Way to Go Jennie!

My niece, Jennie Deras, has just won a Silver Medal in the 2009 Special Olympics in Idaho!

I just received the below email from my brother in Portland Oregon.

He is justifiably proud. All those trips up Mt. Hood paid off!

Wow!

Peggy

After coming in 5th in the Super Giant Slalom yesterday, Jennie came in second today in the Giant Slalom and collected a silver medal. Her times are at:

http://www.2009worldgames.org/results/EC89ZTR9HFQQ1ZRA.html

She is skiing in the advanced group against skiers from Finland, Austria and Sweden and has the fastest times of any American female at the World Games in her events.

Her last event will be the slalom, which is scheduled for divisioning on Thursday and racing on (I believe) Friday.




















Jennie has been competing in the Special Olympics for years with good results.
She won a bronze in the World Games in Ireland in 2003.
Below are some of her past accomplishments:

Wilson High School JV Track
Most Inspirational Runner 2001 Wilson High School V track
Letter 2002 SO
Governor's Gold Award 2003 Oregon Sports Award
Lou Burge Athlete of Year 2003 SOOR
Les Schwab Pride in Performance Award 2007
2003 World Summer Games (Ireland) - Bronze medal

Money is Tight!

It is amazing how much difference a year makes.

A year ago, gas prices were in the high $2.00 range; up around $2.75 and higher and they were going up!

A year ago, people were still buying SUV’s, still building new office buildings, still remodeling their homes and more.

Now most of the car dealerships look like ghost towns, many of the office buildings have only 1 or 2 tenants in them and most people have put any kind of major home expenditure on hold.

So what do you do when you have to make the repair?

Obviously, everyone is trying to find the least expensive way to do things. A lot of people do it themselves, others find a neighbor or a friend who can help. But, if you can’t do it yourself and you don’t have a friend, what do you do?

At AB&R Plumbing, we do not charge by the hour. Period. If you ask what our “hourly rate” is, we will tell you about or flat-rate pricing. Are we affordable? You bet your boots!

Let’s say you call a plumber to clear a drain for you. He drives to your house, inspects the problem, pulls out his ½” snake machine and proceeds to try to clear the clog. If his machine is too big (or too small), he probably doesn’t have another one on his truck, so he has to go back to the shop to get the right size.

He charges you for all that time.

Your bill is going to include his time to figure out the problem, the time it took him to try his snake, the time to drive back to the shop, get the new one and drive back to your house, and then he still has to clear you drain.

At AB&R Plumbing, we have five (count ‘em; five) different sizes of snakes on our trucks. We don’t have to drive back to the shop to get the right size, we have it on our truck.

If we clear your drain with our ½” machine at 2:00 in the afternoon, it costs the same amount to clear the same drain with the same ½” machine at 2:00 in the morning. We do not charge overtime.

Something else that we can do that most other plumber cannot... almost everything.

At AB&R Plumbing, our motto is:

If Water Goes Through It, We Do It!

We do clogs, leaks, repair. We install softeners, toilets, faucets and more. We


Looking for an “affordable” or “Hourly rate” plumber, stop looking. Look at the flat rate pricing AB&R Plumbing offers. All of Orange County and beyond, 24-hours a day, 7-days a week, every day of the year.

Well stocked trucks – both tools and parts – and well trained technicians. 24-hour emergency access to our supply houses. You can’t afford not to call us!



Now, on a totally different subject…

Is anyone out there watching Lost? This is one of the smartest shows I have ever watched! The plot twists make sense (not like some of the over-glorified soap operas that are out there), the characters are believable, you like some and dislike others. It is a great show!

I plan on – after it is all over – going back to the beginning and watching it again to see what I missed the first time. I love all the hidden stuff; the recurrence of the numbers, the connections of the passengers to each other. It is so smart.

Let me know what you think.

Indumathi's Carrot Malai - Carrot Milk Sweet

INDUMATHI’S CARROT MALAI

We are a gang of twelve friends, and we still chirp and cackle together just as we did forty years ago, when we were still about to graduate from the esteemed Maharani’s college for women at Mysore. Luckily most of us have settled down at Bangalore, and we make it a point to meet at least once a month in one of our homes. We have all come a long way crossing the ups and downs in our lives. But this is the time we forget everything, even our families and homes!! We spend the whole day chatting in our favourite ‘ baare’ ‘hoge’ terms (As with most Indian languages, verbs in Kannada can be respectful, neutral or lack any respect! The 3rd category is also reserved for very close friends or small children, and denotes affection!) transforming ourselves into the young and bubbly ‘hudugis’ (girls) of Mysore in spite of our silvery crowns and the other symptoms of age!

Indu had lovingly prepared this sweet dessert when we had gathered at her place, to celebrate the silver jubilee of our friendship. Here is the recipe of Carrot Malai, with three cheers to our friendship!

INGREDIENTS:
Carrots – 6 large
Milk - one glass (if you are vegan, you can use Rice or Soy Milk)
Sugar - ½ cup
Almonds – 6

Optional
cardamom powder / essence of your choice - 1/4 tsp

METHOD:
1. Pressure cook the whole carrots. Allow to cool, then remove the skin and keep aside.
2. Boil milk and allow it to cool.
3. Soak almonds in hot water and remove the skin.
4. Blend carrot, milk and sugar in a mixer until smooth and creamy.
5. Pour into a dessert bowl and chill.
6. Garnish with the blanched and chopped almonds.

You may add a pinch of cardamom powder, or any essence of your choice, while blending. However, I prefer the fresh and the intrinsic flavour of carrots and milk without any additives.

Enjoy the cool and creamy carrot malai after a hard day's work!
This orange coloured dish goes off to FIC Orange that Sunshinemom’s of Tongueticklers started, and is currently hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen