Meet our newest food blogger, Register reporter Jeff Overley (thats him with pie all over his mug at the 2007 OC Fair). He and I have been a team for two years now and have gone through the OC Fair ringer. Now Im bringing him along for some good eats.
His diet consists primarily of tortilla chips and a quart of salsa each week, but he will be branching out and reporting on an array of culinary delights found throughout west Orange County.
Fun fact: A hater of factory farms, Jeff until November hadnt eaten pork or beef (or much cheese) in more than two years. Then he snapped and gobbled up two filets mignon, a package of dry salami, a half-pound of Swiss and a rack of St. Louis-style ribs in the course of one week. He has been noticeably happier ever since.
In all seriousness, Jeff will be giving special love to any places serving humanely and sustainably raised meats and veggies, so if youve got a socially responsible joint youd like this bleeding-heart sissy to try, hit us up.

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I am just getting around to posting a few more pictures from the birthday party. Christian had such a good time! Ed and I just had fun watching him this year. It was so cute he LOVED everything and enjoyed being able to spend time with all of his friends. One cute note I want to remember is that when we went to the party store to pick up some things for his party early in the planning process we were going to get Go Diego Go well when we got to the store Christian saw Thomas the Train and then he had his heart set on Thomas so that is where the theme came from.

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by Byron King
Have you followed the recent rise in value of the U.S. dollar? Through late summer, the dollar increased in value against the euro, as well as the yen and numerous other currencies.
Also, as August rolled on, gold fell from a price over $900 to under $800 per ounce. And oil tumbled from a price point near $145 to $111-115 per barrel. This is quite a drop. And a lot of observers credit the drop to the strengthening dollar. So whats going on?
Usually, a currency strengthens when there is some sort of good news about the underlying economy. But is this the case for the U.S. and the dollar?
The banking crisis is still with us, as is the ongoing housing meltdown. And many insiders say that there are still more tough innings in this game. So where is the good news?
Indeed, Kenneth Rogoff, an economics professor at Harvard and the former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, recently predicted that there is still more bad news to come from the worldwide credit crunch and financial turmoil. According to Rogoff, The U.S. is not out of the woods. I think the financial crisis is at the halfway point, perhaps. I would even go further to say the worst is to come.
Rogoff added an ominous prediction, stating, re not just going to see mid-sized banks go under in the next few months. Were going to see a whopper. Were going to see a big one - one of the big investment banks or big banks.
So if the U.S. financial system is in such a precarious state, is the rise in value of the dollar really justified? Will it be good for the U.S. economy to have a major bank failure? Or on the other hand, will it be good for the economy if the U.S. government has to step in to bail out a large bank? It all seems like a proposition.
Another well-respected commentator, Richard Russell, who has published Dow Theory Letters since 1958, believes that we are on the eve of world deflation.
According to Russell, the big problem facing the world economy is not inflation, but deflation:
From what I see, the markets are telling us to prepare for hard times, and a global spate of the worst deflation to be seen in generations. This is why gold has been sinking, this is why stocks have been falling - big money, sophisticated money, is cashing out, raising cash, preparing for world deflation.
According to Russell, Smart money is selling into the stock market, day after day. People and institutions are raising cash. When deflation rules, this will usher in a strong dollar.
Russell offers an illustration for why people are raising cash:
Look, if you have $5 million and you are receiving only 2% in interest on your money, thats only an income of $100,000 on your $5 million. Big money realizes that in a deflation, you need a mountain of cash to keep up your lifestyle.
So Russell anticipates an era of deflation, accompanied by low interest rates. Hence the need to raise cash to support an income stream over time.
Then again, what if the markets are anticipating an increase in interest rates over the medium to long term? Could this be prompting a rise in the value of the dollar? Think of how much new is floating around out in the world due to just the recent creation of credit as the Fed has bailed out insolvent banks and investment houses.
Where has all that newly created money gone? Its lurking out there, somewhere in this world. And that new money could show up at any moment, bidding up the prices of whatever happens to be the big thing on any given day. Thus, while Richard Russell thinks we are on the eve of deflation, we are also confronting the specter of inflation.
The last historical experience the world market has had with high inflation rates and stagnant growth was back in the late 1970s and early 1980s. To combat inflation, then-Fed Chairman Paul Volcker increased interest rates to double-digit levels. High interest rates hit the economy like a ton of bricks, but that was the idea. High interest rates broke the back of inflation for a generation.
You have to look back even further, to the 1930s and the time of the Great Depression, to find the last long-term era of deflation. What do you see? The price of gold and gold mining shares actually increased during the 1930s.
The key to the rising price for gold in the 1930s was the effort by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to raise the nominal price of gold from $20 to $35 per ounce. It was still - in many respects - a gold standard world back then. But in raising the gold price, FDR also indirectly spurred the market capitalization of much of the mining industry.
One thing to keep in mind is this. We know a few things about inflation, both practically and from economic theory. We dont know nearly as much about deflation. If deflation shows up at the door, will anyone really know what to do about it?
So this prompts the question. Where are prices for precious metals headed? If we encounter deflation, will we just retrace the run-up of the past six years or so? Will we see gold back at $300 per ounce, and silver at $3 per ounce? I doubt it.
I think that we will look back at the summer of 2008 as a time when precious metals had a correction after a relatively quick move upward. To put it in terms of technical analysis, the prices outran their support. Its like the tanks of Gen. George Patton outrunning the fuel trucks in the closing days of World War II. Patton had to stop advancing, while the trucks caught up.
When the dollar strengthened in mid-2008 - for a variety of reasons - it prompted a pullback in prices for precious metals and the related mining shares. If you are cautious, you will hold cash and sit it out. If you are bold, youll look for bargains and buy shares.
Long term, I dont think you will get hurt by buying into share price weakness. Over the long term, precious metals and the mining shares should still continue to rise in a market in which dollars are getting cheaper and things of real value are becoming scarcer.

