If I've said it once, I've said it a million times - KISS FM has the best listeners in the world! Not only do we ask you to donate money and baskets to our Easter Basket Drive, we ask you a few months later to donate money and school supplies to our Stuff the Bus School Supply Drive. This year we also asked you on the spur of the moment to donate bicycles to the Child Crisis Center after their bikes were stolen - and you came through with flying colors!

This week we kicked off our second annual Christmas Act of Kindness. We had some extra money left over in our bank account and decided to pay it forward with your help. We are getting emails filled with stories of amazing people who need help to make ends meet during these tough economic times, and we have given three of these people 250 dollars to help them out a little. But we have also been geting calls from our listeners who want to help even more! We've gotten calls from people who want to donate money, clothes, even Christmas dinner!

So thanks to all our KISS FM listeners for all the help you give us throughout the year bringing smiles to little kids faces, helping them celebrate Easter and do well in school, and thank you for your generous offers of help to those who need it most at Christmas time.

KISS FM has the BEST LISTENERS IN THE WORLD!!!!!!!!

Well, the turkey is just a memory, the Christmas lights are in a jumble on the garage floor, and Mike and I are back at work! The week we took off for Thanksgiving was great, but getting back into the groove of things this morning was just as fantastic because we really do have the best job in the world! Where else can you get paid to say snarky things about celebrities who can't answer back, make fun of people who really are stoopid!, and drink coffee and surf the web?! Not to mention talking to listeners who were so sweet and told us all morning how much they missed us?! Yup! I love my job!

Next Tuesday, 93.1 KISS FM is hosting A Taste of Home Coooking School at Grace Gardens. You can check out all the details and buy tickets at kisselpaso.com. There are other locations around town where you can pick up tickets. A complete list of those sites is on our website as well.

But Tricia, you say, I already know how to cook. Well, so do I, but I can't wait for Tuesday for the same reason I watch the Food Network and the Cooking Channel. I love to learn new stuff! Cooking is all about applying techniques to ingredients, it's that simple. But where do you go to learn the techniques? A recipe, a lot of times, looks complicated and it might get put in a drawer without you ever trying to cook it. But Tuesday night, the experts from Taste of Home magazine will show us how to whip up Bacon and Cheese Scones! And Upside Down Banana French Toast! And COOKIE DOUGH TRUFFLES!!!!!! They'll show us how to take every day ingredients you have in your kitchen and turn them into showstopping goodies for your family! And you'll get all the credit!

Now, could I check out the recipes and do them myself? Maybe. But I love to see someone run through a recipe who has cooked it before. They turn a page of printed instructions into a party in the kitchen! How do you turn flour, bacon, and cheese into Bacon and Cheese Scones? Come to Grace Gardens on Tuesday and find out! Don't know how to cook a banana without making it banana moosh and ruining your Upside Down Banana French Toast? You'll find out Tuesday night at a Taste of Home Cooking School!

We'll have fun, get a chance to sample some delicious offerings from El Paso restaurants like Dominic's Italian Restaurant and learn how to make dishes that will WOW your family and friends! So come out to Grace Gardens and learn how to create some magic in the kitchen with a Taste of Home Cooking School!

I LOOOOOOOVE BASEBALL!

I'm at home right now, watching the Texas Rangers play the New York Yankees with Darren. In the seventh inning stretch, the National Baseball League honors our men and women in the service by having someone sing one of my favorite songs of all time, God Bless America. Now, I know they don't do it only for me, but I hope that the parents of other service men and women feel the pride I do when the whole game is brought to a halt to honor our brave soldiers.

I first heard God Bless America when I was a kid. My grandparents would tear up when the indominable Kate Smith would belt out the tune at the end of virtually every variety show on tv, and in the 70's when I grew up, there were a lot of variety shows! That song makes me cry each and every time I hear it. I wrote a column about it one Fourth of July when Ryan was in Iraq. It is a song that makes my heart soar, and the National Baseball League blows me away by having someone sing it at every game they play.


The message you tried to print is protected with Information Rights Management. You don't have the necessary user rights to print the message.
Baseball is America's pasttime, sorry football. Much as I have grown to admire the mechanics of football, baseball has become my favorite sport because it celebrates our nation's heroes, the men and women of our Armed Forces.

