Click to "Follow Me" and receive new posts by email

I Just Can’t Take It Anymore!

How many times have we felt this way?
 

How many times have we reached the end our rope?
 

It seems that life at times can push us to the limit.
 

With all the pressures that rain down upon our life, some of us may feel that we are caught in a vicious cycle. Round and round we go, day after day, and it seems like it just never ends. It’s like our life revolves around this metaphorical ebb and flow that continues to thrust us forward and upright amidst the craziness that life may throw at us.
 

Yet, there is comfort within the rhythmic affect of circularity in our life.
 

How you say?
 

Well, let’s think about it for a moment. Since childhood, many of our activities revolve around a circle. It may have started with a ball, a carousel, a Hula Hoop, a skating rink, running laps around a track. Why even now, when we want to blow off steam, we may take a walk around the block.
 

So why are the majority of us in fear at the thought of being trapped in a circle?
 

Perhaps if we were to make a mental switch, our fear of physical repetition could prove beneficial. Thus, when we ponder over the journey surrounding our sphere of life, it would give us a sense of security. Our frustration becomes finite. It places us in a limited course of time because our life is never straightforward.
 

Which means, whatever our difficult circumstance may be, it won’t last forever.
 

So how to make the mental switch?
 

I ask this question because you know how our minds tend to work. The negative sequence of events flash through our brains at warp speed. They wear a groove in our brain and set a pattern for any past or future obstacles that might exist.
 

So it’s important that we stop what we’re doing right now and rein ourselves back into the present. Granted, this isn’t always easy to do. But I like the way Karen Huber expressed this on a recent post, “When we are completely present, we are giving the moment our full attention. Attention energizes the moment, keeping it free from the past, the future or any current situation.”
 

Ah, then maybe we need to change the scenery. After all, our earth is an ever changing sphere. And because of this, our view varies from day to day along with its landscape. Why this alone may help to adjust our outlook on life.
 

Perhaps it’s time…for a weekend away or an overdue vacation. Fix an intimate meal and enjoy it with your significant other. Lose yourself in that book you’ve been meaning to read on your TBR list. Go to a day spa and pamper yourself with a massage, or a mani and pedi. Snuggle in with a movie and your honey on a blistery winter’s day. Go shopping or meet up for coffee, tea or a drink with a friend that you haven’t seen for a while.
 

And if none of the above works to give you a peaceful solution, then I implore you to take a moment to watch this short video. I promise it won’t take long and you’ll feel so much better! And you deserve a break! 🙂
 

*
 

Now, as you enter your inner sanctuary, take a deep breathe, then release it slowly. You have just breathed in the positive present and let go of the negative past; thus ready to take on whatever else life may throw at you. Isn’t that simply amazing?
 

That, my friends, was my gift to you! Make it a great day!
 
 

So what do you think? Have any of you been under a little turmoil lately? What do you do to alleviate stress? Perhaps you’re going stir crazy? Has old man winter given you the blues? Are you ready for a break from your routine? Making any plans for a relaxing retreat or spring vacation?
 
Thank you so much for dropping by and for all your wonderful comments!
Karen

Click to "Follow Me" and receive new posts by email

For Breakfast & Dinner, But Not For Lunch!

I stole that phrase from my sister Janet who just happens to be a faithful follower of my blog by the way. Say hi to Janet everyone! Sisters rock, don’t they? She’s so dying right now. LOL! Gotcha! *wink*
 

Anyway, for breakfast and dinner, but not for lunch?

What in the world does she mean by that?
 

One could only guess. But when you’ve been married as long as she and I have, you and your mate seem to blend into one. This doesn’t mean you’ve lost your own identity. It just means that you may finish each other’s sentences. It means you know each other’s moves and decision making process. In fact, I sometimes wonder why we even bother to talk to each other at all.
 

Just kidding! 🙂
 

Yet, during the course of a normal day, a couple may not spend all that much time together. They may both leave for work. Or one may go to work, while the other stays home with the children. And yes that is work. The point is, you both go about your day in a different direction.
 

