Those are fighting words...

Well the celebrities are out in full force putting up their dukes and getting down to business. (The picture has nothing to do with this entry, I do not know who these two deranged men are).

Anyway, Faith Hill goes ape sh*t on a fan who reaches out to touch her husband, Tim McGraw. The lady may have touched her man, but Faith was not going to stand by her man and see someone else's hand. So Faith gives this lady a piece of her mind.

Then there is the Star Jones fight with honesty. it seems that Star did not eat just twigs and berries, work out the like a maniac (Flashdance with leggins vision) and train away the hundred plus pounds. Nope, she had surgery and lied for months because she thought people would think less of her. Oh, everyone loves a liar. Well, some still do like O.J. Perhaps she does have a point.

Finally, Brittney Spears got divorced. Really? Again? I guess it just happened. I thought it happened years ago. Guess time flies when all the teen stars go in and out of rehab. Can't keep one panty-less wonder straight from the other.

Evening out in FW

Well fall is around the corner. Don't hate me for telling you what you already know to be true. The fundraisers, festivals and campaigns soon begin.

Perhaps the event scheduled for this weekend will help to move us into the next season without much fight: Stem and Stein. Your Fort Wayne Museum of Art will host an event where the purpose is not buying high end art or talking about your yacht....

The following was lifted from their invitation:

Join us for an evening under the stars sipping dry reds to sweet whites and bitter hops to smooth barley. Sample the BEST from regional & specialty wineries and microbreweries while nibbling on tasty morsels from Club Soda and more. Your auditory taste buds will delight in great music from Dan Smyth, 600 North, and Action Jaxson throughout the evening.
The beginning of a great annual event not to be missed! Included in this year’s event are beverages from: Wine Styles, Five Star Distributing, Warbird Brewing Company, Mad Anthony Brewing Company, Mishawaka Brewing Company, and World Market, among others!! Sponsored in part by: Lupke Rice Associates,WXKE Rock 104, Havel Brothers. Must be 21 or older to attend. First 500 Receive Commemorative Glass!
The Corks will FLY on August 4

Cost range from $20 to $30 per person, depending if you order your ticket early or if you are a member or you pay at the door or if you sneak under the fence. See you there!

So much to say...

Every now and again I just wonder about things and since Clyde listens only when he wants to, I find it easier to just write and vent.

So, does anyone find it strange that both dog food and can meat have both been recalled due to risk to life. Perhaps the food Clyde could eat is the same stuff I might eat, but he does not eat can meat nor do I, except that tuna that was caught using anti dolphin netting.

I am all about downtown improvement, but I am struggling to embrace this two way traffic on Calhoun Street. Especially since so much money was invested into the developing of this corridor with trees and sidewalks and seating area for passers-by or even the couple of restaurants on this stretch of the road. Lets hope that the stall means stop, since funding can not be found.

What about television commercials for local car sales? Why do they have to point at me? I just don't understand why I need to feel intimidated in my own home. Thanks Uncle Sam.

You know, if Lindsey Lohan was Kim Fields (Tootsie from the Facts of Life) the girl never would have seen the light of day. Drunk driving, driving the wrong way on a highway, running down and chasing other vehicles, pockets of cocaine. The race card is truly in play with this blond bimbette. Where is Al Sharpton where there really is an issue?

PS It is still not too late to learn more about Tom Henry for Mayor. Become educated about the candidates. The smokers and bar owners are putting their support against Matt Kelty. Wise weight of power. Learn more and stay educated.

Stop your wine-ing!

Greetings from Wine Tasting Central, last night was the "Back by Popular Demand" Wine Tasting Celebration.

Twelve close friends gathered together, sat on pillows, and sipped (or perhaps chugged) 17 bottles of wine. We shared conversations about hopes and dreams, marriages that worked (there was one) and the many that did not. We had more divorces than we had people in the room.

