Grandma goes on 4 hour 18 minute CRAP!

Can you imagine?
Could you sit through it?
Just who keeps track of this kind of thing?

A record-breaking 4 hour and 18 minutes CRAP!

Pat DeMauro, a New Jersey grandma, hit the gaming tables this holiday weekend in Atlantic City for a "little craps". She ended up throwing the bones (shooting the dice) 154 times before crapping out by rolling a "7".

Officials at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City said the woman bought into the craps game for $100 on Saturday. She then proceeded to make the 154 rolls, spanning 4 hours and 18 minutes, before failing to make her point by rolling the dastardly "7" and crapping out.

Neither the casino nor DeMauro declared how much money she won during the streak. She did state this was only her second attempt to play the craps tables, and that with her winnings she was going to take her grandkids to Disney World. The casino treated DeMauro and her friend to champagne, dinner, and a free room to further celebrate her run on the table.

The previous craps world record was 3 hours and 6 minutes, and it stood for just short of 10 years as it was set on May 28, 1989.

While the Guinness Book of World Records does not list craps records, there are several gaming organizations that do collect and report such gambling feats.

Gather Releases Upgrade Codenamed - Lemon

Last night Gather.com bounced all the members off the site for 4 hours so their development department could install their latest upgrade [upgrade is gather-speak for installing a new set of bugs!] Gather's codename for their latest release is Lemon, well, that is what the members are calling it, officially it is Lennon.

OK, so now we are back online -- what's new?

Here's what I have found so far:

1- There are a couple new links on the top of your personal home-page.
The invite and email preferences are new to me.

Hi, Altair
Gather Points™: ####
*share *invite *mail *my account *email preferences
Altair I'm just a figment of your imagination. - update status

2 - Now you can directly reply to comments and they are threaded.
All i can say is it's way long over-due! Comments on most sites have been collated and threaded as far back as text-only bulletin boards, why did it take Gather so long to get their act together on this feature?

3 - The comment box has new features to allow easy insertions of links and the ability to edit html.
I am just certain that these additions to commenting will in no way add to what the Director of Member Services refers to as - LITTER!

4 - You can now subscribe or "follow" a post or comment thread, getting email updates.
follow this conversation by email
Just click on the link by the little envelop on top of the comment box.
As if there wasn't already enough junk-mail being spewed out by the Gather servers.

5 - Some cosmetic changes to a few pages.
Click on one of the tabs at the top of the page - People or Groups - or the Explore tab and then select - Posts Photos of Videos - and there are new page formats. Nothing particularly wonderful or any exciting new features. Curiously though, the old Gather Essentials logos are now prominently displayed in the right-hand column. Does this mean that after a year of Gather ignoring those channels they are coming back?
Even more curious is Gather's concept of "popular" when they list things such as posts, photos, groups, etc on these pages. Basically Gather does not understand the definition of "popular" or they are just impudent when it comes to applying the concept to their search algorithms. If you check out the "popular" groups you will find several listed that have only a couple dozen members and if you investigate one of these low-profile groups you will find they also don't have very much activity - posting and commenting - by their members, especially compared to some groups that are truly "popular" using the popular (and accepted normal) definition of the word.

6 - One HUGE omission in the upgrade - Gather again failed to address the issue with ratings!

So what do you think of the 'new' Gather?

Did you find any other new things?

Gold Medal and Mirrored Ball - Shawn Johnson is the DWTS Winner

Shawn Johnson, a Gold Medal Gymnast at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and her dance partner Mark Ballas vaulted over the other two remaining couples in the finals to win the 8th season of Dancing With The Stars!

The tiny teen with the huge smile steadily improved her performances during the course of the season. Shawn seemed surprisingly unsteady at the beginning of the season for a world-class athlete that performs in the intensely scrutinized and ultra competitive arena of women's gymnastics.

Shawn and Mark out-scored the second place team of actor Gilles Marini (Sex and the City) and his partner Cheryl Burke with an Olympic-like total of less than 1%. Melissa Rycroft (a jilted winner on The Bachelor), who joined DWTS as a last-minute replacement only days before the season 8th's premier show, and her partner Tony Dovolani finished third.

