John Travolta's son

Hey, does it seem wierd to anyone else that this man just lost his 16 year old son and the news media is dissecting it? The autopsy shows that Jett Travolta had a seizure and the seizure killed him. The news media is pulling it apart talking about John and Kelly's religious preferences and how they disease they say Jett had wasn't relevant to his death.

My thing is...is this REALLY necessary to stick needles into this family by exploiting their grief? Does it REALLY matter what religion they follow and whether Jett had other problems?

NO! Seriously. Does this country have nothing else going on to talk about?

I was terribly sad to hear about John Travolta and Kelly Preston's son. It's awful. But I don't need to know that John cried or that the boy was cremated and that there may be some controversy involved with his death.

I wish they would leave this poor famly alone.

What do you think?

Out with the old...in with the new!

Deep breath in! Now...let it out. It's a brand new year. I love the fresh start of a new year. It's like any bad stuff or negative stuff we felt in 2008 is just gone with one big swoop of the calendar. I LOVE IT! We get a fresh start. Let's take full advantage of it. I totally plan too! Best of luck to you in 2009! May you achieve everything you dream of.

Pizza Dip Recipe

This is an awesome recipe for Pizza Dip! If you are having a New Year's Eve party or a Superbowl Party, this will be a crowd pleaser and it's super-easy!

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Bake Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:
1 envelope Lipton Recipe Secrets Savory Herb and Garlic Soup Mix
1 container (16 ounces) Sour Cream1 cup (8 ounces) Ricotta Cheese
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (about 4 ounces); divided
1/4 cup (1 ounce) chopped pepperoni (optional)
1 loaf Italian or French bread, sliced

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350.

In a shallow 1 quart casserole, combine soup mix, sour cream, ricotta cheese, 3/4 cup mozzarella cheese and pepperoni.

Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup mozzarella cheese.

Bake, uncovered, 30 minutes or until heated through.

Serve with bread.

Makes 3 cups.

My New Year's Resolution...is to post more...

Ok. So you can see that I haven't updated this blog since September. My blog is still a "good idea" and hasn't really taken hold just yet. However...I have developed my New Year's Resolution for 2009. To update my blog...a lot. I promise. I really do.

Happy New Year!
Jennifer

My trip to Myrtle Beach

Howdy! My annual "save my sanity" beach trip was a success! I am still sane...I think.

I went to North Myrtle Beach the week of September 1st for some sun, surf, R&R and seafood. All of which I achieved. Know what's funny though? In previous years I was all about getting a tan. Last year I went for the 40 proof sunscreen. This year? Coppertone sweat-proof, water-proof, sunproof, almighty blocking 70 proof sunscreen. At 36 years old, getting a tan is not my agenda. Keeping as few wrinkles as possible is my agenda. On top of the 70 proof? I had a beach umbrella providing shade.

I read the entire book "Twilight" by Stephenie Meyers. Wow...what a great book! I'm completely hooked on this series now. Like I don't have enough books to read.

I went to Hard Rock Park in Myrtle Beach. Sorta cool, but more for kids. Not much there for an adrenaline junkie like myself. I love roller coasters and scary rides. They have roller coasters there, but they aren't that scary or fast. I'm not saying don't go there. It IS a neat place. But if you are going just to ride rollercoasters? Skip it. $50 is a high price for not much.

There are two restaurants I recommend. For excellent, fresh seafood? Bimini's. It's by Kroger in North Myrtle Beach. For a good, high quality steak? Thoroughbreds. Get your steak coffee-style. You'll love it. ;)

Gas Prices? Why are we even dealing with this?