Thus, you see each other for breakfast and dinner, but not for lunch.
 

Unless…You’re Pat Benatar.
 


(Photo: Stephen Lovekin)

 
For over thirty years Pat Benatar and her husband Neil Giraldo have been tied at the hip. “It’s kind of an incestuous relationship,” Pat told Parade magazine about her marriage. “There isn’t any part of our lives that isn’t intertwined. So even when there’s a conflict, you just have to resolve it.”
 
Neil interjected, “It was a partnership from the very beginning. We were just two missing pieces that found each other.”
 

Okay Pat, he is definitely a keeper!
 

Yet, Pat and her husband Neil’s relationship didn’t start out way. In her autobiography released in 2010, “Between a Heart and a Rock Place,” Pat says that when they met, she was separated from an army soldier that she had married at age 19. In fact, she knew on the day they wed that she was making a terrible mistake. At the same time, Neil wasn’t really free either because he was in a relationship with actress Linda Blair.
 

So what happened, considering that Pat says she wasn’t even looking for a boyfriend?
 

She said, “The most drop-dead gorgeous man I had ever seen in my life” walked in to her rehearsal one day and she thought, “Girl, you have just seen the father of your children.”
 

Then, while they were on tour, rehearsing and recording her debut album, Neil asked Pat to have a drink with him—alone. During their conversation at the restaurant that night, Neil confessed to her that he suspected Blair of having an affair. After he said that, she remembered thinking, “You…Are…Mine.”
 

Okay, he was a goner. Yet, how do we know these things girls?
 

It only took a few weeks before they became an official couple. Then, after Pat’s divorce came through in 1979, she and Neil married in Hawaii a few years later. From that time on, they have collaborated on a professional and personal level for thirty years and are still going strong.
 

Since Pat and Neil met, their journey has taken them through a dozen albums and more than 20 tours while they watched 19 hit singles reach the Top 40 chart. Pat’s won four Grammys, yet she insists that she and Neil “met as regular People” and that’s what helped them plant their relationship on terra firma.
 

Pat Benatar turned 60 last week and is still as dynamic as ever. She and her husband were on tour during last summer and will be in concert at selected cities around the U.S. throughout the spring.
 
“Treat Me Right” and I’ll be there in a heartbeat Pat.
 

Pat’s long partnership with her husband Neil is a result of mutual respect and acceptance that failure just isn’t an option. “I feel about him now the way I felt about him the very first moment I saw him, and I am so grateful for that,” Pat said to Parade. “We’re nuts about each other.”
 

Sounds like Pat and her husband are together not only for breakfast and dinner, but also for lunch. And something about that just doesn’t sound normal. Do you know what I’m saying?
 

Yet, the funny thing is, I know how Pat feels. And I have to admit I too feel the same way. Over the many years, my DH and I still share the same spark we felt when we first met. Although, I can’t say we’ve spent that many lunches together.
 

Well, until recently. 🙂
 

For some couples, this could be a cause of strain, as in, “Love Is A Battlefield.” Yet, I tend to agree with Pat. When two people are intertwined as a couple like we are, you need to have mutual respect and acceptance. And if there’s conflict, you just have to fix it. Failure is not an option because, “We Belong Together.”
 

So you may want to remember this…For Breakfast and Dinner, but not for Lunch. For you never know. It might just be the adage that saves your marriage.
 
 

Say, what do you think? How long have you been together with your special someone? Are you tied at the hip? Or do you find a unique time for yourself, interspersed with that significant other? What is the common thread that keeps you together?
 
 
Thank you so much for dropping by and for all your wonderful comments!
Karen

 
 
 

Click to "Follow Me" and receive new posts by email

It’s A Celebration!

“It’s My One Year Blogoversary Everybody!”
 

Party…Party…Party!
 

