I like where I live, but I am regularly bothered by the fact that it is never truly dark at night here. When I go to look at the moon and stars, I can see them, but I can also see a persistent ring of light coming from ground level in all directions. Since I have lived in places where nights were as dark as this cup of black coffee sitting next to me, I know what I am missing by living in an area with so much light pollution.

I think the best night skies for me were when I lived in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia after college. At one point I lived out an old orchard road and my home had big farms on both sides and across the street. Behind me rose the foothills of a mountain. Those were some black velvet night skies and I spent a lot of time outside stargazing.

Even when I lived one county north in Florida I had darker skies, due to less development. Now I live in a very convenient location, but you see lights all night, as well as hearing cars, train whistles, and airplanes.

Harmony, another city here in Florida (somewhat south of Orlando and west of Melbourne), has the right idea. Their community will be the location for the 5th Annual Dark Sky Festival on Saturday, April 5. The event is by the hosted by the International Dark Sky Association (IDA), and will kick off National Dark Sky Week.

God bless electric lighting. I love being able to turn the lights on in my house at night and shop in the stores in the evenings, but the road signs and business signs and car lights and stadium lights all add up around here and it is just overpowering.

Anyway, if you are anywhere near Harmony on April 5, think about joining them for the Dark Sky Festival. There is going to be live music, telescopes for viewing the stars, speakers, and a lot more. I actually just called my sister to ask her if she wants to get the families together and plan a road-trip.
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has been named the “unsexiest woman in the world” by Maxim magazine.

While I can think of plenty of other celebrity women who fit the bill better than SJP, I have to wonder if the honor was not bestowed upon her as a reaction to Hollywood and the advertising powers that be that keep pushing Sarah in our faces, declaring her a style icon and a sexy mama. Because com on, we all know that she is not particularly attractive. In fact, she borders on homely. She does, however, have good hair and makeup people, so she passes for glamorous in many circles.

I enjoy Sex and the City, but I was always puzzled by “Carrie” being portrayed as so irresistible, when she was being played by such a plain looking actress. I always thought ht role was wildly mis-cast, personally. I love Parker’s acting and enjoy her in films, but have never seen her as leading lady material.

On the other hand, she did snag Matthew Broderick and he is endlessly appealing.

My daughter has to bring 6 plastic Easter eggs to school tomorrow for her class’s Easter Egg hunt. She is at an age where she is very interested in being part of all decisions that pertain to her life – and often to my life as well. Anyway, she had a very firm idea that she wanted me to fill the eggs with marshmallow Peeps.

I agreed. Maybe I should have pushed back a bit, though. I just sat out at the dining room table filling the eggs and I can imagine what a mess the sticky marshmallow parts will make inside those plastic eggs. Yikes. Maybe I should send a box of wipes tomorrow as well. It’s been hot here in Florida. It was in the high 80s today. I am having second thoughts as I envision those Peeps melting inside of the eggs, out in the sun of the schoolyard.

I am a fan of Science Fiction. In fact, I often roll my eyes at those who flippantly refer to it as SciFi, no matter how much the cable network has mainstreamed the term. I am a purest, mostly interested in cyberpunk, time travel and alternate history pockets of thought. I love, also, the classics, the forbearers of the genre. And, Arthur C. Clarke is one of the classics. I will miss knowing he is alive in the same world were I am alive. He lived to age 90, though, and that is a feat in and of itself.

I sincerely hope that now that Clarke is no longer with us, he is now privy to many of the answers he had about the universe. His mind was forever exploring, theorizing, and leading eth way for future thinkers.

I am very, very close to buying season park hopper passes for Disney this year. I have always wanted to go to the Epcot® International Flower & Garden Festival and I think I would get back the full value of those passes, plus some, just by going over there to attend some of the cool concerts they have booked for the event: The Nelsons (!), Herman’s Hermits, The Grass Roots, Arlo Guthrie (!!!), Davy Jones, Gary Puckett, and a whole lot of others.

I’m charmed to the core by flowers in general and I want to wander among the blooms. This is the 15th year Disney has done this event at Epcot and I have yet to attend. I need to get things in gear and do this. Putting off the adventures I want to have is not doing me a bit of good in this life of mine.

