I want you to know this:

Being in your sixties is the best, yet.  I know, I know, I've said it so many times before, but it bears repeating.  Every decade gets better.

My lesson for today came during the preparation of and enjoyment of a simple lunch at home, by myself, with no sounds but those wafting through my open windows.  Spring birdies, kitties meowing their questions until they found my location, occasional wind chimes on the breeze.  That was my cooking accompaniment.

My kitchen looks south towards Garden of the Gods.  From my kitchen window I see my little fenced back yard, witchy cabin, parts of Manitou Springs' main drag, mountains off to the left and the stunningly majestic red rocks of Garden of the Gods off to the right.

The kitchen of the Manitou cabin is a U shape.  Actually, it's more like  U and a half.  Everything is convenient.  I have never had such a pretty and convenient gourmet style kitchen.  Black granite countertops flecked with gold, black appliances, JennAir cooktop ...... you get the picture.  I feel kinda fancy when I'm whuppin' up a grilled cheese in this environment.

Yesterday I moved my Mexican style bar and stools into the eat-in portion of the kitchen.  Why didn't I think of that before?  Now I have one of those kitchens that truly looks like it's ready for entertaining.  "Gather 'round the bar, folks, and pour your margaritas while I whip up a little meal."  Yes!

Today I started with some organic, whole wheat spaghetti noodles.  Cook those up in an open skillet with plenty of water, a little olive oil, some garlic salt and fresh ground pepper.  When the pasta is nearing completion start up a second skillet with plenty of olive oil and several big scoops of fresh, organic spinach.  You can even get this kind of spinach at the Walmart now.  Woot!  As you're cooking down the spinach add some ground garlic sea salt and fresh ground pepper.

Since I've been reading far too much lately about the demerits of using a microwave (and wouldn't you know, I just bought a great big one for my new kitchen), I will heat my organic, glass jarred tomato-basil sauce in a pan on the stove.  As it starts to simmer I always add extra organic basil flakes.  Yummers.  If this combination of smells doesn't entice you to eat, nothing will.

Once it's all complete, pile it up like this:

- put your delicately sauteed spinach on the plate first, making a nice little pile of garlicy greens;

- place your whole wheat pasta atop the beautiful spinach;

- pour your tomato-basil sauce directly on top of the whole wheat pasta;

- top this all off with a few sprinkles of either freshly grated parmesan or even some bagged, aged mozzarella.

Yum-E!

Add a little more spinach on the side if you like and remember, almost any vegetable will be delicious added to this tomato sauce.  Mushrooms and sauteéd onions are my favorites.

Accompany this charming little lunch with an exquisite Camino Del Inca Malbec, 2009 (Argentina) and you've just made yourself something as delightful as you will find in any primo Italian Ristorante.  Even better because you will be surrounded by purring fur balls who watch every move you make.  No doubt Sharmayne will be whipping this little meal up by herself next week.

My suggestion for aprés lunch?  Siesta time!  Open the window, let the breeze in and curl up with a kitty and a delicious novel.  Once siesta is complete, I hope you have a delicious slice of rum cake waiting, along with a tasty little espresso.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

My Jaw Finally Dropped

On the news this morning I watch Rick Santorum announce to his pleased audience, "do we believe in the smart and elite in this country to manage us?"


Why, no, you moron, the country is hoping that you, a member of the "dumb and tedious" will be leading our country.  


What is wrong with these bizarros?  And by "bizarros" I mean republican (I'll start capitalizing it again when I find one who has a modicum of sense and moral dignity) candidates.  As a short example, here are some of candidate Santorum's statements:


“We went into a recession in 2008 because of gasoline prices. The bubble burst in housing because people couldn’t pay their mortgages because of $4 a gallon gasoline.”


Yeah, OK, Rick.  That was the reason in your hallucinations.


“CO2 is a pollutant? Tell that to the plants.”


Sigh.  Too bad we're not marijuana plants.  It would help us believe Santorum's wild ranting.


“One of the favorite things of the left is to use your sentimentality, and your proper understanding and belief that we are stewards of this earth and we have a responsibility to hand off a beautiful earth to the next generation. 'They use that and they have used it in the past to try to scare you into supporting radical ideas on the environment. They tried it with this idea, this politicization of science called man-made global warming... I stood up and fought against those things. Why? Because they will destroy the very foundation of prosperity in our country.”


Yep, global warming is a leftist plot.


“President Obama once said he wants everybody in America to go to college. What a snob!”


I don't really need to say anything, do I?


“If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual (gay) sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything."


Ummmm, would you please explain your reasoning here, Ricky?  Oh that's right.  There isn't any.  That would be elitist.


