Let's Make a Deal Update

Update-still no go for our show # 1011 although I have called the girl at in the prize department so many times, and she's assured me that it will air. Today I disguised my voice, I used my awfully bad British accent (Donna was laughing hysterically) to complain to the recording on the phone that why are they showing reruns of shows that have already aired when they could show the September tapings. I'm sure the public would rather see a new episode even if it has flaws than to see a rerun. Geez, I looked up to see that Brian guy in his cow suit and I told Donna, damn this show was already on, watch he's gonna say "My parents named me Brian so there must be a reason, so I'm picking B", that was almost verbatim from my memory from watching it the first time!! Give me a break CBS, no one likes to watch game show reruns, you probably lost millions of viewers as they flipped the channel because like myself, recognized it! AIR OUR SHOW!!! 1011 from SEPT 25!!! We want our PRIZES!!!!!

Let's Make A Deal

The other day at work, Donna and I both noticed that the new Let's Make a Deal was being taped at the Tropicana Casino in Las Vegas. I went on the website and saw that they had free tickets for the taping to be contestants, all you have to do is sign up for tickets and you get an email confirming the tickets. On the website you can chose the date and time you want to attend. I signed up for a 2:30 taping on a Saturday. I signed up and called Andy. When I told him we were going to be contestants, he was like, I'm not going to do that! What a party pooper!
Why are husbands such a drag? So Donna signed us up, heck why not, we could both take off work, after all it's not every day you get a chance to be a contestant. We came up with the idea (don't know for sure whose idea it was) to be babies. The rules said that homemade costumes were "encouraged". How more homemade could a diaper be? We ran down to the local Halloween Mart and picked up some gigantic pacifiers and a bonnet (more in the Betsy Ross style). Donna had to buy sheets to make her diaper, me, I fitted into my king size pillow case, altho my ass was flat as a pancake (had to stuff my diaper with towels, very uncomfortable to sit! Nothing like walking with a wad between your legs!). We wore black tights and a pink top, fashioned bibs out of napkins and wore our famous purple/pink wigs. I looked like a cross between a scary baby and a scary french maid! Donna looked like she was was a baby swathed in a loin cloth. That diaper of hers looked like it had a load that kept wanting to migrate down to her knees. I thought we looked so scary and ridiculous. I told her why is it we can never be glamorous? The tickets said that the door opened at 10:00, and after hearing horror stories that lines for game shows can be crazy long, we decide to get there at 7:30 am. I was like thinking if there are thousands of people, I wasn't waiting, diaper or no diaper. We walked through the casino, people were staring, pointing and looking like they were watching a car wreck, (come on people, haven't you ever seen girls in diapers!). We get there and there is not a single person there. The game show people told us to come back at 9:30 which was just a well because I forgot our fantastic sign at home and Donna needed to make adjustments to her baggy, saggy diaper. We get back at 9:30 and stand in line. When the lane opens, we are contestants 1 & 2. We fill out the paperwork. One of the forms was tell us something funny or interesting about yourself. I was drawing a blank. Ya, I know there is something funny and interesting about me, I just can't think of it! After we make our way to the photo line where our pictures are taken, then past security to a second seating area. There a producer comes out and casually chats with each of the contestants while a second producer takes notes in the background. Donna and I being first, chat with her and then she moves on. Of course we were so fired up, we were chattering like two chipmunks, when the producers told us to shut up! Ok, so we were a little hyper! We were so funny, we could be our own comedy team, we could have our own talk show, we made them laugh and everyone like our costumes.
Next its on the the next holding area right before you get into the studio. There we waited about another hour. Donna and I had to go to the bathroom several times. Do you know how hard it is to take off a diaper?
Next they let us into the studio. By then there were about 158 total contestants. Donna and I were in seats 1 & 2 and prominently in the front row, how awesome is that? For the first 30 minutes, the stage director makes us go through a series of cues, laughter, shock, applause, hooting and shouting. And the Oscar goes to....Boy my throat was so sore. We're both sweating buckets in the chilly studio. I was getting pit stains! I could feel that my shiny face was blinding the camera. I must say it was about that time our energy started to wane, we were quickly becoming cranky babies, not to mention the fact that from 7:30 on we really didn't get to eat or drink anything.