If you know anything about Tampa, Florida then you have heard of Ybor City. For the recent past, Ybor City has been known primarily as the party district of the city. I liken it to the Main Street of Disney Land, only with bars and drunken people.

Tampa wants to clean up Ybor’s image, though, and there has been a big push to make people see the district as a great place to shop and dine. To help bring people to Ybor City, all of the parking meters will be removed in the coming months and replaced by 2-hour parking spots.

Now you won’t have to wonder if you are going to return to your car and find a ticket due to a meter that is in disrepair or because you were running 10 minutes late.

We are awash in Girl Scout cookies in this house, but I was in the mood for something less sweet and more classic, so I made Applesauce Cake. The recipe is old. I found it not only in my grandmother’s recipe box, but also in my great-grandmother’s.

1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 cups applesauce
1 box raisins
1 cup crushed walnuts
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 Tablespoons cinnamon
1 Tablespoon ground cloves or allspice
2 eggs
pinch of salt

Cream first three ingredients. Add remaining ingredients.

Bake for 1 hour at 350º in a bundt pan.

…or worse?

A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey indicates that three-quarters of all Americans think the economy is in a recession. This poll was released today, timely in that the stock market seems to be taking a beating today as well.

Only 66 percent felt the same last month, while back in October only 46 percent said we are in a recession.

I ask, though, is it possible worse than that? Are we actually headed dead on for a depression? If you look only at the price of gas, which is expected to hit somewhere around an average of $4+ a gallon by this summer, then you might want to rethink the recession issue and look more firmly at depression. The gas prices drive the cost of all consumer good. In the meantime, the jobless rate is up and salaries are not rising in proportion to the cost of living.

You do the math. Can the average American continue to live this way before it all crashes down around us?

I was married longer than Paul McCartney and Heather Mills were married, but because Florida has a law about alimony and marriages less than 7 years, I got nothing. In fact, I am not even living in the house we still own together. I do get child support, but that is to benefit my daughter – not to ensure that I am able to maintain the lifestyle I had before the divorce. I was proud to be able to stay home with my daughter, as I believe children with a parent at home are better adjusted. I am forced, however, to be a working single mom.

Heather Mills, on the other hand, is receiving at least 16.5 million pounds in a lump sum settlement. There could actually be more involved, but the courts in the United Kingdom are wise and keep divorce details private. I wish that were the case in the United States. Do you want to know how I found out my ex had filed? I got a letter from an attorney offering her services. Classy, huh? She had gleaned the information from public records. I should have reported her sorry carcass.

All in all, Mills is getting a pretty good payday for the relatively few years she was subjected to sex with an old guy, you know? I can hear you all now – but it is Paul McCartney! How can you say that? All I know is that he is my dad’s age and Mills is only a couple of years older than me. A 25 year age difference means she was sleeping with an old guy, in my opinion, and I find that icky –for lack of a better word.

I guess I should have married a rock star. Sounds like a pretty good payoff.

Like the rest of my movie reviews, I will not focus on a synopsis of the film or even why I enjoyed it. You can probably read that kind of information on hundreds of other websites. I will focus on if the film is appropriate for children, with a special focus on the children the same age as my daughter – who happens to be five.

Horton Hears a Who is engaging. My five-year-old was able to sit through the entire film without much wiggling. She followed the plot and only had to ask me questions a couple of times. I would say the pacing and vocabulary level of the movie are appropriate for pre-schoolers. Older children will still enjoy the film, and may even pick up on some of the more sophisticated jokes (like pop culture impersonations). Parents who brought much younger children (age two or younger) struggled with their children toward the end of the film, simply because a feature length film is hard for the little ones to sit through.

There was not any fowl language or overt violence. The kangaroo voiced by Carol Burnett was menacing and bullying, but she even had her redeeming moment at the end of the film. I did object with some of the names the city council called the mayor, simply because we do not use those words in our house. The mayor was repeatedly called a boob, an idiot and a moron. I know those are not “bad words” per se, but the use of the words does give the children license to add them to their own vocabulary. You might plan some time after the film to talk to your children why it is not proper or nice to call other people those names.