Maybe I'm naive, but I was completely shocked when I woke up last Friday morning and saw what was happening with our gas prices. What started out in the $3.60 range, topped out at $4.99 per gallon by the time my show ended at 3pm. I spoke with many of you on the phone and e-mail about what we could do about it. We were all left scratching our heads. Why would our local gas station owners DO this to us? Hurricane Ike hadn't even hit Texas yet and we were already raising prices. Regardless of the hurricane, we've had hurricanes every year for hundreds of years and all of a sudden they affect gas prices? I am totally perplexed by this. I'm not sure WHAT to think. On one hand, I just can't believe that every single gas station owner across East Tennessee was laughing at us behind our backs as they raised the prices on the road signs. On the other hand, would they? Do you believe it was price gouging? If you do, there is a petition that you can sign. It's http://www.petitiononline.com/knoxgas/petition.html. Will it help? I doubt it.

Something has got to bust open here with the gas prices. It wasn't a problem before Hurricane Katrina. Why now? What REALLY happened? I'm hearing so many "experts" saying so many different things it gives me a headache.

The Olympics

Whew! Sorry...I haven't posted in awhile. I have trouble sometimes keeping up with all of the technology around me sometimes. I do try though.

So my post today is about the Olympics. I care more about the Olympics this time around than I ever have in the past. It's so exciting and instills such a feeling of pride to watch our American Athletes compete for the biggest trophy of their lives. And Michael Phelps? WOW! I can't even believe that medals he's won and the records he's crushing. The excitement is even better than the Bristol race! I KNOW! Can you believe I said that??????? But really...the excitement of watching Michael Phelps swim and stomp the competition gives me the same rush as "Gentleman, start your engines" at Bristol.

GO U.S.A.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My trip to Biloxi, Mississippi

So I traveled to Biloxi, Mississippi with my two best friends over the Memorial Day Holiday weekend. I had never been before. I wanted to go to the beach and my friends wanted to go to a casino so we compromised and chose Biloxi. It's got casinos and I got to see the ocean! Despite being almost totally destroyed by Hurricane Katrina almost 3 years ago, Biloxi looks surprisingly...fine. Dont' get me wrong, you can see remnants of the damage and it appears that only the Casinos could afford to rebuild. There isn't much to do in Biloxi along the coast except for relax at the beach or go to a casino. Trying to find a restaurant outside of a hotel/casino was extremely difficult. In fact, we had one of those GPS thingy's. We named her "Sassy Suzie". Anyway, Suzie, led us to nothing occasionally. Meaning that we would plug in an address and Suzie would do her thing. She would say "destination on right". We would look right and ....nothing....nada...zip...flattened. Even Suzie couldn't determine where certain addresses were.

Overall, we had a really great time. We stayed at Treasure Bay Hotel & Casino. The rooms had been remodeled and were very nice with patios and flat screen tv's. We ventured down to the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino and also the Beau Rivage. Both of these hotels were VERY nice and construction is about to begin on Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville. It looks like many of the venture capitalists are taking advantage of the lesser property prices and taking their chances that no future disaster will destroy their Vegas style locations.

Biloxi will eventually be Las Vegas...on the beach. Wow...it's like a dream for me!

If you haven't been to Biloxi, I recommend it. About 8 hours in the car was well worth the destination. I can't wait to go back.

American Idol Winner!

Sooo....I absolutely loved the show with Dolly Parton last night! You gotta' love Dolly! I thought all of the contestants did a wonderful job but I must say, David Archiletta blew me away last night with Dolly's "Smoky Mountain Memories". I also liked Brooke White's "Jolene". Anyway, I think this is a great season for American Idol and I'm so happy to see so much talent!

Mark my words...David Cook will win this year. Yes, I like him, but this decision is not based on my personal likes and dislikes. It's based on trends in music. With the fame of Daughtry tugging the trends right now, David Cook falls in line to be this years winner. We'll see! ;-)

Just when you think you've heard it all...

I found this in my showprep today. Can you believe this????????????????

Evil hackers planted hundreds of flashing animated images on discussion board hosted by the Epilepsy Foundation, images that could trigger epileptic seizures among the site's users. The foundation took down the discussion board for 12 hours Sunday and the assault ended. In a statement yesterday, foundation president Eric Hargis said, "This was clearly an act of vandalism with the intent to harm people. We've established deterrents in the system to prevent similar incidences."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,343808,00.html