I heard the best quote the other day - don’t know who said it, but here it is:

The grass is not always greener on the other side.  It’s greener where it’s watered!

This weekend my mother-in-law and my brother-in-law and his wife visited.  Last night we grilled steaks for dinner and had corn salad, tossed salad, yeast rolls and baked potatoes to go with them.  I made my “famous apple pie” for dessert.  It was wonderful, as usual.  Not bragging - but I think my apple pie is better than any I’ve ever eaten.

Then today we had leftovers for lunch, semi-homemade pizza and strawberry shortcake for dessert.  The strawberry shortcake was also wonderful!    Again - not bragging, but it WAS really delicious!  Here’s the recipe:

Strawberry Shortcake with Custard

1 small pound cake (I just buy one from the store - a frozen Sarah Lee pound cake loaf is good,  You can always make your own, if you prefer.)

1 quart fresh strawberries

1/2 cup sugar (more or less depending on your taste)

Wash and slice the fresh strawberries.  Sprinkle with sugar and mix well so that the juice is drawn out of the strawberries.  Put in a covered container and refrigerate until ready to use.

Custard

1 egg

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

 2 1/2 cups milk

2 T corn starch

Mix the custard ingredients well in a saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.  Set aside to cool.

Putting the Strawberry Shortcake with Custard together:  Place a slice of cake in a dessert dish.  Spoon the strawberry mixture on top - using lots of juice to soak into the cake.  Spoon custard on top.  You can add a dollop of whipped cream, if desired.

My mother-in-law was the first person I know who makes strawberry shortcake this way.  She usually baked her own pound cake.  I usually buy the cake ready-made.  It’s the custard that makes this recipe unique.  I got this recipe for custard from my son-in-law.   This is absolutely the BEST Strawberry Shortcake imaginable.  The custard really makes it perfect!

“American Idol” went too far tonight.  For two hours they kept the audience in suspense - wondering who would be sent home tonight.  They narrowed it down to Chris and Jordin, and finally told Chris he was safe.  WHAT??!!  Then they let everyone think  for a couple minutes that Jordin had been eliminated.  But no. THEN Ryan Seacrest announced that no one was being eliminated tonight.  Jordin was safe after all.  They had decided they couldn’t eliminate someone on a charity night.  This week’s votes and next week’s votes will be added together, and next week two people will be eliminated.

It was SO manipulative - as though they couldn’t get everyone to stick around for their smarmy charity begging show if they didn’t make you think someone would be voted off at the end.  As though all the guest stars and singers weren’t enough to hold people’s attention.  They just about had me hooked on calling and donating until they pulled that stunt.  And it just made me feel disgusted with them.  Disgusted with the whole thing.   I’ll give extra to my regular donations to St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital instead.

Josh Groban and the children’s choir were phenomenal - the only folks worth rewinding and listening to a second time, in my opinion.

Don’t you like the graphic?  I stole it from Blue Star Chronicles who stole it from MVRWC.  It SO well fits my feelings about American Idol right now!

Thirteen Quotes from American History

1. “National honor is national property of the highest value.” By James Monroe (first Inaugural Address)

2.  “Our country!In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right; but our country, right or wrong.” By Stephen Decatur

3.  “Liberty exists in proportion to wholesome restraint.” By Daniel Webster

4.  “The office of government is not to confer happiness, but to give men opportunity to work out happiness for themselves.” By William Ellery Channing

5.  “The very essence of a free government consists in considering offices as public trust, bestowed for the good of a country, and not for the benefit of an individual or a party.” By J.C. Calhoun

6.  “War is cruel and you cannot refine it.” By William Tecumseh Sherman

7.  “Men are not superior by reason of the accidents of race or color. They are superior who have the best heart – the best brain.” By Robert Ingersoll

8.  “Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire – conscience.” By George Washington

9.  “The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.” By Patrick Henry

10.  “Ideals are like stars; you will not succeed in touching them with your hands. But like the seafaring man on the desert of waters, you choose them as your guides, and following them you will reach your destiny.” By Carl Schurz

11.  “Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men! Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks.” By Philip Brooks

12.  “It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us – that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion – that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” By Abraham Lincoln (1863, The Gettysburg Address)

13.  “In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger.. . . The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it – and the glow from that fire can truly light the world. And so, my fellow Americans: Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: Ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.” By John F. Kennedy (1961, Inaugural Address)

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This news might be too good to be true.  But according the the news, Rosie O’Donnell is quitting “The View.”

Controversial Host May Move on to Her Own Show

By DAVID BAUDER, AP

NEW YORK (April 25) - Rosie O’Donnell is leaving “The View.” ABC has been unable to come to a contractual agreement with “The View” co-host. As a result, her duties on the show will come to an end mid-June.

“My needs for the future just didn’t dovetail with what ABC was able to offer me,” O’Donnell said in a statement Wednesday.

“This has been an amazing experience,” she said, “and one I wouldn’t have traded for the world.”

O’Donnell has helped raise the ratings for the daytime chat show invented by Barbara Walters. But her outspokenness has caused almost constant controversy, including a nasty name-calling feud with Donald Trump  that placed Walters squarely in the middle.

“I induced Rosie to come back to television on `The View’ even for just one year,” Walters said. “She has given the program new vigor, new excitement and wonderful hours of television. I can only be grateful to her for this year.”

Walters was frequently left to clean up the damage after O’Donnell. She did it most recently Monday, when O’Donnell was criticized for using bad language and attacking Rupert Murdoch from the dais of the annual New York Women in Communication awards luncheon.

“I would like to point out that Rosie’s view is not always mine,” Walters said. “I would like to say for the record that I am very fond of Rupert Murdoch.”