During show segments leading up to the teams' final dances and scores, Shawn's deminuitive size was a target for some good-natured jibs and trash talk, culminating with Melissa's quip, "Shawn can't win, you have to be at least 'this tall' (holding her hand over Shawn's head) to take home the trophy!" However, Shawn got the last laugh and adds the "Mirrored Ball" Dancing With The Stars trophy to her cache of Beijing Olympic medals - Team silver, two individual silvers, and the Gold Medal for Balance Beam. Not only is Shawn the smallest (shortest) DWTS winner, she is also the youngest winner to date, she celebrated her 17th birthday just weeks before the 8th season of Dancing With The Stars kicked off!

Gone to Ghana?

Have you or anyone you know ever gone to Ghana? Not very likely!

Beware of this email spam scam. Be suspicious of anyone who claims they live in the USA, but are on assignment in Ghana, Nigeria, or other African countries because they are an engineer, aid worker or business person and they suddenly need money because they have been robbed or a victim of some disaster.

As we head into the summer travel months also be on the watch for emails claiming they are a friend, neighbor, or distant relative's high school or college age child that is backpacking through Europe and has lost their money and passport, been robbed, or suffered some other catastrophe on their vacation.

Help curb this kind of spam by reporting anyone who asks you for money to your site or email provider. And remember - NEVER EVER SEND MONEY TO ANYONE WHO YOU MEET ONLINE!

TB & BLAT Attact

or better known as -

What's for Lunch?

One of my favorite pairings for lunch is a bowl of Tomato Bisque and a BLAT sandwich. That would be a Bacon, Lettuce, Avocado, and Tomato sandwich!

I like my BLAT (and most of my sliced bread type sandwiches) on lightly toasted slices of my special high-fiber whole wheat bread, only 80 calories total for two slices and 25% of your minimum daily fiber. It is also low in fat, but more on fat in a minute.

I zapped a couple strips of bacon in the microwave until they were nice and crispy. Cut slices of firm and fresh tomato and some from a ripe avocado, rinsed a leaf of romaine lettuce, and waited for the timers on the toaster and microwave to ring and ding signaling that their contents were ready to proceed with assembly.

I placed a couple slices of avocado on each piece of toast, giving them a smear with the side of the knife. No mayo, salad dressing, mustard or other such common spreads on the bread. Then I give the spread avocado a light sprinkle of garlic powder and pepper. Add a layer of bacon, the tomato slices, break the romaine leaf into pieces that will cover the sandwich and top with the second slice of avocado spread toast. Slice sandwich into halves or quarters. Serve with the tomato bisque that has been simmering on the stove. Voila! lunch!!!

Tomato Bisque!
Where's the Tomato Bisque?
umm, well, there wasn't really any Tomato Bisque.
I'm sorry! Unlike Bree I am not a Desperate Housewife and I have a life!
So I didn't really make Tomato Bisque today, instead I supped up some tomato soup right out of a can! Empty can into sauce pan and heat following directions on the side of the can! There! Happy now? :-) Ok, I did add some chopped fresh basil and oregano, a little finely minced garlic and onion, and a sprinkle of pepper. While the soup simmered I fixed my BLAT sandwich.

Back to the Fat
Admittedly bacon is mostly fat. Not really a good thing, but it does taste good, and with moderation most people can slurge once in a while and have a little bacon. Ok, I can hear some of you starting murmur about the avocado and how it's full of fat too. And it is, but it is a different kind of fat. Avocados are a mono-saturated fat, as are olives and most fish fats (which also have omega oils). Mono-saturated fats are the good fats and in moderate quantities are very benefitial to your health. Avocados also are extremely high in fiber which helps offset some of their fat calories. Spreading the avocado on my sandwich is better than using mayonnaise or Miracle Whip which are both high in calories and low in beneficial ingredients. I don't usually have bacon around the house, but I did today because I was wrapping up some filet mignons for tomorrow. Usually I make my BLAT sandwich with Turkey Bacon, which I know a lot of folks don't like, but I have found the extra-lean brands can be cooked up nice and crisp and taste very good, almost as good as the old style fatty real bacon.

So what did you have for lunch today?