Happy Independance Day! Life is great as an American


The year of 1776, our founding forefather debated, drafted and signed in Independance Hall in Philledelphia a Declaration of Independance, stating the intent of governing ourselves, foregoing the attatchment to England, sparking a Revolution. Happy Independance Day!

My family and I celebrated by gathering together for a relaxing barbeque-everyone brought a bit of this and that so that that burden wouldn’t be on one group or another-making the meal quite exquisite to the eyes and taste buds. Of course, my little godson was the star of the show with his giggles and laughter-4 generations show up and oh, boy! We celebrated to our hearts delight!

The beef T-Bones steaks came from our parents farm in Colorado (quality, natural beef is so much better!) and most of the vegetables came from the garden at my Sweetness’ house and the papaya came from Aldi-every thing was made from scratch. My brother in law carefully and exquisitely seasoned the steaks and let them “set” over night-and the garden salad was dressed in olive oil, basil leaves, fresh ground pepper, and lime juice. Everything was kept simpe; the papaya was also spiced with chili pepper powder and grilled with the squash and okra!

The aluminium foil packets are “Cowboy potatoes”, which are chunked, skin on red potatoes, chopped onions, himalayn pink salk, black pepper, garlic toes, a bit of butter, wrapped up into aluminium pouches and grilled (cowboys out on the rance would stick them in the camp fire!) And for the record, smoke bombs, the bright colored ones, and sparklers are some of my favorite fireworks!

Happy 4th of July!

Fireworks at Unity Park, Greenville, South Carolina. Video Shot by Nourhan Elashkar

Don’t forget to check out my eBay! Treasures and gifts galore!

New Things for Nourhan, An adventure with my neighbor


Adventuring with a buddy is always so much fun, especially when your buddy is your Egyptian neighbor and friend. Nourhan is an international student (such a lovely lady)-so this eveing, our schedules finally aligned where we could go on an adventure together!

Nourhan spends a lot of time in the classroom and labs at Clemson University, studying hard, doing research, and working on her thesis–and hasn’t had much time to explore before now; We are making up for lost time!

We enjoyed the local history of the Maiden taking shelter along the waterfalls to escape her captors- and the history of the Stumphouse tunnel(where the Clemson Original Bleu Cheese was originally formulated and made by the old irish immigrant recipe and more!) Plus, on our way out, a fun armadillo decided to grace us with it’s presence as it crossed the road as we drove away. Nourhan hadn’t ever seen one before and asked me what it was, a cute little armadillo!

It has been a giant blessing having Nourhand as a neighbor and a friend and I am so glad she moved in next door to me!

Making a message for Nourhan’s mom