Have you ever driven in a mud bog?

Better yet, have you ever driven drunk in a mud bog? I have not, however 26 year old Ricky Lee Rhodes Jr. of Lewistown, PA has. Someone should have reminded good old Ricky Lee that no good ever comes from drinkin' and driven', especially in a mud bog:

State police say an intoxicated man driving a souped-up Jeep at a mud bog event in central Pennsylvania ran over an adult and child. Police say 26-year-old victim Jason Starr of Muncy had tire tracks on his back, while the 11-year-old boy complained of leg pain.

Police have charged 26-year-old Ricky Lee Rhodes Jr. of Lewistown with drunken driving. Authorities say he was driving toward the mud pit when he struck the pair at Saturday's Diamond Mud Bog in Center Township, Snyder County. Police say about 800 people attended the event.

A nursing supervisor Monday says Starr remains in fair condition at Geisinger Medical Center. Police did not release the boy's name, and medical information was unavailable.

The bigger question is why would anyone, let alone 800 people, want to hang out in a mud bog? Apparently because mud and trucks with big tires is cool. Check it out for yourself!

Congrats to David Cook, American Idol Champ

I haven't been as "into" AI this year as in the past, but one thing is true. I've been a David Cook fan from the beginning and psyched he won. I'm glad that the little Mon-chi-chi and his crazy father didn't win and succeed in their evil plot to take over the world. I also want to point out that since day one, Friendly has been a David Cook fan as well. Check it out, Dawg:

Home from Savannah and other notes....

Kev and I returned yesterday from a long weekend in Savannah, Georgia. It was a great trip! Savannah is a really cool city, highlighted by the fact that there is NO OPEN CONTAINER LAW in Savannah. What does that mean? Quite simply you can strut into a bar, order a beer and then say, "I'll take it to go" and viola - they hand you a beer in a plastic cup and off you go. Nice. I'll draft up a summary of the weekend's events tomorrow, but I wanted to take a moment to congratulate the following folks:

1. To Chris and Craig Guarente: Chris gave birth to a healthy baby boy last Wednesday. Craig James (CJ) weighed in at a healthy 7 lbs, 4 oz and was 20" long. Congrats to them

2. To Laurie Sullivan who recently got engaged to Shawn O'Brien. We could not be happier for both of them!

3. To the Penn State Men's Volleyball Team. They captured the National Championship over the weekend, beating Pepperdine. As a reminder, PSU now has both the Men's and Women's National Volleyball Champions! Hooray!

In Honor of Gladys A. Huster: Sept. 12, 1908 - April 19, 2008

First let me start off by saying that Gladys was not your typical Grandmother. She never baked cookies or gave us hugs and kisses. She didn't host holiday dinners or have sleep overs for her grandkids (or great grandkids). I'm not even sure she ever told me she loved me. But none of that mattered over the years; in fact we've had many a laugh about it over the years. It was just part of who she was and we loved her anyway.

What Gladys did give me was a lifetime of lessons. Some are funny, some are useful, and all are memorable. I compiled this list to remember her and all of the honest-to-goodness funny times we had together because her humor is something that always amazed me and everyone who met her. I enjoyed joking with her and making her laugh. I don't think anything I ever said ever shocked her - even at 99. And as my previous post proves, she kept that humor until the very end.

The things I learned from my Grandmother:

1. You can never moisturize too much
2. Heavenly Hash was the best ice cream ever
3. There's nothing wrong with eating a 1/2 gallon of ice cream in a single sitting
4. If you're going to sit on the radiator, don't raise the temperature higher than 80 degrees or you'll burn your butt
5. A pound of Godiva a day is a good day
6. Julia Roberts is beautiful
7. Buying 6 months of paper products at one time is completely normal
8. Macy's is the only store you need
9. Barnes & Noble has better hot chocolate than White Castle
10. Ronald McDonald red is not a good hair color for anyone unless you're a clown
11. If you need to wear a wig, make sure its secured in the event you get rear ended
12. Even styrofoam cups can't ruin a good cup of tea
And my most recent lesson, learned on Sept. 21, 2007:
13. Cafe Picasso's chicken parm may actually be better than the Olive Garden's!

Rest in peace, G. I'll miss you.

In Memory of Gladys A, Huster, my Grandma

On Saturday April 19, 2008 at about 1:50 pm my Grandmother, Gladys Alberta Baldwin Huster, passed away. Born on September 12, 1908, she was a fighter up until the end. Services will be Wednesday 2-4 & 7-9, and the Funeral service at 11 am on Thursday at the Union Funeral Home - Lytwyn & Lytwyn on Stuyvesant Ave. in Union, NJ. I will have the honor of eulogizing Glad and if you knew her, you have guessed correctly if you say that I will honor her memory with as many laughs as I can. If you didn't know her, let me describe my last two "conversations" with her on Friday night before her kidneys began to fail and take her from us.

1. She looked at me wide eyed and asked, "How does my hair look?". "Glad", I said, "I've gotta tell you. It's looked better. But it's looked worse too!". The she asked, "How do I look?" I replied, "You look great".

2. The cardiologist she used to see when she was initially diagnosed with congestive heart failure 9 years ago, was called in at around midnight. I say, "she used to see" because she didn't like him and hated to go see him. She had an agreement with her doctor that he would monitor her and only force her to see him if she had too. Anyway, this guy comes in and was pretty much a jerk. After he left she leaned over to me and through that little oxygen mask looked at me and said, "I don't like him".

That my friends, sums up my Grandmother in a nutshell. I am thankful that I could be by her side the last 15 hours. There was no where else I would have rather been than by her side trying to make her last few hours a little better.

The Nittany Lion Blues

Can the off season get any worse for my Nittany Lions? You've got the b.s. with Chris Bell pulling a knife on a fellow teammate in the dining hall (and getting permanently kicked out of school), along with the recurring fall out from fightin' in the HUB (Phil Taylor has been suspended from the team since Feb. and just got the boot from campus through Aug. 15th)....and now we learn that Sean Lee, Linebacker extraordinaire just blew his ACL on Friday. I know this is supposed to be a funny blog, but I'm not that happy right now.




The only good thing is that this is one position where we have depth. We ain't Linebacker U for nothing. Go State!



Here's to wishing Sean a successful recovery. We need you in 2009!!!

My Retirement Announcement

Last week I sent the following announcement to my softball team. It's the end of an era, friends. After 27 years of softball I'm hanging up the cleats. Of course I reserve the right, ala Roger Clemmens, to load up on the steroids and come back out of retirement. Never say never.

"Friends, for the past year and a half you have been hearing about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest woman on the face of this earth. I have been in poorly unkempt softball fields for ...a really, really, really long time now and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you friends. "Look at these grand men and women. Which of you wouldn't consider it the highlight of her career just to associate with them for even one day? Sure, I'm lucky. Who wouldn't consider it an honor to have known Mike Leyden? Also, the builder of softball's greatest empire, Coach Voys? To have spent six years with that wonderful little fellow, Lou Chaney? And to have spent three years with that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology, the best hitting coach in softball today, Greg Nice? Sure, I'm lucky.

"When the ITS Rebels, a team you would give your right arm to beat, and vice versa, tells you that you can come play with them any time - that's something. When everybody down to the ITLDPers and our bartender, Marianne, remember you with pints of beers - that's something. When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles with her own son (sometimes) - that's something. When you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so you can have an education and build your body - it's a blessing. When you have a husband who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed - that's the finest I know.

"So I close in saying that I may have had a tough break, but I have an awful lot to live for."