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yeah. yeah. yeah. aye.
yo. yo. yo. yo. yo. yo. yo.
I say still I stand
and shawty here I am
neva have ya seen in ya lifetime
a more devine southern rapper wit a swag like mine
facin all kind of time
but smile like im fine
brag with such passion and shine without trying
believe me pains a small thing to a giant
I was born without a dime
out tha gutta I climbed
spoke my mind
and didnt stutter one time
Ali say even the greatest gotta suffer some time
so i huff and puff rhymes
lyrics so sick wit it
set the standard in atlanta
how to get get get it
so you up imcoming rappers wanna dis just kill it
Im officially the realest
point blank period
whether i still live in the hood or juss visit
whateva you can do in the hood i done did it
thats why the dope boys and the misfits feel it
this still his city as long as tip living(listen)
(Chorus)
i aint dead (naw)
i aint done (naw)
i aint scared (of what!)
i aint run (from who!)
but still i stand (yeah)
no matterr what people here i am (Yeah)
no matter what remember
I aint break (neva)
I aint fold (neva)
They hate me mo’ (so!)
Yeah I know… (haha)
Here I go (yeah)
No matter what shawty here I go (haha)
No matter what shawty
you let the blog sites and the magazines tell it
im sho to be in jail till 2027
rather see me in a cell in
stead of this new McLaren
godll take you through hell just to get you to heaven
so even know its heavy the load i will carry
grin and still bear it
win and still share it
apologies to the fans i hope you can understand it
life can change ya directions
even when you aint planned it
all you can do is handle it
the worst thing you could do is panic
use it to your advantage
avoid insanity manage to conquer
every obstacle
make impossible possible
even when winnings illogical
losings still far from optional
yeah they wanna see you shot up in the hospital
but one life throw punches, block ya counter like a boxer do
been locked inside mi casa too long
I did a song to make it known that the king lives on
(pimpin)
(Chrous)
i aint dead (naw)
i aint done (naw)
i aint scared (of what!)
i aint run (from who!)
but still i stand (yeah)
no matterr what people here i am (Yeah)
no matter what remember
I aint break (neva)
I aint fold (neva)
They hate me mo’ (so!)
Yeah I know… (haha)
Here I go (yeah)
No matter what shawty here I go (haha)
No matter what shawty
Even in sollitude
theres still no hotter dude
I show you how to do
What you do
You aint got a clue
All you do is follow dudes
Sound like a lot of dudes
I weather whateva storm
Make it out without a bruise
I understand why
Now wit my hands tied
Dey take shots cause if im out there it’s a land slide
But revenge is best served as a cold dish
and suckas will get served you better know this
guess it was understood for me it was over with
but I don’t quit if ya aint notice yet
they couldn’t wait to say good night shawty
so they can try to rhyme act and look like shawty
go get a beat from Toomp? and make a hook like shawty
before ya know it im back
what it look like shawty
I lost my partna and my daughter in the same year
Somehow I rise above my problems and remain here
Yeah and I hope the picture painted clear
If ya heart filled with faith then ya cant fear
Wonder how I face years and im still chillen
Easy,let go and let god deal wit it
(Chorus)
i aint dead (naw)
i aint done (naw)
i aint scared (of what!)
i aint run (from who!)
but still i stand (yeah)
no matterr what people here i am (Yeah)
no matter what remember
I aint break (neva)
I aint fold (neva)
They hate me mo’ (so.

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I need this for cooking. Does the bottle actually say white wine, or do I go and buy a clear chardonnay?

A Chardonay is indeed considereed a dry white wine. A receipe will merely call for a dry white(or red as the case may be) and allow you to choose what type of wine you enjoy. Remember this though, do not cook with a cheap wine that you would not normally drink, as that will affect the foods taste. It is always best to cook with what you will be drinking or serving with dinner.
If you enjoy chardonay.do cook with that, although personally I would use an un oaked chardonay if I had one.

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Rowan Wolf
By Greg Palast at GregPalast.com
In swing-state Colorado, the Republican Secretary of State conducted the biggest purge of voters in history, dumping a fifth of all registrations. Guess their color.
In swing-state Florida, the state is refusing to accept about 85,000 new registrations from voter drives - overwhelming Black voters.
In swing state New Mexico, HALF of the Democrats of Mora, a dirt poor and overwhelmingly Hispanic county, found their registrations disappeared this year, courtesy of a Republican voting contractor.
In swing states Ohio and Nevada, new federal law is knocking out tens of thousands of voters who lost their homes to foreclosure.

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The Story: A person called us saying she is moving and needs to place two of her schnauzers with us. She stated a friend would take her two youngest ones. She had six dogs in all. She also said that she has 2 - 13 year old dogs that she will keep because she knows they are too old and no one will want to adopt them.
The Plan: She will drop of the two younger ones at a friends house and then drop the other two off at the veterinary my clinic to be groomed. 2 days before this happened she called and said the friend did not want the other two, though she thinks she has a place for the puppy. We had to get another foster family and soon.

That day: My husband will take two home and we could get one dog groomed because one foster family is not able to groom. It was getting close to closing and the clinic closed in 1/2 an hour. I thought the most we could do is a bath at this point.
We looked in her van and noticed all the dogs were in bad shape. I asked her, which one was the sweetest as that is going to a foster family with a very submissive female schnauzer. Abel went with me. The other two went with my husband. She offered to follow him home.
At the clinic: I got Able on the table and noticed his condition was far worse than I thought. I had to groom him and there was no way a family could take him home yet. He had feces all over his underside, matting on his entire body, and tons of hair that needed to be cut off. He was pretty good about it and it seemed he knew I was getting all those hurtful things out of him. His paws were caked with feces and painful, his ears were red with fly bites, and I was in shock. After he as shaved, I concluded he was a breeder dog. Being intact, the way he acted, he was not a family pet, and I wasnt sure the foster family could handle an intact breeding dog as they dont act the same as our dogs.
I called my husband back and told him asked him what he thought of the other two males that he took. He said they need grooming. He said we are keeping them because they need us.
If I would have known they were breeding males, I would have been more prepared to discuss this with the foster families. If this person were honest to begin with, this would have been a much easier rescue.

Soon: Missy and Doug came to pick up their cute little Gracie from grooming and to foster Able. Gracie was from a breeder surrender also and one of the three puppies MSPMS Rescue we had for adoption 1 year ago exactly. We talked about breeder dogs vs. house pets, what problems to expect, and how to train them to listen to you, so they can learn how to act in a house. Funny thing is Able reminded me of Gracies Dad Jack. Strange coincidence?
That afternoon: I went home to find the other two dogs were in worse shape than Able was. They were two very smelly dogs.

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