Then the taping begins. Wayne Brady comes out. He is really cute but is slimmer than what he looks like on TV. The camera really does add 10 pounds! His legs are really skinny and his shoes were pointy and very shiny (I bet they were real patent leather!). Wayne comes out and asks for the first person to show him a nickel. A girl shouts and he gives her $500.00. The next contestant wins a golf cart. The taping is done in segments, with a couple of breaks. One time when Wayne came out, I happened to catch his attention and he said Hi to me! The next thing I knew, he was pointing to me, cute baby (cute baby?). Surely he wasn't looking at me (he had to be looking at miz boobs two seats away, but he was! OMGOMG! I go up and he offers up 70th anniversary edition of the "Wizard of Oz". He asks me, if I've seen the Wizard of Oz, of course! He asks me what is my favorite part. There I freeze like deer caught in the headlight? The entire studio waits for my answer. I meekly say, "The Woods". I couldn't believe my ears! Am I that lame? I was so frozen at that moment I couldn't think of a single thing! Wayne went on to make some jokes, of which I have no idea what he was saying, only that the audience was laughing ( at me or at him?). Next he says, he will give me the dvd which has money in it or I can trade it away to contestant Danielle, and play for what is behind door 3, which opens to a trip to Puerto Vallarta. I scream like I just won a trip around the world or something for heavens sake! Gwad, what a nit wit I am! At first I'm not understanding, I have to play for the trip? I ask Wayne what are the chances? Lame comment # 2! He says, what am I, a poker dealer? I give away the dvd to Danielle. Cut to break. Next they bring out a board with 6 cards on it. Wayne says I have to pick three that match. At first I'm thinking they are picture cards, you know horse, donkey, cow, but they are playing cards (uh dud!). I ask Donna for a number, she picks 3. I pick 5 and 1 and tell him that they add to 9 which is Chinese for luck, lame comment # 3! He turns over card 3 which is a 4 and then turns over card 1 which is another 4. Then he turns over a card that I didn't pick which is another 4. The audience is screaming. He then tells me, I can chose to continue or pick what's behind door number 2 which opens to a plasma tv, Beatles collection, PlayStation, electric guitar and drums. I'm stunned. What should I do, continue on for the trip or pick the sure thing. All I could think of, if Andy were here, he would have picked the correct cards. Sure thing, gamble, sure thing, gamble... Moments feel like hours, when I tell Wayne, I'll take door 2! The audience is clapping! He turns over my last card and it is a King. I jump up and down like some crazy whacked out contestant on some game show. I just won an electronic package!!! I scamper back to my seat, Donna and I hug! It is so hard to be in the moment, everything you learn goes out the window. I became jello, mush, a mind full of split pea soup and therefore the lamest contestant in game show history.
Danielle now has my dvd that I gave to her. Wayne sweetens the deal and gives her another dvd which has money in it. He tells her she can keep the dvd's or trade it for door 1. She trades the dvds, which he opens and both only held $1.00!!! We were so relieved, because if there were thousands of dollars in it I would have cried! Danielle gets a exercise package. And lastly, he ask Danielle if she would like to be the big trader of the game and give up her door for a prize that is worth $23,000! Who wouldn't? She goes for it and wins the car! Game over. All in all, it was fun, but a really long process that started at 9 and ended at 3:30. The chances of getting called on are pretty slim unless you can be the first with something that Wayne asks for. For the Donna's we got really lucky. Somehow the planets must have been aligned just right, the signs were all in the right place and we somehow Karma came to us, we got really lucky. The four people left the line and we moved into seats 1 & 2. We sat in the front row, we had our sign, and I caught the eye of Wayne who probably noticed our purple wigs. I'm glad Danielle, who was dressed like Pocahontas, won the car, she was standing in line with us, chatted with us and deserved to win (stay at home mom), plus she was really nice, good for her! The only thing is that I'm sure when I watch our show, I'm going to look like the biggest nerd on national TV. UGH! I'm so stupid-the woods!
By the way, you can't trade in your prizes for cash. All prizes are shipped to your address, so my daughter eagerly awaits her PlayStation, my husband and I will enjoy our plasma TV and Donna will get the collectors edition of the Beatles. All in all a good day for the Donna's!-Single D
Go to the Tropicana Casino (Las Vegas) website (link below)-click on the Let's Make a Deal banner and click the show you want to attend. After entering your info, you get an email confirmation stating what time to show up and the contest rules. You can also get paid to sit in the audience if they don't have enough to fill the studio at the rate of $40.00 for 4 hours. I believe there is a number on the website you can call if you want to be a paid audience member.
http://www.ocatv.com/shows/show/269
ps-Our airdate has postponed-when??? Who knows!!!