My living room was empty of furniture, not because I have not purchased any living room furniture since the divorce, people please haha :).. nothing higher than one foot off the ground. Glass and mirrors reflect the 12 candles which are in a forest of flowers and other greenery. It is a bonding time where everyone has a role from passing out plates to popping corks on the bottles of wine. (This person was rushed to the hospital for exhaustion, but doing well!)

What did I whip up in my spare time for the menu? Well, The main course was a roasted pepper and apple, chicken salad. Also a chorizo sausage with shrimp. Sides were a plentiful with chips and fresh salsa, tuna/mango won tons with a ginger wasabi sauce, assorted fruits, vegetables and cheeses. Chocolate Cherry bread, Parmesan cheese and jalapeno bread which I got at a bakery in Michigan. There was red pepper roasted hummus, an Italian salami platter with chunk cheese and cucumber bites filled with pimento cheese. For dessert, and probably the hit of the night was the heath bar, marshmallow creme topped brownies. The grilled pineapple in a brown sugar glaze seemed to be a hit too. I also had chocolate cups filled with a pistachio whip.

It ended in a great big surprise where my kitchen was taken hostage by four friends who insisted, even though I tried numerous times to stop the guerrilla approach of taking over my kitchen, washed the dishes. This morning I can not thank them enough. It is truly a blessed day! MMHMM

A Restaurant Review!

Last night I got home and the rain was gently falling down and I was in not a cooking mood. So I thought I will let someone cook for me. I thought long and hard about where to go and what I was hungry for when it hit me. "Duh, it is raining, some place close where I can get right in!"
Well, I picked Antigua (the former Tumbleweed Restaurant - Southwest).

Well, the menu is almost all Mexican food and the staff is almost all Mexican and the language they speak is almost all Mexican and the music played was almost all Mexican and finally, the beer signs are almost all Mexican. I felt like I really had illegally crossed the border and I was just minutes away from my home.

I sat in my booth and reviewed the multi-page menu. The waitress, who could have easily been a librarian in Mexico, whispered something about a beverage. I ordered ice tea. She smiled, turned her head sideways (like Clyde does when I say Cheese) and said "you want it sweet". Now, how could I say no?!?

I selected the enchiladas mexicana (chicken enchiladas). My ice tea arrived and my poor straw that was already unwrapped and place into the glass was bent like a bobby-pin. But the beverage was good.

The basket of chips and salsa were very good. The chips were warm and the salsa was room temperature (I will tell you tomorrow if that was a bad thing). The atmosphere played a very robust Mexican music montage. However as loud as the music was the table behind me found a way to be louder. As the lead lady at the table told story after story of hardship and woe of people she works with or patients she worked on, my guess is she did not sign a confidentiality agreement.

My food arrived in less than five minutes and it looked very good. The guacamole could have been a meal in itself! The rice was moist and the beans were made fresh. I could not belabor an issue with the food. I was though very concerned about the patient who had thirteen kids, was a real saint of a woman, who's husband was a real putz, had passed away and her funeral went on for three days. Lord, she was a good woman. Okay, I am thinking, is this the same lady who lived in a shoe? I just could not recall if this was real or something repressed in my memory from childhood books.

Anyway, my meal was under $9.00 and with tip I was out the door for $11.00. It was a great meal, in a very authentic situation even though you can't pick who you sit next to.

Not in my backyard... well, maybe

Yesterday afternoon, I was headed to the bank (which is by my house) but could not make the switch of lanes to get there, what happened? Well a tanker truck had flipped over. In what became a 45 minute maneuver to get to my house, I find that nearly in my back yard is a tanker truck burnt to smithereens. US 24 was shut down both east and west bound.

According to my trusty sidekick, Clyde, it must have been a ferocious boom because Clyde went for cover. He busted down the safety gate to get to the lower level of the house (which he is not supposed to be down there, because he has the entire upstairs to himself).

I can tell you first hand that until 1:00 a.m. they worked on getting it cleaned up. Large machinery, with loud scrubbers, horns, bells and whistles worked over and over and over this charred section of US 24. They were cleaning tar that had oozed out of the bubbling tanker.

