Your Day Is Here Again!

Sunday is my favorite day of the week. Breakfast with my friends Ted, Doug, Dave, and Bill. And you tell me all about your lives!

Been a good week. Mom is flying high in the sky after this week as she has been fawned over and called beautiful more than once. Monday I called Mom's pharmacy to inquire about the flu shot for her. They said not only did she need a prescription for the flu but that they weren't giving flu shots until mid October. I walked over to my pharmacy and talked to Randy, my trusted pharmacist. He told me to come on in at 2:00 that afternoon, bring your mom and her insurance card. So we did. Randy wasn't there but another pharmacist and a beautiful tech were. While we were waiting someone that read mom's information shouted out "you aren't ninety," Everyone behind in line came up to Mom telling her how beautiful she was and how young she looked. One lady said to her "you know I was really feeling sorry for you because someone in her sixties was in a wheelchair." It really made her day. Then on Thursday I was pushing Mom through Albertson's and a very young woman customer looked at her and said "you are so beautiful." All in all a good week for Mom thanks to so many strangers.

Now the entertainment updates. Dona correctly predicted the winner of America's Got Talent as unemployed chicken catcher Kevin Skinner. Opera singer Barbara Padilla finished second. The Texas Tenors finished in the fourth. I actually thought the finish is exactly the way it should have gone. Padilla and The Texas Tenors have the talent to go places on their own and I'm not sure Skinner does. I think this was the only way he was going to get a million bucks and a Las Vegas gig. So the Gods took over.

Top Chef is still more boring than previous seasons. They need something to spice it up, maybe a romance between Michael V. and Jennifer. My allegiance has gone to Jennifer for three reasons. One she is a good cook. Two I want a woman to win because the men don't seem to be giving a woman much chance to win. And third failing to suppress the dirty old man side of my personality she has a sexy walk. This week it was cowboy themed all the way. Tim Love owner of The Lonesome Dove restaurant in Texas was guest judge. The Quickfire challenge this week was to make something succulent within forty-five minutes using cactus as the base of the meal. Ash, Ron, and surprisingly Michael V were in the bottom three. Winner of the Quickfire Challenge was Mike I., winning fifteen grand but not receiving immunity from elimination in the elimination challenge. The elimination challenge was to cook for twenty-four cowboys. The contestants could make anything they wanted as long as it was high end. They had to cook it outside cooking on open fire grills instead of high end kitchen equipment. The ones that pleased the judges the most were of course the brothers, Bryan and Michael V, and surprisingly Laurine and Ashley. Byran won the night. Getting blasted for their work were Robin, Ron, and Mattin. Eliminated Mattin. A note to contestants, when you are in the bottom three don't defend your dish.

Tomorrow night Dancing With The Stars begins. I'm looking forward to seeing how Michael Irvin does. I'm also looking forward to seeing Tom Delay eliminated. There are some new dances this season. The new dance that I am looking the most forward to is the Charleston. Something about the decade of the twenties kind of enthralls me.

OK, your turn. This is your day. Post anything you damn well please. Concerns, joys, good things, bad things. Introduce yourself if you so desire. Confession is good for the soul. The Blog is now yours.

TODAY'S TRIVIA.

Yesterday's answer was the first woman to get her MD in the United States, Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell.

Today's Who Am I?

I was born on a family farm in Burlington, Iowa in 1846. I was the second child to Mary and Miles. When I was a mere child my father left Iowa for the California Gold Rush. My dad became superintendent of the Bay State Mining Company. Unhappy with the California lifestyle my Mom, my brother, and I moved to Mount Pleasant, Iowa in 1862. I began college at Iowa Wesleyan College in Mount Pleasant. With many men leaving to fight in the civil war, universities were admitting more women students and teachers. I graduated in three years as valedictorian. In the same class my brother was salutatorian. I began a teaching career at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa. One year later I married my college love. My brother encouraged me to get an advanced degree so I could share an occupation with him. I studied in his office. I passed the occupation entrance test in 1869. I was allowed to take the exam and passed with high scores, despite a state law restricting applicants to white males over 21. Shortly after I passed the exam, Iowa amended its law and became the first state to allow women and minorities into the profession. The court ruled that women may not be denied the right to practice the profession in Iowa and admitted me into the club. I was sworn into my occupation at the the Union Block building in Mount Pleasant in 1869. I never practiced that occupation, however, instead I focused on teaching and other activist work. I taught at Iowa Wesleyan, then at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, where I became Dean of the School of Art in 1893 and Dean of the School of Music in 1894. I was also active in the women’s suffrage movement, chairing the Iowa Women’s Suffrage Convention in 1870. I worked with Susan B. Anthony. I died in 1911 not living long enough to see the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1920. I was inducted into the Iowa Women's Hall of Fame in 1980. In 2002 the Iowa Organization of Women Attorneys established an award in my name to recognize outstanding women lawyers in Iowa. Who Am I?