The Saturday Seven: Interesting Things Made From Goats Milk

A friend of mine at work gave me a bar of all natural organic Goats Milk Soap this week and I've been fascinated by how soft and silky it is when washing my hands. I've always liked goats. Even when I was a little kid, goats were interesting to me. Baa Baaa! I think it had something to do with that little beard they have- or should I say "Goatee". I suppose that's where the term goatee came from- goats. Anyway I started to wonder what else goats milk is used for. This was the inspiration for another scintillating installment of The Saturday Seven: Interesting Things Made From Goats Milk. Goat's milk is actually quite rich and delicious. it has a subtle, sweet and slightly salty tone to it. They say that goat's milk is the milk of choice in most of the world, but we never drank it growing up. Some natural markets and health foods stores like Whole Foods and such do carry it in with their organic milk section. I was fascinated to learn that unlike milk from a cow, it is not necessary to homogenize goat's milk. Goat's milk fat globules are very small and remain part of the liquid solution, instead of separating like cow's milk. So without further ado, here are the seven most interesting things made from Goat's Milk:

#1 Regular Fresh Goat's Milk: ideal for people allergic to or can't digest cow's milk.

#2 Goat's Milk Soap

#3 Goat's Milk Shower Bath Cream Gel

#4 Goat's Milk Hand Lotion

#5 Goat's Milk Frozen Yogurt

#6 Goat's Milk Cheese

#7 Goat's Milk Tablets

Bonus Entry: Goat's Milk Strawberry Lolly-pops

What have you tried from Goat's Milk? Any stories about Goat's or their milk?
-Rick Rockhill

The Saturday Seven: Places I Get My News

For some time, there's been lots of news in the media about the pending demise of printed newspapers and news magazines. I say codswallop! Well some lousy ones will go away, but the main ones will likely remain an entity for at least another 10 minutes. I mean 10 years. I think anyway (darn it, where did I put my crystal ball?). I for one still enjoy the ritual of thumbing through a newspaper, particularly while traveling on business or on vacation. But is that enough to keep the newspaper industry alive? The reality is the population of people who regularly read newspapers is aging, while younger generations are growing up getting their news from the World Wide Web- the Internets, as it were. We stopped subscribing to the newspaper at home because much of it was old news by the time I received it. I had already seen everything they had to say online. Except for that mattress sale at Macy's, or the special the air conditioning repair man is running. So despite the fact that I enjoy reading newspapers, I just don't do it often enough. I tend to get 95% of my news online, from a very narrow range of websites. I rarely watch TV for news, so these are all websites. This was the inspiration for another scintillating edition of The Saturday Seven: Places I Get My News.

#1 CNN.com: I trust about 75% of what they say. The rest is political spin

#2 GoogleNews: I read it all as fact. I naively assume there is no hidden agenda to what they cover, and I'm happy with thinking that.

#3 MSNBC.Com: News that entertains me. Its colorful, lots of photos and makes me happy for some reason. I'm sure they planned it that way.

#4 FoxNews.Com: "Fair and Balanced" news, right? Or is it? Well I guess it is when you compare it to everything else out there. I trust about 65% of what these guys say.

#5 City Newspaper Websites: Chicago Tribune and the New York Times: I lived in both Chicago and Manhattan way back, and I still consider these both reputable newspapers.

#6 YahooNews: Actually quite comprehensive, fairly objective collection from AP and PRnewswire sources. Trouble is, it just ain't pretty. You need to be in a utilitarian mood to read their news.

#7 BBC News.Com: Probably the most trustworthy, highest quality news out there. I seem to believe everything they report as true and factual. Or at least what The Queen wants us to believe. But that's good enough for me.

Bonus entry:

Bonus entry: Wall Street Journal.Com: My trusted source for business news. It helps for small talk in the Board Room too.

So where do YOU get your news from? Go ahead, weigh in and leave an opinion.

-Rick Rockhill

The Saturday Seven: Favorite Traditions at Major League Baseball Games

After several days in NY on business I returned to Southern California by way of San Diego. I couldn’t go straight home to Palm Springs as I was previously committed to attend a San Diego Padres game for work. A few months back, my company’s charitable foundation held a fundraiser auction which included a few packages to attend a baseball game with various officers of the company. I was happy to make myself available, particularly when 100% of the auction money paid by the winning bid went to help animals (shelters, rescue organizations, spay/neuter programs, etc). So when our company foundation asked me to be one of the “prize packages” I was all to happy to participate. The timing of this game was just unfortunate in that it was last night, the same day I had flown back from a week in New York. So as soon as I collected my luggage from baggage claim I retrieved my car and drove directly to the ball park downtown. Despite being tired from a long flight, I was excited to be at the game. I’d stop short of declaring myself a major baseball fan, but I truly enjoy the sport. It goes back to my childhood, when my Italian great-grandfather Luigi would watch Boston Red Sox games all summer long. He hated the New York Yankees with a passion, and would shout at the TV set whenever the Red Sox played poorly or God forbid- those Yankees scored. To this day I have that same bias, all because of him. When I lived in Chicago I became a big Cubs fan, which is what cemented my love of baseball as an adult. Chicago is such a great sports town that it was hard to resist the tidal wave of passion for our Cubbies.

Despite having lived in Southern California now for over ten years I still have a soft spot in my heart for my Cubs. So whenever I attend a Padres game, it isn’t genuine love of the team, but rather a love of the sport and its traditions. This brings me to another scintillating edition of The Saturday Seven: Favorite Traditions of Major League Baseball Games

#1 Hot Dogs....mmmm you can't just have one.

