The new Sonic Boom

Good Morning! Yes it is an early one for me if you note the time of this post at the bottom there. I had to get up at 3:45 am to take Dean to work for a 4:30 am start. They are in their busy time at Parkhurst @ PNC 1. Alot of schmoozing going on with bigwigs and whatnot. As you may or may not have heard, National City Bank has been in financial trouble with all the bad mortgages they have out. The government gave the $7,000,000,000.00 That's 7 BILLION dollars to bail them out. So, now that their bad mortgages are settled, they are now being bought out by PNC. I don't know if that is who all the schmoozing is for, but I think it may be part of it. And the holiday season is fast upon us, and I believe that has something to do with it too. Parkhurst caters alot of parties for some fancy smancy occassions. Here are some things that they did for a reception for Governor Rendell's wife..............



Individual cheesecakes, plated and finished with a swirl of whipped cream and a curl of white chocolate on top, berries and slurry around the plate.



Here is part of the spread for that party. A table full of mini pastries and fruit. Chocolate covered strawberries, pecan diamonds, mousse cups, lemon curd tartlets, pate squares, and the other table has assorted pies and cakes! Doesn't it look beautiful? and Yummy, too! The fruit included star fruit, strawberries, mango, cantelope and honey dew..........See the honey dew that was carved into a swan? Really cool.




















Some closeups of 2 of the cakes on the table. Strawberry torte and raspberry torte.

My husband is so talented...........

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Anyway, my point of this particular post was to let you know that yet another Sonic drive in has opened in the Greater 'Burgh area. This one's in Bridgeville in the Chartiers Valley shopping plaza. I must say it was not the best we've had at Sonic. The burger had way too much mustard and the tomatoes were not ripe at all, which made them kinda bitter. But I had my DVC (diet vanilla coke) and it was very good. The onion rings seemed to be lacking as well. They weren't cooked enough and the onions were tough and hard. We will give it another shot someday though. Bridgeville is way closer than Pittsburgh Mills Mall........ Can we get one at the Waterfront, please?

Well, I've rambled on long enough today. I better get my shower and get ready for work. Ugh.
I think my new goal will be a post a week. That's a reasonable goal. If there's more I need to share, I'll post more often that once a week. Post a day? I don't know if I have that much to say........

Something looks like paint shop

My nephew also ha a slide show on his blog that feature pics of his dad. While I was enjoying the slide show for the bazillionth time, something hit me today. There is one of my sister and Jerry at Kennywood on the parachute ride. I think they call it the Skydiver or something. the color of Jerry's jeans & the color of the outside of the gondola look like they were photoshopped or paintshopped in. They just look weird. Maybe it's me. I don't know if someone took the picture if they have a camera set up on the ride itself that snaps an action photo of riders enjoying themselves. We got one like that when we were on our honeymoon in Las Vegas. We rode the roller coaster at New York, New York and there was a god awful picture of me on the coaster, going down hill, mouth open and hair all wind blown straight back. It was horrible. Any way, I was just wondering about that certain picture..... Maybe it's because not much else in the picture has much color...........?????

There's a reason I only had 1; Racing's ended; Steeler Frenzy; Snow Globe

Dean and I had the kids this weekend. They are so busy! Mikey is crawling all over the place. He wants to play in the dogs' water bowl. He wants to eat their dry food. He chases the dogs all over the house. He wants things he can't have like their chewey, (rawhide bone) and stuff like that. He does know "no" when you say it cause he stops what he's doing or reaching for, but only for a nanosecond. This moment when they sat on the chair together was a short lived breather for me. Jordan is a ham and when you bring out the camera, he'll stop anything he's doing and "cheese" for you. Dean was cooking dinner at the moment and I was trying to keep them out of the kitchen.

Jordan is potty training. When we took him camping this summer, he did pretty well at peeing on the potty, but not pooping. Now he poops on the potty and won't pee. Thank god for pullups! I am glad, cause they get wet, and you just throw them away like a pampers or huggies.





Here's the ham cheesing for the camera! I must say he is a cutey pie! He does think that he is Mikey's parent, though. and not really good at sharing toys with his little brother. Everything's That's Jordie's. I finally convinced him that alot of the toys that we have Jordan is too big for and they are just right for Mikey. So Jordan had his big boy toys and Mikey had the baby toys.





This is bathrime for bonzo. He seems to
have learned how to "cheese" too.
Mikey is so independent. He holds his
own bottle and when it's empty, just throws
it and you have to watch out, cause you
don't know where it'll go!




















He likes bathtime fine, but that getting
out and getting dried? Not so much.
He is a cutey, though, too. How can you
not love that face?







Jammies on and ready for bed.
He will play for about a half an hour
then it's time
for a bottle and give him
his blanket and he's out!








Waking up from nap time.








Playing with the tractor from the
Fisher Price farm.









Jordan at the computer. See. I told you
he will stop whatever he's doing
to "cheese" for ya.







