Provincetown Carnival Parade 2009

This Thursday was our annual pilgrimage to Provincetown for the Carnival Parade down Commercial Street. This year's parade seemed to be 70's/Flower Power/Woodstock and the costumes bear that assumption out. Notables in the parade included Bruce Vilanch the commedian/writer and the nation's first out newsman, Randy Price (late of WHDH), now of WCVB, Channel 5 in Boston. Enjoy the fun

Hit n Run Hula

You may remember the troupe that did the dance to the tune of "Do-Re-Mi" from "The Sound of Music" in the train station in Belgium posted at FHP earlier this year. Well led by a drag queen, the Nā Lei Hulu I Ka Wēkiu hula troupe last weekend performed a "hit n run" piece at the corner of Castro and Market in San Francisco. The music is by the Propellerheads featuring Shirley Bassey singing "History Repeating". Hele mei hoohiwahiwa (Come celebrate)!

Kvetch

What the Hell is wrong with the Dems?

I'm going to make this short and sweet as this subject really doesn't need more than a few words to get to the point. The electorate decided in 2007 to elect a majority of Democrats in the House and Senate and to put a Democrat who, among other things, promised to make healthcare reform a priority, into the White House to preside over us. The President and the Democrats in Congress have healthcare plans that would help to make quality healthcare affordable to ALL Americans and the Republicans in the Congress have come right out and said that they will not support any change in healthcare as it is apportioned today. The President and the Dems in Congress have offered to drop the single-payer option, and have now, it seems, have come around to offering to drop the public option from the plan in order to attract Republican support. Why are they doing this?

The Republicans have made it clear that they are too far up the asses of the drug, insurance and healthcare companies to want to upset the gravy train and we have the so-called "Blue Dog" Dems who are in the same place who wish to obstruct the President's plan for healthcare reform.

Now listen people... No matter what you offer the Republicans for their support, you are not going to get it, so why offer it? The President and the Democratic leadership should make it clear to the "Blue Dogs" that they will lose all support from the DNC if they do not toe the line with the President on this issue. Pass the healthcare reform bills without bipartisan support as you weren't going to get it anyway and make the people of the US see that the Democrats mean business when the people speak at the ballot box. The caveat here is that we will need to make sure that during the mid-terms in 2010 we will need to get out the Democrat vote like never before in order to keep the Republicans from dragging us back into the Dark Ages of GWB and the Republican obstructionism that will make our nascent hopes of a more free and equal society wither and die.

It's that simple people.

Barney Frank calls 'em as he sees 'em!

During a "town hall" forum in Dartmouth last night Rep. Barney Frank is confronted by a woman who asks him why he supports "this Nazi policy" of a public option for health insurance for Americans. His response is classic Barney:

Please file under "About F-ing Time": Obama Administration/Justice Department moves against "Defense" of Marriage Act

From Huffington Post:

The Obama administration filed court papers Monday claiming a federal marriage law discriminates against gays, even as government lawyers continued to defend it.

Justice Department lawyers are seeking to dismiss a suit brought by a gay California couple challenging the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act. The administration's response to the case has angered gay activists who see it as backtracking on campaign promises made by Barack Obama last year.

In court papers, the administration said it supports repeal of the law.

It's about time the Obama administration did something about the discrimination against same sex couples in the US. Let's see where this leads, if anywhere.

Photo from our wedding

Why am I fat?

3 Guesses...

Fool’s Gold Loaf Sandwich: A loaf of hollowed out bread filled with creamy peanut butter, a jar of grape jelly, and a pound of bacon.

Stonner Kebabs: Deep fried sausages wrapped in doner kebab meat and battered served on a bed of french fries.

Double Bypass Burger: A burger topped with five slices of bacon, four slices of cheese, two fried eggs, mayo, lettuce, tomato, and onion between two grilled cheese sandwiches.

Oreo Stuff Dip: Oreo cream centers removed and melted into a dip.

Tempura Bacon: Bacon strips battered in Panko bread crumbs then deep fried and served with soy sauce.

McDonald’s Mega Tamago: A McDonald’s Big Mac with egg and bacon.

Cap’n Crunch Donut

Ultimate Biscuits:Three biscuits topped with ham, pork sausage, bacon, cheese, two over easy eggs, and gravy.

Breakfast Pizza: A sausage pizza with bacon and eggs, topped with mozzarella cheese and country gravy as sauce.

The Baconcado: An avocado filled with goat cheese and wrapped in bacon.

Great Balls Of Fire: Deep fried mashed potato balls infused with bacon, garlic, and Sriracha with cheddar cheese centers and covered with gravy.

Corn Corn: Corn on the Cob on a stick, covered in corn dog batter and deep fried.

The Jack Tripper: A burger topped with bacon, cheddar cheese, bbq sauce and onion rings.

