Locate Pointers to Your Site

I am having fun with Google and typing in this search term:

www.bamablog.com -site:www.bamablog.com

It shows other sites that are linking to mine (minus my actual site). I know it is not completely accurate although interesting to see where the site is listed. Finding old guestbook postings was a surprise. Does anyone go back and read those ancient postings except search engines and address collectors for spammers?

Real Iranian Food

Having found out that my daughter and I visited the new Persian restaurant in town, a friend of ours (who is from Iran) invited our family over for a real Persian dinner. I was impressed with the good food. It was nicely spiced -- but nothing was "hot" and no curry was used. The food was not greasy.

It was amazingly fresh and good. I can't describe it justly, but I will try.

The rice was a special kind and had saffron and some kind of large sliced but crisp potato in it. We had a kind of meatloaf with stewed tomatoes served in the platter around it. We passed around an accompanying bowl of spice to spoon over it. It was called something like "sumac" (but I know I am spelling that wrong). The spice was mild and dark in color -- delicious!

I drenched my meatloaf in it, then inhaled it and spent some time coughing and running my makeup off - so graceful am I.

We were also served chicken baked in a light tomato sauce, a salad with mint, tomatoes and cucumber (no lettuce) -- so good and refreshing.

We got two desserts: cinnamon rolls drenched in honey and our friend's own creation -- a light chocolate pie with a crust and light whipped cream.

The whole meal was heaven on earth -- and the nice thing about it was the lack of heavy grease. We did not feel overstuffed afterwards. I know I could be happy eating like an Iranian the rest of my life.

It was kind of cute when our hostess asked my daughter about her Persian cat and her 4 year old daughter did a little belly dancing.

I wonder what I would serve if I went to another country and wanted to give them a taste of my normal meals -- maybe grab a few McDonalds burgers - ha!

Happy Earth Day!

Google has a real cute logo up today. It made me smile. I have a friend who believes evil men will someday blow up the earth. I hope not! Maybe we can travel to other planets before that happens.

I've been watching the Penn and Teller Bull! series. They debunk a lot of stuff - humorously, sometimes. While I can't agree with everything they've said, I've enjoyed the series for the most part and have had my eyes opened to many gimmicks. They've debunked people saying the world is going to end soon who are hiding in shelters out in the woods, weight loss gimmicks, PETA, raw food diets, matchmaker services, public performing psychics and more. The PETA stuff was fascinating -- I didn't realize that PETA was against using seeing-eye dogs for the blind or anyone keeping any pets or any science experiments on animals at all or any medical benefits such as making insulin. They are way too extreme for me.

I had to laugh when PETA called animals as pets the same as slavery of people. They spoke against animals being our slaves. When they said that, my husband and I looked at each other and started laughing. We know who the masters are in our home -- our cats. We are THEIR slaves.

What Book Do You Keep Closest to You? (Right at this Moment)

From Kermit the Blog:

The Glory of HDTV

"What Do I Know" wrote a nice personal opinion of HDTV. It's a good, easy read for anyone considering getting one. Comcast only charges $5 a month extra to get an HDTV box.

Neighbors' Privacy Fence

Our neighbors are putting up a privacy fence. They had a small one going around their back porch, but they are now putting up one around their entire backyard. My husband is glad for it since we will get more privacy from a main road nearby and their dogs (bull mastiffs) that hate us will never be visible. Their dogs bark way too much so I know they hope the fence will keep the dogs quieter and give them running room.

On the other hand, I wish they did not have to do this, although I understand. I liked the wide-open view of the streets and traffic. I believe that open views are safer, too. If anyone tries to break in, they are visible to other neighbors instead of being protected by a privacy fence.

In fact, another neighbor was telling me about a robbery at his home. The robber kicked in his back door. Nobody saw it because of the "handy" privacy fence (handy for the robber, that is).

Also, I hope the other neighbors don't do the same. We like the dogs from the other homes that border ours. My husband even buys treats to give them, especially the German shepherd next door.

Harry Potter 2 in High Definition

I had a chance to see the second Harry Potter movie in high definition so I took it. I think it looked better than it did in the theaters. There's no comparision between this and regular TV. It has ruined me -- regular TV looks terrible now.

So far, the only way I know of to see high definitions is from a TV station -- no DVD, etc., plays it yet, that I know of. I know the day is coming and I know I will repurchase a few movies when the time comes. I wish the technology had not been so slow getting here from other countries, though. (Nevermind that this is National TV Turn Off Week.)

Bullfrog Chorus

Nope, not a beer commercial, but it almost seemed like one along the creek this morning. Maybe we are having a booming year for bullfrogs. They were singing loudly at dawn - it was almost deafening. I recorded a solitary bullfrog last year. Imagine half a dozen of this going at once (like this morning).

New CD Writers for $10

We saw an ad in the paper from Office Max for a new CD writer for $10 after rebates. Wow! I guess it's a sign that DVD writers are going to take over the CD writer business. My husband snatched one up for his latest project. I can't remember the speed, but it was a current fast one - not a major brand name.

Everything is Carcinogenic

My husband grilled a couple of steaks. While grilled food is great, we've read that grilling produces a carcinogenic substance. Lately, we've read that French Fries and cooked potato is carcinogenic.

I remember 30 years ago when a sugar substitute in Kool-Aid was labeled carcinogenic and pulled from the shelves - cyclamates. Mom was so upset that she went to several stores and bought cases of it, thinking it was a ridiculous cancer scare. Little did we know that it would be the start of a long list of cancer scares. Cyclamate-flavored drink was the first decent-tasting sugar substitute we'd found.

I am not sure what to believe except that people are many more times likely to die of heart disease than cancer. Here's what Personal Health Zone says:

I wonder why so much emphasis is put on breast cancer when it is just a drop in the bucket compared to heart disease.

Getting Married at Fox News

I was watching the news very early this morning. The newsman was talking about Tiger Woods when the picture behind him suddenly changed to something like: "Sue, Will you marry me? Bill" My first thought was that Tiger Woods had a real name of Bill ... and wasn't he already engaged or married? Suddenly, the newsman stopped talking. The camera changed to show two other camera operators. One was a girl who started jumping up and down and screaming, "Yes! Yes!" The other camera guy left his camera and ran to her. They hugged and he shouted, "She said yes! She said yes!"

Suddenly, the newsman was back on the screen. He never cracked a smile. Was he mad or just trying to maintain a professional demeanor? He started talking about Tiger Woods again and was suddenly cut off again when Fox News went to a commercial. I felt sorry for him, but maybe he was in on that funny and sweet moment. I hope the camera operators do not get in trouble over it.

Leo is Back!

Leo and TechTV finally came to an agreement and Leo will be back on TV by April 20th (see Leo Laporte leaves TechTV). Good -- I missed him. He really made Call for Help and other shows fun to watch. I thought that he was a genuinely nice person and had a broader knowledge of computers than most folks.

Homemade Chicken and Noodles

It's been a long time, but I have a cold and decided to dig around the kitchen and put together my old Simac pasta maker 700 (selling on e-Bay right now for under $20). It's a good machine. I made homemade egg noodle farmer pasta while boiling a whole chicken. I cut up the chicken, added salt and a couple of chicken bouillon cubes and then the pasta. It was a darn good lunch if I say so myself. The main reason I don't make this often, is that it's TOO good. We always eat too much of it. Leftovers were breakfast.

If you've never had homemade noodles, you are missing a major pleasure in life.