Los Angeles City Schools Old Fashioned Crumb Cake

Ah, grade school lunches, the stuff of many a fond memory. One of my favorite grade school lunches was tuna boats with a cheddar cheese sail and crumb cake with milk. Don't know if it was the cute triangle of cheddar cheese or the tuna salad in a hot dog bun or the delicious buttery crumb cake that made this particular lunch stand out, but I seem to remember it with great fondness. The lunch room in my school had a stage on which different color flags stood. Green meant all was well in the lunch room with the noise level at a acceptable level. A yellow flag meant beware the noise level was rising and red of course meant shut your traps or else! One sunny lunch day, happily ensconced with my favorite tunaboat lunch, crumb cake and carton of milk, I remember I was blowing bubbles in my milk carton, engrossed in this activity for what a few seconds, maybe minutes, when I noticed the lunch room become eerily quite. As I looked down into my carton which seemed to have an unnatural hold on my attention, I noticed two black sensible shoes tapping rapidly by my side. I automatically look toward the stage where a red flag stood like a terrible exclamation point. I quickly looked at Miss Sensible two shoes, whose prickly red fingernails pointed to the principle's office. No words needed to be exchanged as a pitying hush filled the cafeteria, as all eyes spied my leaving my lunch and my beloved tunaboat with it's cheddar cheese triangular sail and buttery crumb cake as I headed for the office where I would spend the remainder of my lunch hour stomach protesting in it's emptiness. All these years have been spent in search of that crumb cake recipe of which the following comes pretty darn close and at least gives me some sort of redemption solace when eating it.

2 1/2 c flour

1 c brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

1 t salt

1 t nutmeg

3/4 c oil

2 t cinnamon

1 t baking soda

1 egg

1 c buttermilk

Combine flour, sugars, salt, nutmeg and oil in bowl. Remove 1/2 cup of the mixture from bowl and add to it 1 t of cinnamon and set aside as topping.

Combine remaining 1 t of cinnamon, baking soda, egg and buttermilk (or milk and yogurt/sour cream combination) and blend well. Add flour mixture, do not over mix.

Spoon batter into greased 13x9" pan, sprinkle with reserved topping and bake at 375 for 30-40 minutes.

Let cool slightly before cutting and sit back, enjoy and reminisce!

The Difference Between Husbands and Wives or At Least In My House

The other day when I was vacuuming, I was thinking about the differences between me and my husband when it comes to everyday household stuff. Why is it that men think so differently than women and have their priorities so skewed? Here's what I've noticed.

We have a two story house, so when I don't want to go upstairs, I will leave stuff at the bottom to be taken up whenever anyone goes up. Of course this never happens because my husband and daughter never seem to notice there are things piling up at the bottom of the stairs until I yell will someone take this up!

I can come home and not be in the house for more than 5 minutes and know exactly where the dogs have either peed or pooped in the house (accidentally of course). Like the one time I came home from work at 5 and my husband had been home since 2. I could smell a horrible smell and went right to the source, a big runny mess of dog poo in the dining room. Andy of course was in the next room, happily watching TV. When I asked him, can't you smell that? He's like smell what? Although he claims that his smell is his strongest sense, guess not when it comes to dog poo.


Men suffer what I call the Scarlett O'Hara syndrome, or there's always tomorrow. Like when I wanted to move the huge prehistoric dinosaurs of a TV out of the house when we got our new plasma. Instead it sat in my husband's man office for over a month, when I finally had it with vacuuming around that thing and moved it myself into the garage, but not before screaming for him to help me. Man mantra, do we have to do it now?