The animation is stunning and the movie mixes it up a little, giving variety to the process. This is part of what kept the kids so engaged. There were various scenes where the action was shown in classic Seuss style, as well as one sequence using anime style. The computer animation is sometimes so vivid as to look real. The very first shot of the movie is a close-up on a leaf with a drop of water falling from the end. It was so realistic is gave me pause and I wondered if I had been wrong and this movie was really live action.

Overall, this is a film I would not hesitate to recommend to other parents.

I suppose that even though I was duly shocked by the death of Heath Ledger, time managed to wear the edges off the blade of disbelief. I got to the point where hei death finally seemed real. Maybe it was his young age that made it so hard to soak in for me, or the fact that I just genuinely liked his work.

I took the rare morning yesterday to go see a movie by myself while my daughter was in school. They showed the preview for The Dark Knight. Surprisingly, much of the trailer focused on Ledger, much more than I would ever have expected. The theater was silent during the preview, absolutely silent. I think I heard a collective sigh once it was over, but none of the whisperings you hear after most trailers. Nobody turned to their neighbor to say that looked great, or what a stupid looking movie. People just sat stunned, I think.

I’m sure I was thinking the same thing as everyone else in the room: I will go see The Dark Night when it opens July 18, even though it feels so surreal.

They were part of the 1960s British Invasion, known as the “cleaner Beatles”. They had one number one hit in the United States: “Over and Over”. You may also be familiar with their song “Glad All Over”.

One of my all-time very favorite songs is “Catch Us If You Can”, which is from their movie of the same name. In the United States it was released as “Having a Wild Weekend”.

On March 10 the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Sadly, the group’s lead singer Mike Smith did not live to see the induction, as he passed away this past 28 February.

Years ago, I had a GPS system in my Pathfinder. That vehicle was only leased, though, and when we bought the van we did not get a GPS system in it. I cannot tell you how much I missed that GPS! I had become far more dependant on it that I knew. It was especially helpful when I had doctors’ appointments or interviews at locations where I had not been previously.

So, I eventually bought a handheld GPS for myself and I can take it in whichever car I drive, or when I am riding with someone else. We used it last month when we went to Disney for the Pirate and Princess Party.

The only problem I have with my TomTom is that the little suction cup mount that came with it does not work at all. I usually end up with the GPS in my lap or in the seat next to me. When I have tried to place it on the window or dash, it just pops off unexpectedly and startles me while I am driving. Not cool.

I’m pretty delighted to see this product called GPS Pal. It’s a cup holder mount for a handheld GPS. This is a much safer option for me than trying to mess with the suction cups or hold the GPS in my lap. I cannot tell you how many times the TomTom has slipped out my lap while I am driving. The GPS Pal is under $20 and in my opinion, it is a much needed invention.

True motive is always difficult to discern. One only truly knows their own heart.

Despite that, the attorney for John Graziano, Kimberley Kohn , claims that when Linda, Brooke and Nick Bollea came to visit her client on Valentine’s Day bearing gifts, it was all simply a publicity stunt.

She says they are no longer welcome to the hospital to visit Graziano.

Kohn’s accusation comes after pictures of the Bollea’s (aka the Hogan family) Valentine’s Day visit were published on celebrity news sites.

Nick Bollea’s attorney Morris “Sandy” Weinberg Jr. countered the claim, saying that the Bollea family has been visiting Graziano for 7 to 8 months now without the press involved and that it is “crazy” to assume the visit in question was a stunt.

Well, at least here in the Tampa Bay area.

The family of former wrestler Hulk Hogan just cannot seem to stay out of the headlines around here.

One of our local headlines is shouting about how VH1 gave Brooke Hogan her very own reality show. She no longer needs to hold onto Daddy’s coattails. So, while I assume Hogan Knows Best will continue to film around Clearwater, the new Brooke Hogan Knows Best (huh?) will film down in Miami.

On a more serious note, police in Clearwater today released hundreds of photos of Nick (Hogan) Bollea’s August 2007 crash. Bollea’s passenger, John J. Graziano remains unconscious to this day. Bollea faces up to five years in prison for injuring Graziano, who suffered brain damage in the wreck.

The photos show the crash up close as well as pictures of Graziano’s injury.