I'm blogging about recent events again... someone stop me before I go apeshit.

So, it's disgusting enough that Jdimytai Damour got crushed to death at Wal-Mart on Black Friday. I just saw the autopsy revealed the cause of death was asphyxiation. Imagine, trying to catch a breath while hundreds of feet are pounding on your chest - feet that are racing to get gasp! ohmygod! a LCD TV for $200 off! It infuriates and sickens me.

So yea, that's bad enough. But guess what? Now there's more. And I bet you could smell this coming from a mile away.

Wait for it... wait for it...

Customers injured in the crush are suing Wal-Mart!

I'm trying to figure out why, if I'm so disgusted, I'm sitting here stifling a laughing fit so I don't wake Dave up in the other room. I probably want to laugh because people are so goddamn ugly and predictable.

Attorney Kenneth Mollins said Fritz Mesadieu and Jonathan Mesadieu were "literally carried from their position outside the store" and are now "suffering from pain in their neck and their back from being caught in that surge of people" that rushed into the Wal-Mart.

I bet the pain in their neck and back is nothing compared to what Jdimytai Damour went through.

And even better:

In a claim against the Nassau County police department, the men also contend that they "sustained monetary losses as a result of health care and legal expenses ... in the sum of $2 million."

Wow, that's a nice round number. Health care and legal expenses, my ass. I had full blown knee surgery a couple of years ago - cost of everything, including surgery, drugs, months of physical therapy, and a year's worth of followups with a rheumatologist ran somewhere in the neighborhood of $30K. Sure, not a straight up comparison, but give me a fucking break. My theory? See, since they were "carried from their position outside the store", they weren't able to get that gasp! ohmygod! LCD TV for $200 off, so they figure a cool $2 million should allow them to get any TV they want... even if it's not on sale!

He said his clients and others who were at the scene contend that the police "were there ... saw what was happening, and they left."

Really? So maybe they should sue the police, too!

Maybe Wal-Mart is partially at fault. Who would have thought a business would need full-blown riot control on Black Friday? Maybe the videotape should be investigated and these two asswipes can sue everyone who "carried" them outside the store. If they'd do that, though, they'd probably have to settle for buying a much smaller TV with their lawsuit winnings.

And maybe on their way home from Wal-Mart that day those guys should have stopped at the McDonald's drive-thru and got themselves a nice, hot cup of coffee.

I guess for some, thankfulness for being alive isn't enough.

I usually stay away from blogging about current events, but...

Regarding Jdimytai Damour, the Wal-Mart Employee who got trampled to death yesterday after opening the doors...

From ABC News via CNN:

"This incident was avoidable," said Bruce Both, President of United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1500. "Where were the safety barriers? Where was security? How did store management not see dangerous numbers of customers barreling down on the store in such an unsafe manner?" asked President Both. "This is not just tragic; it rises to a level of blatant irresponsibility by Wal-Mart. UFCW Local 1500 will demand a full investigation by all levels of Government to ensure both justice for the surviving family members and to ensure the safety of current employees and the general public. This can never be allowed to happen again and those responsible must be held accountable," Both concluded.

I am absolutely no fan of Wal-Mart in any way, shape or form. And sure, there should be some safety measures to protect these types of things from happening. But what about the people? The people who needed to shop right that minute, that they couldn't stop and help someone from getting hurt. The selfish, ignorant, savages (to take a word from that article), who just had to get that flatscreen TV for only 500!, or ohmygod that digital camera for only $69!.

So is Wal-Mart responsible? I'll leave that to the lawyers. But maybe, just maybe, Wal-Mart should offer a class in being a responsible, aware, and courteous human being for the low low price of just $19.95! Sometimes people just disgust me.

My thoughts are with the Damour family.

This is a recipe I learned when my boyfriend and I started dating - oh, about 12 years ago. He swore it was his favorite apple pie ever, and it sounded interesting, so I decided to try it. It was the brown paper bag thing that intrigued me:

Brown Bag Apple Pie

Prerequisite: A brown paper grocery bag. No, I'm not kidding.

