If you're suffering from periodic bouts of the "stomach flu" this year, you might want to check your peanut butter jar. ConAgra Foods manufactures Peter Pan Peanut Butter and the Walmart/Sams Club brand called Great Value. Both brands have one batch, number 2111 that is contaminated with Salmonella bacteria. It would be the first four numbers in the group of numbers that contain the sell by date. In the Peter Pan brand it's on the lid, I'm not sure of the location of these numbers on the Great Value brand, but it would be on the jar.

Throw it out, but ConAgra will reimburse you if you mail the number back to them. Apparently they don't want the peanut butter back, just the lids or jar part with the number on it. I've never been fond of Peter Pan peanut butter for some reason. I discovered the joys of natural peanut butter some time ago, it requires work to stir the oil back in, but I don't have to worry about my peanut butter supply. Unless of course the jars empty.

So, here we are one full week after Anna Nicole Smith died and she is still lying unembalmed in a refrigerator in Florida. There now seems to be a number of people who feel that they have the right to decide where she should be buried in addition to who is and who isn't the father of the baby. WARNING....If you are a lawyer or a judge, please stop reading at this point. You aren't going to like what I have to say. Are you still reading? Well, don't say I didn't warn you. You are all a bunch of idiots. No, I take that back...You're a bunch of MONEY grubbing idiots. How do I know? I accidentally turned the television on to Court TV, that's how I know. As a matter of fact, calling you MONEY grubbing idiots isn't really harsh enough, but I am a lady, and it's the best I'm willing to do in public, so count yourself lucky.

Court TV is televising an in chambers proceeding involving a judge, and all the lawyers in the case to determine what Miss Smiths wishes were in the matter of her burial. Momma wants both the body of her daughter and the baby. Some of the other lawyers, those representing the "fathers" of the baby, want MORE DNA taken from the body. Howard K. Stern wants to take the body to the Bahama's and bury her. In a cemetery plot that SHE bought when she purchased one for her son. While we're on the subject of what SHE wanted, the name on the babies birth certificate under the section that says FATHER is, Howard K. Stern.

Anna Nicole's feelings in regards to her mother are clearly stated in front of television cameras on shows like Entertainment Tonight. She has had no contact with her mother since 1995. All of a sudden this is "hearsay" and possibly she was under an "influence" when she spouted hateful statements regarding her emotions towards the woman who claims she, as Anna's mother should have rights. The lawyers keep informing the judge of statutes that don't really apply to this case, they are arguing with each other and the judge in this matter, who as far as I'm concerned has everything he needs to do his job. Unfortunately the judge thinks he needs to bring into this proceeding another lawyer. The new lawyer will be charged with the job of compiling the facts in the matter and advising the judge of those facts.

Every time the attorney for Howard K. Stern says anything the other lawyers argue with her. The issue, as she states, is the disposition of Anna's remains, and everytime she says this, the judge brings it back to the child. The single stupidest statement I heard from one of the lawyers is that the Will hasn't been filed so there is no proof to the claim the Stern is the executor. Under the LAW you can't file a will unless the person is provably dead according to a death certificate. You can't file without a death certificate, and you can't get a death certificate until the body is released to a funeral director. The lawyers for the "other Fatherhood claimers" are even arguing with Sterns claim to be the father. Under the law, until proven otherwise, the legal father is the man whose name is on the birth certificate.

This hearing is for the express purpose of determining who gets custody of the Decedents body. Why do they keep bringing in the child? This judge has nothing to do with the child. Sterns lawyer keeps pointing out that examination of the facts of the matter should tell the court what Anna's wishes were. Everytime the judge tries to take it back to the child, she also points out that the LEGAL father of the child is requesting that he be allowed to take Anna's body to the Bahama's where SHE bought a plot for her own burial. She did not buy just one plot to bury her son on she bought 2 plots. Does the judge think that she planned on cutting her son into pieces and interring his parts in 2 gravesites? There is a body being left in a refrigerator in Florida to quietly decompose while
people are arguing over anything that will position their pockets to grab the most money. It's disgusting. She was an object, a parody, a creation of the news media when she was alive. Even the newsmedia say this is disrespectful and she's entitled to more than this. The lawyers involving themselves in this case and the judge in this matter should be ashamed of themselves.

