The Cozy Mystery List Blog

OK… So here goes!!! (I feel like Andy Rooney on 60 Minutes! Actually, is he still on that show? I haven’t watched it in years…)

My husband set up my computer so that I get Google on my home page. It makes it really easy for me to read the headlines, since we stopped getting a “real paper” copy of the newspaper a few years ago. (I hope that I’m not offending anyone who works for the newspapers! It just seems that we can get all of our news online…)

Anyway, this whole Jessica Simpson thing has me fuming! I have caught my thoughts wandering recently (more than once) while watching a television show>>> wondering how the wardrobe people, the directors, and the producers could let some actresses wear clothes with no sleeves. I know that this sounds odd… I really do NOT have a hang-up about sleeveless arms! What I do have a hang-up about is seeing an actress whose elbow, wrist, and shoulder bones stick out of her skin! (Not to mention her chest bones sticking out… but that’s only if you can see them under the “natural” cleavage that seem to be the focus of the camera!)

Getting back to Jessica Simpson>>> I don’t own any of her CDs and I haven’t seen any of her television appearances or her movies but I do know who she is. Last week, I found it deplorable that she kept appearing on different outlets of the “news.” I use quotations marks on that word NEWS because, this was not a case of reporting the “news!”

She is a beautiful, young woman, and she finally looks like she is allowing herself to eat more than lettuce and carrots while running on a tread mill! This sort of “news” really concerns me! What type of message are we sending to our daughters, sisters, mothers, aunts, (etc)?!?!?

It’s difficult to believe we  have television shows that feature anorexic-looking women, who are actually celebrated and dressed up to be the “babes” of the shows (That word “babes” probably really dates me!) at the same time that Jessica Simpson appears all over the place, being ridiculed and laughed at because she looks like a woman with natural curves! No wonder we have little girls in elementary schools already watching their weight. I know that we want our children to eat balanced meals, but do we really want them to be subsisting on carrots, celery, and diet pops?

Well, I feel better already! I just needed to rant and rave a little about this very important issue! I wonder how long these terrible “role models” are going to be out there… (Don’t even get me started about magazines that are supposedly WOMEN’S magazines, which feature anorexic women with their “natural” curves on the covers!)

My birthday follows shortly after Christmas, so my “Wish List” is very easy for my husband to handle. He is able to pick two major items and get them at the same time. And, since I no longer have the urge that I used to have when I was younger, he is able to leave one of the items in the garage until I get it for my birthday.

The urge I am talking about is the crazy unsticking of the wrapping tape and then taping it back… in order to peek at the gift’s box. It just seems like it’s way too difficult to do that anymore and I seem to have outgrown the “need to know” what I am going to get for my birthday. Hey! I’m just glad to be celebrating another birthday!

Anyway… I waited about a week after my birthday before I actually tackled all of the styrofoam sheets and internal plastic bags in the Next Grilleration G5‘s box. I always put off opening “technical items” since I know (with my compulsive tendencies!) that I am going to have to read every word in the owner’s manual, which has probably been translated into English by a computer program in a non-English speaking country! Yes, I’m a sucker for the “IMPORTANT SAFEGUARDS”… You know the ones… “Read instructions all prior utilize this device.” (That crazy English-translating computer program…)

I took everything out of the box, vacuumed up all of the fly-away styrofoam bits and pieces, washed all five of the grilling plates, set up the grill on the kitchen counter, and decided to use the grill for making dinner that night. I went to the box that it came in, vacuumed up all of the new fly-away styrofoam bits and pieces, and went back to the “IMPORTANT SAFEGUARDS” booklet.

The owner’s manual has the settings and times, as well as the type of grilling plates that should be used to grill all sorts of items. Let me say this, we usually grill our steaks outside on our large grill. BUT>>> after grilling our steaks on the George Foreman Next Grillerations G5, that is how we will be grilling them from now on. They were delicious! And, I love that I can put the grilling plates right into our dishwasher. I am actually planning to leave our George Foreman grill right on the kitchen counter… that’s how much I foresee using it!