So this morning, Paul and I were talking about the upcoming film “Act of Valor” – the one that stars real-life Navy SEALs.  The entertainment person on the morning radio show that we listen to gave it great reviews, and it sounds really interesting.

Well, that made me think about a funny comment I saw the other day at one of the blogs that I read.  One of the guys was relating the story about how his wife had taken their young son to the museum that day, and some guy had come over and struck up a conversation with her.  In the course of the conversation, he mentioned that not only was he a Navy SEAL, but he was actually IN the movie.

This guy’s wife came home all excited, and couldn’t wait to tell her husband the story; she said that she would point this guy out when they went to see the movie.

Well, the guy just busted out laughing when his wife told him what had happened, then he had to gently explain to her that the dude was using one of the oldest pick-up methods in the world – he said that a LOT of guys use that Navy SEAL (or some other macho group) schtick to try and impress the ladies.

The guy’s wife was all upset, and still insisting that no, this guy was the real deal, but after a while, she started to concede that maybe he wasn’t on the up-and-up.  She was really disappointed.

I told Paul that to my way of thinking, the guy should be flattered that his wife is attractive enough that some stranger wants to impress her by pretending to be a Navy SEAL.

To which Paul replied, “Tell me about it - my wife couldn’t get hit on by a harbor seal.”

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Yeah, I laughed…..

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[UPDATE]: Paul e-mailed me to remind me that he DID add the qualifier “With all due respect” – which is kind of an inside joke with us (it refers to a Dom Irrera comedy routine). And that made it even funnier….
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Just a couple of kids…..

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It started in a lecture hall at Texas A&M University in January, 1979. Yours truly was a freshman who started out in Pre-Med, but after one semester – and a tearful call home – I had decided to change my major to one which involved more math – Civil Engineering.

Well, the powers that be in the Engineering department told me that the Calculus class that I had placed out of as a Science major wasn’t really “the same as” the one they wanted Engineering majors to take, so I had to start all over again. I hadn’t changed my major until the spring semester started, so I missed the first “official” day of that class.

The next time that class met, I was sitting in a seat in the lecture hall, feeling quite lost since I didn’t know the professor’s name, office hours, etc. Some guy came in a little late to the class, looking all harried, and sat down in one of the few empty seats – right next to me.

He looked like someone I had met a couple of months earlier (which is why I thought he sat there), but I was busy taking notes, so I didn’t get a chance to get a good look at the guy. I did, however, glance over at his notes, because he had all of the professor’s information written down where I could see it.

Since I really wanted that information, I kept looking over at his notes from time to time so that I could copy down what I needed to know. I thought I was doing a pretty good job of doing that unnoticed, but one time I glanced over, and the word “KOCH” was written at the top of the page I’d been looking at – and it hadn’t been there before.

“Nah”, I thought to myself, “you just weren’t paying attention. That was probably there the entire time, but you just didn’t see it.”

Well, class ended, and I turned to the guy, and said the name of the person I THOUGHT he was, but as soon as I saw his face, I realized my mistake. I apologized for the mix-up and went back to my dorm to have lunch.

Over the next couple of weeks, though, this fella struck up a couple of conversations with me. It turned out that he lived off campus, and the bus that he caught to get to his place picked him up at the corner right by my dorm. So we got in the habit of walking to my dorm after class and talking.

He was a sweet guy; really funny and very nice. He was from a very small town, and me – being from a larger town – found his “innocence” (for lack of a better word) quite charming.  Actually, we were both pretty innocent, so we got along very nicely.

Well, one day he worked up the nerve to ask for my phone number. Actually, the conversation went more like this:

Him: So, do you have a phone?

Me: (Being a smart-aleck) Yes. (Thinking to myself as soon as the words were out of my mouth, “You dummy! Now you’ve scared him away!”)

Him: (Taken aback at first) Well, can I have your number?

Me: (Breathing a huge sigh of relief) Yes. (“Whew! You didn’t screw that up!”)

Him: (Pulls out his pen and his checkbook from his pocket) Okay.

Me: (Somewhat amused at his choice of “paper”) It’s 845-****.

Him: (Writes number on spine of checkbook) Thanks.

We get to my dorm/his bus stop, and part ways. I go to my room, and tell my suitemates that a guy asked for my phone number. Then I wait by the phone. And wait. And wait. And wait.

HE went to his next class, told his buddies he had gotten this girl’s phone number, and asks them if he should call me that day, or “Make her wait” until the next day.

One of his buddies said, “Make her wait!”, so I didn’t get that phone call until the next day.

Well, the day he got my number was February 12th, and I remember thinking that maybe, just maybe, I would have a date for Valentine’s Day that year.