Preheat oven to 400F.
While defrosting a premade frozen pie crust:

Filling Ingredients:
5c apples - I usually use Granny Smith
1/2c sugar
2T flour
your favorite apple pie seasoning to taste (I have an all-purpose apple pie spice that has cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and allspice)

Mix sugar, flour, and spice in small bowl and set aside.
Peel, core, and slice apples - I have one of those peeler/corer/slicer thingies that literally makes it a snap to do all this. I used to hate peeling apples.
In a large bowl, combine the apples and sugar/flour/spice until apples are well coated.
Now, here's a matter of preference - some people just like dumping the apples into the pie shell, but I found that doing it that way sometimes makes the pie sag after baking. So I pick apples a couple at a time, and lay them in the pie crust so as to make the best use of the space. Yea, I'm a little OCD sometimes! Ha!

When all the apples are placed in the pie shell, top with the crumbs:

Crumbs:
1/2c sugar
1/2c flour
1/4c butter, at room temperature.

Mix the flour and sugar, then blend with the butter to make coarse crumbs. Spoon over the pie.

Now here's the interesting part.

Lay the bag, open end towards your pie, on a large, rigid cookie sheet. Carefully put the pie in the bag - it helps if it's oriented a little towards the back of the bag, but right in the middle side-to-side. Fold over the top of the bag a little bit and staple to close - I usually staple both ends and once in the middle.

Place on the bottom oven rack and bake at 400F for 1 hour.
Note: MAKE SURE the bag is not touching the heating element or sides of your oven. I cannot stress this enough. I have been neglectful in the past and had a corner of the bag just grazing the top heating element. It almost started a fire. That's why I use the bottommost rack in the oven (even remove the top rack). That way there's enough clearance around the bag. So I repeat, check to make sure the bag is not touching the sides or heating element in your oven.

The bag itself will be safe in the oven (as long as you've made sure it's not touching anything). You will smell singed paper. It usually goes away after a half hour. If you open the oven door to check on it, you may also see smoke/steam. It's nothing to worry about - it's the moisture baking out of the paper bag.

After an hour, carefully remove the cookie sheet/bag from the oven. Let it sit a couple minutes to cool, then rip the bag open to remove the pie. Some filling juice may have boiled over the crust edges making it sticky on the bottom of the pie pan, so it may be useful to get someone to help you - one person holding the bag and one person picking up the pie. Put your pie on a wire rack to cool.

The pie is good warm or cold, so in a couple of hours, sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labor.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, I wouldn't call it "roughing it" exactly.

Last week, we decided to pack up our camper and head out for an extended weekend of camping - 15 minutes from home.

Yea, sounds crazy, but it was actually a good time.

Robin Hill was our destination - they have "Halloween Weekends" all through October. Since we live too far out in East Jebip to actually get any trick-or-treaters, we thought it would be fun to take the camper out, decorate our site, and contribute to kids' overindulgence of sugar. The only weekend we could get was the first weekend in October. The entire campgrounds were booked for the entire month. Except for two sites, last weekend.

We headed out Thursday after work. Unfortunately it was cold as hell - temperatures were dipping down into the low 40s at night. Luckily our idea of "roughing it" includes TV, heat and a bed with lots of blankets. Friday was more of the same, overcast and chilly, and I was seriously beginning to doubt the brilliance of our idea to "get away" for a weekend. Friends came to stay with us on Saturday and entered their kids in a costume contest. Their youngest, a one year old cutie named Aiden, was dressed as a monkey and came away with Funniest Costume and a nice big Hershey bar as his prize.

The thing that amazed me about the weekend was how polite and mature the kids were. After the costume judging, the kids trick-or-treated around the campground. We had a huge tub full of candy - when we saw the number of kids at the costume judging we realized we'd be taking a lot of it back home with us. Either that or we'd all be in sugar comas by the end of the night. So when the kids came around, we told them to just grab handfuls. Most of them took one piece of candy, then looked at us in disbelief when we urged them on to take more. Even the little kids - they'd gaze into this big sea of candy and pull out one piece. Shoot, we even had good candy, like Milky Ways, Twix, Hershey bars, Nerds, Blow Pops, Skittles and stuff like that. When I was a kid, if I only had to actually choose one piece, it would have taken me 15 minutes to decide what I wanted. So we kept urging them all to take a good fistful or two. But we still ended up taking a buttload of candy home with us.

