Golden Showers

You can find more germs on a desktop than a toilet seat says the author of this book in her interview on 20/20...Myth: Toilet Seats are the Dirtiest Thing in the Bathroom...

She admits she has spent years herself dangling over toilet seats, but now this self-professed germ freak is changing her attitude. She says paper toilet shields help your head more than your bottom, and those who hover often just leave a mess for the next person...


How Many Germs Sit on the Seat?

Mothers teach their daughters not to sit on a public toilet seat, but is this really a big source of germs?

"No," said Janse. "You're not going to get germs from your backside. You're going to get them from your hands."

Okay lets talk you 'hover'ers'! BTW the print is in gold for a reason. I go to open mics and the worst bathrooms I ever see are the ones like last night in a Pub. I guess women who hover while peeing drunk are staggering when they do their business and they make a mess! I hate it when I go into a bathroom and I look at the seat before I sit, and place the protectors or paper for myself. When that happens and I see someone has sprayed all over the seat because they HWI...I want to start giving out tickets to those people who do not bother cleaning the toilet seat off if I catch them coming out of the stall I go into. Why? Because it is their piss, not mine I am wiping off!!!

Am I upset, Yes, because this issue is as old as dirt, and you hover'ers need to take responsibility and start cleaning up your golden shower mess...

Do you hover when you take a POO? If you do I would like to know how you do that and not miss the seat...a girl I knew once said she would squat to pee, but sit to poo...explain that crazy notion to me please...

To see if that's true, "20/20" asked Janse's co-author Dr. Charles Gerba to check our bathroom with his germ meter.

"Usually, actually the floor is the dirtiest, as you might guess," said Gerba.

The floor test revealed about 2 million bacteria per square inch. Gerba says that's about 200 times higher than a sanitary surface.

"This is pretty bad," said Gerba. "We consider that a fail. So you don't want to walk around barefoot in ABC News toilets."

Not surprisingly, the sanitary napkin disposal unit also failed the test and rated as the spot with the most germs in our ladies' room.

But our sink, an area that is usually a haven for germs, was found to be unexpectedly clean. The biggest surprise was found on the toilet seat.

"This is the cleanest spot so far," said Gerba.

Gerba defines a sanitary surface as something clean enough to eat off of, with no more than 1,000 bacteria per square inch. The toilet seat passed that test, but "20/20" reporter Don Dahler's desk failed.

They go on to talk about once you do wash your hands you should not use the air dryer...sure it saves trees, but it also is sucking germs from the air in the restrooms and into your hands...going to Culinary School's Safe & Sanitation class has opened my eyes to why we really get sick, and where the germs really lie...not the food, not the handling of our dishware and lemons folks, but not washing our hands...at least in 8 out of 10 cases...

Read more...

Disclaimer: You who are offended by my TMI...well that is what the title tells you is that the information might be too much, right?

Cheap Chic(ks)

I saw this article today '5 Reasons why we are now shopping at Walmart'...I thought before I read it "What, I thought everyone always has"? The article goes on to discribe how Target has slashed prices, and Walmart's fleeting stocks seem to be rising with the recession lately. What in the world...even if I could not afford to by high end clothes which I draw the line at J. C. Penny's with the price of clothing as I get older. No designer labels in my closet, EVER, unless you consider Lane Bryant designer. Shoes are a different story, and only because I have a high in step and comfort became necessary after having two kids and the old dogs go flat.

I was brought up with minimal possessions in my room as a girl, on or off my back. There was the bed I shared with my little and oldest sister. I slept at the end with my feet in their faces, so I could turn the box fan towards my head, so I could drown out my parents fighting almost nightly, and because we did not have air conditioning, and I swear I had high blood pressure like I do now at twelve! Our clothes were folded and ironed, but lay in one half of a drawer of the one dresser we owned in the hallway. Our shoes were lined up under each one of the four beds that fit into the large one bedroom duplex we lived in. Yes, four beds, two parents, seven kids.

With those numbers my mom made everyone's clothes, so therefore we all wore elastic waist pants and matching tops like everyone else in the house. A few dresses if we were lucky to wear to mass each Sunday. They were jumpers that you wore over a shirt. Being the second to the youngest of the household I also wore hand me three times down. Two older girl cousins that lived in Fort Worth had nicer things that I got when the older siblings moved. By then I was in the sixth grade and hiphuggers had come and gone. Took a few years but I finally got a pair from the cousins along with some mid-drifts, and a padded bikini that was a faded pink and green polk a dot (my dad never let me wear, and it mysteriously disappeard).

I wore that out fit so proudly to my first day of junior high school. Walking around sucking in my already skinny stomach so that the top did not show to much, that is until on the playground the assistant principle saw me hitting the tether ball and realized I had broken the 'no middrift' or 'hip hugger' clothing rule that came about the years before I came on the scene. The pre-sleeze free love hippy era ruined it for me! Getting called to come pick me up from school that day sent my mom into a frenzy as she marched me into Levin's for a pair of wrangler jeans, so I would not wear the other ones to school again. They became my weekend warriors, and eventually I wore them out, and I had learned to hand stitch in home economics so a mushroom patch showed up on the rear. When I turned fifteen those also mysteriously disappeared, and I think my mom passed them off to my first boyfriend who then found a home for them in a local dumpster behind his job at the El Chico.

Oh the memories of my cheap chic fashion through out the years. Finally when my children came along, I too was the queen of my portable Singer. The three of us wore outfits that matched. McCall's Easy Breezy Patterns that turned those jumpers, vests, elastic waist and all into my own private crazy designer fashion statement. Walmart's had started to pop up in every city down south, and Levin's, Ben Franklin's, Woolworth, M. E. Moses and now K-Mart has slowly disappeared. Except in our memories. Wally world became the new cheap chic in our when my son announced he would not wear those home made elastic waist pants and shorts I had made him.