Hubby is one of these last minute shoppers, so due to the weather, I didn't get any flowers or candy for Valentines day. I got a rather sheepish Happy Valentines greeting and a kiss from him which works just as well thank you. If I had any lingering regrets that the day didn't go as planned, they went out the window when I got up this morning. I looked out the front window and there in place of my car was this snowdrift. It had a driver's side view mirror and 2 red tailights. I took a picture of it through the window, but without a digital camera it will be a week or so before you get to see what I woke up to.

Oldest stopped for coffee, and Hubby informed him rather firmly that they were going to clean my car off and dig me out. I don't even care that he decided to take the car today. So, Hubby's "gift" to me was a cleaned off car and a plowed out driveway so that HE could take the car. So, why am I amused by this? The first place I was going to have to go was to the gas station. So, not only am I getting out of all that shoveling, I'm getting a tank of gas. My Momma didn't raise no dummies. *she laughs*. To be honest, he didn't plan on taking the car this morning, but when he got all done, his van wouldn't start and my car did.



I took this picture from the channel 2 website gallery of local pictures taken during yesterdays storm. It doesn't say what time this was taken, but I'm assuming fairly late in the day because it was near the top of their gallery page which means it was added after a number of others. At least they'll get their mail, I hope after all this work they get more than bills.

I'm on call all day today for my office because the weather is so bad no one could get to work. From the looks of things we've had 8 inches of snow overnight and it's still coming down. We expect that by 10 tonight we will have 18 to 24 inches of snow from this particular Nor'easter. Then the lake effect is going to fire up again. What we're going to do with all this snow is anybodies guess.

The other night I was watching HGTV's Kitchen and Bath Expo from 2006.
They had some really interesting ideas for kitchens, and I just have to show you.



This is a shelving mechanism for those corners that we all have in our kitchens. The one that the stuff we store in migrates to the back corner where we have to really stress ourselves to reach. It simply pulls out and due to it's shape actually comes out of the cabinet so we can reach things. Each shelf works independently of the other and cures the problem of dead cabinet space in the corners of our kitchen.
This item was designed by a woman.



This one is my absolute all time favorite. For a mere $8500 we can have a center island workspace that is a fish tank. I admit it's interesting. The concept is by Frigidaire and is part of their Kids Kitchen line. You have access to the tank through a hole, no dimensions given, and that's how you feed the fish. No method of cleaning the fish tank is mentioned. Maybe there is something wrong with me, but I'd like to know why this is necessary. Do kids do the cooking? I prefer my features to be useful, not decorative. This expensive "work" island was designed by a man.

Recently another blogger expressed a view that prior to the Womens Movement women had sovereignty in their homes. I came away from that statement wondering if he understood the reasons behind the movement Maybe some men just don't understand why we were objecting, or what it was we were objecting to. Excuse me darlin's we are adults not children, you do not always know what's best for us. The marriage license did not give you possession of our bodies at your whim. It did not give you the right to tell us how to dress, how to behave in public. It did not give you the right to make choices that we had to live with and not ask for our input. It did not give you the right to keep from us any knowledge of our finances. It did not give you the right to act as if our contributions, ie raising your children and keeping your house spotless, were not important. It did not give you the right to abuse us without consequences. Where's the sovereignty in this? We didn't want to be men, we wanted the ability to change these attitudes, we wanted to make things fairer for ourselves. We wanted the right to make choices that bettered our lots in life.

Women did all the meal preparation in kitchens designed entirely by men, who'd never prepared a meal. He had no idea what ingredients would be used, how much space would be necessary for the process, nor what would or would not make the job easier. In theory he went to school to learn this. So why were kitchens in the 1950's through the 1960's so woefully lacking in counter space and ease of access to the cupboards? Most of our food preparation took place on the kitchen table. We needed a step stool to get into the back of some of our cupboards. Then we started getting all these time saving electric appliances that no kitchen had space enough to store. So, I'll give you E for effort because you were trying, but did you ever think to ask?

