Wild-Heart.net

After my own music collection Rick Rolled me a little bit ago, it then surprised me with this song. Talk about immediate flashbacks of awkward High School dances with the dread slow dances. This was the slow song that never seemed to end. The song for the dance in which you realized you really did like the guy you were dancing with or that he was a right bore and you would rather be anywhere but there more than you had the whole night and started thinking of nice ways to break up with him without hurting his feelings.

Most of my generation doesn’t have an appreciation for Hip-Hop or Rap genres. You can blame Boy #2, or you can blame R. Kelly switching from R&B to Hip-Hop in the late 90’s. Doesn’t matter. Back to the artist for today… Lupe Fiasco. Check his Wikipedia page before you watch the video below. The song has been in my head for days. Lupe nails the struggle for so many young men in bad situations and neighborhoods, not just Houston, in this song. I see it here in Macon just blocks away from my home. My boys go to school with several young men who are praying for their music to save them and get them out of this town. If you want to hear more, look for his song “Dumb it Down.” It’s more of an example of what Lupe is trying to do with his music. This one here is more of a ballad, if you will.

It was long, yet not long enough. We arrived late and it was already drizzling. There are a couple of short videos added to the collection on the Videos page (link on the right or the button up top). Has my son changed since in his first 3 weeks at Youth Challenge? I think so. It’s easier to tell in his letters and his phone calls than it was from our visit yesterday. After about an hour of indulging in sugar and caffeine, I really didn’t get much of a chance to visit with him as he was hyper and all over the place. For him it was a day of freedom. He was able to listen to music for the first time in 3 weeks and have a few hours of unrestricted time. I heard many words of praise from his Cadre, Sergeants and various other staff members. It was a good day. Even though we had to leave early due to my back going out. Didn’t seem to phase him, though. He was too hyped on Mt. Dew and the excitement of getting to do the repelling tower again with his buddies. I think I miss him twice as much now. *sigh*

And I could use a little help finding it. Perchance one of you might have it tucked away in your recipe box. If so, I don’t know how I could repay you but I’ll come up with something! The recipe is for Peanut Butter Bars. I originally found the recipe 7 years ago on AllRecipes.com. I’ve been through every single peanut butter recipe on that site in the last two weeks and have yet to recover it. I used to have a notebook filled with all of my families favorite recipes. It seems to have grown feet and walked away. Back to the recipe. There is no oatmeal in this one, nor is there chocolate of any variety, however, they do have the consistency of a chewy brownie after they are baked. The first part of the recipe calls for the peanut butter, butter/margarine, and sugar to be slowly melted together in a sauce pan and allowed to cool before stirring in the eggs and flour. I don’t remember if there is vanilla extract in the recipe or not.

Why, you may ask is this recipe so important? And why and am I in such a desperate rush to find it? As you might recall, Boy #1 is attending National Guard Youth Challenge. This Saturday is Family Day. We are allowed to bring them treats and favorite foods from home. All he really wants is two things, these Peanut Butter Bars and a McDonald’s cheeseburger. The later because, “Momma, I’m so sick of canteen food. It’s not bad but it’s not good either. I know you’ll have to get it the night before and it will be cold, I don’t care. It will be better than any burger I’ve ate in the last month!”

Any who, if the details of the recipe that I have given have rung any bells, please, leave me a comment or use the contact form (link is on the right) and share! Meanwhile, I will try to come up with a way to reward whomever is able to accomplish this mission.

I am a farmer’s daughter so I didn’t “exactly” grow up in a small town. But I went to school in one, church in another, and worked in one, too. And Gods know I did my fair share of teenage rebellion in a small town. I’m nearly grown up now. I say nearly because I don’t think we, as humans ever stop growing up. If we do, we have limited our minds and our ability to learn and our capacity for understanding and empathy. I know how to shoot a gun. I no longer cling to my God but rather embrace several Gods.

You have insulted so many people that no one any longer thinks about your message of Hope. You see, Mr. Oboma, I am an intelligent woman and I have an odd capacity of memory and it is also has the unique ability of being a photographic memory. I remember Nixon and Johnson and Carter and Reagan and Bush. I also voted for Clinton twice and Bush once. It would have been twice had this dreaded state of Georgia not given me 5 years of grief in obtaining a state ID. I hold no party loyalty. But you are certainly no longer a potential for my vote no matter how you may appear on the ballot come this November. I find that sad. I find it sad that when I go to vote it will be a vote that is essentially a wasted vote. I may delude myself with the idea that no vote is wasted even a losing vote makes a statement. In the end, it really doesn’t.

In closing, I’d like to say, “F*ck you.” But my parents raised me better than that when it comes to addressing those who hold public office. So, I’ll just say what many others have said. You screwed up and lost a potential vote. Why? Because I was raised in a small town and just because I now live in a city doesn’t mean I have lost my roots.

At least it has him out of The Cave (aka our bedroom where his computer is located). However, I have a feeling this will just enable him to spend even more time in The Cave.

A parental tool of discipline! I wish I had thought of this earlier. In past couple of days I have discovered a way to get the children to do what they’ve been asked to do. They, just like Little Bunny Foo-Foo, get three chances, if they still aren’t behaving they get subjected to early 80’s Power Ballads. Who wouldn’t do anything to make Chicago stop singing Hard To Say I’m Sorry? Bwahahahaha! And YouTube gives me quick and easy access to such atrocities. By the time he gets to, “Hold me now,” they are apologizing, begging for me to make it stop and doing what has been asked of them. I love you, YouTube.

• Learn Sanskrit through self study
  “Children may also be able to follow the lessons, if parents are able to explain to them the meaning of the grammatical terms used in the lessons.”
  (tags: sanskrit language education)
• Hindu Primer Index

And I want to pull my hair back and scream, “I don’t want to be the queen!”

…Will I be suckered in by WalMart.com’s offer of free shipping by way of their Site-to-Store service. The waiting period is agonizingly slow. And I am being bit in the arse by my own frugality everyday that passes that I do not receive the email letting me know that my order has arrived for pick-up at my store. One part of my order left the sorting facility in SC on the 4th and its status has been listed since then as as “in route to delivery facility.” For those of you with rudimentary geography skills that know I live in middle Georgia, you might find yourself as perplexed as I am. It would seem that somewhere between South Carolina and our chosen store in Macon, there is a Delivery Facility and so far that one portion of the order has been in route to that delivery facility for six freakin’ days!

The other portion of the order is listed as having been shipped and “in route” to the “sorting facility” since the 4th. This has gone beyond ridiculous. And I can honestly say this is the first time my frugality has bitten me in the ass. I just have this gut feeling that when the items finally arrive at our store for pick-up something is going to be damaged. *sigh*

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