Never notices when the couch pillows are smashed, never notices dust bunnies multiplying in the corner, doesn't care if the air conditioner filters are changed, if colors are mixed with the whites in the wash, doesn't care if there are grease spots on the cook top or if the counters are cluttered with mail. Doesn't know that there is an order to the pantry, cans with cans, chips with chips, bake goods with baked goods, there is? Yes dear, there is. And doesn't notice that the sweating water glass is leaving a permanent water mark on the desk.

But on the infrequent occasion when he does clean the bathroom sinks or when he does do a load of laundry, horrors, he will puff up chest and be expected to be thanked for doing the mundane task of housework. And if I say, does anyone ever thank me for vacuuming, mopping, taking the dishes out of the dishwasher, cleaning the oven, change the bedding, cleaning out the closets, so forth and so on, he looks at me like I'm speaking Martian. So I've learned to appreciate the small stuff, take it when it's given like small life pearls and chalk it up to a different points of view. What else can I do?

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Our Favorite Smootie

How do you get a tweenie to eat her fruits? Smoothies of course! I remember when we first adopted our daughter from China when she was 18 months old, she had an appetite for everything and anything. Living in a orphan house and not having much access to plentiful food varieties, Xiao She, as she was called then ate non-stop when she was handed over to us. Our weeks in China getting acquainted with our new daughter consisted of strolling around the hotel and grazing at the buffet, to which she had no trouble finding food she liked. She would eat clams, fish, oysters, chow mein, eggs, noodles and on and on. To keep her from crying, we would feed her raisins like she was a poodle in training. She would fall asleep with food in her mouth. One time back home in Denver my in-laws took her to the restaurant I worked at, where she quickly fell asleep in her chicken soup fancy hat and all. Today, getting her to eat or try healthy food is another story. She quickly moved from eating everything to eating only mac and cheese or anything noodle. Getting her to eat her fruits is even harder. Eat an apple dear, but my braces she whines! So one day, I made smoothies. Yum she says, this is good. Yes, there is a God! I vary the recipe little, because why tamper with something she likes and will eat.

Smoothie recipe:

In blender-add 1/3 blender full of crushed ice

Add fruit juice to cover ice

Add frozen blueberries

Add fresh or frozen strawberries

1/2 banana

Add 2 large scoops of plain yogurt

Blend until smooth-

Amounts of fruits can vary depending on your taste

Top with wheat germ if you like nutty crunch

Dancing Girl

Ever Have A Perfect Memory?

Ever have one of those memories from your childhood that you can remember in perfect detail? The other day on the TMC channel the "Trouble with Angels" was playing. Watching this movie brought me back to the day I went to see this movie with my best friend growing up in Southern California. I think I was in 6th grade. I remember it was playing at the Vogue Theater downtown. It was summer and very hot, not typical for a town close to the beach. I don't know why this particular day in my mind is so clear. Maybe it was the first time I was able to go to the movies with my girlfriend without being accompanied by my mother, who when I went to the movies with, would cover my eyes during the kissing scenes, oh mom! Maybe it was the movie, "The Trouble With Angels", starring Haley Mills, whom I always wished I were born blond and British. I stopped what I was doing and sat down to watch it. It was just as good now as it was then. I remember my mother taking us to the theater and dropping us off and told us she would pick us up promptly when the movie ended. How I was able to go to the movies without my mother is still a mystery to me. I remember I wore gold capri stretch pants and a black turtle neck, even though it was summer outside. My hair was pulled back in a single pony tail. How I felt like Audrey Hepburn in that outfit! I bought Goobers and Terri bought a box of vanilla bon-bon ice cream bites covered in chocolate. I remember sitting through that movie and in the end when the Haley Mills character sees Mother Superior, Rosalind Russell, mourn the death of one of the sisters and then decides to join the convent, I was crying in the dark.
In the ensuing years, the Vogue theater converted to showing Spanish films, I lost touch with Terri after junior high school, she went to another school, and I don't know what happened to those gold capri pants.
As I watch my daughter play with her friends on the computer, I'm wondering will she ever have that perfect girlhood memory that she will remember one day while doing housework or something, in perfect nostaglic detail? I hope she does, because in the end, isn't perfect memories all we have?-Single D