“In the Netherlands people wear a different bracelet if you're elderly and the bracelet is 'do not euthanize me.' Because they have voluntary euthanasia in the Netherlands, but half the people who are euthanized every year, and it's 10 percent of all deaths for the Netherlands, half of those people are euthanized involuntarily at hospitals because they are older and sick. And so elderly people in the Netherlands don't go to the hospital, they go to another country, because they are afraid, because of budget purposes, that they will not come out of that hospital if they go in with sickness.”


Absolutely none of that is true.  I'll let FACTcheck.org handle this one:

FactCheck.org on the actual facts:

First, let's review the law. The 2001 Termination of Life on Request and Assisted Suicide (Review Procedures) Act allows Dutch citizens to end their lives if they are suffering from a medical condition that causes "unbearable suffering with no prospect of improvement." There are two end-of-life procedures: euthanasia, where a doctor administers a fatal drug, or assisted suicide, where the doctor prescribes the fatal drug and the patient administers it. The law took effecton April 1, 2002.

According to a publication distributed by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, doctors must be satisfied that the patient's request is "voluntary and well-considered," and that there is "unbearable suffering with no prospect for improvement." The patient's doctor must consult at least one other independent doctor, who is responsible for ensuring the "due care criteria" is met.

After the termination of a patient's life, the death must be reported to the government and reviewed by regional committees composed of, at a minimum, a doctor, ethicist and legal expert.

Now, let's look at Santorum's three claims. We'll begin with a stunning claim that the elderly are so afraid of being euthanized for "budget purposes" that they wear "do not euthanize me" bracelets. We were told by a government official and a representative of a Dutch physicians' association that this is simply not true.

When we contacted the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, public health spokeswoman Inge Freriksen told us that "a bracelet asking not to be euthanized doesn't exist." Patients would only be euthanized after they followed the set of guidelines as outlined above.

Idiot?  Devil?  Moron?

You decide.  I don't believe in a devil.

Animal Cruelty

These cows are alive.

Hey Animal lovers out there.  Looks like another politician (Republican - is this a surprise?) wants to protect potential animal abusers from prosecution.


I agree that there are privacy concerns when hidden cameras are part of the process to expose the intense abuse suffered by animals raised to feed us, but I wonder how else it will be exposed?


This is an ongoing, mostly hidden, mostly ignored problem.  We are the caretakers of the earth's animals.  Putting them through a lifetime of intense suffering is not being a caretaker it's being a monster. 


Click here to read the brief article


Click here to watch video of slaughterhouse abuse (very graphic)
(Warning, the above video makes me cry.  I doubt I'll ever eat pork again after seeing this one and I could only watch the start of it.  It's something you should know, however, and if you aren't an animal rights activist after watching this then you might want to check for your missing empathy chip.)

Bootylicious, for sure ~

Ok, just in case you missed this, I want you to know that fame brings perks far, far beyond money and recognizability.

It is not every day when one receives recognition because a new fly has been identified with a big booty.  NOT every day!

"Beyonce gets fly with golden booty named after her"

Click here for story:  Beyonce gets fly with golden booty named after her

Now this is when you realize you have arrived.

The First Day of the Rest of My Life!

This is it.  Today is the day.  Monday:  the day of most "starts", right?  Wednesday:  the day of most "quits".  Sigh.

I'm feeling the motivation to lose weight, finally.  Things have gotten out of hand.  I'm here exposing myself in the hopes that anyone else who needs to join me in this adventure will do so and feel encouraged by what I write.  You, also, will encourage me with your own participation.

I have succumbed to the advertising of Nutrisystem.  Indeed, I intend to look just like Janet Jackson in four months.  Heh.

Ok, I'll have to tan a bit and exercise a lot, but I can do it!

It's too soon for me to announce just how much weight I would LIKE to lose, or even how much I expect to lose on this trek.  That would be overwhelming.  The truth is, I'd like to get back to looking like I did as a teenager.  Not because I will look like a teenager again, but because I'll FEEL more like a teenager again.  Without all the angst and hormonal surges.  The best of both worlds!

I started the morning with my teeny weenie little bowl of bran cereal.  Adding soy milk and stevia, it wasn't a bad meal at all.  Now I'm supposed to have some sort of protein drink.  I'll shake that up pretty soon.

Here's what I like about this whole scenario right now:  it's easy, it's already prepared, there is no measuring or thinking.  Since I'm living alone in Manitou Springs at the moment, what could be better?

I trek down to the kitchen, pull something out of the pile of breakfast, lunch or dinner and voila - my meal is in front of me.

Admittedly I have become very spoiled and very lazy when it comes to my diet.  When I felt that first surge of hunger I'd grab something.  Didn't really seem to matter what it was.  Peanuts, crackers and cheese, cereal.  Occasionally I'd make a good meal including vegetables, but I was often too lazy to do that.

