90-nothing, balls-to-the-wall, pell-mell, mach-1, hair on fire!

That pretty much sums up my day yesterday as the countdown to Azalea Trail nears.
In yesterday's NY Times there was an article on one of my fav tv personalities Paula Deen, the Southern "chef" from Georgia. I can't watch her at home because I don't have cable. But every day at work at lunchtime we watch her as we eat our lunch. She is so entertaining! And I admire her. She started out with next to nothing and parlayed it into a vast empire. She was married at 18, pregnant at 19, orphaned at 23, became depressed and then severely agoraphobic for the next 20 years. She got divorced and in order to support her 2 young sons she started selling bagged lunches to office workers in downtown Savannah. Since she was suffering from agoraphobia, she had to send her sons out to sell the sack lunches consisting of ham salad, chicken salad or pork sandwiches and a cup of custard or banana pudding. She developed a loyal customer base and opened a small restaurant. Then a larger one near the Savannah waterfront, The Lady and Sons. Today her empire includes 2 restaurants, 2 tv shows, 5 cookbooks, a cooking/decorating magazine and a line of baking mixes and seasonings. She is referred to as "the Queen of Southern Cooking." But some purists disagree simply because she sometimes uses some shortcuts such as cake mixes and instant pudding. She makes all the popular Southern, downhome, country, stick-to-your-ribs, comfort food such as fried chicken, chicken-fried steak, mashed potatoes & gravy, collard greens, gumbo, macaroni & cheese casseroale, ham hock & beans and many, many mouth-watering more! And desserts out of this world!