This sweet kid from the country calls me up the next day (Tuesday, February 13th), and asks me if I want to go out.
On Friday.
To the midnight movie.

I really didn’t want to see the movie, but I really, REALLY wanted to go out with the guy, so I said, “YES!!!!!” (only I tried to sound really nonchalant about the whole thing).

Mr. Innocence says, “OK, I’ll come pick you up at your dorm room around 11:30, and we can walk to the Student Center together.”

Ummm….OK?

Well, we finally worked things out (his roommate called him an ass, and told him how a date was really supposed to go, so we met earlier that night for dinner – which is another story in and of itself).

The rest, as they say, is history. Thirty-three years later, we’re still together, and I have truly been blessed. I still wonder what I did “right” to deserve such a wonderful fella.

I remember being so mad at the Engineering department for making me take that class over again, but if I hadn’t, we never would have met. So I guess it was meant to be.

And all these years later, he still wonders how it is that I remember “when” our first date was.

I tell him it’s simple – it was 2 days AFTER Valentine’s Day, and I was crushed that I didn’t get anything on Valentine’s Day that year.

In the end, though, from the time of that first date on, I got to have Valentine’s Day every day of the year, so everything worked out.

And now my last name is Koch, too….. ♥
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Won’t you be my Valentine?

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Yeah, right.

Then, pictures surfaced from two weeks earlier, of Mr. Kerry wearing SUNGLASSES at an indoor meeting with Mahmoud Abbas while on a trip to the Middle East.
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Well, lo and behold – the most recent pictures of one of the richest men in Congress show remarkably smoother skin under Mr. Kerry’s eyes.  It seems that the tumble he took on the ice somehow removed all of those bags and wrinkles!
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Who needs Obamacare?  Now, we have “HockeyCare”!

See ya on the boards…..
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***I’m still trying to figure out how he could have “fallen” in such a way as to get perfectly symmetrical bruises on ONLY the outer/lower edges of both eyes while doing NO damage to that huge schnozz…..

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♥
Hope you have a great day with the one you love!
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Janesville,WI—February 12th, 2012— The Republican Party of Rock County received an unexpected donation Saturday night from a liberal organization during their annual combined Rock and Walworth County Lincoln Day Dinner. Five protestors interrupted the opening remarks by Republican Party of Rock County Chairman, Jason Mielke, when they burst on the stage carrying a gold painted commode.

The gold covered toilet was sold in a live auction that evening for $1,000. Mielke commented, “I really wish they could have stuck around to see the good they have done for Republicans in the area. Their actions on Saturday night raised enough money to take out a full page newspaper advertisement in support of Republican candidates, or pay the rent for a victory center for one month, or buy several hundred yards signs. I promise our new found supporters from the left this: every penny of the $1,000 you were responsible for helping us raise will be spent on supporting conservative Republican candidates.”

I especially liked the picture that accompanied the Rock County GOP’s announcement:

Maybe they should have donated it back to the #Occupiers - they need some of these.....

And they say that Republicans don’t have a sense of humor……

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(h/t to Grandpa John’s and Pundit and Pundette for this story)

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...."

I”ll admit that I have always been a bit of an “unconventional” thinker – lots of different things fascinate me. I read articles and books on things that interest me. Sometimes, I end up seeing weird connections – my thinking takes me way off of the beaten path (Paul hates taking me to mystery movies – I almost always figure out whodunnit about 5 minutes into the picture). Today I’m going to invite you to follow me down my rabbit hole…..

When I was a young and impressionable girl, I became fascinated with Anne Boleyn and her love affair with Henry VIII – back then, she struck me as a tragic romantic heroine (the movie “Anne of the Thousand Days” came out when I was in junior high). My friends and I used to read the Jean Plaidy novels about Elizabethan England – maybe it was the dresses that we liked; who knows? I was one of those girls who loved princesses and fairy tales.

I also liked the story of the American Revolution, and I was fortunate enough to have some really fantastic teachers who brought that part of our country’s history alive for me. The movie “1776” came out when I was in junior high, and my love of the musical score made me want to learn more about that time period as well.

Then there were movies like “A Man for All Seasons“, which examined the political turmoil behind the scenes of the Anne Boleyn/Henry VIII drama, and the lengths to which one man with a great deal of power was willing to go for what he wanted, and how he was willing to get rid of anyone who stood in his way, including men of great integrity.

There have been many books, movies, and TV series written about that particular time in history – it’s got all of the things that you need for a great story: love, murder, intrigue, clashes of will, etc. What they haven’t made as many movies about is the tumultuous period AFTER Henry VIII got his wish – the bloody aftermath that nearly tore a country apart at the seams.