As the mom of a son who will probably be put in harm's way once again, and someone who has talked with and heard the stories of countless soldiers and their families stories, the fact that the National Baseball League thinks enough to stop a game and salute our soldiers, makes me want to hug every person who works for the League.

So whatever Cowboys, get lost Steelers, The Sport of America is BASEBALL!!!!!!!

God Bless America!

We kick off our annual Pink Ribbon Week this morning! Check out kisselpaso.com for the locations where you can pick up important information about breast health this week. You can get a pink ribbon for your lapel, or a pink antennae topper for your car, as well as pick up some Yoplait yogurt! They have the pink tops on them in commemoration of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. When they are turned in, Komen for the Cure gets a donation from the fine folks at Yoplait!

Breast cancer isn't a comfortable subject to talk about, but not talking could have deadly consequences. Every woman should learn how to do a monthly self-examination so she knows her breasts, that way, if there is a change, she can catch it and bring it to the attention of her doctor. Breast cancer may not be preventable, but it can be caught in it's early stages and that gives you a fighting chance to beat it.

Some women think that because breast cancer has never happened in her family, they don't have to worry. The problem with that logic, however, is that there will be a first time in every family. Breast cancer doesn't discriminate - it will strike rich and poor women, it will strike women with a history of breast cancer in their families, it will strike women with NO history of breast cancer in their family. The only way to fight it is to be informed! The way to be informed is to stop by any of the locations around town this week where KISS FM and Komen for the Cure will be.

We know our listeners come through for us with our Easter Basket Drive, the Stuff the Bus School Supply Drive, even with bicycles for the kids at the Child Crisis Center. You guys rock! We know we can always count on you to help out, so we want to make sure we help our listeners out with this FREE information.

It's important, it's your life. Let's help each other stay healthy!

Are you ready for some football?

How 'bout them 'Boys?! (I know, I know, they lost, but bear with me!)

Ok, that about exhausts my knowledge of football sayings.

The Cowboys played and lost this weekend, so there are a lot of fans in mourning right now, and a lot of women who can't understand why their guys take this stuff so seriously. I know it bugs Darren when the Cowboys lose, but thankfully, he doesn't take a swan dive into the pit of despair the way some guys do. He hopes for the best and bitches when they lose, but he does realize that the sun will come up again. But there are guys who really do go crazy when their team loses. And I have friends who make their men feel silly by not understanding their pain, and worse, make fun of it.

They can't understand why their man sits in his La-Z-Boy and tosses his football in the air slowly, replaying in his mind each and every bad play of the game. They ask him why he insists on watching SportsCenter for the rehash of their team's loss. They tell him, "It's only a game!"

By the way, Kim Kardashian had her dog neutered.

So What's Love Got To Do With - well, there is no other way to put this - Balls?

Guys love balls. They love to throw them around, they love to run down field with them, they love to spike them. They loooove to display them, especially when it's a game winning ball. Because most women have never played sports, we don't get it. Of course, I'm talking about uncoordinated dweebs like me here, not women who have actual athletic prowess! The problem with men and their balls though, is women always seem determined to take them away, and we want them to be happy when we do.

We want guys to hold our purses when we shop. We want them to pick up their underwear off the floor. We want them to curl up on the couch with us and watch Lifetime all weekend while eating microwave popcorn. So when football season rolls around and our man suddenly becomes glued to the tv and espn.com, we want to clip those suckers off - if you know what I mean, and I think you do - and we want to do it in front of everyone so our superiority in the relationship is unquestioned. The problem is, guys aren't peeing on the carpet, so to speak, when they become obsessed with football. They are just in Deep Dude Mode.

DDM makes your guy tell you he's "going to have a beer with the guys", but in reality, he's really heading to a "gentleman's" club. DDM makes your guy not only NOT pick up his underwear, it makes him wear them an extra day or two to get them extra nasty for when you finally pick them up yourself. DDM makes your guy demand that you make him a sammich and get him a cold beer in front of the guys while they watch the game. That cackling and high fiving you hear when you deliver the food and beverage and leave the room? It's DDM.