You can read the story in the newspaper, or you can take the word of Clyde, it was bad.

Future....

August 1, 2007 ... Linda Jackson (from Indiana Newscenter) and I will announce our Community and Friends Capital Campaign for the American Red Cross. At 10:00 a.m. everyone is invited to the American Red Cross campus to see the blueprints, see the land and hear the exciting news about the expansion of the Health and Safety Services for Northeast Indiana's American Red Cross.

The website itmatterseveryday.com talks more about the project.

Linda and I reunite from our Mastodons on Parade days. She rode the initial mastodon down the main aisle to get the evening started. Nothing as obnoxious with this community campaign, but an important one all the same.

We, both, are excited about the opportunity to help the American Red Cross and I do hope you will stop out on August 1 between 10:00 a.m. and 11:30 am to hear more about it, and how you can become a part of the future. Speaking of future, both Linda and I are Future Forty winners!

Artn't U Wishin you went....

I have returned from Ann Arbor's Art Fair and had a grand time... here are some of the treasures I uncovered.

it ain't in the name of love....

I will be out of town for the next couple of days, so there will not be any new updates to the Creative Mind of Carbo.

Clyde is on vacation too, he will be visiting his country home, he is just as excited as I am!

Stay tuned for the adventures of my excursion to God's Country (which is Ann Arbor for all of those who may have thought I meant Las Vegas).

Enjoy your week, weekend ... enjoy!

Enjoy life!

I think it is important to live in the moment, not worry about the future or remember the bad from the past. With every bad day a good day comes.

Perhaps an optimist, but for the Three Rivers Festival Bed Race, it ended years ago and was a crowd favorite. Today, it is coming back and depending on the success of the event will determine its future. I normally attend two days at the festival. One being the parade and normally just a food visit. Well, tonight I am doing a food visit and the Bed Race. No, my bed is not racing down the road, I am a spectator. It should be much fun. But in other news...

The Southwest side of Fort Wayne is in revolt. Taxes. Damn those taxes. The uppity southwest people have tossed their ice tea on the floor of their homes and said 'we protest' take that!! Much more of this and I am opening a carpet cleaning business!

Star Jones is mad as hell too. She is mad that the truth must be told about her amazing 100 pound weight loss that happened like a miracle and not through surgery. In an upcoming issue of Glamour (which I think they picked the wrong magazine to feature her) she tells all about her path to a gauntly appearance.

Drew Carey is the apparent prospect for the host of the Price is Right. I have yet to understand his rise to success, but perhaps he is enough of the 'everyday people' to host this show. I can tell you that I can not tolerate him. So, it looks like I won't be retiring from work so I can sit at home and watch the Price is Right.

Oh yah, talking about not going to work... Don't take a government job. Well, at least for the county ... 24 people will be losing their jobs. Yes, really job elimination in government. I know, I know, who would have thought this to be possible, but it looks like the driver of the gravy train and their apostles are losing their job due to lack of funding. The irony, they are losing their jobs due to the annexation of Aboite. The people in Aboite are going to pay more taxes. The county lost 4.1 million dollars because Aboite as part of the Fort Wayne family. Does anyone think this is confusing?

Well, see everyone tonight at the Food Alley....

Snap!

I was scanning the Internet today and bumbled onto a story that I think I found more irony than anything else, but I did sense sorrow too.

As you know, or may just will find out when you read the next line, it is Festival time. Over the past month, nationwide, stories have been surfacing about the numerous deaths, accidents, injuries that have occurred on the festive fun rides. Legs have been chopped off, necks snapped, concussions, you name it ... it is happening. It is happening in little backyard festivals and at the large attractions like Walt Disney World.

Well, Lifest (which looks strange when you read it) is a Christian festival in Wisconsin. It gathers the religious zealot's to the mildly amused by faith to those who have embraced a set of beliefs. Well, one lady is now dead.

This is lifted from the headlines:

An announcement about the death was made from a stage just after 9:30 p.m. The music continued but with more mellow worship songs. (She was bungee jumping, sorta)

What!?! The music slowed a bit, and the lighters came out and then Van Hallen took the stage?

