This Denver woman is trying to get people to pay for her trip to the inauguration in Washington DC later this month.  You’re supposed to take a square piece of paper, write a hopeful message on it, and send it to her along with a dollar.  She’ll fold the messages into little origami birds, and personally deliver them to the White House.  (She’ll fold up the dollar bills and personally deliver THOSE to her PURSE!)  She’s also planning on taking pictures of the paper birds arranged in front of various Washington landmarks.  Sounds like fun.  Wanna participate?  Here’s the address to mail your message and your dollar…

Kathleen Schmidt, P.O. Box 9134, Denver, CO 80209.

Of course, time is of the essence, since the big day is not far away.  Tell her you heard about it on the radio, send her my greetings and best wishes!  I congratulate her on her resourcefulness–to me, the most interesting part of the story is how did she get so much PR about this?

Got an e-mail from Trish asking for the coconut cake recipe I was talking about this morning, the cake I made for my wife’s birthday over the weekend.  Happy to share, it’s VERY easy and it turned out delicious, despite my being a “cookin’ rookie,” so if *I* can make it, ANYBODY can!

You start with a basic white sheet cake, follow the directions on the box for the 13 x 9 pan size.  I don’t remember the brand of cake I used, just use your favorite.  Bake the cake, let it cool.  After cooling, take one of the birthday candles and poke holes into the top of the cake, at about two-inch intervals.  The top of the cake winds up looking like one of those “connect-the-dots-and-make-a-box” pencil and paper games they put on the kids menu at Chili’s. 

Once the holes are poked into the cake top, take a can of cream of coconut–I used “Coco’s” but there are a couple of other brands at most supermarkets.  You’ll find it in the place where they sell stuff for mixed drinks, NOT in the baking supplies aisle, strangely.  Most supermarkets DO carry it, though, despite what I was told by the guy who worked at King Soopers.  He insisted that they didn’t carry it when I knew they DID.  But that’s a different story.  Open the can, stir up the contents WELL, because probably the cream and the coconut juice/milk will be separated, then pour out the entire contents over the top of the cake, spreading it evenly, and making sure to drip some liquid into each of the holes.  Then, put it in the refrigerator until you’re ready to serve.

Just before serving, cover the top with Cool Whip or similar dessert topping.  You’ll use the entire regular-sized tub of Cool Whip, spread it evenly over the top of the cake. 

That’s all there is to it!  Cut, serve, enjoy–it’s GOOOOOOOOD!

The City of Aurora is looking for “snow-busters”–people who volunteer to shovel the sidewalk of an elderly or disabled person for the winter.  I often hear people talking about how they’d like to help someone but either don’t know where to start, or don’t have enough time.  Well, THIS is a GREAT way to really help someone, and it doesn’t take that much time.  (Plus, it’s great exercise, too!)

Want more information?  Go to www.auroragov.org, or call 303-739-7000!

These are in no particular order–sort of stream of consciousness…

I think I’m feeling the symptoms of “postal dread.”  That’s the cold, clammy feeling you get as you approach your mail box, because of the threat of bills.  Seems as if I had a handle on Christmas spending–for a while.  But as the holidays drew closer the spending accelerated.  Especially last week while on vacation, it seemed like I was swiping my credit card every five minutes or so.  You every reach the point where you just start feeling like, “what the heck, put it on the card.”  Kind of the same feeling you get after you’ve wrecked your diet.   The incentive to exercise self-control becomes smaller and smaller, until finally you’re eating everthing in sight.  The sad thing is, there’s no escaping the payment that must be made for disposing of one’s self-restraint.

By the way, we still have some left-over Christmas cookies.  Peppermint fudge bars, Rolo cookies and raspberry thumb-print shortbreads.  I think I’ll bring them to the radio station tomorrow and leave them in the break room.  That’s one thing about a radio station, no matter what it is, if you set it out on a plate, SOMEONE will eat it.

Me and the whole family wound up sharing more than just “peace on earth, goodwill to all men” this Christmas.  We also shared that nasty stomach virus that’s going around.  My daughter Janie got it first–we thought (hoped?) it was just an upset stomach from having eaten too many of the aforementioned peppermint fudge, Rolo cookies and raspberry thumb-print shortbread cookies.  Instead, it was the launching pad for “the illness,” as we’ve come to call it.  We’re trying to think of a better name for it, something more clever, a name that captures the essence of the lower intestinal experience.  I came down with it the day before Christmas Eve, recovered in time to be able to enjoy Christmas.  I put my family on a plane to Houston early Friday morning, and that night my son got it.  Then my other daughter, on Sunday night.  Finally my wife got it on Tuesday.  Thank goodness for the big hearts of Gramma and Papa, who were willing to nurse us all back to health when we had all hoped to be celebrating together!

While we were all sick, BTW, we watched a lot of movies at gramma and papa’s house.  One movie was “Mars Attacks,” with Jack Nicholson, Annette Behning, Pierce Brosnan and others.  A Tim Burton movie, which means it was creepy.  I think Tim Burton movies are an aquired taste.  Talk about “dark humor,” yikes!  The scene at the end, where the decapitated heads of Pierce Brosnan and Sarah Jessica Parker(?) are rolling around on the floor of the space craft, trying to kiss each other good-bye before they die–is that not the all-time BLACKEST of all black humor moments in movie history?  I’m not saying I laughed at it–although I will confess that there were plenty of OTHER moments in the movie that were so creepy-absurd, I couldn’t HELP but laugh.  Still–not sure I’m gonna officially “recommend” it as a movie you wanna watch…

Me and my wife caved in and got our daughters (age 11) cell phones for Christmas.  We debated long and hard about it.  The two things the girls REALLLLLY wanted for Christmas were cell phones, or a family dog.  We decided on the cell phones.  To their credit, the girls have been very responsible for the phones and their usage.   That’s because we went with the “pre-paid” cell phone plan, where you pay as you go, in advance.  When the minutes are gone, the phone stops working.  We also stipulated that THEY are the ones responsible for earning the money to purchase additional minutes once the pre-loaded minutes are used up.  So far, they’ve been very frugal about the usage of their minutes,  Fortunately, they’re not charged for incoming texts–their best friend has been texting them quite a bit!   No need to go into the seemingly obligatory discussion about kids and texting.  Suffice it to say, the girls are conserving their texts!

That’s it for today–more stuff tomorrow!  See you on the radio!

Just in case you have a little left over benevolence from the Christmas season, here are a couple of worthy causes you can contribute to… 

The Windsor High School Marching Band is headed to the Inaugural Parade in Washington DC, the ONLY marching band from Colorado–out of 1400 applicants, they only chose 56 groups so this is quite an honor!  And, quite an EXPENSE, as you can imagine.  The estimated cost is about $1500 for EACH member!  Obviously, that’s a lot of money to raise in a short time.  The band’s doing their best, but could use some help.

If you’d like to donate a few bucks–or MORE than a few–there’re several ways you can do that…

Write a check made out to “Windsor High School band,” and drop it off at the school when it opens back up after the holidays.  Or, MAIL it to the school, c/o Gail, P.O. Box 609, Windsor, CO 80550.

Visit the band booster website, www.whsmusicboosters.com and donate online, either through PAYPAL or with your debit or credit card.

 Another good cause is the annual Polar Bear Plunge at Boulder Reservoir, benefitting Alzheimer’s Research.  $10 for kids, $20 for adults, not sure if you actually HAVE to jump in the icy water–although, why WOULDN’T you!?  (Besides the fact that it’s about 35 degrees!)  This event has been going on for the past 26 years, so don’t try to talk them out of it!  January 1st, Boulder Reservoir, registration begins at 10a, people start jumping in the water in their speedos and bikinis at NOON.  Details at www.alz.org/co. 

And a Happy New Year to you!

My mom passed away early Saturday morning after battling with cancer for the past year and a half.  For awhile, it looked like she might beat it.  There was a brief respite late this past spring where the doctors told her that the chemo appeared to have been successful, and as best they could tell, she was cancer-free.  What a great day that was!  But, as is often the case with this despicable disease, it came back.   And when it DID come back, it did so viciously.  She started slipping away in October, and by Thanksgiving it was apparent that she wouldn’t recover.   I got the phone call Saturday morning, caught a quick flight to Texas and spent the rest of the weekend with my dad and younger sister.

Early Sunday morning, I found myself wandering around my parents’ house, lost in thought.  Of course, all my Mom’s stuff was still there, making it doubly difficult to grasp that she was really gone.  There was her jewelry arranged neatly on the dresser–flashy, I want to say “gaudy,” without disrespect, that’s the kind of stuff she liked.  She was a florist, owned her own shop, and always had a certain dramatic “flair” in the way she dressed and presented herself. 

Also on the dresser was a framed placard, which, I think, sort of summed up the way she felt and lived.  It read, “To those who say it can’t be done, please step out of the way of those of us who are doing it.”  As I read that, I thought of how she had built her flower and gift  shop business from scratch back in 1983, starting with $500 of her own money.  It had never been a very profitable business, really, although for many years it grossed as much as a half million dollars.  But it was HER business, and SHE built it, and no matter what anyone would say, she considered it to be wildly successful. 

I spent most of Sunday in Mom’s shop, helping my sister with the liquidation sale of all the gift inventory.  (Yes, we’re closing it, effective next month.)  Each one of the pieces had been personally chosen by my Mom, and each had a little story that went along with it, it seemed.  There was some comfort in knowing that people were taking things home that my mom herself loved.  Even though she’s gone, in a way, she’s still giving of herself.  

Well done, Mom–we miss you already…

I was thinking the other day–seems like I do this TOO often–about all the things I DON’T have.   Nicer car, more “toys,” fatter 401-k, etc.  But as I was reading the paper yesterday, it occurred to me that maybe I should be GRATEFUL for some of the things I don’t have.

I was reading an article about the woman who’d just had the first FACE transplant in the USA.  A medical miracle, a procedure that is only in the preliminary, experimental stages.  Imagine what it must be like to have a face so horribly disfigured that you can’t even go out in public.  So unsightly that you’d gladly go through the pain and discomfort of prolonged surgery and recovery, to have the face of a DEAD person applied to YOUR head.  That’s something I DON’T have–maybe I should be grateful about that.

Another series of articles talked about a respcted Wall Street investment expert–Bernie Madoff–who was busted for stock fraud.  All these years, he’d been ripping off wealthy indicuduals, families and even charitable trust funds, to the tune of $50 BILLION.  If I lost everything I have, it would be bad–but it wouldn’t be as steep a loss as some of these families are facing.  What a bitter betrayal, and what a catastrophic COST for that betrayal: a trusted advisor who turns out to be a cheat and a fraud.  That’s something I DON’T have–maybe I should be grateful about that.

Then there’s the sad story of John Walsh, the host of “America’s Most Wanted.”  As many know, that show was the product of his own personal tragedy.  He and his wife lost their six year old son to a serial killer twenty years ago.  The wife had gone shopping, left their son Adam in the toy department for a couple minutes.  When she came back, he was gone–never to be seen again alive.  They found only the little boy’s head, the body was never recovered.  Worse, no one was ever convicted of the crime.  The prime suspect was never conclusively linked to the crime, and died in prison ten years ago.  The authorities held a press conference this week to announce that the case was officially being closed, which is why the story was in the news.  Imagine having to something that horriffic to live with each day of your life, a parent’s worst nightmare.  That’s something I DON’T have–maybe I should be grateful about that.

I guess the truth of it is, we’re all WAY more blessed than we think we are.

Home and Garden TV has announced their annual “Dream Home Giveaway”–a $2 million home in Calfornia’s Sonoma County wine country.  PLUS you get a brand new GMC Acadia SUV!  The contest isn’t open–yet.  They’re just trying to drum up interest, and who WOULDN’T be interested in winning a two million dollar dream home and a brand new SUV?

Well–wait a minute… Read the rest of this entry »

Ah, memories.  Talking about Christmas shopping and gifts always brings to mind the greatest Christmas gift I ever got.  Ralphie got his Red Ryder BB Gun; For ME it was… Read the rest of this entry »

I was talking on the radio today about a new ultra-limited edition John Elway Harley-Davidson that’s being built by a Colorado motorcycle custom shop.  Blue and orange, personally autographed by Joh Elway himself–sounds pretty “snazzy,” but it’ll set you back sixty grand.  Only twenty of them will be built, and they’ll be numbered from 1 to 20.  Number “7″ has already been assigned to–guess who!?  (But Gary Kubiak’s number 8 is still available, I think!!)

The cool thing about this is that ten per cent of the price goes to the “Starlight” children’s charity, an organization that helps kids with serious illnesses.  Do the math: ten per cent of sixty grand is SIX grand, times twenty bikes, that’s $120,000 for the kids charity.  That’s wesome!

Now, $60,000 is way out of MY budget range for a weekend “toy,” but I imagine there are a few people around with that kind of disposable income.  This sounds like a cool way to generate some cash for a charity that might not ordinarily get so much this season, thanks to the awful economy.

Here’s the website for more information–www.cheetahchoppers.com!