I've been married a couple of times, okay, three, and if there is one thing I've learned, it's not to fear DDM. Men, try as we might, are really not domesticated animals. They'll go with us to Home Depot and look at carpet samples, they'll even hold our purses while we shop, but the truth is, what they really want to do is run around, run into each other, and play with a ball. So don't do what Kim Kardashian did to her dog and take your man's balls away. Just take mental notes of all the football food you provide from the first game of the season to the last moment of the Super Bowl.

Lifetime makes plenty of movies. Go Cowboys!

A little background first - I got this email from a listener who was offended that Mike and I suggested that kids from Juarez who get a free education should have to pay tuition in order to use El Paso schools. Personally, I think that if we did charge a reasonable tuition for students from Juarez, we would no longer have a budget deficit in our school districts, and who knows, we might even turn a profit. So I got this email, which I included first, and then below that is my response. Feel free to email me at tricia@ksii.com if you would like to weigh in, or you can alway head to the Morning Show's Facebook page at kisselpaso.com. By the way, I didn't edit either email. They are both published in their entirety.

Thanks for listening and reading!


The e-mail:

Sometimes I wonder how people can be so stupid. They are trashing the kids that are coming to El Paso to go to school from Juarez. And now they are saying stupid stuff that is not right about how things are in the Juarez school system. I was trying to find a way to send them an email telling them how full of it they are. I hate it when people start saying, “I pay for this school with my property taxes”….there are thousands of people in this city that pay property taxes for the school districts and have NEVER sent kids to school, so they can complain too… ugh! Oh and don’t get me started on what they were saying about the kids coming over that don’t speak English….aaaaaaiiiigggghhhhhh I am thoroughly disgusted and am officially never listening to them again, ok? They are being racist, they are being mean…they are being ugly. And I don’t’ know if it’s just to get people’s goat, but I don’t think so…not the way they are trashing the Mexican people. Como si sus abuelos no vinieron de aca…jerks! Submitted By: C. Lopez



My response:

C - Good morning! First of all, we never called anyone stupid or jerks, so forgive me if I think you are a jerk as well.

We are not trashing the kids who come to El Paso for the chance at an education, we were trashing the school districts for not charging for the privilege of attending our schools. I don't think it is too much to ask that people pay for the services of which they take advantage.

As a taxpayer, I paid for the privilege of sending my children to our schools. It is neither here nor there that my children attended private schools. I had the means to send them to schools I thought were better for them and I paid for the service I used. That is what I would like people from Juarez to do with our schools - pay for the service.

You say there are thousands of people who pay property taxes in this city and have never sent their kids to the schools. It begs the question, why should we pay for something that we don't use? Why shouldn't people who use something not be required to pay?

As for kids coming over and not speaking English, my great-grandparents came to America from Lebannon in the early 1900's and spoke only Arabic. They traveled to American through Mexico and learned Spanish along the way because they had to in order to maneuver through the country. When they came to El Paso, they learned English as well. They didn't expect anyone to work around their lack of knowledge of the language of the countries they were in at the time. They knew that knowing the language of the country was the only way they were going to be able to earn a living.

I do not think that expecting people from Juarez to at least be able to converse a little in English is too much to ask. After all, El Pasoans are constantly being told that because we live on the border with Mexico that we need to know Spanish. I agree, as long as people from Juarez learn English because they live on the border with the United States.

As for being racist, if I had called people names or said I didn't want anyone from Mexico coming over to the US, that would be racist. All I said was that I want people to pay for services rendered. And no, I don't say the things I say to get people's goat. I truly believe this is the greatest country on Earth. I also believe in following the law. I only ask that everyone else follow the law as well.

One more thing - it doesn't matter from what country my grandmother or any other family member came. What matters is they saw a better life in the United States of America and became proud Americans, not Mexican Americans or Lebanese Americans or Italian Americans. If you leave your home country, for whatever reason, and go to another country in order to better your life, then you are beholden to that country. Learn and obey it's laws, wave it's flag, learn it's language, or stay in your home country and try to make your life better there. . jerk.