I found myself realizing that my parents had done the best they could and were not as cheap and trashy as I felt growing up. I had also discovered the fine art of a thrift store. You know tags still on those Osh Cosh Be Gosh, and designer woman's fashion that the rich or shopaholics just tossed aside when they became bored with their closets. No boredom in this house. I still am wearing the stretch pants that were fashionable I bought at Walmart over ten years ago. Sure they have a few holes I have had to stitch up in between the legs and on the rear, but most of the time I wear a chef's outfit to my job. If we go out I have a few nice things that I have purchased through gift cards I strategically get from the mom-in-law for Christmas and my birthday for the outlet Lane Bryant.

Ahhhhhh, just give me those old comfortable clothes that stretch out of shape and still fit me like a glove, oh and Walmart sells the fishing license that hubby and I use every year for my revisit of childhood memories of spending time at the cheap chic family time and vacations I had growing up... As long as we are happy who cares where it all comes from?

I wrote this for Alexis AKA Mom, to whom I feel is the most beautiful 'Cheap Chic' and semi-homemade doll I know! Plus I cannot help thinking of that photo that was taken in Walmart...the one where the girl has on a yellow see through dress with no panties on...try on the clothes before buying them, and purchase some undies...I hear Walmart has a sale on under garments at least once a month!

Monday Off Madness

'Out my back door'...wish a bunny would hop by and I might win an award for amateur photographer moment...


Can it be, for once the weather report came true...even my doctor called last night to cancel our appointment in anticipation of not leaving his home for patients on a Monday, and in person...my hubby answered a call that was 'Private Caller' on the screen of the telephone and the other end said "Hello this is Paul", as if my lover dared call my home phone, and not my cell!

He came downstairs knowing I was up to my elbow in food, and says "its for you sweeeeeetie" with a grin from who knows where... "Hello" I say, and in replay "Hey do not bother coming in tomorrow" says the other end. To my surprise it is my homeopathic and chiropractor, Dr. Bizzaro. We joke about if it will really snow ten inches, a record I have not seen since my holiday stay in 2003 with my son at hubby's family and a New Years Eve weekend flight home that was canceled, but if it doesn't I will see him. Evidently when hubby answered the phone all he heard was "Hello its Paul", and having no clue to who was at the other end...too funny!















'Hydrangea and patio furniture waiting for some spring cleaning'


What else was three Texas hillbillies going to do in 3 feet of snow? Well we all bundled up and headed out to find some yummy NYC restaurant to eat, and my son decided he wanted to shovel snow for the first time...and we got a free dessert each out of it! Kids, when they have to do it for a home chore you cannot find them anywhere right?

My hubby and I joked after I hung up the phone, and he said "Boy. your on a first name basis with the guy, do you call our regular doctor (Dr. Rota) 'Anthony'..." he stated with a hint of sarcasm. I reminded him that Paul was my client at the cafe long before I started seeing him professionally, and he call me 'Chef E', so there...blah!















'Who is this sexy stranger...'















'You cannot even see the skies for the powder, but he smiles for his close up'

As you can see we got that snow fall about 1 AM this morning or so...getting up for my nightly glass of water and bathroom fix I looked out the window. Then like a kid on Christmas Eve I jumped out of bed this morning and grabbed the camera. I wanted to share...and suddenly out of no where on skies and all bundled up a strange...no that's my silly husband who decided it was time to break out his cross country skies...




















'Of course he left for work after lunch, and a kiss...leaving this behind with a puddle of water to boot!...possibly for his maid to clean up, yeah right!

I think I will stay warm inside on my day off and catch up on my blog reading, maybe cook, or...

TMI Travel Dreams- Vision Board Finale

Well this is the last of my 'Vision Board' series...the need to travel...

Long ago and in a far away land of 'E' a red headed, freckle faced, cat eye glass wearin', over bite girl that read books taking place in some foreign land. Some stories involved mystery, intrigue and usually a hunk that the heroin would fall for, and may or may not end up together...no I did not read 'Romance Novels'. I never cared for those...you always knew they would end up having hot, hard, and heavy sweaty relations no matter what...I was more of a mystery reader, like Victoria Holt and Jane Austen.

I told everyone when they would ask "What do you want to do when you grow up" that I was going to be 40 years old and know everything, teach or write, and travel to as many places as I could, oh and not live in Texas anymore...

Well, guess it took a while, but it all came true...so saying positive things can bring positive results...I never told them that I would have two kids, loose one, the other move to another state, and I would end up in Jersey, or that life would really just suck sometimes. They do not share the real world in books, at least the ones I read did not...

Okay down to the travel business...and confessions of a Scotch-Irish Chef...

Why Spain? I always wanted to go their and meet a sexy flamenco dancer and wear one of those dresses and pound my heads on the wood floor with a rose in my mouth! Hubby wants to run with the bulls, so I say he can go do that, and when I get the report about him being trampled I will know it is time to look for that sexy dancer and get on with my life (kidding)...

Why Scotland? I have already been to Ireland...spent three and half weeks driving around in a rental car, eating bread, cheese, Coleman's mustard, Cadbury chocolates, learned to throw back a whiskey. Oh, and went out with an Irishman, and a Scotsman (not in the same day though)...yeah I said it...I had been married since I was 18, divorced, and never been wild in my life, so I said "I am gonna live a little"...

Okay 'Why Scotland'...go back a few sentences, accents and combine it with the whiskey, and this time I will take my adorable Irish hubby, and I can do what I did and I want the whole darn trip!

OLE'!