I’ve often thought that it was their memory of what was - for them – fairly recent history that influenced our Founding Fathers to make sure that one of the fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution was that of Freedom of (or more technically, FROM) Religion.

Their recent ancestors had seen a country literally go to war with both itself and the Roman Catholic Church as the result of one man’s lust. At the same time, the Protestant Reformation had made its way across Europe, and had reached England’s shores.

One or more advisors got the bright idea to suggest to Henry VIII that he could name himself the  “Supreme Head of the Church in England” – which would allow him to both grant himself an annulment from Queen Catherine (thus freeing him to marry Anne Boleyn) and allow the State to keep all of the money and property which had heretofore belonged to the Catholic Church.

This new and unfettered power had far-reaching effects, and many heads quite literally rolled as a result when people in England refused to accept the new State religion.  Many people had their titles and/or property taken away from them as well, if they didn’t do what the King/State wanted them to do.

I’ve often thought that the ramifications of that ill-fated love affair rippled all the way across the Atlantic to a fledgling nation more than 250 years later. Our founding fathers knew how vitally important it was that people be allowed to practice their respective faiths without fear of persecution from their government.

I’ve watched the unfolding events of this past week with more than a passing interest – President Obama seems genuinely stunned at the vehement response that has occurred as a result of his decision to require all healthcare providers to provide various means of birth control. He just doesn’t seem to think that this is – to use VP Biden’s now infamous words – “a big f***in’ deal”.

Frankly, I’m not surprised at HIS surprise; let’s face it, the man didn’t spend his formative years growing up in the United States – he was literally half a world away. I wouldn’t expect someone who was in a non-American elementary school in a foreign country to have learned about American History.

Even when he moved back to the US as a young teen, he came back to a state that had only been part of the United States for just a few years more than he had been alive – I’m sure that “American History” was quite a different course in Hawaii than it was in Virginia or Pennsylvania.

Those of us who have never known anything different have sort of taken our freedom from religious persecution as something of a given. It isn’t until you take the time to look around at the rest of the world that you start to understand what a truly unique gift we were given by our Founding Fathers when they insisted upon inclusion of that protection in the First Amendment in our Constitution’s Bill of Rights.

Which is why people of ALL persuasions – on both sides of the aisle – are so up in arms over an edict handed down by those in power, essentially telling us that the government has the power to compel a group of people to betray their religious convictions because it is what the STATE demands.

What is especially egregious is that there are religious groups (e.g. Muslims, Amish) that have already been exempted from having to participate in Obamacare BY VIRTUE OF THEIR RELIGIOUS BELIEFS AGAINST IT.

The man who claims to be a “Constitutional Scholar” certainly appears to be demonstrating that he’s, well….not.

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Mr. Obama and his administration are trying to walk this back, but the damage has been done. People are hopefully seeing what a destructive force Obamacare could be; I only hope that the Supreme Court Justices are paying attention – the Executive Branch tipped their hand on this one.

Thank goodness for our Founding Fathers’ understanding of what human beings will do when they have too much unchecked power, and their wisdom in constructing a document that has – thus far – ensured that another Henry VIII will never be able to destroy this country because of a personal lust for money, love, or power.

May it always continue to be that way in this nation that I love so very much.

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[Cross-posted at RedState]

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[Update 02/08/12]:  Thanks to Pundit and Pundette for linking this article!

[Update 02/10/12]:  Thanks to Chris Wysocki for linking me over at WyBlog!

When I was growing up, my dad liked the Kraft Spaghetti that came in a box.  The box contained spaghetti noodles, a spice packet, and a packet of Kraft Parmesan Cheese.  You had to add your own tomato paste and anything extra that you wanted in your sauce (Mom would brown some hamburger meat and add to it).

I never knew anything else.

When I became a young bride, I tried out my limited culinary repertoire on my new husband.  Paul had never had “box” spaghetti; the one time that I made it for him, he was NOT impressed.  I had just landed the man - I wasn’t about to lose him over something as simple as spaghetti!  So, I set out to find a recipe that he might like.

Now, in the days before the Internet, we savages in the wilderness got our recipes from family, friends, cookbooks (professional and local), and a couple of cooking shows on PBS.  Our local newspaper ran a “Food” section in the middle of the week, so I would routinely look over each week’s new recipes, and occasionally I would find one or two that I wanted to try (some of those yellowed, tattered recipes that I cut out of the paper are still in my recipe box).

