1/4 Cup Basalmic vinegar
1/4 Cup Olive oil
1 Tb sugar
1 Tb lemon juice (trust me it's better from a real lemon than those plastic things)
1 tsp basil, pasta sprinkle,
salt, pepper
1/2 Red bell pepper, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
3 radishes, sliced
1/2 red onion, chopped
1 oz fresh mozzarella cheese - grated or cut up (I find the mozarella balls difficult to grate so I cut them up)
1 little pepperoni slices, chopped
Cook the pasta according to the directions and let it cool. Mix all the vegtables together (I paper towel the bell peppers after they are sliced because they have a lot of water in them) -add the herbs, sugar, about half the vinegar and about a Tbl of olive oil
DISCLAIMER -- I don't measure this stuff-- I eyeball it and taste it - if it needs more of something I add it. This is not like baking - it doesn't have to be exact - some people like more olive oil, some don't.
Mix the vegtable mixture, then add the pasta and mix that up. Add the cheese (make sure pasta is cooled before you add the cheese!) and pepperoni. Add the rest of the vinegar and oil.
That's pretty much whata "reporter" from Lavender magazine did when he inflitrated a support group for people struggling with same sex attractions and then broke the confidentiality rules to out one of the attendees - a Pastor Tom Brock who likes to blame gay people for tornadoes and such.
Now yea there's that sinful part of me that smirked and said "I KNEW IT" when I first read about this over at Pretty Good Lutherans. ANOTHER anit-gay person who is actually gay himself. Then I realized how the information was come by and that is unacceptable. The reporter should be fired. Except that I fear that was his assignment.
So what that he's gay and doesn't want to be? Does that change anything he has done? No. I thought he was a ridiculous man before and now I think he's a pathetic ridiculous man. I'm sorry he's gay and doesn't want to be. We all have to be things we don't want to be. Do you think I want to be a widow? He's just pathetic and deserves prayers and yes, a little sympathy. Knowing he was at a confidential support group doesn't really change or help anything. I suspect most anti-gay people of being gay anyways - you don't need to be invading the privacy of unhappy, struggling people to know that's mostly true.
Shame on Lavender magazine and it's reporter. Journalism should be better than that. Is this what we are coming to? God help us all
It wasn't the most exciting TV and even the most diehard fan could get tired of hearing the same music over and over but the compulsory dance is the foundation of the ice dance competition. The compulsories let the judges compare apples to apples and see the basic skating skills of the dancers aside from the emotion and entertainment value of the free dance.
Here's a great example of the two top contestants doing the Golden Waltz
My daughter and I went to the US Nationals in St. Paul and got to see the compuslory competition live- that's really where you see the wheat separate from the chaff --as couples do the exact same dance but the more skilled and experienced dancers would make you disbelieve it was the same dance.
Now in their infinite wisdom (read that stupidity) the Internatinal Skating Union (which includes hockey and speed skating and his headed by a speed skater) has decided compulsory dance is a waste of time. ISU Abolishes Dance Compulsories
A compulsory dance is a dance on ice based on ball room dances - Waltzes, Tangos, Foxtrots, Blues, even the Paso Doble! If you want to learn to ice dance, you learn a compulsory dance. You don't learn a free dance. You learn the difficult task of doing precise steps, on an edge, with pointed toes, straight back, exactly to the beat of the music. Lots and lots of recreational adult skaters do nothing but the compulsory dances and I fear this move may be detrimental to social ice dancing.
I say that because of what happened to Figures. Figures were the foundation of ice skating. You used to have to pass figure tests before you could to on to free skating. You used to have to compete in figures and if you couldn't master the figures --you wouldn't win, no matter how exciting a skater you were. Well that made for bad television. So first they took figures out of competition and made it a separate competition. Then they took figures out of Nationals. Then they no longer made testing them a requirement. Now very few people do figures. There is a whole new generation of coaches who learned figures and are not able to teach figures. And a lot of people would say, and I agree, that skating has suffered for that lack of foundational skills.