So, there's my busy little ones. They do keep ya movin'. 2 directions at once sometimes. there's the reason I only had one.
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Racing is officially over. The last Nascar race of the season was yesterday. Carl Edwards won the race, but Jimmie Johnson won the championship. That is 3 years in a row for him. No one has done that since Cale Yarborough back in the day. When the cars were actually "stock" cars. They didn't even have much tv coverage back then. Sometimes, on the Wide World of Sports on ABC...... 90? days till the Daytona 500!
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The Steeler game was interesting. They won 11-10. Yes, 11-10. Sounds like a baseball score. It really should have been 17 - 10, but the fumble that Troy Polamalu recovered and went in the end zone with was ruled to not be a touchdown, so they took the 6 points back. Then after the game, the ref said it was indeed a good play and that it was a touchdown. But we couldn't get the points back in the record books at that point. The gamblers are pissed because 11-10 means the Steelers didn't beat the 4 point spread. They are saying that that call may change the NFL forever. Everyone is in a frenzy about it. No other time in history has their been an NFL game that's score was 11-10.
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Well, some one has shaken up the snowglobe here in the burgh. They turned on the a/c then shook up the snow globe. Have I told you I hate winter? Here's a picture out my front door onto my deck tonight. Depressing, eh?

A card trick; Here it's other; Christmas is coming

What is the one thing you don't want to show your poker pals while playing the weekly game? Card tricks. Especially good ones. Life according to BOB FM today.
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Now, as you know, my nephew and I have been going back and forth about the whole bi racial Obama thing.
So, as promised, I did my research today. I asked a teacher, a teacher's husband, and even a co worker who has a bi racial child in the Pittsburgh Public School System. Our forms have other on them, and that is what gets checked for bi racial children.
Now, if you read the comment from Shan on my last post about this subject matter, she said theirs used to say "mixed" but they decided that was too degrading. The reason that this is asked on the enrollment form is so that they can track progress by race, gender and so on. So, if the bi racial child's mother is white, and therefore the child is registered white, I think that becomes a problem. Say you have 10 white children in the class that do very well, 6 that do okay and 2 that don't do well at all. Then you have 5 black children that do well in the class, 3 that do okay and one that doesn't do well at all. Then you have 3 bi racial children that 1 does okay and 2 don't do well. That then effects the percentages of how well the white children are doing or not doing. I'm sorry. They should have their own category if that's the reason for it. But I really think that the children should just be children. Why does it matter that Johnny is black and Tom is white and they both get really good scores in their testing. So you have x percent of white kids did well and were in the 90th percentile, and x percent of black kids did well and are in the same percentile, but in a different group cause their black? Doesn't that sort of defeat the whole desegregation idea? They desegregated in the classroom, but not in their scores? That's just so wrong in so many ways!
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Well, as we sit here, Christmas is going to sneak up on us before we know it. Thanksgiving is fast approaching, which is also Dean's birthday. Nov. 27.

( Dar: Dean's birthday is on Thanksgiving! He will be 50! Don't forget. You told me you always forget, so this is your reminder!)

The good thing is, I have stuff on order and some of it has already come in. Emily's present was the first to arrive! The bad thing is, Dean and I (like most of the rest of country) are not spending as much this year. We are cutting way back. We don't want to put anything on credit, as we are trying to get the bills paid down so we can buy a new camper in a couple of years. Dean's car is giving up the ghost and probably will need a new one come spring. So, with all that, we have tightened our belts. I just hope that the economy gets better and soon.

Yes, Dave. It's on.

My nephew (seen here) posted to his blog that he cannot post comments to my blog. But, when I sign in, it tells me I have comments that need moderated and I post them. Now, I do not get the emails like I used to that tell me I have comments to my blog. I guess I should neb around this website and see if it will let me change my email address for signing in, then all would be well and Dave wouldn't be all wigged out about it. So, yes Dave. This thing is on. I am getting your comments, and am posting them. So it's okay. I hear you. er, read you.

So, here's something weird that I didn't know: (According to Dave) A bi racial child, when enrolled in school, is enrolled as a white child if that child's mother is white. It doesn't matter that the child's father is black? My mother once said to me that the only way there wouldn't be racism in this country is if everyone was mulatto. (bi racial black/white) I've always thought that that thought had merit. Now, this mother being white therefore making the child white way of thinking. Is that only down South? I will have to ask a teacher about that in our schools. I am thinking it is a southern thing and stems back from the days of slavery when the white masters were procreating with the black female slaves. Since they didn't want to be known as fathering these children, just owning them as more slaves, then they would have had to been considered black because the mother was black. So, I think that now the times have changed, but that law or rule hasn't. So, the rule needs changed. They are not white. They are not black. They are BOTH. So put a category of Bi Racial in the race column.