#2 Seventh Inning Stretch- “Take Me Out To The Ball Game”

#3 National Anthem

#4 Catching a baseball from the stands

#5 Cold beer

#6 Peanuts in the Shell- messy but worth the work!

#7 Loveable Mascots and Pep Rallies
Bonus Feature: Fireworks After Last Night's Game

Every Friday night after a Padres game, they have a fireworks show, right there in the ballpark. I took a short video of it. Enjoy!

-Rick Rockhill

The Saturday Seven: Things That Should Annoy Me But Don't

"Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be" . Those are words of the great Abraham Lincoln that, for some reason influenced my perspective on life from an early age. I consider myself to be a fairly positive-minded individual. Even when things go wrong, or not as planned, I tend to make the best of the situation and keep smiling. Our lives are filled with enough challenges large and small- why let the little things get you down? Indeed it really does come down to choices we each make. This was the inspiration for another scintillating edition of The Saturday Seven: Things That Should Annoy Me But Don't

#1 Splashed unexpectedly by a lawn sprinkler. It actually is a little refreshing and brings me back to childhood.

#2 Birds nest on the side of the house. First instinct is oh no, I need to get that out of here, but when you see the mama bird protecting her little chicks, it is hard to knock it down.

#3 Brown bananas. Darn it, how did I let them go brown? I hate wasting food. No problem. They make a nice milkshake, muffins or flambe!

#4 Overpriced movie popcorn. To be honest, it makes me crazy to pay $6 for popcorn, but a movie experience doesn't seem complete without it so I get over it and move on.

#5 Crying Baby. A bundle of joy, and they have no idea what's going on anyway.

#6 Whimpering Puppies. OK, so this is similar to #5 but there is one difference. Puppies are way cuter that a newborn baby so its a different emotion that allows me to move on and not be annoyed.

#7 That long line at Starbucks. Amazingly people stand in line for ages but it is worth the wait for that delicious cup of cawfee

What's on your list? I'm running a special today, all comments are FREE!

-Rick Rockhill

The Saturday Seven: Things That Frustrate Me

I've been writing a weekly Saturday Seven post for a few years now, and never tire of creating these lists of random topics with a common theme each week. What's more is the number of e-mails I receive about this column feature. It serves as an inspiration to maintain this popular feature. Even the Google Analytics reports indicate that this feature receives a lot of hits and has subscribers to the topic. And so onto this week's scintillating edition of The Saturday Seven: Things That Frustrate Me. I sincerely hope some of you will weigh in with things that frustrate you from everyday life. Here are my top 7:

#1 Stepping in Gum

#2 Delayed Flights. I travel a lot. Waiting in the airport or worse- being stuck on the plane and having ti sit on the tarmac.

#3 Flat Tires- A starship can have its hull blown apart and a force-field immediately kicks in so the ship can still fly. Can't we develop that same technology for a simple tire??

#4 Waiting in Long Lines- especially at the Post Office with a heavy package

#5 Broken Eggs.

#6 Broken Shoelaces- of course it never happens when you have plenty of time to spare.

#7 Empty Tube of Toothpaste- For some reason this drives me crazy. You spent the last few days being very pleased with yourself on being able to still get more out of the tube. Then suddenly one day there just isn't anymore to give. Then I get frustrated.

What little annoyances of life frustrate you? C'mon, leave a comment and let's spice this up!

-Rick Rockhill

The Saturday Seven: Sensational Shows of the 70's

The Saturday Seven weekly series has been on a brief hiatus these past few weeks as I've been traveling and on the go of late. But it is back once again to tantalize and tease, bringing you to the very brink of excitement. There were a number of entertaining programs on TV at the time. It was a naughty socially conscious era of television. Women were asserting themselves. Men were learning to shed their sexist opinions of women. Racial barriers were being challenged. This was also the age of the great variety show, sadly, long since gone from the screen. Super Soap Operas. Idyllic Family Sitcoms. Indeed it was a fascinating period in American television. Therefore, I am pleased to bring you another scintillating installment of The Saturday Seven: Sensational Shows of the 70's. I hope you enjoy this stroll down memory lane...

#1 Dallas- salacious, sexy, sinful and compelling drama that ruled the airwaves and had people around the world glued to the tube every Friday night.

#2 Happy Days-Who couldn't like little Richie Cunningham, everybody's Mom Mrs C or the essesence of it all: "The Fonz". These days Mr C lives happily here in Palm Springs.

#3 Charlie's Angels- 3 fabulous chicks that ran around showing off their bodies; nobody really cared that they couldn't hold a gun.

#4 Eight Is Enough- Everybody's favorite dad, Tom Bradford. You all know that Dick Van Patten is a friend of mine, so I may be impartial here....

#5 Laverne & Shirley- Two sassy city broads who lived, laughed and learned about life together.

#6 M*A*S*H- Funny, then serious then funny, then serious. At times it was a social commentary on war. Hot Lips Houlihan gave the guys a reason to watch.

#7 Three's Company- Light, bubby, and full of laughs. Chrissy Snow was my favorite. I just wanted an apartment like theirs when I was a kid.

I hope you enjoyed this week's installment of The Saturday Seven: Sensational Shows of the 70's. Which one was YOUR favorite?

-Rick Rockhill