angelm's Blog

1/4 cup butter
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 pinch salt
1 cup sour cream
1 cup raisins




DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan. I use a glass one.
In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the sour cream. Sift together the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt; stir into the sour cream mixture until just blended. Fold in raisins. Transfer the batter to the prepared loaf pan.
Bake for 50 to 60 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a small knife inserted into the crown, comes out clean

We have all heard the 'man bites dog' stories, but how about a real-life 'man marries dog' tale!

This one takes the biscuit, and it could only happen in India, the land of the Kama Sutra.

But you won't find this kind of love story between man and beast in the ancient Indian sex manual.

It took place for real during a traditional hindu ceremony at a temple in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

The groom in question was a 33-year-old Indian farmer named Selvakumar, and he was wed to a female dog named Selvi.

He married his four legged bitch to atone for stoning two other dogs to death and stringing them up in a tree 15 years ago.

He believed the act cursed him and he had been suffering ever since, he told the Hindustan Times.

After he stoned the dogs he said his legs and hands got paralysed, he lost hearing in one ear, and his speech was impaired.

With doctors unable to help him, Selvakumar turned to an astrologer who told him he was cursed by the spirits of the dogs he had killed.

He could undo the curse only if he married a dog and live with it, the soothsayer warned.

Family members chose a stray female dog who was then bathed and clothed for the wedding occasion.

Selvi the bride was brought to the temple by village women and a Hindu priest conducted the ceremony.

The paper showed a picture of Selvakumar sitting next to his canine bride, which was adorned in an orange sari and flower garland.

The paper said the groom and his family then had a feast, while the dog got a bun.

It was reported that Selvi attempted to make a bolt for it -- apparently due to the big crowds -- but she was tracked down and returned to her new 'husband'.

"The dog is only for lifting the curse and after that, he plans to get a real bride," a friend of the groom said.

Deeply superstitious people in rural India sometimes organize weddings to dogs and other animals, believing it can beat certain curses.

Church urges hanky panky among members



YBOR CITY, Fla. - A southwest Florida church issued a challenge for its married members this past Sunday: Hanky panky every day. Relevant Church head pastor Paul Wirth says the 50 percent divorce rate was the catalyst for The 30-Day Sex Challenge.


"And that's no different for people who attend church," Wirth said. "Sometimes life gets in the way. Our jobs get in the way."

Oh, and the flip side of the challenge? No rolling in the sheets for the unwed.

Church member Tim Jones and his fiancee agreed to take on the challenge, though he acknowledges it'll be a tough month. But he added: "I think it's worth trying to find out other things about each other."

897-777-678-972-148-510
Good luck and have a great day!!

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (6 ounces)
1 1/2 cups peanut butter
2 tablespoons butter
30 small foil candy cups
PREPARATION:
Combine the chocolate chips, 2/3 cup peanut butter, and butter in a large glass measure. Microwave on HIGH for about 1 1/2 minutes, until chocolate is melted. Stir until smooth. Pour half of the melted chocolate mixture into the bottom of small candy cups. Put the remaining peanut butter (3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon) in a small microwave-save bowl and microwave on HIGH for 1 minute. Spoon peanut butter over of the chocolate layer in the foil candy cups. Cover with the remaining chocolate mixture.


Cool in a covered container

Ingredients
3 Three Musketeers candy bars
3 cups milk
1 cup marshmallows
Directions
1-Dice up the candy bars.
2-Melt the candy bar pieces on medium-low heat until it forms a gooey mess.
3-Pour in 1 cup of milk and whisk until smooth. And one cup of marshmallows. Stir until melted.
4-Whisk in two more cups of milk, and heat until warmed through.
5-Serve.

Before I knew you, I had always loved you,
Even as I dreamed of whom I'd love.
My inner picture was a portrait of you
Years before your heart my heart would move.
Vistas of enchantment are but rarely
As we find them in reality.
Love with you is what I dreamed, but really,
Eden as no dream could ever be.
Nor is this the magic of the moment,
The proper costume for the holiday.
In words like these one finds the winnowed ferment,
Not of the desire, but of the way,
Else lost amid the longings of the day.