Martha Stewart-Citrus Cornmeal Cookies

I love cookies, cookies in any form, shape, flavor and size. I do however tire easily over cookies. Like for example, I can't buy a bag of cookies in the grocery store without half the bag getting stale because I never finish it. I'm like a cookie tramp, I get tired of the same cookie after a few days. However, there is one kind of cookie that I really never tire of and that is the shortbread cookie done right. I have tried many shortbread recipes and I have found that the less sweet the better. When we were in Rome, the pastry shops there are crazy fantastic. Why is it that the pastry shops look so much more enticing in Europe than they do here. I do have to mention of a little pastry shop in San Francisco that I used to go to that reminded me of a Paris patisserie, Fantasia Bakery in the Laurel Heights section of town. More old fashion of yesteryear, but definitely European in flavor. I miss those days of buying their hot cross buns at Easter, napoleons and butter cookies. One of my favorite Italian cookie is the buttery shortbread cookie made with cornmeal, really delicious and not very sweet. So when I came across a Martha Stewart recipe for Citrus Cornmeal Shortbread I was in heaven and hoping it would be like the ones in Italy.
Take two sticks of butter out of the fridge and let stand at room temp.

Put soften sticks of butter in kitchenaid:
Add 3/4 cup of confectioners' sugar
Add 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
Grate over the bowl some orange zest mix well in bowl-
Then stir in 2 cups of flour + 2 Tablespoons of yellow cornmeal and 1 teaspoon of salt and mix until well combined.
Dough should be soft (if too soft at this point put in fridge until dough firms somewhat, dough should be nice to handle), flour counter top and take dough out. Halve dough and shape into two logs about 1 1/2 inches in diameter and wrap in plastic and refrigerate until cold, at least an hour.
Take dough out and cut into 1/4" rounds and roll in 1/4 cup of yellow cornmeal. Bake in a 300 oven for 30-35 minutes until golden.

These are delicious, crunchy and tender, and I could eat a hundred and that's saying a mouth full. -

Of All the Dogs I've Loved Before

The other day I was thinking that CBS needs to bring back that reality show, The Greatest American Dog, who in the first and only season winner was Travis and his boxer dog, Presley, crowned and given the golden bone title of the Greatest American Dog, with second runner up, Laurie and her cute underdog white maltese, Andrew. This got me thinking of all my dogs of past, my fellow loving, loyal companions, two which rest in cedar boxes on my library shelf.
My only dog of my childhood was a beagle that we got when I was eleven and lived in Hawaii . Only a few memories linger from "Susie", like the day I was taking her for a walk on the base, (we lived on Barber's Point Navy Base, Oahu), when Susie took the biggest snake of a poop in someone's calla lilies. I remember standing there frozen in sheer terror at the size and it's slithery ability of it snaking down the leaf to the stalk while the homeowner yelled at me from his front porch "Better clean that up!" Of the time that Susie had gotten bitten from a centipede in the backyard and almost died and had for the rest of her days eat this horrible smelling dog food that my mother would extract from the can in a solid lump and cut it up into small bite size pieces. And of the day Susie died, my mother standing in the doorway in her blue nightgown and hair net, crying hopelessly. I had never seen her cry before.
The first dog of my young adulthood was Charlie, a mutt that someone was giving away in front of a mall in San Diego while I was attending college. She was smarter than most humans and could jump from a sitting position into your arms. She traveled with us from our house in San Diego to San Francisco, feeling at home anywhere she could sleep between us, head on the pillow, snoring. She would sit across the room by the fireplace staring at my dish because that was how she begged for treats, until one day she no longer did that and chose just to sit next to me barely breathing. When we took her to the vet, they told us she had lung cancer, to which I told the vet that I didn't know she smoked. The last day I brought her to the vet, she knew it was going to be our last day together and as I hugged her while the vet gave her the shot, I could feel her cold nose press against my cheek, her tongue lick my tears, and feel her swallow her last breath. Now I know how my mother felt that day in her blue nightgown and hair net, crying, hopelessly.
There after it was a series of dogs, mostly big goofy labs. A black one named Peppercorn, who insisted on digging up my roses in the back yard, until one day she made a hole so big it was almost in the neighbor's yard, that I put her in the hole and hosed her down with water until she was a muddy mess. She never dug again. A yellow lab named Fanny, hopelessly sweet and kind hearted, who had a benign fatty tumor on her stomach the size of a small football. A purebred Sheltie named Dottie. The day we went to pick her up at the breeder's farm in Livermore, she came out of the barn with her tiny tips of her ears taped down. She was stubborn and refused to be house broken, until into the 8th month, out of frustration, I held her over the balcony of my three story house and told her if she didn't learn to be potty trained she would end up in the garden. She never made a mess after that and her ears never did stay down. The past has been filled with lovable big dogs, sloppy in their affections. It hasn't been until now that we decided on trying out the likes of smaller dogs, which we are finding small in size but big in personalities. Two small dogs, Chihuahuas, Henry and Hazel, ah but that's another story.