Whoa! Has it been one year already? Well, actually my one year blogoversary was a couple of months ago, October 30th to be exact, but I was no where to be found. 🙂
 
Yet, something like this is just too important to miss, don’t ya think?
 

So let’s get this party started, shall we?
 

Hey, do any of you remember this?
 

(Don Barlett/L.A. Times)

Ah, good times, good times.
 

I thought it might be interesting if we took a brief look back at all that’s been accomplished here on my blog over the previous year. What was my objective at the beginning of this blogging adventure? To find out, let’s take a peek and see if I even came close to hitting the mark.
 

Here’s what I said, “My hope is that through my writing I will be able to touch people’s lives and connect with others that will in someway benefit them and not just myself.”
 

Was that a load of crap? Well, I don’t know. Let’s see how I did?
 

It turns out I wrote 56 posts over the entire year. Not bad, since there was a whole lot going on as you well know. I had over 2300 comments, which granted some of them I’m quite sure were my replies in response to yours. But all and all, I couldn’t be happier. It’s always good to know that I am not out there talking to myself since I am of the belief that it’s not very healthy. Am I right Louise Biehel and Kassandra Lamb?
 

I also received a lot of visits from gazillions of spammers. You know, those freaky bots that try to invade your posts. And I would like to take this opportunity to personally thank Akisment for that little configuration because if it wasn’t for them, we bloggers would go nuts. 🙂
 

I’ve had some wonderful guest bloggers in the house, starting with Donna Newton, then Colin Falconer, Natalie Hartford, Angela Peart, Barry Crowther, Tim L. O’Brien, Diane Capri, Bob Mayer, Katherine Owen and Julia Whitmore who shared their valuable knowledge and experience about the craft of writing.
 

And any time one of you would like to take a shot at a guest post on my blog, you have an open invitation to join in. We’d all love to hear from you!
 

Okay, so what else happened?
 

Well, I can’t say that anything earth shattering happened here. It’s not like we’re trying to solve all the problems of the universe or bring about world peace. 🙂
 

But we did have some fun talking about animals, both big and small that included a shark attack, a Gorilla and a cute little puppy that got stuck on a runaway train. We had someone stranded as if they were Tom Hanks at an airport for eight days. Tom Cruise jumped out a window from the tallest building in the world while Jon Bon Jovi fed people from a kitchen with a heart full of soul.
 

There were posts about sports, nature, artists, and food. A bittersweet post about making lemonade out of lemons and a very Sexy green leafy vegetable named Kale. *Shivers*
 

Yet, through it all, I tried to bring the gift of optimism to the forefront. That’s not always easy to do with everything that’s happened over the past year in everyone’s life. But even though I may still be “Hanging On For Dear Life”, as was the title of my first post, I feel a great sense of accomplishment and immense appreciation for all of you. For each week you showed up. Each week you came to support me. And for that I cannot thank you enough!
 
 

So grab yourself some cyber champagne…


 

And let’s “Celebrate good times, come on! It’s a celebration!”

*
 
 

“Happy Blogoversary!”

 
 
So what do you think? Can I “Hang” in there for another year? Was there a post over the past year that you particularly enjoyed? Is there a topic that you would like to see me blog about? And what about you? What’s changed since you started blogging and what has helped you on the road to success?
 
 

Thank you so much for dropping by and for all your wonderful comments!
Karen

 
 

Click to "Follow Me" and receive new posts by email

M. I. A.–Too Dog Gone Long!


(Flickr Photo by Peter Nijenhuis)

 

I feel like I’ve just climbed out from underneath a big huge rock after three…long…months. Can anyone tell me if the end came while I was gone?

No? You’re all still here? Well, what do you know. Shall we get started?
 

Hold on one moment while I brush myself off.

There, that’s better.
 

