Truth or Fiction?

There are few things in this world that bother me more than the propagation of untruths. The ability to email has done more to promote blatant lies than any other phenomenon.

Unfortunately, conservative Christians are the worst at passing on statements that purportedly support their cause. Most of these forwarded emails have long ago been proven false. By passing them on as though they are true, you make the rest of us look gullible (at best) and idiotic (at worst).

Please, people...before you forward those emails you get, check them out at any of these reliable sources:

truthorfiction.com
urbanlegends.about.com
hoaxbusters.org
breakthechain.org
hoax-slayer.com
snopes.com (No, it's not owned by flaming liberals...another untruth. Snopes info is well documented, with sources cited.)

Who Do You Believe?

I have often heard the following said by people who love to forward chain emails, after I tell them that the email is untrue:

"How do you know you can trust Snopes to be true?"

For real? That's your response?

You'd rather believe all those chain emails than a research site that cites actual sources? (I say Snopes, but it could be any of the sites listed above.)

Think for just a minute. You get an email from a friend, who got it from a friend, who got it from a friend, and so on. No one knows where it originated. Yet that's where you prefer to place your trust?

Don't carry your ignorance on your sleeve. Even if you don't completely trust Snopes, what is your logic for completely trusting anonymous sources?

Here's my philosophy toward chain emails:

1. Almost all of them are false. There are a few good gems out there, but very few.

2. If the content interests me in the least, I check for accuracy. I'm usually disappointed.

3. If it ends with any form of "You better pass this on or else!" I immediately delete it. Take that, you foul demon!

Getting off high horse now. But in future postings, I plan to expose some of the worst offenses to hit my inbox.

Rich Mullins I'm Not

However, I did just buy a hammered dulcimer and am learning how to play it. I'm catching on pretty quickly. I bought the dulcimer the Saturday before Christmas, and by Christmas Eve I had memorized and could play 8 Christmas songs! It was fun playing for the family...they were all pleasantly surprised.

In the photo below, I'm explaining the string arrangement to my grandson, who is barely in the photo, on the right.

Now I'm working on some Rich Mullins songs. You can find instructional videos on You Tube--yippee! I appreciate the guys who went to the trouble of making those videos.

I also joined EverythingDulcimer.com so I can get acquainted with the dulcimer-playing community. I'm sure I can learn a lot from them.

This has been a lot of fun, as well as quite a challenge, especially for someone over 50! And it gives me something to do while Tim is playing Call of Duty. :-)

Pumpkin Stew

Had fun with the grandkids this weekend making pumpkin stew. Make a beef stew, then put it in a pumpkin and bake it! Yum-yum!

Here's granddaughter cleaning out the inside of her pumpkin.

Grandson washing the pumpkin seeds.

Pumpkin seeds ready for roasting.

Our favorite is to mix them with Worchestershire sauce and garlic powder.
(Pumpkin seeds are not part of the stew recipe, lol.)

Grandson dredging the beef in flour.

Granddaughter dropping the beef into the hot oil.

Brushing the pumpkin shells with vegetable oil.

Looks like the beef stew is done.

I used a very yummy recipe from Giada at the Food Network.

Rosemary, thyme, and garlic make a really flavorful broth.

You do need to simmer the stew in a pot for 1 hour or so,

whatever your recipe calls for, before putting it in the pumpkins.

Spooning the stew into the pumpkins.

Ready for the oven!

Bake 1-2 hours, till pumpkin meat is soft but skins are still firm.

P.S. Use the smaller, sweeter, pie pumpkins, not jack-o-lantern pumpkins.

The kids declared this a winner!

They enjoyed eating out of the pumpkins and scraping

the sides to make sure to get some pumpkin meat in each spoonful.

Awww.....

Ever since Spike II died, we've been holding out for a baby Foxface to arrive at the fish store. Today they had three babies! We selected the smallest of the bunch...he's barely over an inch long. What a cutie! (He's the yellow one in the photo. To the left you can see our orange Aussie Dendrophilia. The colors are much brighter...the camera flash doesn't do it justice.)

Spike III didn't take long to acclimate, and he seems happy, although Dory (the blue hippo tang) is picking on him a bit. For some reason he doesn't seem to mind. He's managed to find a hiding place if he needs to get away. One of the clowns also tried picking on him, but Spike III showed his spikes! Such a baby and yet he knows how to defend himself.
　
Oh, guess I didn't mention...we put Dory in the main tank a week ago. At the same time, we took the bully Flame Angel out and quarantined him. That was so Dory would have a chance to feel comfortable in the main tank without being picked on.
　
We're a little glad that Dory feels assertive enough to pick on someone. Perhaps she's ready for Flame to return to the main tank. We'll put Flame in a little later today. His presence might give Dory something else to think about besides picking on little Spike.

Another look at Spike III, along with Rebo and Zootie, the two clowns.

Here he is, schooling with the chromies (aka The Three Stooges) and showing his spikes.
OK, the right term is "shoaling." Here he is, shoaling with Larry, Mo, and Curly.