A prayer service was held, and then thirty minutes later the music cranked up and the PARTY continued! I guess it is safe to say that even the most religious festivals are here to make money.

Everyone loves a parade... I think?

Over a decade now, I have been in the Three Rivers Festival Parade. I have been in the parade as a board member for Three Rivers Festival, University of Saint Francis, American Cancer Society, All American City, Bicentennial and IPFW.

This year I was a banner carrier for IPFW. Pretty low maintenance role, but it was fun to see the happy faces that sat four, five and six rows deep along the parade route.

The day begins at the crack of dawn, as we had to be there at 6:00 a.m. For the guy who never wants to be late, I could not sleep ... I woke up at 1:00 a.m. and have been up every since. I cleaned the house, I made breakfast (egg omelet from my handy dandy Magic Bullet - which everyone should own by now), took the dog for a walk, showered and goofed around by reading magazines and watching tv. So by the time I got to the Parade I was already tired haahaa.

About 10:00 we began to walk and get into position. By 11:00 a.m. we had paraded through the entire route. I saw many friendly faces. I waved to people I did not know and people waved back. It was a much friendlier crowd this year, or at least it seemed.

Perhaps the weather helped, as it was around 80 rather than 100. The wind was gusting (which played havoc on the mortar board I wore with my IPFW graduation gown.) All and all, the Festival has begun. Grab your wallets, head down to junk food alley, and listen to the BIG named musical acts. (Oh yeah, they are not coming this, well you can at least imagine!)

SAVE

Every since Al Gore created the Internet, and founded the carbon foot print, the entire world has quickly gone down hill. Global warming (but don't ask the people in Colorado this past winter, or the people in Argentina right now), water shortages, food shortages, funny television shortage... it is endless. Well, thank goodness someone like Jennifer Aniston has stepped out of her famous shadow to shed some light to help educate us dumb clucks.

Jennifer has informed the world that she takes a three minute shower, which includes brushing her teeth.

Okay, lets think this through. I am twice Jennifer's size, granted, but our teeth are probably the same. Hygienist state that we need to brush for two minutes. So I would assume she has had dental work, she is keen on following that sage advice.

Now considering that my hair is just a clump in contrast to her beautiful mane of hair, I think by the time I wet my hair, lather it with soap and then rinse (without a conditioner as the next step) I have personally invested a minute. This would mean that good looking Jennifer does not condition her hair, nor wash any other part of her body.

So, Imus, you can add Jennifer Aniston to your list of 'nappy headed ho's". Cuz something is fugly with this three minute shower and tooth brushing scenario.

Weather cancels concert.....

I suspect that the weather is the reason Willie Nelson has postponed his Fort Wayne visit to the historic Embassy Theatre! But you say, 'this is an indoor venue, why would the weather cause a problem?'

Simple answer ... too hot or too wet!

What?

Well, if Willie's famous blend of herbs and spices that he rolls before his shows were from the west coast, they have been pre-smoked with the fires. Middle of the country, his greenhouse wonder may be over cooked due to excessive heat. South Central states have water logged green foliage. So, hard to load up a tour bus with enough of the leafy-greens if the weather has tormented you and your calming - zen like ritual.

If only my hair looked that good...

The past three weeks have been like being on roller skates on ice, I just can't seem to get caught up. Saturday I took off the skates and plopped myself down for a weekend of rest. I have a challenge sitting in one spot for any great length of time, so I did tiny tasks and then an extended break. I cleaned the storage room in the basement. I hung more pictures on the wall of fame. (Walgreens had my picture frames on sale). I made pork ribs (kinda like pork rinds). I made two big pictures of ice tea (which looks like Jack Daniels) and watched some television, listened to some music and read a dozen magazines. There were things I was "supposed" to do, but they required leaving the house and I just was not up to putting that much energy into any one thing.

Today is Monday and I will need to put the bus in motion. Meetings, agendas, lunches, etc all take top priority as I take on a full work week. If I could only find that other roller skate, I might just breeze through hump-day.