Now, where was I? Oh yes. *clears throat*

I can’t tell you how dusty, I mean rusty I feel. I haven’t written a blog post in so long that I worried I’d forget how. Me? Moi? Forget how to write? Not have something to say? I don’t think so. The end would have to come first. 🙂
 

Yet, a lot has transpired while I was away. Well, I wasn’t really away. Oh how I wish I was away, but I wasn’t. Nope. I guess you could say that I took a sabbatical from all non-essential-to-life things so that I could focus all my attention and energy towards the essential-to-life things. You know those familial responsibilities that we all have, though some seem more encompassing than others.
 

Now, I am not one to air personal unpleasantries here on my post, but since most of you know about my DH’s accident and surgery, I wanted to give you a brief update on the recent success of that said event. After waiting twenty months, my dear husband underwent spinal fusion and disc replacement surgery on November 6th. It was an eight hour ordeal in which the surgeon had not expected.
 

Then afterward, to be forced to contend with a hospital induced drug overdose and subsequent hospital dumping that almost landed my DH somewhere in the vicinity of East L.A. Well, you can only imagine how this little episode threw us into both mental and physical exhaustion. It was all I could do to take care of him twenty-four/seven, let alone think of blogging and social media.
 

So now you know why I haven’t had the time to come by and see you all. But the good news is, my DH is on the mend! Yay! We’re in it for the long haul as his recovery will take at least eighteen months to two years. But hey, others have it much worse than we do. At least things are moving in the right direction! Hallelujah!
 

Ah yes, Life As It Happens!

Thus, the reason why I chose that log-line. 🙂
 

Can I tell you how happy I am that 2012 is over? I am so looking forward to 2013. I feel like closing my eyes and clicking my heels three times.

2013…2013…2013. Whoa, it’s really here!
 

Time to set new goals for the new year. What might that be, you ask?
Good question.
 

I pondered over that one for quite some time. Since I did not attain much of my writing goals over the last year, I wondered what I might do differently in order to secure a more successful new year. And then I found this:
 

“Five Things That Successful People Do In The Morning”
 

Apparently, we are all given 24 hours of equal length. Yet, as author Laura Vanderkam says, “Not every hour is created equal.” Drawing from her own research and latest science on willpower for her upcoming ebook “What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast”, Ms. Vanderkam suggests that smart people’s use of early morning is a practice shared by highly successful people.
 

Aha! That just might be my problem since I am NOT a morning person. Perhaps I shall turn over a new leaf and apply Ms. Venderkam’s new findings.

What? You don’t believe me?
 

Okay, here are the five things:
 

1: Track your time: “Part of spending your time better is knowing exactly how you’re spending it now,” writes Vanderkam. She recommends that we “write down what you’re doing as often as you can and in as much detail as you think will be helpful.” She also provides a downloadable spreadsheet to help.
(That’s nice.)
 

2: Picture the perfect morning: “Ask yourself what a great morning would look like for you,” suggests Vanderkam, who offers plenty of examples. Such as Shawn Achor, who uses the early hours to write a note of appreciation. Or Randeep Rekhi, who is employed full time at a financial services firm, manages his side business, an online wine store, before heading off to work. (Whew!)
 

3: Think through the logistics: “Map out a morning schedule. What would have to happen to make this schedule work? What time would you have to get up and (most important) what time do you need to go to bed in order to get enough sleep?” (Uh-oh.)
 

4: Build the habit: “This is the most important step,” writes Vanderkam. She explains how to gradually shift your schedule, noting and rewarding small wins along the way. (Doable.)
 

5: Tune up as necessary: “Life changes. Rituals can change, too.” (Cool!)
 
 

Remember…”Tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet.”
Thank you Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery who wrote “Anne of Green Gables!” I really love this one!
 
 

So what do you think? Do you think it is possible to adjust my routine in order to reach my new writing goals? Such as finishing and publishing a book, perhaps? You know, do what other authors do? Is that really too much to ask? Then again, how about you? What are your goals for this new year!
 
 

Oh how I missed everyone!

Thank you so much for dropping by and for all your wonderful comments!
Karen

 
 

Click to "Follow Me" and receive new posts by email