Pensions, Refugees, Gulf, Summer Games.

I meant to write about this yesterday and incredibly forgot. I just made a discovery that prisoners get pensions. A man who is in prison for murdering 6 little girls, gets a pension. He gets free room and board which includes 3 meals a day, clean clothes, and in some instance he may get paid for working, he gets the best medical treatment that money can buy, he has committed a heinous crime and he still gets a pension and, if you please, supplements in case he is not getting enough. That is just one instance, but as a pensioner who struggles to make ends meet, I am absolutely disgusted. They are talking about changing the law on this which is why I first discovered it. Matt was surprised I didn't know and assured me he had mentioned it in the past. Apparently if they cut out such pensions it will save us something like $10 million. Maybe they could use some of that to pay the rest of us a few bucks more.

Talking of pensions, there are emails floating around stating that refugees to this country get vast amounts of money and assistance. I believe this is true at the beginning, but it is not paid to them on a regular basis the same way as pensions are to seniors. I know I read a report about it some time ago. I decided to check this out on Snopes.com and found this article http://www.snopes.com/politics/immigration/refugees.asp which sheds light on the whole nonsensical story. The money they are given is a one time payment to assist in setting up in a new country. Mind you, as an immigrant I wouldn't have minded that kind of assistance but I guess they assume you have lots of money when you get here, ha!! I have heard stories of people who arrived here with just a few dollars in their pockets - come to that, we didn't have very much when we arrived either, although a bit more than a few dollars. Luckily Matt had a job already and he had been here a month before I arrived and found a place for us to rent. Just as well as when I did arrive I was loaded down with 6 suitcases and a German Shepherd. A friend had lent Matt some furniture as we had yet to buy any, but as I have mentioned before, we didn't have a bed. We actually had to take out a loan before we could go buy a bed together with a stove and fridge. My first night in Canada was spent trying to sleep on the floor. Despite being so tired, I didn't get much sleep I'll tell you.

Today on Good Morning America, both Sam Champion and George Stephanopoulos are down in the Gulf of Mexico area talking to people about the oil - George talked to a bunch of fisherman who are typical of the people in the area, all of whom are very angry with BP. In fact on the news last night there was talk of criminal proceedings against them as the consensus is that they took lots of short cuts with their rigs. Funnily enough the people in the area are not anti rigs per se, they bring in jobs for the area, they are just anti BP for its extreme negligence.

Tomorrow we have a senior's bowling tournament, we are bowling as part of a team of five. We have to start fairly early so I am not sure about a blog tomorrow or not. In the evening four of us will be attending the banquet which follows. This is not just about bowling, it is the Senior Summer Games and there are all kinds of events taking place in and around town starting on May 25. Last year we bowled in another town some distance away so didn't attend the banquet. They also have a cribbage tournament, I think we should go in for that next year, it might be fun. We may have found more people in our building to play cribbage with. We were going to a friend's with a cribbage board tucked under Matt's arm and a guy in the elevator commented about it, he and his wife play a lot.

Much as I like the month of June, it has the one disadvantage to me of signalling the end of asparagus season. Somewhere around Father's Day or not long after, they will stop cutting and allow the plants to grow into ferns and thereafter pollinate. There are male and female plants, did you know? I knew because I grew asparagus for a number of years in England. I had forgotten this recipe I got from Paula Dean last year and which we made several times, its really good.

Asparagus Phyllo Bundles

Souce: Paula Dean For one roll:

Phyllo - 1/2 sheet for 2 asparagus

2 stalks asparagus

Parmesan, grated

Brush phyllo with butter, sprinkle with Parmesan, place 2 asparagus in middle and roll. Place in baking dish, sprinkle more Parmesan and put in oven 375°F for 15 mins.

Yield: one roll

Have a great day