Cooking with Pam Anderson

Move over purple eye shadow, there's a new sheriff in town. Pam Anderson (no, not that one) is sending me a signed cookbook 'cause I won it on her website. Check it out if you have time. She cooks and that makes me like her.

O Christmas Tree(s)

Tree number one sports a mink tree skirt and I admit, that's a bit hard to beat. But we found tree number two this weekend after a Christmas concert and we were able to get it decorated before I leave on business for the week. It's darling!

Those of you who know me well know I prefer all white lights on my trees. It's not that I think colored lights are ugly, I just prefer white. Several years ago I was overcome by the cuteness of these colored button lights, nice round bulbs and all, at my local Target. So I bought a couple of strands. Put one strand up and hated them. Loathed them. Complained for weeks about the three bucks per strand I had paid for them. But who returns Christmas lights, right? So I kept them stuck away at the bottom of one of the boxes of decorations.

This year, they have a home on a cute little tree in our living room. (The mink skirted tree lives in the breakfast room, standing regal and all with its coordinated ornaments.) Note: Little here is important, because we went from an 11 foot tree last year to a 5 foot tree this year. HUGE difference. But, little trees need love, too, right?

I decided that if we were going so radical on the size, we'd really stir the pot and use colored lights. And it works. I'm not totally in love with the lights just because they are so different from what I am used to. But they are kinda nice for a change and look right at home with all the Hallmark ornaments we've collected over the years. There are no other ornaments on the tree. Just colored lights and Hallmark ornaments (yes we have enough to fill the tree).

I wonder if the ornaments in the other eight boxes in the attic are lonely? (Yes, there are more...what can I say?)

Boys Will Be Boys

Ber-New-Who?

I don't really remember 5th grade, but I'm sure I wasn't studying physics and flying Cessnas. Or designing rockets and studying atmospheric pressure, either. ("What's that mean, Everett?") I think the most important thing for me back then was jumping on my friend Stephanie's trampoline and blowing my whistle on Junior Traffic Police.

My how times have changed. Madalyn was fortunate to be able to participate in the Department of Defense program STARBASE at Maxwell Air Force Base over the past five weeks. While there she and her classmates built and launched their own rockets, flew a Cessna 172-P (simulator, thank heavens!), studied Bernoulli's Principle & Newton's Law of Motion (don't ask me), fluid mechanics and aerodynamics, and learned navigation and mapping, computer aided design, geometry and data analysis. Whew, brain overload! Oh, and they rode a hovercraft, too.

Here, she and a friend are sucking all the air out of a vacuum container that has a miniature marshmallow in it. It was miniature when they started, anyway.

They'd just finished jumping around the room like molecules in motion. Guess something about that was funny to her.

Aren't they cute? Leave it to her to pose in a flight suit. It would've been cool to keep the flight suit, eh?

Guess my tax dollars are going to something worthwhile after all.

If I Were a Rich (wo)Man

If I had lots of money, I'd buy myself these.

If I had even more money, I'd buy this. (Boy, is it gorgeous.)

But I don't have a lot of money, so I'll buy some of these. (This will almost make up for not having enough money for the first two...)

Whhaaaatttt?

Look closely. Move a bit closer to your screen. See that there under the tree? Not the dust bunny, and never mind the bare lower branches (I'll work that out). Look carefully at the tree skirt. It's mink.

Yes, mink. And my grandmother's head would roll on her shoulders if she were still alive. "Whhaaaatttt are you doing with my wrap unduh your tree?"

Forgive me, my dear grandmother, but the fur is staying right where it is -- under the skinny tree in the breakfast room in a house full of holiday cheer.

Holiday Hits

In the market for some entertaining holiday flicks? Check out the ABC Family channel's 25 Days of Christmas for a neat line-up of classics and new films.