Some of you may have read the story somewhere. There’s a 9 year-old little boy (Brett) in the Children’s Hospital in Birmingham who has a rare brain cancer that is believed to be terminal. There’s a hospital in New York that has a treatment that is undergoing clinical trials. Brett’s family is on Medicade, which will not cover the treatment because it’s still a clinical trial. The treatment (doctors, nurses, travel, staff, etc.) will cost about $100,000.00. So, in a desperate plea, Brett’s father, Joe, reaches out to the online community (I first read about it on Fark: http://tinyurl.com/5ureh4). In an amazing show of human compassion, the family raises almost $40,000 (For donations please visit: http://tinyurl.com/4oa7xs)! The story is starting to get a lot of press. The hospital in NY is now telling them that it wasn’t the money, it was something else and to please stop contacting the media. The story keeps changing.

So, I signed up to get updates on Brett from the Care Page that was set up for him (http://tinyurl.com/3p4s94). I just got another update today that was a sad reminder to not take the people in our lives for granted. Here’s a portion of the post from Tanda (Brett’s mom):

Brett’s birthday is October 9th. He’ll be 10 years old! I hope he will feel up to a little party here. There were plenty of times in the past few months when I didn’t think he’d make it to his birthday. It’s hard not to get angry knowing that this will be the first birthday when he couldn’t eat his own cake, blow out his candle, open his presents or get to play with his new toys. Last year he wanted a Ninja Turtle birthday. I made him a green cake with the turtle shell design and he got, like, ten thousand Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle toys and accessories. And we bought him a footlocker to keep his favorite toys locked up so his brothers couldn’t lose or break them. Now, I’m going to use his footlocker to keep all the things in that help me to remember what he was like before he got sick and became the silent shadow of himself. I miss him. He used to drive me absolutely crazy because he wanted to do everything his own way (which was usually the opposite of mine) and we clashed ALL the time. But now, I would do anything to hear him argue with me. I would welcome his sarcasm and I would not say a word when he came in the apartment with wet, muddy clothes. If I got to hear him say “mom” one more time, I would be the happiest mother in the world.

Oh, god. How did we get here…?

So, thank your children for yelling at you or throwing a fit, because they’re still able to. Thank your mother and/or father for asking you the same question 50 times, because they’re still here to ask. Thank your husband for coming home late without calling, because he still came home. And thank whoever that you’re still able to be a part of it all.

So, apparently, I have some “very rare” pictures of a now somewhat famous wrestler. I put “very rare” in quotes because every site that I saw that had this guy dressed up as previous characters were marked as rare or very rare. So, why can’t I put it?

If you’ve ever watched the ECW, you may have seen Jonathan Rechner — better known as Balls Mahoney. I’ve seen this guy wrestle many, many times, but under a different name.

Way back when I was 18, my ex and I used to go to wrestling matches in an almost deserted strip mall in Berlin, NJ. (I knew about the place from an ex before that – we used to go and help set up the chairs before the matches and then take them down afterwards) The matches were fought by students of the Monster Factory Wrestling School, owned by Larry Sharpe (yes, “Pretty Boy” Larry Sharpe). I LOVED going to these things! It was like old time wrestling — not the “soap operas for men” we have today. There were always big name wrestlers coming through, too! I remember seeing The Bushwackers and King Kong Bundy. He is one big man. I went up to him to say hi and ended up holding his cup of water for him while he signed autographs. Wasn’t smart enough to get one myself (an autograph that is) though.

Anyway, when he started out, Jonathan Rechner wrestled as Abbudah Singh. He was my all time favorite out of all the guys there at the time. Here are some pics I took:

There was another time he showed up at the matches, but this time he was Xanta Klaus. We knew it was him, but he wouldn’t admit it. I believe that was his first character for the WWF. We did get our picture taken with him:

So, aside from meeting Bobby Darren when I was a little kid, this has been my only other brush with the famous. I’ll take whatever I can get.

By the way…if you’re interested, Monster Factory is still operating and has moved to Bellmawr, NJ. I think they have matches every Saturday at 2:00…check their website for actual info: http://www.monsterfactory.com. I’m thinking of checking it out one of these days.

I’ve been discovering a lot of new stuff lately. Partly because of trying to be greener and partly because of becoming vegetarian. Two of my new faves are fruits. I’m almost convinced that they transport crack or something with them because I can’t get enough!

