Since today is election day, I thought I would do a rare political post.

The great state of Ohio gave us the following laws

In Ohio it is illegal to fish for whales on Sunday, however, no one can be arrested on a Sunday or the 4th of July….

It is illegal to get a fish drunk.

In Canton Ohio it is illegal to play any game in the public parks without the Superintendent’s permission.

In Cleveland it is illegal to catch mice without a hunting license.

In Youngstown it is illegal to run out of gas.

Now that is just a few dumb laws for more in Ohio and other states Click Here.

After reading just a few of these laws I wonder if anyone would trust a politician to make laws that really matter. They are the one who made these laws. As far as I know there still are no wild whales in Ohio.

We’ve had many CSI series or maybe an NCIS series. How many Law and Orders have there been. Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits have had multiple variations. I won’t talk about all of the different versions of Star Trek. Or the many versions of various comic book heroes on TV cartoons.

And now the TV series “V” comes back to television. From the commercials it looks like it may be very similar to the original. Good looking aliens, but they are hiding something. Scuttlebutt on the web indicates that what they are hiding will be a little different than the first version.

I really enjoyed the first series back in the 80’s. It was one of the show I remember talking to friends about. I’m not sure if this show will generate the same buzz.

Anyone going to watch? Anyone remember the original show?

Halloween missed me this year, or should I say I missed it. All of this actually started Thursday when I was not feeling well. I slept through most of the day with a sore throat and headache. Friday was worse, I woke up early in the morning (3:00 am) with a massive earache. I tried getting in to see the Dr, but I missed the 8:00am call time by 5 minutes. I was told they could call me if there was a cancellation, or I could come in and wait for one. Hmmm. If the pain had been worse, I may have gone in to wait, but I think that would have been in an emergency room, not the Drs. office. I took the alternative to have them call me. That may have been the wrong move. No Dr. visit on Friday.

I spent the day with my ear under moist heat. That and some Tylenol made the earache bearable by 6:00pm. All I needed was some sleep and I should be fine, right?…. Wrong. I woke up Saturday with a cough that just would not quit. I didn’t even try searching for these symptoms on the web. Throat feels fine, but I had a severe tickle. I could not stop coughing. I’ve never had this sort of illness. One or the other sure, but different things in succession, nope.

Today I was feeling better, no sore throat, no headache, no earache, no cough. Until play practice. The extra talking I did made my throat tickle again.. I stopped talking at 5:00pm and the tickle has subsided. Maybe if I can get away without talking much tomorrow, my throat will be better by Tuesday’s rehearsal.

Anyway, I had my costume all set and was prepared to go to a Halloween gathering. I even had the makings for a wonderful Halloween treat.

Here it is…

Bloody Fingers and Toes

1 package Lil’Smokies
1 package brats
Favorite BBQ sauce.

Cut all sausages into toe and finger tip size pieces. Fry brats in skillet until cooked through, brown Lil’Smokies. Place in crockpot and stir in your favorite BBQ sauce. Heat through. Serve.

Hot dogs or other sausage types could be used in addition to other types. 1.5 to 2 1lbs meat should be used. Various types of sausages will give you different finger and toe sizes.

Studying lines for tomorrow night’s rehearsal. I have some fun parts and they are the smaller roles. The intoxicated Santa at the beginning of the play is going to be a lot of fun all on 3 lines. Another 3 lines, and being on stage with my 3rd daughter makes the role of Dr. 2 very fun. Another 3 lines for another small part and 3 more for my 4th small part. 12 lines all memorized.

Some lines were taken away and I was given the part of Kris Kringle’s friend and Dr from the Maplewood home, Kris’ home away from the North Pole. This should be fun.

Anyway back to the lines….

Some trouble with casting the latest show I’m in. At one point in time all of the roles were cast and everything was going well. I’m not sure what happened but we lost one of our male actors and on of the females. We had volunteers to take up the missing female parts, but we still need one more male. I’m sure our director is at her wits end.

