Book Review-700 Sundays by Billy Crystal

This book was published in 2005 and let me tell you that there were parts that were laugh out loud funny.  I was reading on my front porch one night  and just burst out laughing and couldn't stop...I had to go inside. I love Billy Crystal....when he hosts the Academy Awards I cannot wait to watch.  Along with laughing it also made me shed a few tears too.  He had the most interesting family, immediate and extended.  His stories were great, I had to read a whole chapter to my husband about the baseball that they played and the Yankees that are Billy's favorite MLB team.  My husband laughed out loud too!  Billy's father died of a heart attack when Billy was 15 yrs. old.  His father worked two jobs and the only time they had him all to themselves was a sunday.  He only had his father for 700 Sundays.  It talks about the jazz era and his uncle started Commodore Records and sold music in the Commodore Record Shop in New York.  There were always well known artists in that shop, Louis Armstrong, Billy Holiday to name just two.  He went to see his first movie with Billy Holiday, it was Shane and it had Jack Palance in it, who ended up being a co-star of his in the City Slickers movies.  This was a very quick and enjoyable read.. 

Happy July 4th

I made this easy and tasty dessert tonight for our dinner.

Here is the recipe....

Fruit Pizza

Ingredients

2 pkgs. refrigerated sugar cookie dough
1 pkg 8 oz cream cheese
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla

fruit of your choice

Spread the sugar cookie dough in a 15 X 18 sheet pan
Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes
take out and let cool.

While it is baking beat the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla together.

Spread on the cooled cookie sheet and add your fruit design.

Anything works:
grapes
kiwi
blueberries
bananas
apples
strawberries
etc....

Electricity and a book review-The Bodyguards Story by Trevor Rees-Jones

On friday afternoon 6/29/2012, we lost our power before we saw a drop of rain...probably about 2:45 p.m.  The storm was fast moving with violent winds.  We have no trees that could be toppled but we are amazed at the trees and branches down in the area.  One house near us had a HUGE tree in the back fall on his barn and a HUGE  tree in the front snap and fall into his front yard.  The tree in the back just fell over with the roots coming out of the ground.  The base is probably two adults high if one stood on the others shoulders.  The strangest thing we had happen was that the wind picked up our cast iron table and chairs along with the rug that we had on the back deck and fling them all into the neighbors yard.  Thankfully they did not hit their house or anything in the yard.  We have a generator that we are able to run lights and take showers, watch television.  We held up in the basement and stayed cool with our fans and didn't venture too far from the house.  The electricity was restored at 11:00 p.m. on Saturday night.  We are so thankful for the hard work of the workers.  We feel fortunate that it wasn't that long because we know others that don't have their electricity on yet here on a humid monday morning.

While we were without electricity I finished a book....The Bodyguards Story by Trevor Rees-Jones.

 This book was written in 2000 for many reasons.  1. To raise money to pay for his lawyer fees. 2.  To get money to put away because he did not know if his body would hold up after it was so damaged after the crash.  3.  To tell his story because Mr. Fayed was throwing out accusations that were not true. 

Trevor Rees-Jones never sold his story to the highest bidder, being the only survivor of this horrendous crash.  He was Dodi Fayed's bodyguard and because of the choices that Dodi made Trevor was to take the brunt of the publicity, unwanted as it was. 

I enjoyed this book, it tells of the weeks leading up to the crash. It explains in detail the French Police report what exactly happened in the crash, why Diana died because of her injuries.  It explained why the supposedly engagement ring could not be true and the accusations of an assasination plot was unknown. 

Because of his money Mr. Fayed was a very controlling person.  He had the means to buy off, pay off many, many people.  When he finally burned his last bridge with Trevor to try to control what he said about the crash he then angrily threw out accusations that it was all his fault.

Trevor was a very unassuming person along with his family.  During the time of the crash he was getting divorced from his wife of two years.  She sold her story, a distant friend of his, sold his story to the tabloids.  Trevor never wanted to cut his ties to Mr. Fayed or think the worst of his.  It took a very long time and he had to come to the conclusion on his own, even though his family and lawyers tried to get him to see the truth.  I give him credit for doing it his own way.

He and his family only wanted to start living their normal life again in the small village of Owestry, Shropshire.  I hope because of this book he did receive compensation to put away money for his future, because at the end of the book he had not received anything because of the French laws.