Freaky Frugalite

Hurrah! Today is one of my most favorite holidays, after Thanksgiving. It’s the Fourth of July- also known as Independence Day- here in the United States. Hurray hurray!!! I just love this day. I am so patriotic that when I cut my finger, red, white, and blue comes out. Ha! I come from a long line of patriots, from a Mayflower Compact signer to a Battle of Lexington soldier to a ME!

The very last part of the Declaration of Independence says:

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

That’s something to think about. These guys pledged EVERYTHING for this idea of liberty. And liberty didn’t mean the freedom to do whatever you want to do– it is the freedom to do as you ought. On this day, we honor the Americans who devoted their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor for this cause. It is because of them that we are free. And I love freedom! Hurray!

I wrote a short post about the Declaration on my other blog, New York Traveler.net.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go eat a hamburger and read the Declaration of Independence. I encourage you to read it, too!

What on earth ever happened to womanliness? I saw this photo at the blog Australian Women Online and was thoroughly repulsed.

It’s a photo of Demelza Reveley, and she was just voted as Australia’s Next Top Model. That girl is 16 years old! Her waist is as wide as her head! I don’t know what is more sickening– seeing an obese person or seeing someone so emaciated that her eyes looked stretched across her face. It’s so sad, and it’s so abnormal. Yet this kind of “beauty” is exalted. Whatever happened to womanly beauty?

I have never been much for the “bar scene,” but I absolutely love listening to people play musical instruments, and I like concerts with good, fun music.  If you like the fun life, maybe you’d be interested in something called a “piano bar” at a hilarious place called Howl at the Moon. It looks like a lot of fun! This is from their website:

Howl at the Moon takes the term “piano bar” to new heights, with the piano players offering up witty discourse while encouraging the audience to “sing-along” to songs almost everyone knows by heart. Anyone who delights in good music will have a wonderful experience. Howl at the Moon strives to keep their shows fresh with a mainstream and recognizable format that allows their typical customer to sing along with 90% of the songs.

Every staff member of the Howl at the Moon is involved with entertaining guests. There are staff “ShowTime” routines at the bar or on stage, and some (with talent) even perform with the piano players.

There are various locations throughout the United States, including Fort Lauderdale and Orlando in Florida; Baltimore, Maryland; Cleveland, Ohio; Hollywood, California, and more! What a hoot!

They have the “dueling pianos,” which would make me stand up and howl! There’s a link to see a short video of the show here. I love the Dueling Guitars song and it must be great hearing piano players do it. Boy, this sounds great. I’ve always been one to jump around and hoot and holler at concerts. I kind of get excited, hee hee. If you go to Howl at the Moon, be sure to come back and leave a comment. Maybe even link to a photo! LOL!

I was tagged by Mariz at Reflections by Mariz to help promote June as National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I was flabbergasted when I read one news story that said 1 in 4 women get breast cancer. Is this true? That’s horrible! Why are the numbers so high?!

Clicking the button below generates interest in the Breast Cancer site. For every 8 million hits, $10,000 is raised for women to get a free screening. Go ahead, give it a click. You know you want to!

Thanks, Mariz, for tagging me.

I saw this story and got a really good laugh out of it!

It might be a while before they appear on the shelf at Tesco.

But scientists claim adding insects to our diet would be good for us and the environment.

Crunching into crickets or snacking on grilled caterpillar is apparently a means to a nutrient-rich diet that also helps reduce pests and puts less strain on the planet than eating conventional meat.

Mmmmmm, yummy yummy. Click on the picture for a bigger photo of all that yummy goodness.

In Thailand when pesticides failed to control locusts, the government urged locals to eat them and distributed recipes.

Chef Paul Cook, who supplies exotic and unusual food through his Bristol-based business Osgrow, has sold a range of insects including locusts.

He said: ‘You have to get past your feeling when you look at a whole locust or cricket. They are very clean and nutritious.

I just picked a billion nasty larvae from my pine trees over the weekend. There is NO WAY I’m ever going to find these things tasty.

I have just one thing to say to these “scientists” who say we should eat bugs: YOU GO FIRST!

All this talk about identity theft and credit card insecurity has me wondering about that service called Lifelock. It’s no secret that credit card companies and banks are NOT securing our data. It is time to take matters into our own hands! I’ve heard plenty about Lifelock on the radio. They have their own website and it has amazing– and infuriating– stories about people who have had their information stolen. They are grateful they had Lifelock. Lifelock guarantees identity theft protection, up to a million dollars! I know that’s more than I’m worth, lol! But they also help out by reducing all those credit card offers and other junk mail that fill up our mailboxes, and they monitor credit scores for fraud, and more. It’s only $10 a month! It sounds like a terrific insurance protection service. Do you or anyone you know have Lifelock?

What ever happened to doing something right because it was, well, right?

