Shelbyville Times-Gazette: Life & Leisure

A novel effort in November (11/04/09)
"Mom? It's 7:45. Are you taking us to school?" "Mom, the cats haven't been fed and they're staring at Dad while he's napping and licking their lips." "Mom? Mom? Are you in there Mom?" "What?" I dragged my hands away from the keyboard and my mind out of the torrid romance of the he-saids and she-saids of my growing novel to stare at the two bedraggled and neglected waifs standing behind me. ...

The ever-changing seasons of our lives (11/01/09)
One day a couple of weeks ago, it was grey and wet and blustery. (Please, O Mighty Editors, leave in the Brit spelling of "grey" instead of "gray." Grey is the wild heath in winter and gray is the color of government-issued metal desks.) I was driving the boys to school and said, "It's a Novembery day."...

Move over, stuffing: panade is an upscale alternative (11/01/09)
"Having reached age 30, it's not often that I find a food so amazingly delicious that it forces me to wonder why I've never had it before. Sure, I'll sometimes have new variations on pasta or risotto or veggies that are so good they're worth remembering. But rarely do I find a dish that is both unlike anything I've had before and so, so scrumptious that I want to eat all five servings of it in one sitting."...

Relay campaign kicks off (11/01/09)
Bedford County Relay For Life organizers came together last week for the 2010 kickoff of the campaign for the county's single largest annual fundraisers. A birthday party was the icing on the kickoff's cake. "To most people, birthdays are just a reminder that they're getting older," said co-chair Judi Burton to folks attending the kickoff, held at the Blue Ribbon Club on the Celebration grounds. ...

A long way from here to maternity (11/01/09)
A few months ago, I wrote a column about how I don't do pregnancy very well. My appointment at 35 weeks re-confirmed this for me. I had an ultrasound that day to check for growth. The baby now weighs four pounds, 11 ounces and is shorter than average. ...

One short ride, many years of memories (11/01/09)
It's funny how we get sentimentally attached to things ... even the most materialistic things. We know we're not supposed to get attached -- most of us have been told since we were children that things don't matter. It's the people and relationships in life, and how we treat others, that count the most...

Local native manages massive development (10/28/09)
Bedford County native Fred Davis plays a key role in supervising a big project. How big? Ten billion dollars big. No, that wasn't a misprint. Billon, with a "B." Davis, a program manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, is supervising the project managers constructing what amounts to a new high-rise city at U.S. Army Garrison Humphreys, about 50 miles south of Seoul, Korea...

Age knows no limits at trick-or-treat time (10/28/09)
One of the Times-Gazette bloggers, Bo Melson, asked a question online the other day about when are you too old to go trick or treating? The answers were varied and funny and it brought to mind a funny column by the late great humorist and mom, Erma Bombeck. The one part I remember best was along the lines of "If you can drive yourself from house to house, you're too old to be trick-or-treating."...

Few things beat the thrill of that first paycheck (10/25/09)
When I first started working, mowing lawns and baby sitting at 9 (younger than my youngest is now), I had a deal with my mom. I always gave her half of my earnings. Then, when I wanted to buy something major, she and Dad would match whatever she had saved back for me. ...

Sweet taste of success follows cooking show (10/25/09)
If burning, red eyes with dark circles under them are indicators of success, I'm OK with that -- today. That's how most of my friends at the Times-Gazette, including myself, look and feel this morning, which happens to be the day after our sold-out relish® Cooking School and Expo...

Hurtful words cut like a knife (10/25/09)
Maybe it's because I'm extremely pregnant and hormonal these days, but people just seem to be a lot meaner than they used to be. A few weeks ago, I was eating lunch at a restaurant and overheard two women talking. They appeared to be in their early to mid-20s. One was clearly upset. I heard her ask her friend, "What is it about me? Why do they always break up with me?"...

Arrowhead ranch hopes to point boys in the right direction (10/25/09)
Preston and Jeffrey Sweeney said they felt "lucky" to have found their 200 acre plot of land in Normandy on the day it went up for sale. That may be true, if you consider that luck is really when preparation meets opportunity. The Sweeneys' lifelong dream of opening a ranch for boys in need of a safe place to live is about to become a reality in Arrowhead Ranch, the once large Normandy dairy farm of Randall Banks. ...

