Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Boogie Woggie

Dancing is one of my favorite things to do. Nothing too formal, just movement that is great exercise. I've been told I'm a pretty good dancer until I saw this video. It puts a smile on your face. http://www.flixxy.com/dancing-the-boogie-woogie.htm

It's fantastic dancing by world champion Boogie-Woogie dancers William and Maeva, with pianist Silvan Zingg at the International Boogie-Woogie Festival in Lugano, Switzerland.

I couldn't move that fast if I had an Afghani terrorist with an AK-47 40 shooting at me, and a flame thrower aimed at my soles.

Of course, the dancers could be trying get horse pucky off the bottom of their feet.

Monday, March 29, 2010

Money Pit

Owning a home is like throwing money into a deep dark hole. I call it the money pit. There's always some sort of repair work to do either inside or outside the house. The worst case scenario is when something breaks down, usually when company is about to arrive.

Last week I was expecting 16 people over for dinner. As I was preparing dinner, the garbage disposal decided to cough up discarded vegetable waste and stale, dry cat food. I tried running water into the sink and plunging, but that only made it worse. I was close to sink overflow.

In addition to the insinkerator barf looking disgusting, it didn't smell too great either. "Oh s_ _ t!", I thought, "Now what am I going to do?" Of course it was on a Saturday afternoon and no garbage disposal repairmen were on duty.

I had five options:

1. Take the regurgitated stuff outside and put it in the garden for mulch.
2. Hope that one of my guests knows how to fix garbage disposals.
3. Get drunk.
4. Take everyone out for dinner when they get here.
5. Call everyone, cancel dinner, and reschedule.

I picked option one, and five, while seriously considering number three. Number one was messy, but my crocuses look great. Number five turned out to be very positive. We all ended up going out for dinner with each couple paying their own way.

At dinner we all complained about the responsibilities of home ownership, with a few expletives thrown in for good measure. We all enjoyed a couple bottles of Merlot and lots of laughs.

No one volunteered to fix the garbage disposal. I even offered them a free gift bag of horse pucky for their garden.

Monday, March 22, 2010

I Wonder!

I was thinking about the $24,300,112 Aetna CEO Ron Williams makes annually. According to my calcuulations that equates to $467,309.84 per week. I wonder how I'd spend that much money in the course of a week. Let's see now. First of all I'd pay off the mortgages, college tuition loans, and medical school loans, my children and their spouses have. Next I'd give my Horse Pucky readers a million dollars each.

Then I'd go out and buy a different pair of shoes to match all the outfits I don't have yet. I'd probably purchase nail polish, in designer colors, to paint on Bear's claws, and color coordinated leg wraps for Silver & Sadie when I purchase my new equitation wardrobe (for those who are new to Horse Pucky, Bear is my cat, Silver & Sadie are my horses). After that, I'm not sure. I guess I'm just not creative enough to figure out how to spend all that money.

After giving it some serious thought, and getting really honest with myself, I have everything I need and more. Besides, I'm happier than a pig in pucky being the Horse Pucky queen.

Friday, March 19, 2010

Health Care Horse Pucky

Take a look at the annual salaries of the CEOs who run the U.S. health care industry. These aren't stock option inclusions, these are their actual annual salaries. It makes me want to barf. I hope our new Health Care Reform plan goes after some of these big wigs and taxes them accordingly.

-Aetna, Ronald A. Williams: $24,300,112
-Cigna, H. Edward Hanway: $12,236,740
-Coventry, Dale Wolf: $9,047,469
-Health Net, Jay Gellert: $4,425,355
-Humana, Michael McCallister: $4,764,309
-U. Health Group, Stephen J. Hemsley: $3,241,042
-Wellpoint, Angela Braly: $9,844,212

I have no problem with people who are smart enough to make loads of money from an honest days work, or just plain lucky by being in the right place at the right time. My question is: How hard do they have to work, how smart do they have to be, and how many hours a day do they actually work to deserve that kind of money? Where is the balance? And how much does a person need to live comfortably?

What really gets my underwear in a bunch is the fact that in 2010 the health care agencies have contributed $49,769,801 to both the Democrat and Republican Parties for campaign funds. Now tell me how objective either side can be with this Health Care Reform Bill on the table. Let's see what shakes out with all this reform stuff. It should be interesting or just more horse pucky as usual.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

It's All In the Name

Names say it all. A lot of names describe the occupation someone is in. For instance, I have a friend who is an anesthesiologist at Rochester General Hospital whose name is Larry Pass. He told me when he retires he wants to open his own gas station and call it Larry Pass's Gas. True story.

Then there are the two doctors who perform vasectomies at Strong Memorial Hospital whose names are...drum roll please...Dr. Stopp and Dr. Cockett. And that ain't no horse pucky. It's very amusing hearing them paged over the hospital speaker system.

There is also a general practioner in the area whose name is Donald Duckles. I want to know what parents, with last name of Duckles, would name their son "Donald". Poor kid. It probably made him a tough guy in the long run.

Anyway, names are fun, can reveal a person's occupation, or are just plain quirky. Take me for example. My last name is Beers. I don't like beer, I don't work in a brewery, and I don't have sixpack abs. But, I'm workin' on the last one.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Grated Tomatoes


"Lightly", a regular reader of Horse Pucky, left a great recipe for a hot curry dish using chicken and all sorts of aromatic, flavorful, spices. The recipe can be found in the comments section of the Moisture or Oyster blog post dated February 25th.

His latest comment called for grated tomatoes. "How in the world do you grate a tomato?", I wondered. At first I thought he was full of horse pucky, but then I discovered there really is such a thing as grated tomatoes. In fact, it's quite an ingenious way to get rid of the seeds and the skin at the same time.

I've been cooking for eons, making my own sauce for pasta dishes, and never heard of grating a tomato. Now I will use this clever, easier way of getting rid of those pesky seeds and the skin at the same time. Or I may just throw the whole bloomin' tomato into the pot, skin and all, and hope for the best, depending on the frame of mind I'm in.

If you're totally turned on by learning how to grate tomatoes, just do a search for "grated tomatoes". The internet is full of all sorts of "How to Grate a Tomato" info, including videos. If I was really nice I would link the info here, but I don't feel like it because I'm getting ready to do some serious tomato grating.

Thanks "lightly", you always come up with something unique. How could I have ever doubted you?!

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Fruit of the Loom or Jockeys?

The poor guy! Barrack Obama, President of the United States of America can't even get a physical without the whole world knowing the results. So much for privacy. I had no idea the man smoked. It's hard to take his health care agenda seriously after knowing our Head Kahuna puffs on cigarettes during the day. For all we know he probably eats Happy Meals with a Vodka chaser.

The next thing you know, there'll be a report on the kind of undergarments he wears. I wonder if it's Fruit of the Loom or Jockey briefs.