A few years ago A long, long time ago, I saw a Sesame Street television show that had Elmo and a friend fighting over a toy. One of the “humans” (don’t remember her name) entered the scene and encouraged the two bickererers to share because sharing makes you “feel good inside.” What the h@%&*????? What kind of la-la land was this TV show promoting?! Sharing makes you feel like crap! Who wants to share? The truth should have been told– we should share because it is the right thing to do, because sometimes our selfish needs are nasty and destructive to others. My kids have never seen a Sesame Street show, and that’s why, right there.

It is with the same “what the?!” reaction that I read a news article from my local online news source, which proclaimed, “Stay-at-home moms: Benefits outweigh sacrifices, local mothers say.”

Benefits to whom outweigh sacrifices to whom?

The story goes on about how wonderful staying at home is– how wonderful it is for the mothers, that is. What drivel and rot.

The choice for Streeter, Downie and Bayly to stay at home with their children is a decision that they do not regret _ stating that the positives far outweigh the negative.

“The unpredictability of what will happen each day is one of the best parts of being a stay-at-home mom” Bayly said. “Today, for example, I built sand castles all morning.”

Sand castles. Big whoop.

Don’t get me wrong, staying at home with the kids has it blessings, sure. But moms, why do we really stay at home? So we can build sand castles and wipe snot all day? No! We stay at home for the sake of others, not ourselves– for, namely, our children. Pardon me while I rant, but I hate stories that propagandize such drivel, as if mothers need to be spoon-fed the glories of incessant diaper-changing and play dates.

Staying at home is very, very hard work. It’s why few men do it, and opt to work outside the home, lol. Staying at home, raising children and managing the household, is a heck of a lot harder than playing with the kids all day and cooking a meal or two. I very much dislike these stories that make husbandry sound like a merry-go-round of play all day. And I dislike it even more that society sneers on SAHM moms; if anything, society should be kissing our unpedicured, peanut-butter-and-jelly-stained feet, because, as Phyllis Schlafly once said, we SAHM mothers should be applauded for raising responsible citizens who will grow up to work hard to contribute to a healthy society and to the social security system.

So is it too difficult to admit that we moms sacrifice to stay home for the sake of someone else? Is there some kind of stigma to admit that the personal benefits, while satisfying, are second-place to the welfare and care of children? I’d like to see a news story that highlights this, but I have yet to see one. All I see are the “Sharing is Fun” stories. :-p

OK, to make something perfectly clear– the following is not a criticism!!! It’s an observation.

I was dropping Entrecards and visited the entertaining Geek Mom Mashup blog. She has an interesting post about a Japanese-invented gadget (actually, they are stickers that you place on the toilet) that encourages proper “aim” for kids who use the toilet. A common complaint among moms is that the kids whizz all over the place. Yeah, I have kids and I remember those potty-training years, and all I can say is THANK GOD THAT’S OVER. lol. Besides childbirth, potty-training is the worst!

Anyway, I was absolutely stunned at the idea of stickers. Are stickers and such things really necessary?! Back in the old days, a swift little swat on the kid’s backside, or forcing the child to clean up after himself (*GASP*), was enough to solve the problem! What is this new fad where mothers are resigned to be their child’s slave? There is no way on God’s good earth that I would ever spend our hard-earned money on toilet stickers because the durn kid is too lazy to aim correctly! No wonder the youth walk around like they are God’s gift to earth!

Disclaimer *sigh* This post is not intended to criticise, disseminate, or otherwise offend Geek Mom or her devoted readers, or the Japanese, or Moms Against Spanking Kids (MASK), or anyone who happens to use said toilet stickers, or anyone who to this day still cannot aim. However, I am very comfortable offending youth who walk around like they are God’s gift to earth and to their parents who encourage that.

Something at the dinner table last night reminded us of a HEE-LAR-EE-US video of Lucille Ball. I can’t remember what that thing was that caused us to remember it anymore, lol. But the video is a clip from the I Love Lucy TV show, one of my favorite shows as a kid. I did so love I Love Lucy!!

The video we saw (on YouTube) was titled “Sour Grapes,” and it showed Lucy caught up in a winemaking skit in Italy. Unfortunately, the original video clip we saw at YouTube is gone now. All I could find was this copy someone did with their camcorder from a television. But an imperfect video of Lucy is better than no video! We loved watching it again. The video is in two parts. Be prepared to hold your sides together!

I was browsing through my media files tonight and discovered an old mp3 file of Ofra Haza singing “Jerusalem of Gold.” I am not Jewish, but I grew up in a semi-Jewish household and I am a “true Jew” because I believe Y’shua Jesus fulfilled the messianic prophecies of the scriptures. I love her music.

Ofra Haza was a poor little girl from Tel Aviv, and her story is the classic “discovery” from rags-to-riches story. I have a few of her CDs, and even though I do not speak Hebrew fluently, it is thrilling to hear her vocalize the psalms and many other Hebrew scriptures. She was most popular during the 80s and 90s. Sadly, she died of AIDS at the age of 42. She had gotten the disease from her husband.

I found a few videos of her singing. It sends chills up and down my spine!