What's on YOUR iPod???

Ok, I want your comments, everybody! I'd like to know what your 10 most favorite songs are---if you have an iPod, or want one, what 10 songs would you download first? I have over 140 downloaded on mine (I've only had it a month) and I'll list some of them for you..keep in mind I'm a 40-something baby boomer that still favors classic rock and bluegrass from the 70-90's. Now that I've downloaded all the classic rock I can REMEMBER, (it HAS been 30 years!!) I'd like to download some classical or alternative music. Let me hear from you! Tell me what's on YOUR iPod!

Here's some of mine:
ZZ Top's La Grange
Time To Move On - Tom Petty
Knockin' on Heaven's Door - Bob Dylan
Mmm Mmmm Mmmm - Crash Test Dummies
Blue On Black - Kenny Wayne Shepherd
Sweet Home Alabama - Lynyrd Skynyrd
Ray of Light - Madonna
Wonderwall - Oasis
Do You Feel Like I Do - Peter Frampton
In The Air Tonight - Phil Collins
Mary Jane's Last Dance - Tom Petty
All I Wanna Do - Sheryl Crow
Smooth - Santana
Swingin' - Tom Petty
Crazy Little Thing Called Love - Queen
End Of The Line - Traveling Wilbury's
Twist and Shout - The Beatles
People Get Ready - Rod Stewart
Honky Tonk Woman - The Rolling Stones
Lean On Me - Bill Withers
Stay - Jackson Browne
8675309 - Tommy Tutone
Respect - Aretha Franklin
Bang a Gong - Electric Warrior
Long Haired Southern Boy - Charlie Daniels Band
Money - PinkFloyd
Homeward Bound - Simon & Garfunkel
My Sweet Lord - George Harrison
Can't You See - The Marshall Tucker Band
With Or Without You - U2
Rock The Casbah- Clash
Radar Love - Golden Earring
All I Wanna Do - Sheryl Crow
Faithfully - Journey
One Headlight - The Wallflowers
Georgia On My Mind - Ray Charles
Call Me- Blondie
Slow Ride - Foghat
Come Away With Me - Norah Jones
BlackWater - Doobie Brothers
Long Cool Woman - The Hollies
I'm Goin Down - Bruce Springstein
Peaceful EasyFelling - Eagles
I Woke Up This Morning - Ten Years After
Would I Lie To You - The Eurythmics
I'm On Fire - Bruce Springstein
Dust In The Wind - Kansas
My City Was Gone - The Pretenders
I Heard It Through The Grapevine - Michael McDonald
Smoke On The Water - Deep Purple
If It Makes You Happy - Sheryl Crow
Moondance - Van Morrison
Abracadabra - Steve Miller Band
Angel - Sarah McLachlan
Feel Like Making Love - Bad Company
The First Cut Is The Deepest - Sheryl Crow
Addicted To Love - Robert Palmer
You Can't Touch This - MC Hammer
Big Time & Sledgehammer - Peter Gabriel
So Caught Up in You - 38 Special
Fire On The Mountain - Marshall Tucker Band
Superstition - Stevie Wonder
In The Air Tonight - Phil Collins
Almost Cut My Hair - Crosby Still Nash & Young
Every Breath You Take & Fields Of Gold - The Police/Sting
All She Ever Wants To Do Is Dance - Eagles/Don Henley
White Wedding - Billy Idol
Cocaine - Eric Clapton
The Locomotin- Grand Funk Railroad
December - Collective Soul
Your Body Is A Wonderland - John Mayer
Danny's Song - Loggins & Messina

RUM RUNNER
1/2 oz Bacardi Black Rum 1/4 oz Bacardi 151 rum 3/4 oz creme de bananae 3/4 oz blackberry brandy 1/2 oz grenadine 3/4 oz lime juice
Mix in a blender with ice. Serve in a 12 oz glass.
Submitted by bartender Tiki John, Holiday Isle Beach Resort & Marina, Islamorada, Florida.