My absolute favorite bit of stuff and nonsense was that men designed womens undergarments. The designs were intended to give all women the "look" that men desired. None of these garments addressed the fact that women do not all come in one shape or size. Nor did they factor in the fact that women tend to move around. Bras were all 100 percent cotton. Not a single bit of elastic anywhere. These bras were not designed with any kind of understanding of natural positioning of breasts on the female chest. They were designed to create the look of torpedoes positioned in exactly the same spot on every chest. They called it "lift and separate". In order to provide extra strength for the larger sized woman, metal rods were inserted into the side seam of each bra. Now since the positioning was all the same, by the time you got the thing on, some of us had the tips of the boning jabbing into the armpit. We were expected to wear this without complaint. Why? Well, torturing ourselves to look attractive for the man that was supporting us was expected.

Laundry facilities were usually in the basement, and few homes in the 50's had clothes dryers. The house we lived in had no door from the basement to the outside. Mom had to carry the baskets of wet clothes up a flight of stairs, out the front door and all the way around the house to get to the clothesline. The identical house next to us had a side door plus a basement walk out door. Ours didn't have one because the man in our house didn't see the need. He decided which floor plan and what amenities the house would have when he ordered the house built. So, when my Mom fell down the cellar stairs while carrying the clothes from the bathroom hamper down to the laundry facilities, it wasn't because she couldn't see the stairs because of her burden. It was her own carelessness. Then there was the time she caught her hand in the wringer of the washing machine. She hit the safety switch, and it stopped the wringer, but it didn't pop it open so she was stuck in it. Dad also chose a property that had no real close neighbors, so no one heard her scream. She didn't want that house, it was too far out of the center of the city for her taste. The man of the house paid no attention. After all, she wasn't working, it was his money that paid for it. She was lucky, no broken bones, just a painful swollen hand. A neighbor found her when she went to check on her after she couldn't reach her on the phone. Dad never physically abused her, he just acted as if she was of no consequence as a human being. It was his house, we were there by his sufferance. We were "just women".

Even now men think that women wanted to be men. Everytime I hear how well women had it before we got ourselves liberated I cringe. The neighbor across the street was living with a husband who was molesting his children, and carrying on a relationship with her 16 year old sister. His children were 8 and 10. Ruby, our next door neighbor was this really clumsy woman. She kept getting black eyes from running into doors. I remember my girlfriends Mom had that same trouble.Plus, my friend Elaine whose father was molesting her. None of us came from lower class families. Without a job that paid well, these women had to stay where they were. There was no battered woman's facility like there is today. If you called the police they came out and talked to your husband about treating you better, but unless you were dead when they arrived, nothing happened to him.
All any woman wanted was to be treated like a human being with rights and with dignity. Women never complained about the black eyes or about the times they were treated with lack of respect in the bedroom. One just didn't speak of these things. Why do you think the Movement was so popular? Do you really believe that these were isolated incidences? I myself received sexually harrassing treatment at 3 of the 5 jobs I've worked in my life. In one case it was the boss, in the other 2 cases it was from co-workers.

I was told that since the liberation movement sexual abuse of women is on the rise. No, only REPORTED cases of sexual abuse are on the rise. Women didn't report the abuse because we were taught to believe that it was OUR FAULT. We caused the problem because we were someplace we shouldn't be. We were dressed inappropriately. We were not being the ideal wife. It didn't stop the abuse, it didn't make it worse, it made it common knowledge. It gave women the right to speak up for themselves, to leave an abusive relationship and try to support their children. It gave women a place to go when they were in fear of their lives. It gave us better choices. We don't always use them, we don't always get it right any more than you do. In the workplace we have to work twice as hard to prove ourselves half as good as a man, but at least we have the opportunity to try. If we fail in the workplace and don't achieve everything we set out to do at least the consequences of that action isn't another one of those black eyes we used to get by running into doors. It's a set back, but not anything that will kill us. That my friend is sovereignty.