How did it get to be know as "race" anyway? Black/Caucasian/Asian/Hispanic/Indian/Native American. Why are they races? Who's winning the race? Caucasian is the politically correct term for White. African-American is the politically correct term for blacks. So, is a black person in England an African-English? Are there African-Germans? Native American used to be called Indians. You played cowboys and Indians as a kid, didn't you? War paints, feathers, tomahawks, drums, tee pees. But they weren't from India. No curry smelling, red dotted forehead, blusher and turban wearing Indians! They were the people that were here on this land when the Pilgrims landed here. So, they were Americans. Since America is the melting pot of the world, we then had to call the Indians native Americans, because now we are all Americans! Native means you were born here in this land. Are the natives restless. I think they should be and were. My great grandparents were right of the boat from England. They referred to my grandparents as 1 st generation off the boat, meaning they were born here, but their parents came here from another land. So, technically, I am 4th generation off the boat. I was born here, but I am not a native American. This is so confusing. I can't keep it straight. Can you?

It's OVER!; Wrong words

The election is over. We have a president who will take office on January 20th who is the first bi-racial to serve as president. Yes. BI-RACIAL. He's not black. He's not white. He's both. Just like my grandkids are bi-racial. Sara, my step daughter, is of course white, and she has chosen to have her children by a black man. Same deal. On any form they fill out that asks race, they will have to check other, then fill in bi-racial. But in the same token, Hines Ward of the Pittsburgh Steelers is bi racial. His mother a Korean woman and his father a black man. It doesn't matter what the races are. If you have parents from 2 different races, then you are bi racial. Now, if a bi racial, say black and white, has children with an Asian, do we then refer to those children as multi racial? Just wondering.
Anyway, I am worried about the changes that will come to this country with a bi racial president. The night of the election, they showed a woman holding her son (both were black) and saying "now I can tell my son that he can be president of the United States!" You couldn't tell him that before Obama was elected? I don't believe that there is or has been any reference to race in the regulations that structure eligibility to run for or be elected president. You have to have been born in the US, must be 35 years of age, and so on, but there's not anything that refers to race as far as I'm aware, anyway.
I think that the black people believe that Obama is the answer to all their problems. I think they will be disappointed. We will become an Obama nation in January when he is sworn in. I just hope it doesn't become an abomination.
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There is a radio station here in Pittsburgh called Bob FM. It's 96.9 on the dial. It used to be Magic FM and before that FM 97. Back then, it was a similar format to 'DVE, playing heavy metal/hard rock. Bob FM's claim to fame? Bob will play anything. So, they play classic rock, top 40, pop, oldies, country, all of it. So, I heard a song today that I haven't heard in years and it got me thinking. How many songs do I sing along to and don't know the correct lyrics? The song was Billy Idols' Eyes Without a Face. I remember when that song came out, that I thought he was saying "How's about a date?" Isn't that hysterical? And even though I know the words are Eyes without a face, I really have to concentrate to sing the correct lyrics.
Another one? Van Halen's Panama. I thought they were saying Cannonball. I was out with a friend and it came on the radio back in the day, and I sang Cannonball. Cannonbah-hall. Cannonball. My friend said "Shar, it's Panama. Like red?" Oh, Panama Red! You would think they would have referenced the canal, or the country. But given the decade...... Anyway, I never touched the stuff. But I did know what it was.
And the most recent that comes to mind is the line from Redneck Woman by Gretchen Wilson that goes "I'm just a product of my raisin' and I say Hey ya'll and yeehaw." I thought it was I'm just a product of the range ........... Ya know. Like Home, home on the (range). I know. Whenever you're done rolling on the floor laughing..... Well, just thought I'd share those with ya. Enjoy.

Sunday dinner; Go out an vote; Yea, Steelers!

These are my babies. Jordan, who is talking up a storm, is so much fun. He's finally to the point where you can actually hold conversations with him. And just so busy. He will be 3 on January 5th.
Mikey (wee wee as we know him now) will be one January 21st. No teeth yet, but feeds himself with his hands, crawls everywhere, and is just so much fun. This picture of the two of them was taken at their school (day care). It's anice picture and I am glad Sara gave some to Dean and I.
WE had a great family dinner on Sunday. Steak, Baked potatoes on the grill and salad. Sara and the kids came and Nick was here too! It was a nice day. It reminded me of days when we went visiting on Sundays with Grandma and Grandpap Rush. After church, we would ride out to Norma Jean's, Aunt Sadie's, Aunt Cis and Uncle Pat's, Aunt Till's, or Aunt Beck's.
I am hoping that we have a repeat of that for Thanksgiving. I didn't grab the camera on Sunday, so I don't have any pics, but will be sure to for Turkey day!
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A Rection Day.

Did you vote today? I did. Dean did. Everyone I work with in the office did. I hope that Obama does not win this election. I have problems with the socialism idea. I have problems with giving more of the money I work for being giving to welfare recipients. I can only hope. I can't remember one party being elected to office back to back except for FDR. But he was the same man who just kept getting elected. There was no restriction on the number of terms the president could serve back then. So, I don't think there has been one party leaving the white house to be replaced by the same party by different men because of the new election year. Correct me if I'm wrong on that.
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The Steelers won last night on Monday Night Football. It started off bad, but definitely got better for our Steelers. Ben hurt his shoulder and that put Byron Leftwich in the game and he did phenomenal! Now, do you believe the folklore that if the Redskins lose the game immediately prior to election day that the incumbant party will no longer reside in the white house after the election? If that's true, a Steeler win means Obama will be our next president. Heaven help us!