One day, I hit the jackpot – I ran across a spaghetti recipe that looked really good.  By this time, Paul was used to being my culinary guinea pig, so I had him look at the ingredients to see if it looked like something he might like to try.  He didn’t see anything that looked objectionable, so I went ahead and made it.

Well, that was back in 1980/81 – to this day, this is the ONLY spaghetti recipe that ever found a permanent home in my recipe box.  And every time that I make this for friends or family, I am asked for a copy of the recipe – it is thick and rich and hearty, and the meatballs are out-of-this-world delicious. 

When the girls were growing up, they would have gladly eaten this every day of the week and twice on Sundays.  And now that they are starting to cook for themselves, this is the one recipe that each of them insisted I copy for them – I even had a request to e-mail a copy to Sarah while she was over in England, visiting her boyfriend and his family!  

Yeah, it’s that good….

THE Recipe - A family "classic" since 1980

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Teresa’s Spaghetti Sauce with Meatballs
(Printable Version)

(Note:  The pictures reflect a quadrupled recipe.  I always make extra, and preserve the leftovers – it makes it much easier to be able to just heat a jar in the microwave for a quick dinner!)

Spaghetti Sauce:

¾ cup olive oil
1 – 32 oz can crushed tomatoes
½ small white or yellow onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tbsp. oregano
Salt and pepper to taste
1 – 12 oz. can tomato paste

Meatballs:

1 lb. ground meat (at least 15% fat; 20% or more is better)
1 egg
½ cup whole milk
¾ cup fresh bread crumbs
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tbsp. chopped parsley
1 tsp fresh rosemary, minced
salt and pepper to taste

Combine the tomatoes, garlic, onion, oregano, salt, and pepper together in a large pot.  Rinse out the tomato can with ½ cup of water and add it to the tomato mixture.

Okay, okay - I'm short; this is the best shot I could get.....

Bring to a boil and cook 1 hour, adding a little more water if it appears the liquid is evaporating too quickly.  Stir every 10 – 15 minutes, reducing heat if necessary.

While sauce is cooking, combine meatball ingredients together (you’re gonna have to mix this with your hands….) and shape into small-to-medium sized balls.

Meatballs - the best part of the sauce.....

Brown the meatballs on both sides in the olive oil, adding more oil if necessary (I like to let mine get a little bit “charred”, but not burnt).

It's not as deep as it looks - probably should have used a saute pan....

After sauce has cooked for 1 hour, reduce heat.  Add the meatballs as they are done.

Not all of the meatballs make it into the pot - gotta make sure they taste OK!

Add all of the olive oil that remains in the pan, along with the drippings.  If you do not make meatballs, add the olive oil anyway – this ingredient is what makes this sauce so yummy!  (For the record, I have spotlessly clean coronary arteries…..)

My lovely assistant, Paul, demonstrates how to pour in the oil (actually, he did most of the work - I got to supervise this time....)

Spoon ½ of the tomato paste on top of the sauce to give it an extra rich flavor.  Partially cover and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring every 5 – 10 minutes to prevent burning.  The sauce will thicken considerably.

The "First String" - waiting for the call

After 30 minutes, add the remaining tomato paste.  Keep pot partially covered and simmer 30 minutes, stirring every 5 – 10 minutes.  The sauce will be thick and delicious.

The (Tomato) Blob(s) - Run for your Lives!

That’s it!  Scoop a generous portion of this sauce over spaghetti noodles.  Add some garlic toast and a light salad to make a satisfying meal.  Don’t count on having any leftovers…..

Yummers!

And there you have it – the recipe that has kept my man close to home all these years!
I hope your family enjoys this recipe as much as mine does -

(Click Here for a printable version of this recipe)

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- The secret to the delicious sauce is the olive oil, and the secret to tender meatballs is the milk.  If you use low-fat meat or milk, your meatballs will crumble, so it’s important to use the ingredients as they are listed in the recipe.

- I’ve found that commercially-prepared bread crumbs don’t seem to work as well in this recipe – if you have a food processor, it’s pretty easy to make your own using regular bread.

- When Rebecca was diagnosed with Celiac Disease, I adapted this recipe for a Gluten-Free diet by using GF bread to make bread crumbs, and using GF spaghetti noodles in place of “regular” noodles.

- I’ve always used the Boiling Water Bath Canning Method to preserve this sauce; it appears that “Pressure Canning” is the preferred method for spaghetti sauce with meat.  FWIW, I have never had any problem with spoilage or contamination.

Now that the kids have moved out, this might actually last more than a month.....

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Ah, well…..

