So glad to see you Zooter. I have missed you. I have to look hard to see what is left here after the bad freeze the other night. A lot really got hurt, we will see what is tough, and what is not. In the meantime, I will take some pictures of DH's new project, and I will post them tomorrow. DH and I went to the dump today. We found a great GO CART! LOL, he about had a heart attack when he saw it. It is a good thing I had nothing in the truck yet, there had to be enough room for the go cart. I asked if we could fix it for the DGKs, and he said "NO!" He said "Mine, mine, mine!" LOL, we will let him have it. Zooter, I have a lot of birdhouses hanging in the shade house, over the hot tub. That one of yours would just look good................ Heehehee. Janie

I used to be busy every Sat morning so I didn't get to go early GSing for years. Now the trend seems to be that they're Friday/Saturday...and more and more becoming Thurs-Sat. What happened to the Sunday GS?!?! Anyway, when I can, I take off a Friday and go. Sometimes when there is one near work, several of us will go. One of the agencies in the building I work in has a monthly silent auction fund raiser for charity and I find fun things there, satisfies all us State Workers who have to be at work on a sunny Friday! But when I DO go, I like to take DH. He's a lot of fun, and he tends to charm the folks running the sales, so he gets good prices. heehee. He goes alot on his own (works from home, so he's got the flexibility) and finds me the BEST goodies. Sometimes we'll take MIL, but I don't like going with her too much. She and I have different taste and she gets mad when I don't buy something she thinks I should buy, or that I admire but don't want to buy. A dog story...once our next door n'bor had a GS and our dog went over to visit. He walked straight up to the pile of stuffed animals, rooted around, and took one home. We went back to pay for his find and the n'bors were cracking up and telling the story to other shoppers. Quite funny, actually.

It is true that thousands and thousands of mom-and-pop bakeries have gone away all over the US and CAN since the advent of pre-made pre-packaged junk food baked goods' abundance in the grocery stores (and for the last couple generations, that stuff is all they know). Cheap and convenient seems to be what people look for. Taste and flavor are way down the list. However, visit your local farmers market and you may find home bakers that make wonderful treats like the store fronts used to. Most take special orders at no extra charge simply for the joy and love of baking. Ask teresa_nc7 and me. I've learned to bake several new-to-me ethnic treats because customers asked, and some have become regular offerings so others can be amazed at the wonderful (and mostly lost to technology) old world tastes using old-fashioned ingredients, methods, and without chemicals, like you here on the GW already know. Please note there are corrections to the book on their website, just posted 12/30/11, yesterday, at URL below. And, there are also "unpublished chapters" there. I must get this book! Thanks shambo. Nancy Here is a link that might be useful: IJB - corrections

Just put my list (and ingredient list) together and so far I have: Oatmeal Sugar Cookies Mini Chip Snowball Cookies Oriental Noodle Cookies Holly Dolly Bars (Thank you craftyshe) Salted Nut Rolls Peanut Butter Hershey Kiss Cookies Sour Cream Raisin Bars Chocolate Waffle Cookies I think I'm too heavy on the chocolate, so will be adding at least 2 or 3 that do not include chocolate. Will also ask Gary and Emi if they each have a favorite or two they'd like to have me add. Will spend the next two weekends baking cookies and wrapping gifts :-)