These strawberry fudge balls, , are made like Bourbon balls, with crushed vanilla wafers, melted chocolate, and strawberry preserves, along with cream cheese and almonds.
INGREDIENTS:
1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, softened
1 cup semisweet chocolate morsels, melted
3/4 cup vanilla wafer crumbs
1/4 cup strawberry preserves , Smuckers
1/2 cup almonds or pecans, toasted and finely chopped*
PREPARATION:
Beat cream cheese at medium speed with a hand-held electric mixer until creamy. Beat in melted chocolate until smooth. Stir in vanilla wafer crumbs and strawberry preserves; cover and chill for 1 hour.

Chocolate Fudge Recipe

Shape into 1-inch balls; roll in toasted chopped almonds or pecans, and chill. Yield: 4 dozen.
*To toast nuts, spread out in a single layer on a baking sheet. Toast in a 350° oven, stirring occasionally, for 10 to 15 minutes. Or, toast in an ungreased skillet over medium heat, stirring, until golden brown and aromatic

You Mean I Wasn't Supposed to Get 20's?




Feb 8, 11:09 PM (ET)


VALPARAISO, Ind. (AP) - An employee of a Valparaiso Wal-Mart has been charged with theft for repeatedly making purchases to get change from a self-service cash register that was dispensing $20 bills instead of $1 bills.

Police say 24-year-old Christopher Sheets made 10 purchases in 4 1/2 hours Tuesday morning and got about $600.

A store security official said $20 and $1 bills were loaded in the wrong slots of the self-service register. The mistake wasn't noticed until a customer complained that the machine gave a $1 bill in change instead of a 20.

Porter County Jail officials said Sheets was not in custody Friday. It was not known if he had an attorney and there was no listing for Sheets in the Valparaiso telephone directory.

Woke up to icy roads this morning!Schools are called off but of course it's off to work!If you have bad road conditions be careful!!

RECIPE INGREDIENTS:
36 2-inch graham crackers
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk (don't use evaporated milk)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
16-ounce package semisweet chocolate morsels
3/4 cup coarsely chopped pecans
1. Preheat the oven to 350° (325° for glassware). While you generously grease an 8-inch square baking pan, put your kids to work crushing the graham crackers into fine crumbs. It's especially easy and fun if you seal the crackers in a plastic bag and then use a rolling pin.

2. Stir together the sweetened condensed milk, vanilla extract, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add the chocolate morsels, pecans, and graham cracker crumbs and mix with a wooden spoon until well blended.

3. Spoon the batter (it will be very stiff) into the greased pan. Use the back of a wooden spoon (or clean hands) to pat the batter into an even layer. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Let cool completely in the pan.

4. Use a cookie cutter or a butter knife to cut out small (these brownies are rich!) heart shapes. Serve plain or with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or raspberry sherbet. Makes about 8 to 12, depending on size.

Two years of celebration to mark Lincoln's 200th birthday


A giant birthday party on Feb. 12, 2008, will kick off a two-year celebration commemorating the 200th anniversary of Lincoln's 1809 birth.





USA TODAY
LOUISVILLE — When Jim Sayre of Lawrenceburg, Ky., began growing a beard in the late 1970s, people started to point out his resemblance to the nation's 16th president. So he entered an Abraham Lincoln look-alike contest and won.
His interest in Lincoln was already high, so he began memorizing his speeches. Eventually, that led to 25 years of Sayre interpreting Lincoln's life for school groups, civic organizations and at Lincoln's birthplace in Hodgenville, Ky.

This week, Sayre will be among hundreds expected to gather there to kick off two years of celebrating the 200th anniversary of Lincoln's birth. The celebration begins Tuesday with a 10:30 a.m. ceremony featuring first lady Laura Bush 3 miles from the 16-foot-by-18-foot dirt-floor cabin where Lincoln was born on Feb. 12, 1809.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," said Sayre, 72.