Bacon Chip Nachos

The Uruguayan Chivito: A roast beef sandwich with lettuce, tomato, cheese, basil garlic mayo, hard boiled egg, pickles, red peppers, green olives, onions, ham, and bacon on a white bread bun.

Oreo Cupcake With Built In Milk Cup

Corn Dog Pigs In A Blanket: Fried corn dogs wrapped in American cheese and biscuit dough.

Corn Cheddar Bacon Pancakes

The Rubix Cubewich

The Hurler Burger: A burger topped with Easy Cheese in a jelly donut.

Thanks to ThisIsWhyYoureFat.com

House Party Visitor Map

I thought you'd like to see where the visitors to the House Party are coming from this month. Click on the map for a closer look.

Keep coming back y'all!

Some sad news

Our little kitty-boy Preston is in failing health. He is 15 years old and has diabetes, hyper-thyroidism, kidney disease and I believe a little bit of kitty dementia. The doctor has done pretty much all he can do for him but he doesn't believe he will get any better. We have decided to "do the right thing" with Preston and are taking a couple of weeks or so to say our good-byes.

I have had the privilege of being Preston's, and his sainted brother Leo's mummy since they were six weeks old and love him very much but he is so unhappy and uncomfortable that it is time to do this.

I will keep you all updated as this progresses. If you know Preston, please keep some good thoughts in your heart for him and if you don't know him, just wish him the best on his journey.

Here is Preston when he was a newborn kitty.

This is Preston and his brother Leo taking a little time out

Holy Crimes

Thanks once again to JoeMyGod.com

Over the last seven days...

Ohio: Pastor Dwight Smith charged with hiring a prostitute.
Alabama: Pastor John Picard charge with 42 counts of sexual battery on parishioners.
Virginia: Pastor John Duffer charged with taking indecent liberties with a minor.
New Jersey: Pastor Robert Carlino confesses to possession of child pornography.
Texas: Pastor Matthew Wood resigns after being accused of sexually cyber-stalking a parishioner.
Ghana: Pastor Kwame Kussi arrested for lashing a suspected witch to death.
Arizona: Pastor Charles Cafrey pleads guilty to sexual misconduct with a minor.
Georgia: Pastor Dennis Reedy charged with multiple counts of sex with a minor.
West Virginia: Pastor Sandy Cook and his church sued by four men alleging sexual abuse by Cook.
Missouri: The Diocese of Jefferson City agrees to pay $600K sexual abuse settlement to man abused by a priest.

Tom F-ing DeLay on Dancing With The Stars"???!!???

See how the mighty have fallen...

From AP:

Former Republican Majority Leader (and full-time douchebag) Tom DeLay will join 15 celebrities from the worlds of entertainment and sports in kicking up their heels on the new season of "Dancing With the Stars."

And here's another old chestnut: "As ye sow, so shall ye reap." What a loser!

Heatwave Pizza

The Boston weather geeks have said that the area is officially in a heatwave. Gee... the sweat pouring down my back wasn't enough of an indicator, I guess.

Mr. B and I were dying to have a pizza and because I was already to bake a loaf of bread for this week and I am so cheap, I decided to make it myself rather than buy it from our fave place Alecsie's in Harwich. I had all of the stuff necessary either in the fridge or in the pantry and I was hanging out in my den, one of the two rooms air-conditioned in our nest so I could bake a loaf of bread and not roast while waiting for the bread to bake. I could bake that (at 350f) and it wouldn't heat up the house so much that it wouldn't cool down for hours like the pizza (bake at 500f) would. I decided to bake the pizza outdoors in the BBQ grille.

From my previous post on pizza baking you may recall that I use a 14-inch cast iron skillet as a baking surface. The only thing I needed to know was if the skillet would fit into the grill taking into consideration the handle and a small lip used for lifting the pan. I measured and it fit fine.

I prepared the coals and put the skillet on the grill to heat up for 20 minutes.

I made the pizza as before and slid it onto the pan's surface. You need to do this quickly and re-cover the grill so that the pan and the interior do not cool off.

Bake for 15 minutes or so and serve. Keep an eye on the bottom crust because you don't want that to burn before the toppings cook. That is why it is important to slip the pizza into the grill quickly and cover right away. Also, do not peek as that will let in the cool air as well. All said and done it was really tasty.

OMG!! Looky at what I found this morning!

I am so thrilled! (At this point you're probably wondering what kind of nut Frenchy is.) I have my first ripening tomato on my Topsy-Turvy plant. Perhaps some of that pruning I did this week has helped it along. It is 2/3 ripe and I would guess that it is going to go a little more quickly now that we are experiencing a Cape Cod heatwave (85 degrees and 70% humidity with full sunshine). It is so uncomfortable on our deck today that even my husband, who roasts himself in the sun until he looks like a coffee bean says it is dangerously hot out there. It is, however, great for my tomatoes. Take a look at today's results:

Anyone else have a ripening tomato report (Topsy-Turvy or not) that they would like to share?