Oh, Alfalfa!

I just saw on the news that no one should eat raw alfalfa sprouts because of salmonella contamination.

Please know that I didn't need to see this news story. There was never a chance that I was going to get all crazy in the produce section and throw some sprouts into my cart. I'm not even sure what you're supposed to do with them anyway. Does anyone eat raw alfalfa sprouts? Or for that matter, does anyone eat them cooked?

Also, this is why I'm not really into the veggies. Every time I think that I'm going to start paying attention to my diet and start a healthy lifestyle...(yes, I occasionally have these thoughts, but I just start chanting: resist the veggies and flee) a recall notice starts crawling across the bottom of my TV screen saying the tomatoes, lettuce, onions or alfalfa is contaminated with salmonella.

So, if I'm going to take risks with my food products, rest assured, I'm going to risk it on a nitrate filled coney dog, Pancho's artery clogging cheese dip or a partially hydrogenated swiss cake roll. Because I don't want anyone to say at my funeral, "Yeah, she ate those alfalfa sprouts and died."

Restaurant Review: The Dog House

It was just a few weeks ago that the Medium Nanny called and told me that she needed me to attend a parent meeting for the summer mission project that she plans to participate in. I thought that I didn't have to go to "parent meetings" anymore now that she is in college...isn't she like an adult now???

So, I told her that I would be happy to attend the parent meeting if we could go here for lunch. I had passed by this place on a previous trip and placed it up in the part of my brain that holds all of my hotdog stand information. Notice the sign says: Detroit Style Coney's...that's what caught my eye. Could it be? A Detroit style coney in the state of Tennessee?

Upon entering the dog establishment, I noticed the familiar combo smell of grease and vinyl furniture. This is a good sign of an authentic Detroit Style Coney. The owner came to our table to take our order and our conversation went a little something like this...

Big Nanny: So, what part of Michigan are you from?

Dog House Owner: I'm not from Michigan, I'm from California. (Big Nanny is very disappointed by this revelation and facial expression went from happy to oh, you've got to be kidding me look.)

Dog House Owner: But I get all my ingredients shipped in from Detroit.

Big Nanny: Oh, so you use Koegel brand hotdogs???

Dog House Owner: No, I use blah, blah, blah, blah products.

(Never heard of anything except for the Faygo brand pop that she mentions. Yes, in Michigan, we call the Cokes, POP...but I don't call it that here because I don't like it when people look at me like I'm crazy.)

Big Nanny: So, where did you get all this Detroit sports team stuff that's all over your walls?

Dog House Owner: My customers give it to me.

Very interesting???

So, here is the Medium Nanny in the "Detroit style" coney establishment...emphasis on the word "style."

Doesn't she look 12? Can you believe she only has 16 more days and she'll be finished with her freshman year of college? Where does the time fly? Can you believe she's not coming home for summer? She's off for some evangelism training and when she's not evangelizing, she's going to be working at Dollywood and sharing a room with 3 other girls...those who attended/witnessed/chaperoned last year's summer youth trip know how this girl gets after 4 days of room sharing...she's gonna need a little prayer.

Anyhoo, I give it a 8 out of 10 dogs. The onion rings were awesome.

You can click on the links below to read my other hotdog stand reviews...

Hot Diggity Dog

I Dream of Weenie

The Varsity

Facing the Giants

It was about 3 weeks ago when the student pastor sent out an "all staff" email saying that there would be an office NCAA bracket contest.

I thought to myself...I don't know anything about brackets.

And then I thought to myself again...Wouldn't it be funny if I actually won and put all these men to shame.

And then I thought...Email Keith Jones and have him help you fill out the bracket. So I did. I emailed him and I did not receive a response until...

The phone rings at 9:30 on a Monday night and it was my friend Tracey Jones and they were ready to fill out my bracket. I was already in the bed and kind of over the bracket at this point. So, I told her that I was just gonna skip it, and if I decided to fill one out in the morning when I got to work, I would just place random teams in all the blanks. She agreed that sometimes that works...that shocked me because Tracey doesn't usually do anything "random"...there's always a plan.

(Some of you have gotten the 9:30 call from Tracey where she says, "are you in bed?"... please continue on with your laughter.)

Anyhoo, random teams in all the blanks it was. Oh, I did make some good choices along the way...

A little Purdue here...

A little Villanova over there...

A little Gonzaga around here (I have no idea where Gonzaga is and how they got on an NCAA bracket, never heard of'em.)

I was really just picking teams with unusual sounding names. I just like the way they sounded when I said them.

But what you need to understand is...

I was facing the giants!

The first giant I was facing was the student pastor...Big T.

He's played a game of football in his time. He attends all the local high school games and helps train the team as well, so he has to know a thing or twenty about sports. Right?

I would like to title this picture: Who's laughing now!

The second giant I was facing was the Missions/Children's Pastor Reagan. He's been known to rush the kids out of children's choir, light up the big screen and invite all his friends to watch a Cowboys or Mavericks game...(did I just say all that out loud?) So he knows a little something-something about these basketball games, right?

I would like to title this picture: Plaid Shorts...that's all I got.

And my third and final giant is PT, the Senior Pastor. If you've attended TSC for at least 30 days then you know almost every sermon has some sort of sports related illustration, if you're a church member wearing Titans blue...he's hoping you'll be a season ticket holder--who will want to attend a ball game with your poor ticket-less pastor and he's just a wee bit competitive. Just a wee bit. He seems to know or thing or two about the wide world of sports.

I would like to title this picture: I lost, I lost, I lost to...Big Nanny!

And now I leave you with my final concern...I've yet to receive my congratulatory "all staff" announcement email that states that I'm the first place winner of the 2009 TSC Office Bracket Contest and when/where the prize presentation ceremony will be. Could the student pastor be thinking that I will forget about this?

Let's be honest...does anyone actually think I'm going to forget about this?

Tween Angel

Tween:
1. contraction of between.
2. Also, tween, a youngster between 10 and 12 years of age, considered too old to be a child and too young to be a teenager.

The Lil' Nanny was ready to rid her room of the adorable pink poodles and black gingham trim that we decked her room out with just a few years ago. So we've been surfing the www and looking for a new look. The only deal was the room had to stay painted pink because it didn't really need a new paint job.

After much surfing and shopping she decided on the pink and brown combo. And dots. Lots and lots of dots.