A host of events have been scheduled through 2010 around the country, particularly in Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois, where Lincoln spent much of his life. Several events are scheduled for Washington D.C.

Tree Man who grew 'roots' offered hope of new life by doctor

Above: Dr Anthony Gaspari believes that he has diagnosed Dede's rare condition. Below: Dede with his teenage daughter. He fears that his children may also become infected

An Indonesian fisherman who is "half man half tree" has been offered new hope of recovery by an American doctor - and Vitamin A.

32-year-old Dede, who lives in a remote village in Indonesia with his two children, feared that he would be killed by the tree-like growths that cover his body.

Known locally as 'Tree Man' his condition has baffled local doctors for 20 years.

He has root like structures growing out of his body - branches that can grow up to 5cm a year and which protrude from his hands and feet, and welts covering his whole body.

In an attempt to earn a living to support his family, he is part of a circus troupe, displaying his Tree Man limbs along with others afflicted with skin deformities in 'freak' shows.

The former fisherman was the subject of a documentary "Half Man Half Tree", part of the "My Shocking Story" series on Discovery Channel TV.

Dede's story began when wart-like "roots" started growing out of his arms and feet after he cut his knee in a teenage accident. The medical world was completely baffled.

The welts spread rapidly across his body and soon he was not able to carry out ordinary household tasks.

Dede was sacked from his job and deserted by his wife. He has been raising two children, now in their late teens, in poverty. He is resigned to the fact that local doctors have no cure for his condition.

To try to support his family he even joined a local "freak show", parading in front of a paying audience along with victims of other peculiar diseases.

While he has the support of his extended family, he has frequently been a target of ridicule and abuse in rural fishing village where he lives.

But now new hope has emerged for Dede after an American dermatology expert flew out to his home village south of the capital Jakarta.

Dr. Anthony Gaspari of the University of Maryland claims to have identified Dede's condition, and has proposed a treatment that could completely change his life.

Following the testing of samples of the lesions and Dede's blood, Dr. Gaspari says his condition is caused by the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV). This is a fairly common infection that usually causes small warts to develop on sufferers.

Dede's problem is that he has a rare genetic fault that impedes his immune system. This means his body is unable to contain the warts.

According to Dr. Gaspari, the virus was able to "hijack the cellular machinery of his skin cells", instructing them to produce huge amounts of the substance that caused the tree-like growths known as "cutaneous horns" on both his hands and feet.

The doctor became involved in the case through the Discovery Channel documentary, and he is convinced that Dede's condition can be largely cleared up by a daily doses of a synthetic form of Vitamin A, which has been demonstrated to stop the growth of warts in severe cases of HPV.

Dr. Gaspari said that Dede's warts should reduce in size to the point where he can use his hands. He said he had never seen anything like this in his entire career.

I am so tired of hearing reading in the paper and hearing on the news of children being abused!!I also am tired of the excuses these sick people are giving;they were on drugs or drunk or they had no idea it was going on in their own home.Children are innocent angels.I think if someone abuses a chikl in any way they should be tortured in the same way the child was!!I am sorry everyone but I had too get this off my chest!God bless all you sweet children in this sometimes cruel world.

THE EYES OF FAITH

Indeed, every true word ever uttered, every thought sincerely and lucidly entertained, every harmonious note sung or sounded, laughter flashing like lightning between the head and the heart, human love in all its diversity binding together husbands and wives, parents and children, grandparents and grandchildren, and making of all mankind one family and our earth their home; the earth itself with its colours and shapes and smells, and its set¬ting in a universe growing ever vaster and its basic components becoming ever more microscopic - seen with the eyes of Faith, it all adds up to a oneness, an image of everlasting reality.

- From " A Spiritual Journey," in Malcolm Muggeridge, Conversion