The male parts available would be an lawyer for the court room all in Act 2. If that part wasn’t desired, the new male actor could play Mr. Macy and other assorted roles. We have about 4 weeks left for rehearsal, and are almost desperate for this. We have other actors with multiple roles, but because all of us are in the courtroom scenes, we can’t take on this one additional role.

Hey, it is only about 40 lines. Anybody in the Williams County OH area want a chance to be on stage????

you were going to kill it!!

Reliving a bit of my childhood tonight. I’m watching “It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown”. Of course I have a signed document, even though it isn’t notarized.

Of course cartoons of the 1960’s were sometimes written for adults as well as children. I remember watching these shows year after year, but my parents would also watch. When they stopped showing them as often, my wife and I got the Charlie Brown cartoons on Video. I’m not sure, but I think I’ve seen each show at least 20 times. It could be more, but I don’t remember watching as much in High School or College.

Good shows, good humor make a timeless show.

Anyone have a favorite childhood cartoon?

The original recipe I had called for 4 boneless chicken breasts, 1 bag frozen mixed vegetables, and 3/4 cup chicken broth, salt and pepper to taste. This could be served with potatoes or noodles. Always quick, easy and tasty, but way too much for one person. So I cut this down to try to serve 1.

I have a small crock pot to use for dip and other small recipes, so I set out to use this. I had 1 boneless chicken breast, enough vegetables for 1, chicken broth to just cover the chicken breast (just like in the big crock pot) and some red pepper flakes instead of salt and pepper. Cooked this for 3 hours on high, and served with mashed potatoes… I thought it was good. Not bad for a cool fall evening.

And this was a little healthier than my breakfast food cravings of just a little while ago. How often should one eat sausage gravy? 😉

Our rehearsals have started for the WCCT’s production of “Miracle on 34th Street”. I started with a few male roles, since they were small roles and would be easily played by 1 actor. I started out with 4 such roles. Then 3 others were added, with lines from one or two being combined with one of the new parts. Today I was moved to a different role and lost another. Such is the way of community theater.

I’m just happy I get to keep the role I wanted. And I am again on stage with one of my daughters…

We do have a great Santa Clause with a real beard. In my opinion, our Santa is one of the best actors on our little stage. It is a pleasure to work with him again. A few other actors that I’ve been on stage with are also in the cast. And we also have many new people on stage. I always like seeing new people on stage. They are the way our theater grows.

I’ll have to add a countdown the the opening. It should be a fun show….

This weekend seems to be a big astronomy shindig.  The event is called Galilean Nights. This is in honor of Galileo. Sidewalk astronomers around the world will be out letting people look through their scopes to see the Moon, Jupiter or some other bright evening object.

The site above has a link to find some sidewalk astronomy locations. The closest places to this neck of the woods will be Bowling Green Ohio, Sylvania Ohio and Fort Wayne Indiana. If my youngest agrees, I may be in Fort Wayne.

In case you wondered, a sidewalk astronomer is somebody who sets his/her telescope out on the sidewalk. They hope people will stop and share the evening sky with them.

Tomorrow  I will be using some leftover beef roast to be the base of my dinner sandwich.    I have more salad fixings so that works out too.

Thin sliced beef, beef broth, onions, peppers.  Saute onions and peppers when tender add broth and beef heat through.  Drain, serve with tortillas, shredded cheese and salsa.    Salad or something else to go with this and I’m all set.  Or I could use some of the rolls from today and serve it au jus, skipping the salsa.  That of will depend on how I feel.

I will be making a trip to Fort Wayne Thrusday and Friday, so I may not have homemade sandwiches for those days.  It all depends on when I get home.  Thursday night is also play rehearsal so  that limits the amount of time I can spend in the kitchen.  There are quicker things to put together, and of course the easy way out  — hitting some fast food place.

I’m having fun putting together some quick ‘meals’ and sharing them, I hope you can try one or two on your own.  I’m also open to any suggestions.