this may turn your stomach...

How lovely. Tyson agreed to stop using carbon monoxide in its packaged meats. Hooray for Tyson!

Am I supposed to be glad about this? Instead of feeling glad I'm even more freaked out at the prospect of buying meat in a conventional grocery store. If companies are resorting to this type of thing, what else are they doing?

When food has to be shipped across the country (across the globe, in some cases...eek), companies resort to doing all they can to keep it fresh - or make it appear fresh. This is but one of the reasons I decided to only buy/consume meat if it comes from local farmers, not huge farm conglomerates like Tyson. Firstly, it comes straight from the animal to me, only traveling a hundred miles at most. Secondly, I am more apt to trust a local farmer on how he's raised and fed the animals than the factory farms, who are in this solely for the money, and as we see above, will literally do anything to increase the bottom line. Thirdly, it just plain tastes better, and I can be happy about supporting my local farmers.

Sheesh, though, I guess this could be considered a big step for Tyson. What's next? They stop shearing off chickens' beaks so they can't peck each other to death while crammed into small cages? They stop giving them feed found to contain arsenic, ammonia, and other chemicals? Wow. That's a whole lot to ask.

Man. Eating chicken is so not worth it.

guinness - magic ingredient

I made Guinness ice cream this weekend. It's amazingly good. It's made with Guinness, of course, molasses, and the regular ice cream ingredients. Highly recommended. I was telling a guy here at work about it, and he said the best ice creams are made with molasses, and I believe it.

I got the recipe from this site. She used the ice cream in a float with Harp - aka a black and tan, only with Guinness ice cream as opposed to Guinness itself. I haven't tried this, but it also sounds delicious.

So we're up to two things I make with Guinness - beef roast and ice cream. Both are very good. Can cooking with Guinness be wrong, I wonder? I think not.

for we're a jolly good fellow...

The hub-unit this morning called me to tell he he'd just realized the date - 8-23. Ten years ago today we had our first date. Or no, maybe it was ten years ago today that we first kissed. I say 'we', but really it was me planting myself on him. Probably by surprise, albeit a good surprise. Boy was shy. Yes, we kissed first before our first 'official' date. It was college. That kind of thing was commonplace. We went to see Money Talks with Chris Tucker. Again, it was college. You have to forgive the bad taste. I'm sure we hung out afterwards, but I don't remember that part. Sorry, honey - you know I have a bad memory. It's a miracle I even remember the movie.

I knew the big 10 was coming up. It's kind of mind boggling - like when you try to think about death, and your brain gets all murky and your head spins. I've been with the same person for ten years. I haven't been on a date with anyone else (well there was that one guy, but that didn't count, and the hub (boyfriend then) knew about it), haven't kissed anyone else (well, there was that one guy...just kidding! ha ha), haven't really even thought about anyone else in ten years. That's insane.

The best part is that it doesn't feel weird at all. In ten years we've had really only one big blowup fight, and that was barely a fight - we never yell and scream. We just get along so darn well. Best friends, really. I know, sick, stop, you're making us gag. I'm proud, that's all.

Here's to another ten! Maybe more, if the hub continues to behave himself.

no further commentary necessary

Here's a great comment from R. L. White of the NAACP:


'White also said he didn't understand the uproar over dogfighting, when hunting deer and other animals is perfectly acceptable.'



He uttered these genius words while explaning why the NFL shouldn't ban Michael Vick. Dear readers, I will spare you my assesment of this comment. I won't insult your intelligence. I myself have never hunted in my life, and I understand the difference between hunting and dogfighting. So he can't use that excuse.



Throw that nasty dog abuser in jail, already.

sweet justice

I saw something at lunch today that totally made my day. I went to Schnucks (after not finding onion soup mix at Wild Oats - grrr) on what could arguably be the hottest day of the year, walking to my car parked at the very back of the lot under a tree (this lot, unlike most in St. Louis, actually does have a tree or two). I see a big old nasty Mercedes SUV parked in the fire lane, and a cop pull up behind it and turn on his lights. The siren made a little blip - that's why I noticed it.

I finally made it to my car, hot and sweaty, feet sore from high heeled stilettos. I was pulling down the lane when I saw the cop finish up the ticket and walk towards the empty SUV. I was then lucky enough to see a woman hurry out of Schnucks towards the SUV clutching a bottle of water (side note - plastic). The cop handed her the ticket, and to her credit, she didn't appear to argue much, just took it and went. I gave the cop a round of applause (is it called that when you're alone?) and smiled bigger than life.

Why was she so special to get to park in the fire lane? Does she assume the rest of us like parking far away and hoofing it on a hot day? I went in there for one thing, just like her, but I did it the right way. Stinky bitch. First of all, you shouldn't park in the fire lane. But come on - if you're going to do it, don't be gone long enough for a cop to finish writing out a ticket. I've yet to encounter one who did it quickly. If you don't want to get out of your overpriced box on wheels, go through the McDonald's drive thru. I hear they've got a pool-sized soft drink for $.89 - what a value!