Right now there are so many things I want to write, read and explore, that good nutrition just wasn't on my radar.

Here's what I have found so far this morning, in just a few hours of my new adventure.  This has inspired me to take all of my vitamins.  I've set up my new stereo where I will use it both for enjoyment and meditation.  

I'm going to stick to this, and will remain accountable to you, my two devoted readers.

Stay tuned.

Are we proud of our younger generation or what?!

Now and then we allow ourselves to think that the younger generations are going to Hell.  Why?  I think it's partly laziness on the part of us "older" people and also because what we hear on the news every day is mostly negative.  That's what news is for, though, not to report the ordinary, but to report problems which need to be fixed and the occasional outstanding moment.  For some reason we want to allow our problems to outweigh the good in our daily lives.  Perhaps that's human nature; perhaps that's just how most of us have been taught to think about life.

So here is a 17-year-old girl who, possibly, may have created a route to the cure for cancer.  When reading how she came to this procedure it certainly makes sense and seems almost simple, as most miraculous cures are.  However, no one thought of it before, so indeed, she has a special mind and a special place in history.

We have a reason to celebrate today, and to be grateful for the young minds which will help make our lives and the lives of our children better.

Click on the blog title or copy and paste this link to be taken to the article on this subject:
http://www.geekosystem.com/17-yo-cancer-nanoparticle/

New Moon Tonight, Folks

At 12:41am tomorrow morning we will be enjoying the new moon for January, 2012.

The new moon phase occurs when the moon is positioned directly between the earth and the sun.  Hence, the sun's light shines on only the back portion of the moon which we don't see here on earth.

As both of my blog readers know, I enjoy studying the "old ways" and tend to believe that nature holds power of us little humans.  Thus, I feel that just as the moon has power over the oceans it also has influence far beyond what we are generally willing to admit as the powerful human beings we feel we are.

Given that, I enjoy some simple rituals which allow us to show our appreciation for, and also use the power of nature.  New Moon is a good time to concentrate on new intentions or new goals, as the moon will now grow to be full in one month.

Whatever your intention may be (start writing poetry, get better grades, change a certain part of your personality, become a gourmet chef, etc.), this is the time to proclaim them and start work.  You will have the energy of the moon with you, helping you toward your goal.

Do you have a new goal?  I certainly do, and I will commence after dark this evening with a ritual cleansing bath prior to starting my new journey.

Would you like a personalized Moon Ritual made just for you and your new intention?  Please click on the box on the upper left side of this blog with the title "Buy a Custom MoJo Moon Ritual Here", pick whether you wish a new moon or a full moon ritual, and check out through PayPal.

Be sure to include a clear and direct intention via the message portion of PayPal.  I will promptly send you a customized ritual made just for you.

Whatever you choose to do on this new moon, may you be blessed in every way.

Here it is: The PERFECT, Traditional Grilled Cheese Sandwich Meal

Ok, here we go.  Now this is the quickie, down and dirty grilled cheese dinner for when you just got home and are starving.  We've all been there.

Grab two pieces of your herbed Italian bread (yes, they even have this at the Walmart), along with at least two different kinds of sliced cheese.  You don't have to get fancy here, this is the down and dirty version.  So pick a slice of American, one slice of Swiss cheese and a few teeny slices of your favorite (Havarti or gruyere are my faves).

Slap those cheesies on your fancy bread and sprinkle some basil in between the slices.  This is very important!  BASIL!

Pour a little extra virgin olive oil into your non-stick skillet and turn the heat on low.  Did you hear me?  LOW!  If yer a skinny-minnie and have no heart issues, slather that gorgeous frying pan with real butter instead of  EVOO.  Up to you.

While the first side of your basil grilled cheese is soaking up that oil and starting to tan, pull out a ready made can of Progresso tomato basil soup. I said this was the down and dirty version, right?

Pour that easy basily soup into a big cup with a handle and flash it in the micro for a minute.  Don't forget to cover it, silly.

Check the suntan on your grilled cheese and if it looks right around Jamaican, flip it over.

Now give that tomato soup a stir, recover it, and nuke it for another 45 seconds.

Now's the time to pick your grilled cheese wine.  I suggest a smooth chardonnay or liebfraumilch - whatever is your favorite.  For me?  Whatever is already open.

By the time you've got your soup cup set on your plate and your wine poured, you should have a nicely tanned grilled cheese.  Take your time, though, goodness cannot be rushed.

Got the stereo set?  Lights dimmed?  Yeah.  You're ready.  Carry that gorgeous plate of comfort food to the best seat in the house and there you are - caramba!  Happy.

Admit it, you want one right now, don't you.