Salary Made Public?;Thanksgiving Eve; Thanksgiving Day Parade;

For some god unknown reason, the powers that be think that Joe Paterno's annual salary figure should be made public knowledge. Joe Paterno! He is the head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions football team. Has been for, what, 43 years?

Paterno has posted a 363-121-3 mark in 41 seasons as head coach and ranks second in career wins among major college coaches and fourth all-time. His winning percentage of 74.8 is fifth-best among active Division I-A coaches (10 or more years) and he is second all-time in games coached (487) among major college coaches.
Paterno is the all-time leader among coaches in bowl appearances (33) and post-season triumphs (22). His overall post-season record of 22-10-1 gives him a winning percentage of 67.2, good for No. 4 among the bowl season's best of all-time. The Nittany Lions are 16-6 in New Year's bowl games under Paterno and 12-4 in contests that comprise the Bowl Championship Series. Since Paterno took over in 1966, Penn State has had 73 first-team All-Americans, with senior linebacker Paul Posluszny earning first-team honors in 2006 for the second consecutive season. Junior linebacker Dan Connor also received first-team accolades. Over the same span, the Lions have counted 15 Hall of Fame Scholar-Athletes, 26 first-team Academic All-Americans (35 overall) and 18 NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship winners. Winner of the 2005 Butkus and 2005 and `06 Bednarik awards, Posluszny was selected the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American®-of-the-Year in Division I football, becoming the fifth Nittany Lion to twice be selected a first-team Academic All-American®.
Paterno's coaching portfolio includes two National Championships (1982, 1986); five undefeated, untied teams; 20 finishes in the Top Ten of the national rankings; five AFCA Coach-of-the-Year plaques, and more than 300 former players who have signed National Football League contracts, 31 of them first-round draft choices. A school-record four Lions were selected in the first round of the 2003 NFL Draft.
His teams have registered seven undefeated regular-seasons and he has had 32 teams finish in the Top 25. Penn State has won the Lambert-Meadowlands Trophy, emblematic of Eastern football supremacy, 22 times in Paterno's coaching run, including in 2005.

The man is 81 years old (come Dec. 21) and still coaching. He was made Assistant coach in 1957 and gained the head coaching position in 1964. So WHY does the public need to know his salary? Is it any of our business? The job he has is not that of a public official. He was not elected by the people of the city, county, state or country to do his job. He does not work for the citizens of this land. He works for Penn State University. No one has said that my salary or your salary needs to be made public. Are the professors' salaries at Penn State public knowledge? Then why his? It's no one's damn business!!!!

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Last night, Dean, Lisa and Tom, and I went to the Rythm House in Bridgeville to see the Fabulous Gunslingers play. They had an opening act-Brynn Marie- which, I think was booked by the bar and not a collaboration by the Gunslingers and Brynn Marie. She had an awesome voice. She did alot of Sugarland songs-quite well, too and Carrie Underwood's When He Cheats, and various other songs as well as some original material. Her band-sucked. They did a rendition (without her) of Neil Young's Helpless. Awful. They did Stevie Ray Vaughn's Pride and Joy and it was so bad, it took me till the middle of the 2nd verse to even know what the song was! The Gunslingers, of course were awesome and did some new cover songs ans well as some new original material. If you haven't checked out their MySpace, which you can get to by going to their website, http://www.fabulousgunslingers.com/, and heard their sound, you can get a good idea of what they sound like if you have ever heard Luke Bryant's song All My Friends Say. The first time I heard it on the radio, I thought the Gunslingers had gotten another song airplay!

We had dinner while the opening act performed. Dean and I both had Delmonico steak with roasted garlic red mashed potatoes and grilled asparagus. Shrimp bisque was the soup or you could get salad. We both opted for the Bisque. Excellent for the price of $13.99. Tom and Lisa had a huge appetizer sampler and deep fried batter shrimp. They shared some appetizers with us since there was sooo much! Everything was Yum-O! We danced and visited with many friends during the evening. The place was packed! It amazes me that when I get out on the dance floor and start dancin' and wigglin' my badonkadonk, that young guys will jump in and start dancing with me. It's really neat that they don't see me as some old lady makin' a fool of herself on the dance floor and just as some lady that's out to have fun. Dean does not fast dance unless he's really drunk, and that ain't pretty. Can you say "no rythm" boys and girls? So, wehn the band was done, we said our goodbyes and holiday wishes to our friends in the band, their wives and girlfriends and got home at 3 a.m. Great night!

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We are eating early today because dean's brother Mark has to work tonight. So, last night, I told Dean I set the alarm for 8:30 so we could get the turkey in by 9:30 and he would be done at 2:30. We are planning on eating at 3:30. He said that wasn't early enough that the turkey wouldn't be done by then. So, I backed the alarm to 8 a.m. Doesn't he come in and wake me up at 20 to 8? We gotta get done. We have to take and drop his car off at Mike's shop cause the water pump is going. I get up, help him prep the bird, he stuffed one end, I stuffed the other, slather him in butter, tied him up and put him in the pan. Oh, the turkey, not Dean! But that's a thought! lol. I read the suggested cooking time on the package of the turkey to Dean. If we put him in now (it was a little after 8 at this point) he will be done at 1. Way too early! So, he said we would just put him in before we left. That ended up being a little after 9. So, back on schedule. After dropping the car at Mike's, we went and had breakfast at Mickey D's. Cinnamon Melts and coffee! Yum-O. Those cinnamon melts are to die for! I called my sister, who's call I had missed last night while we were out at the bar and must not have heard my phone over the noise. Her and I talked the whole time Dean and I were coming home! We haven't talked that long on the phone in I can't tell you how long! It was great! I can't wait till she gets here! 34 days!!!! So, I have cleaned all week and didn't get the china cupboard back together. I had run my crystal chutskies thought the dishwasher on the "gentle" cycle and needed to get them out and put them back out. While I am doing that, Dean put the Macy's parade on. He swithced to something else, and when I mentioned it, I got the parade at Disney World. NO-need the Macy's parade. Hello! So, it gets that back on and the usual is going on. Bands, Floats, Balloons. Dean gets ready and leaves to go get Jordan and Sara. Attention back to the parade --Then----JORDIN SPARKS!!!!!! The Amercan Idol winner of this year!!!! She was awesome! And a little while later- the grand finale! SANTA!!!!!! He was a very good Santa. Holding his belly while he laughed -HO HO HO!!! Smiling, eyes twinkling, playing to the crowd! Great Santa and wonderful Santa suit. I actually got teary eyed watching him because he was so good that it brought alot of memories of my childhood back which in turn make me think of mom and dad who aren't with me anymore. But, at least I have all those great memories and now am creating new ones with Dean, and Jordan. Memories are priceless but they are stuck in my mind! I wish may parents had taken more pictures when I was growing up......................

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!!!!!!!