Dial2Do offers convenience, questions (10/21/09)
I would call voice recognition and handwriting recognition the Holy Grails of computer ergonomics, except that it ruins the metaphor of the Holy Grail for there to be two of them. In movies like "2001: A Space Odyssey" and TV shows like "Star Trek," characters converse easily with computers using voice commands. ...

Crossing her fingers, hoping for better luck (10/21/09)
I'm going to have to start watching Titans football games again. I know most of you are rolling your eyes and asking, "Why?" because of the miserable season the boys in blue are having this year, but that's just it. It's all my fault they're losing...

Cooking show recipes (10/20/09)
Sofrito is a rich sautéed mixture of onion, peppers and garlic that makes for a great tomato sauce. It is used in many Puerto Rican dishes. Use a lean ground beef, but not the leanest, so that the meatballs will be tender. Sofrito Sauce:...

Not your average pumpkin pie (10/18/09)
When it comes to food and fall, apples, pumpkins and squash seem to be the staples. From savory soups to sweet pumpkin lattés to deep dish apple pies, I love every bit of what food offers each fall. But when you're ready to move on to something just a little different, pumpkin crunch cake is the perfect dessert for you. ...

Luck makes it worth the trip (10/18/09)
Last weekend, my husband Brian and I traveled to Memphis for his 20th high school reunion. To be honest, I wasn't looking forward to it. I was nearly 33 weeks pregnant, and Memphis is four hours from here. Sometimes, the things you dread the most turn out to be the most fun...

Dial's active life includes many different activities (10/18/09)
Relaxing doesn't happen too often for Chelsey Dial, but last week, as soon as the Central High School senior sat down for a moment her phone rang. "No, mam, I believe I already know where I'm going," Chelsey told the woman on the other end. Chelsey received several college recruitment calls just last week, and if you know her, it's easy to see why...

It's look-out-for-deer season (10/18/09)
It's that time of year again where my fear of driving on the back roads increases 10 fold. Last weekend, my husband and I hit a deer while driving home from town. I am surprised this was just my first time hitting one, too, because they're everywhere, it seems...

Out of the mouths of babes: 'You've got a hole in your sweater!' (10/18/09)
What better place is there to learn a valuable lesson than at school? I went out to Learning Way Elementary School Tuesday for a story about National School Lunch Week and was quickly reminded that even hard-core, jaded, cynical, tough-as-nails-investigative reporters could learn a trick or two from a pack of third graders...

Enter the perfect canine (10/15/09)
Well, I now have a dog and frankly, it's totally creeping me out. I'm not a dog person. I've had some good ones in my life, from Bonnie the cocker spaniel to Topsy, The Ugliest Dog on Earth (Why didn't they have that competition when I had her???) There was Jelly Bean, the dachshund and Silver, the Rottweiler-spitz cross (very determined spitz daddy, very accommodating Rott mommy). ...

2, 4, 6, 8 - Columnist can't collaborate (10/14/09)
Thanks to a friend, I got an invite last week to the beta test of Google Wave. There had been a sort of online rumor a week or two ago -- the type of thing for which I don't normally fall -- that Google was giving away invites to those who Tweeted about the product. ...

Food expo star offers delicious fall treat (10/11/09)
In anticipation of the upcoming cooking school and expo Oct. 20, sponsored by the T-G and relish® Magazine, I perused through the recipes relish® chef Jon Ashton is planning to prepare for the Shelbyville Cooking Show. I was able to see pictures of the dishes as well and by the time I had finished looking through Ashton's recipe plan, I was starving...

Fall festival truly rocks, without rolling your wallet (10/11/09)
I don't often use my column to plug commercial ventures -- Godiva chocolate not withstanding -- but I've really got to, this time. Take your kids to the Cedar Rock fall festival! I took Buzz with me briefly last Saturday on opening day because I was one of the judges for the scarecrow contest. ...

Back to college: Major effort, but worth the trouble (10/11/09)
I am about halfway through my first semester back in college, and I'm enjoying most of it. It looks like I have an A in all of my classes except for one, and I have a B in that one. My hardest class this semester is astronomy. I have a B in it, although if I mess up on even one test, I'll be down to a C. This class requires me to read the chapter, go through the online lecture, answer study questions, take a timed test and do a lab. The hard part is the lab...