Saturday night we got a nice campfire going - it was quite an interesting sensation to feel like my fingers were being singed while my butt felt numb from the cold. So we did the requisite burger cooking and Smores making over the fire (and the requisite beer drinking by the fire), and headed in to sleep. It's interesting that I go to bed hours and hours earlier when I'm on vacation than I do when I'm at home. It's probably because I"m actually relaxed and not thinking about work or whether or not I have any one of a million projects to do at home.

So yea, it wasn't quite "roughing it", and it may sound a little mundane, but it was just a nice weekend of getting away from all the craziness of everyday life. And only 15 minutes from home.

I'm so incensed by my purchase today that I'm starting a new category: Product Reviews. I wouldn't call myself overly finicky when it comes to certain things, but I do know I'm sick of spending my hard-earned money on crap. So I'm on a mission to weed out the crap.

Today's Review: Tresemme Flawless Curls Extra Hold Mousse

Before I offer my opinion, let me start with a bit of back story:

It's a well known fact that when it comes to haircare, I'm a total product whore. I'll try anything - from the junk in the drugstores to the stuff in salons. Until a couple of weeks ago, my products of choice were Matrix Biolage Hydrating Shampoo and Conditioning Balm (the balm that you're supposed to use once a week - yea, I used it every day... damn my long, thick, color-infested hair), Rusk Sheer Brilliance, and either Matrix Sleek Look Styling Creme or Rusk CurlSilk, depending on whether I was styling my hair straight or wavy.

The last time I was at the salon, I bought Pureology Hydrate System shampoo and conditioner. Sweet bleeding Jesus, why have I never seen this stuff before? The smell is divine (the conditioner has a wonderful mint smell, and the more I work it through my hair, the more minty it smells), my color really is staying brighter longer, and it makes my hair wonderfully soft. I also don't get that ooky feeling I get after rinsing some other conditioners out of my hair when I'm in the shower - that feeling where I think I need to wash again because I have a thick film of conditioner covering my back. Bleh.

My hair is naturally wavy, bordering on a bit curly, but usually I like to style it smooth and straight. Because it's thick and tending towards waves, it's an involved process of blow drying, applying more styling creme to smooth out the waves, more blow drying, flat ironing, and sealing it up with a waterproof finisher. Frankly it's too much crap to do every day. Ideally, unless I really want to straighten my hair, I'd love to get out of the shower, comb the tangles out, put a product or two in, and let it air dry - sans frizz.

So that's why I tried the Rusk CurlSilk - I would totally go wavy if I could find something that calms the frizz, and doesn't make my hair weighed down. If I use the right amount of CurlSilk, it doesn't do a bad job - there's a little bit of frizz... but if I don't get the right amount my hair ends up feeling heavy and greasy.

So, on to my purchase today - since my bottle of CurlSilk was empty, I was browsing the shelves at the drugstore and I remembered that Tresemme ad I saw on TV about the smooth curls and all that crap, so I grabbed a bottle of Flawless Curls extra hold mousse. Yea, doesn't really make sense that I'm using bottles of shampoo and conditioner that cost $26 each on my head then use a $3.99 bottle of mousse, but I decided to give it a whirl anyway.

The bottle says:
"Sets curls so they behave come rain or shine. Curly hair craves hydration, and this mousse's conditioning formula - which includes keratin, gelatin, and proteins - quenches curls' thirst. This silky smooth mousse enhances your natural waves, adding definition without clumping."

Well, the chick's hair in the commercial (as she stood looking into the salon window laughing at a friend getting salon curls for much more money) looked lovely. After using this, my guess is that there's no way they used it to style that woman's curls in the commercial. What a load of junk. My hair has never felt less hydrated - it's almost a sticky, course sandpapery feel - it's frizzy, and I have absolutely no definition to any waves or curls in my hair. I feel like I have straw on my head. Well, that's $3.99 down the tubes.

I'm presently debating washing my hair again because of how crappy it feels.

I've decided tomorrow I'm heading back to the salon (even though I have another appointment next week) to try out Pureology's RealCurl Creme. I'd rather pay $20 for 5.1oz. of a Pureology product than the $3.99 for the 10.5oz. of junk. In my opinion, there's a clear line between cheap and inexpensive.

The Tresemme Flawless Curls Mousse? Cheap.