Sometimes we can get stuck on the simplest of resolution in a new year. In our case, what is stuck is in our oven amount to an embarrassing culinary disaster that may take the next twenty years, or a stint in prison, to remove. I'm calling 2024 The Year of the Oven.

coming year of 2024. No wonder they say your mouth is the strongest muscle in the human body! And, what if I told you that you could eliminate all but fifty-five of those words and gain an extra five months in the coming new year? Well, I assure you I’ve picked my words carefully in this podcast…

relatives that are starving and blue, snuggle in with your kids and listen to how the uproarious Slap Family overcame their grumpies and made Big Slappy Stew. There's some wild Slap characters here and enough slap-soup stew for at least sixty-two, and if you aren't grumpy, possibly you!

Going back into the archives of Knee Deep to play an old favorite from a past Christmas... The holiday season is creeping up on us like the second hand in a scary movie. No one hears the ticking until the camera zeroes in on the gothic clock and the last few seconds tick off in slow motion. Will we make it out of the holiday Twilight Zone before that clock strikes twelve? We may, but it will take some careful maneuvering at the grocery...

Start the countdown! It's twelve days til Christmas, and if you feel like you are on thin ice, I've come up with another Ten Tidings to help you skate smoothly through the season. Renegade apples? Moonwalking? Yep, they are all part of the package I've tied up for you with a bow in this episode for you and your kin!

We get attached to some of the most ridiculous things in life, and one of them is our parking spots. We like to think we are a generous

lot, but our cars are sneaky as they slide nonchalantly into “their” space and claim it as their own. We might want to be a bit more cautious as we pull into that pole position because someone, someone special, may have our number…

Zoysia, oh Zoysia, where has your blazing grass gone? It's gone to Hell in a handbasket, that is where it has gone, as our entire neighborhood appeared to be on the verge of burning to the ground amidst leaf fires, lawn fires, and blazing golf shots gone mad. Yet, a force greater than grass is bringing Heat of a different kind.

In November, the street I grew up on turned into a corridor of fire as leaf fires lined the curbs and sirens could be heard across the city. Amidst the chaos of smoke and flames, my brother finds a new method for spreading our blackening zoysia grass to every lawn in our neighborhood.

As smoke trails rise above the fire pits in the Fall, neighborhood used to be filled not only with lit pumpkins but raked leaf piles burning iin the street. Our family had another take of fire, and one that involved The Zoysia, the super-grass of all lawn grasses.