It would be a terrible thing if the compulsory ice dance met the same fate.
Just got back. I am kind of wiped out but I guess some people actually care what happens in Iowa.
There were two main discussions on "THE ISSUE"There was a resolution to go back to the Old visions and Expectations and to not allow any calls in the NEI Synod to rostered leaders in committed same sex relationships. Discussion was rather muted, but respectful. I think everyone knows that positions are entrenched. The resolutions committee did not recommend the resolution ruling it out of order because it sought to override a decision of the Churchwide Assembly, which is the highest authority in our polity. It got moved anyway then someone moved to refer it back to Synod Council. Considering Synod Council first passed such a resolution, then rescinded, the assembly was not inclined to give it back to them.
After the motion to refer the resolution failed, the chair, Bishop Ullestad, ruled the resolution out of order for the reasons stated by the resolutions committee and also because it interfered with the authority of a congregation to call their own pastor and it also interfered with the authority of the bishop's office as it tried to instruct the bishop as to what calls to approve. His ruling was appealed but the assembly voted down the appeal. It was not even close enough for a division of the house.
Next was a motion to "repudiate" the sexuality statement. People are always confusing this statement with the ministry policies...so there was very little discussion about the statement itself (and I seriously doubt many of those speaking against it at the mike even read the durn thing) and more discussion about gay pastors. The motion failed, again by a wide enough margin that there was no division of the house.
Oh yea - this is the 40th anniversary of the ordination of women in the ELCA and its predecessors. That got a nice little recognition.
So Saul the Persecutor of Christians shows up in Jerusalem claiming to be a changed man. "Yea right. My brother still has bruises from the beatings he received after you sic'd those bullies on him" Yes Christians believe in forgiveness and all that but nobody really wanted to get too close to Paul. Resurrection is one thing. Someone completely converting to the very movement he's been persecuting? Seems a little suspicious.
It was Barnabas who befriended Paul and took him around to all the disciples and made them act their faith and accept him.
And then later on it was Barnabas who stood up to Paul in defense of his nephew Mark. Mark for some reason had left Paul and Barnabas in the middle of a missionary journey and Paul was understandably reluctant to take Mark on another trip. But Barnabas insisted to the point that he took Mark on his own trip and let Paul and Silas go a different way.
Mark proved worthy of Barnabas' trust and later on even Paul had good things to say about him.
I know you have to be careful here when it comes to trusting people and giving them more chances to stab you in the back. Sometimes people really do use up their chances. But most of us could probably stand to give out a few more chances. Thank God we haven't used up our chances with God.
The problem with cilantro is this - I get a BIG batch of it about now...more than I can possibly consume, as much as I love cilantro. Then it bolts. Then it seeds and I'll get some more in the late summer. But what about later this summer?
PESTO! It's not just for basil anymore!
Juice of one lime
Grate peeling of one lime
2 cloves garlic
about two cups fresh cilantro, packed
1/3 cup vegtable oil
I know pesto usually has cheese but that doesn't freeze well --I don't put cheese or nuts in my basil pesto when I make it to freeze - you can add that sort of thing latter
Put all that in the food processor and blend. Then I spoon it into ice cube trays, freeze and then put the cubes in a plastic bag to store in the freezer. You have nice little serving sizes to add to salsa, chili, sofrito, tortilla soup, whatever....
First Al & Tipper announced they were divorcing...
Now 2002 Canadian Olympic Pair figure skating gold medalists Jaimie Sale & David Pelletier are getting divorced!
It was the controversy over their perfect program coming second to the flawed Russian's program that led to an uncovering of judge collusion at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics and eventually a whole new judging system (which I personally hate and still don't understand why we just couldn't get rid of the corrupt judges [who are STILL judging BTW] but that is another story)
This is just gonna kill my daughter. Ya just want the happy ever after. Ya know?