Grrrr!

Yesterday evening I attended a Pirate Party. It was not the national day of "talk like a pirate day" it was a birthday party for a person who cracked fifty. People were asked to dress up like pirates or winches or mates. Well, I was not in the dress-up kind of mood, but I did find a pirate bandanna and I tied it on.

A surprise at the party, a real pirate who thought he was Johnny Depp. I actually rented the Pirates of the Caribbean many months ago, and made it eight minutes into it before I went searching for a sword to end it all. I could not understand how one movie made it, let alone three. I could not take another minute of it the show.

Well, the kids at the party were going ape over the Johnny Depp Pirate, and so were the ladies. Made me wish I had dressed up, not for being the kid magnet, but you know what I mean.

The weather cooled from 95 to 85 and it felt like Alaska. It was a fun adventure and really cool to go to a party that I did not throw!

Brought to you by James Taylor

Just yesterday morning ... while watching tv with my coco pebbles, I saw fire, I saw rain and I saw sunny days that they thought would never end.

Across the nation, California battled fires, while Texas set a record for the number of continuous days of rain. While Florida is battling heat as is Nevada, setting heat records.

I kept thinking to myself that song writing must be such a knack to hear and see the most obvious things around you and slip some beat and rhythm to the phrases that are part of every day life.

Then I thought, well that works for old-time music, but does not apply to the heavy rap tunes of today. But perhaps it does, and the songs which I cannot relate to, may be from parts of life that I have yet to experience, and really hope I never do.

So, as I walk out this morning, and wrote down this blog, I wish we had more songs like Fire and Rain by James Taylor.

The color wheel of fortune!

Yesterday I was at Krogers on West Jefferson, the one that is actually a Krogers and not the Scott's that is a Krogers... I was shopping for a few items. I was focused and determined. I have about 8 items I needed and I was on a mission. So I am booking down the aisles, like I am in a low budget Amazing Race, when the aisle I needed to go down had more people than a Chinese apartment complex.

So I thought, I will go down the next aisle, cut back up and get the items I need. Well, I went down the hair shampoo aisle/baby diaper aisle. The aisle was much narrower than the rest of the aisles, the items on the shelf stuck out, and when going a bit faster than a stroll, the array of colors were like going through a Willlie Wonka time machine.

I truly was dizzy when I went through the aisle. I had no idea that there were that many color combinations until I saw the different bottles of hair products. I don't buy my soap from a grocery store. Sauve? Dove? What!?! I am an Aveda or an H20 guy all the way.

So when we all approach this Independence day, it is comforting that the fore-fathers had enough wisdom in their powdered wigs to know that they fought for over 100 different soaps in different colored bottles. Thank you George and the fifty some people who drew up that famous document.

Fishing for an update.

Friday for lunch I had clam chowder at the Cork and Cleaver. Sunday I had clam chowder again at the Fish of Stroh. I had to look up the definition of a chowder because they were drastically different. There are two types of chowder: New England which uses cream, and Manhattan style, which uses a base of pureed tomatoes. Well, neither of mine were red or had tomatoes.

Fish of Stroh was more like a broth rather than a cream but it was very easy to identify clam from potato! The Cork's was a thick, rich, creamy soup. The kind where you drop the oyster crackers on top and they don't move. Stroh's was a very thin based broth when the crackers hit they splashed. Both had their own good qualities, but I felt more at home with the Cork than Stroh.

This weekend was a fishy kind of weekend: I had the clam chowders for lunch on Friday and Sunday. I had wasabi tuna for lunch on Friday and fried fish on Sunday. Friday night I went to Catablu and had the rock shrimp stew and lobster macaroni and cheese. I wish I could say I ate healthy, but what I can say is that I ate healthier. Saturday for dinner I had wine with my pringles so that pretty much shot me in the foot. I was just not in the mood to cook so I opened a bottle of red wine that had ginger in it. It went well with Pringles! That is your food update!