FRESH COCONUT SHRIMP
1 c. flour (more if needed)2 eggs1 1/2 c. finely grated fresh coconut1 1/2 lb. jumbo shrimp, peeled & deveinedSaltGround black pepper4-5 tbsp. clarified butter or olive oilLime wedges, optional
Place flour in shallow bowl, place eggs in another, and place coconut in third bowl. Season shrimp with salt and pepper to taste. Heat butter in frying pan over medium flame. Dip each shrimp first in flour, shaking off excess, then in egg, then in coconut.
Pan fry shrimp until firm and golden brown about 1 minute per side. Drain on paper towels. Serve with lime wedges. Apricot jam mixed with prepared horseradish, salt and lime juice.
Makes a dipping sauce.

Two of my favorite beach things: Rum Runner cocktails and cocunut shrimp

Coming soon: Tomorrow I will post a favorite duet: Coconut shrimp and RumRunner Cocktails. Nothing beats that pair for sitting beach side on a hot sunny day! Unless you've been beside Florida's turquoise waters sipping an ice cold RumRunner while munching a coconut shrimp, you haven't experienced the closest thing to heaven on earth. I'll have all you need to know here for you tomoorrow at the VattHouse. Tune in and sit back, close your eyes and enjoy!

If that doesn't work, come on down and I'll make you one myself.

The Perfect Painkiller

The Painkiller, the quintessential Caribbean rum cockail:

1 ounce pineapple juice
1 ounce cream of coconut
1 ounce orange juice
1 1/2 oz. Pusser's blue label rum
10-ounce glass filled with ice
5 ounces of Grand marnier
Fresh ground nutmeg
Touch of cinnamon

Without ice, shake or stire the pineapple juice, cream of coconut, orange juice and Pusser's rum. Pour over ice and shake vigourously. Float Grand Marnier, then top with nutmeg and touch of cinnamon. Note: Up to 4 ounces of rum can be added for added taste.

TIDBITS

Recycling a 6-foot tall stack of newspapers saves the life of a 35-foot tall tree.

Americans are responsible for generating roughly 20% of the garbage in the world.

An average American child watches 28 hours of television each week.

An average American throws away 25 trillion Styrofoam cups.

Every day 34,000 children die f rom causes related to poverty and hunger.

There are 92 known cases of nuclear bombs lost at sea.

There is more real lemon juice in Lemon Pledge furniture polish than in Country Time Leomonade.

The average office worker spends 50 miniutes a day looking for lost files and other itmes. (not ME!)

1789 the total US fedweral government debt was $190,000 (heck, that's more than the average American family in 2006!)

Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure. (I've always loved dolphins--now I know why they're so happy!)

By the end of 2006 Jacksonville will have a total of 36 Starbuck Coffee shops! Phew, that's a lot of coffee lovers for one of the hottest states in the USA!

Prevatt Coat Of Arms

42 Lovell Avenue

Grandma’s wooden box of clothespins on the painted grey and white veranda…old metal lawn chairs with speckled red paint—how far can I rock before going all the way over or Grandma warning me to stop? A garden tucked beside a leaning old garage, a row of boxwood hedges and trees circled with Hostas and Lily of the Valley. Huge Hydrangeas as large as tabletops, bursting with fist-sized blooms of purple and blue. And the trees along one side of the sloping driveway, that grew taller with every one of my birthdays; head tall to me then, but reaching far into the sky and wider than Grandpa’s chair now. The white station wagon in the driveway with a statue of St. Joseph on the dash, red leather bench seats and the smell of his cigars forever inside. Lemon meringue pies and ham and mustard sandwiches, clothes hampers or stools with a stack of phone books as make-shift chairs pulled up to an extended kitchen table for the extra family Grandma’shouse was bursting with—us! A window fan humming in the den window, Grandpa’s pencils in a tin cup on his desk, the sleeper sofa my Mom and Dad squeezed into every night of our visit, while my sister and I were tucked in together in the spare room just feet away.
I remember one of the most peaceful, sweet mornings of my life, waking up in that room.
I was in the old twin bed, one my mother herself slept in many years before as a child herself. Statues of Mary and Joseph on the bureau under lacey doilies and white, sheer ruffled curtains at the window, a glimpse of lush green yard, Mrs. Gherard’s home next door. Bird song wafted through the open window, from one of the many trees shading the lawn.
I had no needs then, no compulsive urges, no scattered thoughts, no regrets, no sorrows. Just simple, complete happiness; pure-white happiness and a state of nothingness and wholeness at the same time. Content and safe as if I were enveloped in the very arms of a winged angel.