• 1) Mangoes – If you told me a few months ago that I’d actually be craving mangoes, I’d have told you that you were crazy! I’d had mango flavored stuff before and never liked the taste at all. A few weeks ago, our grocery store had pre-cut mango on sale. So, I figured I’d try it, seeing that I had never had the actual fruit before and, if I didn’t like it, Michael does. I was on the fence, but ate the whole thing (it was a snack size container) to give it a fair chance. Last week at the store, I saw a giant organic mango and decided it give it another try since I still wasn’t sure. After dinner one night, I peeled it, cut it up and proceeded to eat the whole thing. I couldn’t help myself! It was the most fantastic thing I had ever tasted! So, this past week, I bought two smaller mangoes. I just had one with lunch and it’s all I can do to not eat the other one! I think I need to buy more the next time I go to the store!
• 2) Avocado – Again, if you told me a few months ago that I’d actually be craving avocado, I’d have said you were off your rocker! I can’t even remember how it came to be that I tried avocado. I know it was in a salad I got at Don Pablo’s but I’m not sure if it was listed on the menu and I decided to give it a try or if they didn’t list it and it was a surprise that it was on there. In any event, it was on the salad, I tried it, I loved it. Last week, I knew I was making tacos for dinner one night so I decided to buy an avocado to have on taco night (incidentally, same night as “inhaling giant mango” night). I ended up putting the avocado right on my tacos and, oh my god….BEST tacos I ever made. If anyone’s interested, here’s what I used that night and what I’ll use in the future:
• Ortega Hardshell Taco Dinner Kit (no palm oil in this one! I don’t remember seeing high fructose corn syrup either.)
• LightLife Smart Ground (original — it’s also vegan)
• organic canned black beans
• sharp cheddar cheese
• sour cream (low/no-fat has palmitate in it — a.k.a. palm oil! use less of the regular instead!)
• avocado (grow a houseplant with the seed! mine’s sitting in water right now — keep your fingers crossed that I did it right!)
• homemade salsa (homemade by a local farm – not me)
• shredded romaine lettuce
• taco sauce (from taco dinner kit)

So, now I can’t get enough mango or avocado. If you have any other ideas of what to cook with mangoes or avocados I’d love to hear them! Don’t worry if it’s not vegetarian — I can always adapt it!

…has gotten soooo much better!!!

So, many of you may know that we (hubby and I) love everything that’s comfortable. Soft, squishy pillows, fluffy blankets, soft socks…you name it and we probably love it. For the most part, I LIVE in cotton clothing. As part of my new “greening” process, I’m even more conscious about what I buy. Now, I’ve discovered something new (to me anyway)…100% organic cotton. Why didn’t anyone tell me about this stuff sooner?!?!? I recently purchased 3 t-shirts at Target and I’m in love. I don’t know if they have a high thread count or what but they’re super soft, extra comfy and as light as can be. I need to find more of this wonderful fabric STAT.

You will be sorely missed.

http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/
20080529_ap_carolburnettstarharveykormandiesat81.html

One of the greatest sketches ever from the Carol Burnett Show:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-FLSCUsUKs

I can’t believe it’s been a month since I’ve posted anything! I was hoping that my mind would churn out posts once or twice a day! Oh well…maybe I’m still getting used to this and need to just type.

I’ll have more pictures to post later this week. I’ll be going to the zoo again – this time with my best friend and her niece. I can’t wait! I’m taking the good camera. It may not hold as many pictures but at least they won’t be all shaky and blurry! And maybe Sugi and Tua will both be outside this time and maybe Sugi will show off his beautiful cheek pads instead of hiding!

Hopefully I’ll think of something else to write about soon!

I decided to change my profile picture. I thought the old one was a really good picture of me, until someone told me it wasn’t. I was bummed all morning and then got upset and decided to keep the old one. Then I got over myself and looked at it again. Ugh…she was right…

I ended up doing a photo shoot…of myself…by myself. I don’t normally do crap like that because I’m not very photogenic. Now I have…no lie…47 pictures of myself looking like every other picture “the kids today” take for their MySpace profile. Ah well, at least I got one that I was very pleased with. I deleted my MySpace profile but I’ll use it for Facebook. I get one decent picture and I use it for EVERYTHING!

To the person who had the honesty to tell me about it, THANK-YOU!

This is my first blog and will be exactly what the title implies…random thoughts and questions I may have at any given point in time.

People say I have a vivid imagination and a very strange thought process and I look forward to sharing it with you! Please leave comments and questions of your own, otherwise, I’ll be blogging to myself. Which I guess isn’t too different from talking to yourself, which I do all the time!