Guess I’m back to not supporting SGK – I don’t want there to be the slightest chance that any of my dollars might somehow make it to an organization that is proud of something like this:

Many years ago, when the girls were much younger, I ran across a wonderful book called “Many Moons” by James Thurber.  It is the story of a young princess who falls ill one day after a “surfeit of raspberry tarts”.  The Royal Physician sends for her father the King, who tells her that he will get her anything that her heart desires.  The princess tells the King that if she can have the moon, “I will be well again”.

So the King sends for his Wisest Men, and he asks each of them how he can get the moon for his daughter.  Each of them in turn tells the King of the many things that they have gotten for the King in the past, and then each of them tells the King that the moon is very large and much too far away (and each time it gets larger and further away), and simply cannot be gotten.

Despondent, the King sends for his Jester to cheer him up.  The Jester asks him why he is so sad, so he tells him what has happened.

“How big do they say the moon is….and how far away?”

“The Lord High Chamberlain says it is 35,000 miles away and bigger than Princess Lenore’s room…The Royal Wizard says it is 150,000 miles away and twice as big as the palace….The Royal Mathematician says it is 300,000 miles away and half the size of the kingdom…”

The Court Jester strummed on his lute for a little while.  “They are all wise men,” he said, “and so they must all be right.  If they are all right, then the moon must be just as large and as far away as each person thinks it is.  The thing to do is to find out how big the Princess Lenore thinks it is, and how far away.”

So the Court Jester goes into the Princess’ room and asks her how big she thinks the moon is (just a little smaller than her thumbnail), how far away it is (not quite as high as the big tree outside her window), and what it is made of (gold, of course, silly!).

Then the Court Jester goes to the Royal Goldsmith and has him make a tiny round moon just a little smaller than a thumbnail, and he has him string it on a golden chain.  The Princess is overjoyed, and is able to play again, for now the moon can always be with her.

There is more to the story – it’s really quite sweet – but one lesson always stuck with me:  If you are trying to solve a problem, you need to find out what a person THINKS first.

It’s all about perceptions.

(I’m not gonna lie – we were able to get off cheap when it came time for the Tooth Fairy to pay a visit; instead of trying to figure out what the “going rate” was, we asked Rachel what she thought the Tooth Fairy was supposed to bring her.  “A coin,” she said.  And she was very happy with “a coin”.)

Well, years have gone by since we read that story to our girls – the oldest 3 are all adults now.  And I had forgotten all about that story until a couple of days ago, when Sarah was watching a movie on her computer.

From out of the blue, she asked me, “What do you think about abortion?” (it was a topic in the movie she was watching).

Now, I’m going to be honest with you – we never talked about that subject all that much in our household; it didn’t exactly come up over dinner.  But it was obvious that she wanted to know what I thought about it.

I wasn’t quite sure what to say, as my views have changed significantly over the years (each time I come across more and more information).  So, I decided to use the “Many Moons” approach, and asked her what SHE thought about it.

It turns out that she is very much like I was before my eyes were opened; there are grey areas for her – the very “grey areas” that the abortion industry trots out all the time to scare everyone about an over-reaching State (rape, incest, life of the mother is in danger).

And that’s when I thought about perceptions.

So I asked her how many abortions she thought were performed each year.  I didn’t have a clue what her idea might be, and I was genuinely interested to hear what she thought.  Her answer was very enlightening – and also a clue as to why the abortion industry is able to keep fooling people year after year:

“I guess around 500-1,000 each year.”

And all of a sudden, there was the “teachable moment”.  For in all of the information that is being spoon-fed to our society about “women’s reproductive rights”, a key piece of information is deliberately being left out.

Our kids grow up thinking that abortion is a rare thing - they don’t know the reality of it, and the people who are telling them that they should think of it as a “right” don’t WANT them to know the reality of it.

So I explained that to Sarah – I told her what the average number of abortions is per year (~1,200,000 – see Table 1 on p.3), and how many have been ”officially” performed since 1973 (more than 50 million).  I told her how I had been fooled, just like her, into believing that abortion was a rare thing (the reality is that 22 out of every 100 pregnancies are aborted) - and how my views had changed since I saw those numbers.

I told her many more things that I had learned, about pictures that I have seen, and the way that abortion has become an industry that is only concerned with making more money (which necessarily translates into killing more babies) each year.

I’d like to think that she came away from that conversation with a lot of stuff to think about – she sees things from a different perspective than she did a few years ago, now that she is older and out in the world.

And that’s when it hit me – if we are ever going to change the perception of abortion in this country, we first have to understand what each individual THINKS it is.  Without that, we cannot go any further.  And we won’t go anywhere if we tell them that what they think is wrong – but we MIGHT be able to give them something to think about.

And as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words: