pale beneath the blue

Road stories and more from singer/songwriter, pale beneath the blue.

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Expand your group of friends




Our friend Bella is looking for a new home. She's an 18 week old pit bull terrier. She's spent time at our home but we cannot keep her (though she is probably more well-behaved than our puppy, Bowie.) She is house broken, gentle and a joy to have around. She currently resides in Toledo, OH, but travels well. She has not been spayed as her owners were hoping to breed her, but she is up to date on all her shots. If you are interested in adding this entertaining and smart puppy to your family, please contact me at pbtb04@gmail.com .

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

I so live in the dark ages...

So, yes, I have cool music gear, and well, a laptop, but other than that, I don't really care about electronics. I broke down and bought a 1gig Nano in the spring for all my traveling, but honestly, I don't use it unless I'm on the road. So, when James and I realized that our 1997 Sam's Club special television set would no longer work with the antenna, we had to break-down and go shopping for something high-tech.

Best Buy has to be paradise for electronic junkies--phones, cameras, computers and yes tvs. It's really amazing to see Carson Palmer shuffling for his life on a 50" Plasma. Personally, I don't need to see the pores on someones face to know that they are sweating, but I digress. I couldn't believe how expensive everything was, though I know prices have come down a bit, but seriously $3500 for a television? There are people who would love to spend that much on a car, or they could eat for a year. To me, the almost-always-broke- musician, it seems ludacrious to spend that amount of money on something unless it's going to help me make money or save my life. At any rate, we went home empty handed and tried to watch Desperate Housewives on our budget set-up. We missed the first 18 minutes because we couldn't get the station to come in.

The following day, I recommended that James stop by a discount tech store to check their prices. We had decided to go smaller rather than larger and the salesman pointed him to a 32" Olevia that was on sale for $10 more than the 27" he was interested in. Since I had the credit card, I stopped by after work and picked it up. We plugged it into the wall and hooked-up our antenna and whoa! it was like we fell through the rabbit hole. Our NBC affiliate has a weather channel? NBC and Fox both broadcast in HD--yippie! There's a whole set of Jesus and PBS stations all of which are in HD. We haven't seen so many channels in years! And the HD looks amazing. James keeps turning it on just to look at the picture. Yeah, just wait, I think we're getting cable on Friday...

Labels:

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

We won. We won.

We are number one. All others are two or lower! Yes, thank goodness. The Smoke Free Ohio law passed in yesterday's election. Hopefully, I'll be back seeing live music again in bars and taverns soon. We're still waiting on word as to how they plan on going about implementing the law, but at least the people have spoken.

Wherever you are, I hope that the election turned out the way you had hoped. We'll be discussing this more in depth, as well as Rumsfeld's departure on my politcal blog: Politics is the New Religion.

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

election day and pet peeves

I hope that if you are a US citizen, that you voted in today's election. I also hope that you didn't get frustrated by the long lines and confusion that was going on in the polling places. I've been sitting here today attempting to re-write lyrics for some songs and it's been really tough to focus. I've been able to watch interesting video on MSnbc.com but there's no news and there won't be until later tonite. Stay tuned.

As I've been patiently waiting, I've been going through emails and really frustrated that my family members send me so many forwards--probably none of which are even true. Have you seen the patriotic Pepsi can with urges not to purchase Pepsi products. Hello? Snopes and UrbanLegends.com both show this is a hoax. And what about the little girl with Leukemia who is supposedly hoping to get money from the Make A Wish Foundation? Yeah, just keep forwarding the email and she'll get money every time it's forwarded. Okay, so, I hate to burst your bubble, but there's no big email forwarding dept. that keeps track of these things. It's a HOAX!

So, before you hit "forward" please go to your favorite search engine and type in a description of the email and see what comes up. Your busy friends and family members will start returning your emails again. However, if you are gullible enough to believe this stuff is true, I highly recommend a few minutes of inner reflection and try to figure out what else you are being gullible about. Goodluck.

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Yoplait/Dannon: Unapologetic

I wrote to both Dannon and Yoplait. Here's the responses I received in my inbox:

Dear Ms. Everitt:

Thank you for contacting Yoplait regarding carmine used in Yoplait strawberry yogurt.

Carmine is a naturally derived red color extracted from the dried shells of the cochineal beetle. Carmine is an FDA approved ingredient and is commonly used in many foods such as ice cream, soft drinks, sweets and candies.

We appreciate the opportunity to share this information with you and hope you continue to choose our products.

Sincerely,

Gerald Vortice
Yoplait
Consumer Services

>Original Message From: rhesound@yahoo.com
>
>I was really ticked off that there was beet juice in my raspberry custard style yogurt, until I found that you put Carmine in your Strawberry Original Yogurt. I don't know that I can put another spoonful in my mouth after finding out the Carmine is a bug-based colorant. I can live with my yogurt being not so pink and I'm sure that others would feel the same way if they knew. Thanks. Rhonda Everitt

October 30, 2006
Dear Rhonda Everitt,
Thank you for contacting the Dannon Company, Inc. We appreciate your interest in our products.


Carmine is a safe, FDA approved, natural, vivid red color derived from the female cochineal insect. Most other red colored products use this coloring also, listed as natural ingredients. The FDA allows the term "natural color" in ingredient statements, however, when we use a natural color we specifically state the color used.
The following is a list of yogurts that contain the carmine coloring:

Activia - Strawberry, Blueberry, Mixed Berry, & Prune

Danimals Drinkable - Strawberry, Strawberry Kiwi, Strawberry Banana, Raspberry, Blazin' Berry, & Cherry Berry
Fruit on the Bottom - Boysenberry, Mixed Berry, Blueberry, Strawberry, Strawberry Banana, Cherry, & Raspberry Frusion - Strawberry, Strawberry Kiwi, Banana Berry, Cherry Berry, Peach Passion Fruit,& Wild Berry La Crème - Strawberry & Raspberry La Crème Mousse - Strawberry La Crème with Chocolate - Strawberry
Light N Fit Creamy - Blueberry

Once again, thank you for contacting us. We are pleased with your interest in our products. If you have any further questions, comments, or concerns, now or in the future, please feel free to contact us at 1-877-DANNON-US (1-877-326-6668), Monday through Friday, 9 A.M. to 6 P.M. Eastern Time.
Sincerely,
Lisa Moore

Consumer Response Representative
Ref#:831623N

I have found Carmine in organic foods as well. I guess since it's "natural" it's okay. I'm still offended by the whole bug thing, so I'm learning to get over the beet juice.