Catherine when she was only 2. What a character she was even then!

Richard and I. A favorite photo while on vacation at the beach.

Our son Michael while kayaking in the Ortega River near our home. Taken in early June, 2006.

This was taken in October of 2005 while visiting my other in Minnesota. This was taken at one of my favorite spots about a mile from her lake home. This road is "Rose Hill Lane" which cuts through the middle of Rose Hill Cemetery where my grandparents, uncle and other relatives and family friends are buried. Fall time in Minnesota is beautiful.

Camellia blossam. Cummer Gardens, Jacksonville, FL
Photo by L. Prevatt

Taken at The Cummer Gardens

Taken at the local Cummer Art Gallery and Gardens in Jacksonville while on a photography "field trip" with best friend Rebecca.

Taken on Amelia Island Sunday, July 16th.

I love birds! I love taking their pictures and I love watching them and then finding them in my Sibley's bird guide!

One of my favorite beach pictures.

Our lovely granddaughter Mya (even if she didn't have eyes like that, we'd give her anything she wanted!)

Our dog Dylan (named after singer songwriter Bob Dylan).

Me, with daugther Catherine while on vacation.

Me, with my best friend EVER, Rebecca.

Daughter Kimberly surfing the waves and having fun while on the family vacation.

This was taken while on vacation in Ponte Vedra Beach in June. My mother was there, along with two neices from Minnesota, our grown daughter, preschool age daughter and little granddaughter...all girls! --- my poor husband!

(he took the picture and I'm forever grateful that he captured this moment in time for us)

Our daughter Catherine with granddaughter Mya.

Our cat, Kimmie

I like this picture of Richard. We were celebrating our 7th wedding anniversary April 3rd and we were staying at the Elizabeth Pointe Lodge on Amelia Island. We walked the beach that evening as the sun went down.

Family vacation picture

This was a photo taken of us in June while we were on vacation. That's Richard, myself and Catherine.

Well here I am at about day 7 of the blog and I still haven't figured out how to download a picture, which is what I really want to do in the first place! Give me time, I've had a new iPod for 2 or 3 weeks and still haven't figured that either. I guess this is a sure sign of growing old when I wish I was a teenager again, they seem to be able to master technology a lot better than people older than them. I used to be one of them! But that was in the days really before computers. When I was in high school, I was taught typing on an IBM selectric. We used white out then. What's that, the youmnger set will ask. Can't believe I'm half way to 90, experiencing menapause (just the start), have two grandchildren, getting AARP junk in our mailbox, wondering how many more years I need to work to feed our 401(k)...yes, I'm getting older. Not old yet, but definetely older. Old enough now to know better, go to bed earlier, call home more often, obey the rules, do what I should instead of doing what I want to. I didn't know that people acted like children until one day, all of a sudden, they started acting like old people. No space in between, just WHAM and you were there. When did that happen to me? I don't recall. Another sign of "it", that's all!

Well, I'll see if I can't figure out this photo thing. Get back to you soon, just as soon as i figure out how to HTML my post editor and find that darn toolbox!

Life has somewhat returned to normal after our 2 week vacation at our Ponte Vedra beach house (rental). I had a little time to discover the in's and out's of my new Nikon D50 Digital SLR camera. I love him for that--for providing me with the tools to be creative and have fun so I can explore hidden talent in this field! I will post some of the photos I took on vacation and since we've been back. I enjoy photography of family of friends, particularly candid shots, but my favorite has always been nature and wildlife photography. Please feel free to post your comments!

Welcome to The Vatt House Blog!

Hello! Welcome the the blog of Richard and Lori Prevatt, "The Vatt House". Here we will post family photos, recent happenings, future plans and notes to other family members. We welcome your comments and hope that you will enjoy our blog!

Richard and Lori