Tuscan Chicken Thighs and Giada's Polenta

Since we have to watch our budget when we go grocery shopping, I have been cooking a lot with chicken thighs and besides, my daughter only likes dark meat. This recipe is simple and quick and a great Sunday dinner.
For the marinade:
4 large cloves of garlic chopped and put in a bowl
1 sprig of rosemary, which I get from my garden, but I make sure I only use the top of the rosemary plant, since I'm sure Henry the chihuahua has peed on the bottom of the plant. Take leaves off stem and roughly chop
1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard
the juice on one lemon a couple of pinches of Italian seasoning
salt and pepper
whisk in 1 cup of extra virgin olive oil
pour over chicken and let marinade for an hour
put in oven at 350 for about 1 hour or until done
A perfect companion dish for this chicken is Everyday Italian's chef, Giada Delaurentis's easy polenta recipe:
2 cups of salted (1 teaspoon) water-bring to a boil
stir in 2 tablespoons of butter (she just uses 1, but I think it needs two)
stir in 1 cup of cornmeal (yellow or white, I used white)
continue stirring and cook for about 3-5 minutes, usually when it is starting to get stiff, I remove from heat and quickly spread out in butter 9x11 dish. Let cool slightly and cut into squares.
Put polenta on plate and add chicken with the sauce over the the polenta.
Sheer heaven! I lick my plate every time and my daughter loves it!-Single D

The Vanishing Cable

I have basic cable. It was not so long ago that we didn't even subscribe to cable, opting for just plain ole free broadcasting channels. Who needs more than CBS, ABC and NBC, right? Wrong! Little did I know I'd get hooked on all those reality shows, not on the major three. You know, Project Runway, Top Chef, Desperate Housewives, to name a few. Anyway, so now we have to have cable. Ok, I don't mind paying for cable, although the programing is redundant on most of the channels, isn't there a movie I haven't already seen like twenty times? So a couple of months ago, I got really irked at my cable company. They kept streaming the message on the TV guide channel that they were moving that station to a higher channel, translation, pay more money if you want to get TV guide. How sneaky is that? How low and despicable! How the heck are we supposed to know what is on TV? I can see the big heads of cable saying how can we squeeze more money out of the little guy. Let's see, what is the one thing people need when watching TV, what is the one question they ask? What's on? Yeah, a rousing choir of greedy CEO's and COO's calculating that if we move the TV guide to a higher channel, people will have to subscribe to the next level. Is that not the most nit picky thing you ever heard? How petty and greedy can they be when you already subscribe to their cable stations and they yank the tv guide out from under you. Isn't it enough that we pay $100.00 for cable and internet services? Yet they want more money from us. Cable is slowly getting rid of channels at the basic level. They got rid of Oxygen, I think it's like somewhere in the 200 numbers. They got rid of channel 38 or something like that and now it's some kind of man channel showing hunting or fishing, real entertaining! How many viewers are interested in how to stalk a deer or sit in a duck blind? The other week, they yanked 19 off the air, just plain left it black screen. Pretty soon, there won't be anything left on basic cable but the three major networks and black screen stations. Well, I'm not giving in. If I have to use the internet to look up the tv guide, (I will and do) I refuse to give into their arm twisting, downright nasty petty mean nickle and dime-ing the public to death. Anyway with almost 70 channels there's still nothing to watch on TV, so why get 200 or 300 channels more, it's all the same thing, just on different channels. Maybe that will get me to read more. So there!

And oh by the way, channel 19 is still a black screen.