In the Trump imbroglio, O’Donnell was reportedly mad that Walters did not come more swiftly to her defense, while Trump said Walters told him she didn’t want O’Donnell on the show - a claim Walters denied.

Statements by public figures are being watched more closely in the post-Don Imus  era. The lobbying group Focus on the Family said it was preparing to contact advertisers on “The View” as part of a campaign against O’Donnell. The group is angry at O’Donnell for comments they feel were insulting to Catholics.

Despite controversy - or maybe because of it - O’Donnell was good business for ABC, owned by the Walt Disney Co. Ratings for “The View” during February sweeps were up 15 percent in key women demographics over the same time in 2006.

Bill Carroll, an expert in the syndication market for Katz Television, said he’d be surprised if ABC didn’t try hard to keep O’Donnell, given the attention she brought to the long-running show.

The timing of the announcement doesn’t particularly suit O’Donnell if she wants to remain in daytime television. She wouldn’t be able to introduce a new program to the syndication market until September 2008, he said. But the company that produced O’Donnell’s long-running daytime show has expressed interest in having her back, he said.

There are no current plans to announce a new co-host.

I hope she was “asked” to leave.  And I hope that “The View” selected a decent human being for her replacement.  Really, they couldn’t get much worse.  Unfortunately ratings are of top importance - and Rosie caused enough controversy that people tuned it - kinda like people enjoy watching freak shows.

So Heather Mills was booted off “Dancing with the Stars” last night.  It was time.  She did incredibly well in light of her artificial leg.  However, she had started playing it up - with the outfits that showed so clearly that the leg was artificial.  Otherwise, she would have worn some kind of leg covering in order not to draw attention to it.  It seemed obvious that she wanted people to see it and be impressed with what she could do with it.

And THEN when she was eliminated to pull out a sheet of paper with her “farewell speech” on it.  How obnoxious.  When she started talking about how sorry she felt for her partner because he would no longer get a paycheck now that she wasn’t on the show, all I could think was “Well, since you get TWENTY THOUSAND DOLLARS a DAY for alimony, you should be able to help him yourself.”  Each time they announced her as a “charity fundraiser” it brought to mind her favorite charity - herself.

I really enjoyed “American Idol” last night.  I TiVo’d it and then skipped through all the “Idol Gives Back” crap and only watched and listened to the contestants’ singing.   However, the singing was good - and certainly worth watching.

I think that tonight’s elimination will be one of the following three:  Lakisha, Chris or Phil.  Phil continues to underwhelm me with his singing.  Plus he looks weird.  I’ve said it before, but a bald head looks good on some people.  Unfortunately Phil is not one of those people.  Then he wears those silly-looking hats.  Most of all, though, his voice just isn’t that strong - nothing distinctive about it.  I think he’s the one going home tonight.  I wouldn’t be surprised, though, if Chris or Lakisha are eliminated.

Again, Lakisha screamed rather than sang.  And Chris has a teeny-bopper type voice.   As always, I don’t “get” Blake at all.  His voice is weak and he has absolutely NOTHING to distinguish him from a zillion other mediocre singers.  I think the fact that he did the beat-boxing (is that what it’s called?) set him up as unusual from the beginning - and all his subsequent weak and non-memorable performances have not yet overcome that image.  Give him time, though.  There’s no way he could win the competition.

For me, the whole thing is between Melinda and Jordin.  I think Jordin has the edge because of her personality.

The 4th Carnival of Thirteeners is up at the Thursday Thirteen hub.  Check it out - and also check to see how you can join the Thursday Thirteen family.

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Kristine Lefebvre was the last person the Donald fired before last night’s finale of THE APPRENTICE.   “But I didn’t get to defend myself!” she protested when Trump finished firing Heidi and then suddenly turned and uttered those two words to Kristine that none of the applicants wanted to hear - “You’re fired!”  However, she had put the wrong phone number on an advertising brochure - and there was no way to explain away making such a monumental mistake.   So, in an unexpected turn of events, both Heidi and Kristine were off the show.  Up until that point, they were the two frontrunners.

Apparently Kristine is a cancer survivor, and when Hugh Hefner contacted her about posing for PLAYBOY, she agreed.  Here’s the story:

Kristine Lefebvre may have been fired from ‘The Apprentice’ a few weeks ago, but that did not impact people searching for her. The 37-year-old attorney was the most searched topic on AOL Search this weekend. This comes after her publicist announced that Lefebvre has plans to shed her suit and pose for the June issue of ‘Playboy.’ Her motives are not totally selfish though. As a cancer survivor, Lefebvre wants to pose in order to send a supportive message to others who are struggling with the disease.

Apparently Hugh Hefner liked what he saw on an episode of ‘The Apprentice’ and wanted Lefebrvre to pose. The Los Angeles attorney is no stranger to working with Hugh and his people and has reportedly negotiated deals for Pamela Anderson and Deborah Gibson with the magazine. Kristine will be the first ever from ‘The Apprentice’ cast to pose for ‘Playboy.’ Maybe this will help to boost the flailing show’s ratings?

I guess what Hefner saw that he liked was one of the episodes in which the girls were lounging around the pool in bikinis.

Earlier in the show when her team won a challenge, their reward was a visit from a family member.  Kristine’s husband visited, and it turns out that he is a professional chef.  Now THAT would be a good life - someone always available to cook gourmet meals for you!

There’s a phrase used a lot nowadays that really annoys me - “hate crimes.”  The Virginia Tech murderer certainly committed 32 hate crimes.  Aren’t ALL murders hate crimes?  Unless a killing is accidental, then there is hate involved - whether it is hate for the specific victim, the victim’s religion, gender,  skin color,  sexual preference, or even the killer’s own self-hatred - most crime is about hate.  

Why would specifying one particular crime as a “hate crime” make it more despicable?  Help me understand.