Thanks for the quick advice! I microwave defrosted a few on the frozen vegetable setting yesterday, then baked them. Two buttercups came out okay, as did one butternut that hadn't turned color on the outside. The other butternuts had turned dark and kind of transparent. They were soggy, almost spongy, when defrosted, so I discarded those. So much for procrastination! I had been cooking a couple a week and not rushing to fill the freezer. I'm usually over on the winter sowing and quilting forums. I glad I stopped in here and got sound advice on my prolbem. I wouldn't want to make guests sick at Thanksgiving by feeding them questionable squash. Thanks again! Bonnie

That amount of rain puts our seemly wet weather in perspective and yet,because of 2 years of drought it seems really rainy here if only in contrast...but in weather we have numbers and they don't lie when it comes to rain totals. I think our drought is over,after 2 years of digging in chalk to plant (and watching the water disappear when ever you watered) -we are soggy. I pulled a big(dry)Y.Aloifolia trunk out of the ground yesterday and it was almost as wet as when Gale pulled Evelle out of the ground while they were escaping from prison in the movie Raising Arizona! May was double our avg and June has been drier but flash flooding is forecast this weekend so that should change. Just looked- We are around 11.20" here for the last 6 weeks

Just heard on TWC that a tree's down on the tracks in New Haven, CT so Amtrak is down between Boston & NYC. I was wondering why we've not heard any trains!! Don't know if the heavy downpours loosened it or if they caught a wind gust. Unfortunate place for it to fall. Lots of people heading to NE from NYC for the long weekend. Pressure here is at 29.51 and falling. That's not very impressive. Rain bands have filled in & we're getting pretty much steady rain now. /t

And any politician who tells you that he/she is going to raise the taxes (or remove those 'tax-breaks') on the superrich and give the non-rich that money is just trying to get the vote from the non-rich. You see, there are far more non-rich than super-rich, so they are an easier target by politicians for votes. Those politicians have been playing this game for a long time, yet isn't it interesting that nothing has really changed? That's because, at least in the U.S., we are truly conflicted about what we say we want and what we do. Especially where money is concerned. Ask people -- rich and not-rich -- what's most important to them in their lives, and they'll most likely tell you that they want to be safe against crime and physical danger; they want their kids to get a good education; and they want to know they can get older without worrying about the roof over their heads or whether they can afford to be ill. Folks who really are thinking about it probably will tell you they want to be able to live their lives in peace. But our elected representatives are busy chopping away at all of that. Tax cuts and other budget priorities remove cops from the street; take inspectors out of meat-packing plants and slum housing; keep trimming programs like Head Start and after-school programs for kids with nothing better to do. Politicians refuse to consider a single-payer health plan based on the ideas that it will make them look like a shrill Senator from New York or that it would take away from our "best health care in the world" (which objective measurement will verify is no longer so). Politicians are busy approving reductions of income during wartime; subsidizing huge public corporations, and funding bridges to nowhere instead of supporting education and health initiatives. And, as a public, we have collectively up-ended our priorities and pay people millions of dollars a year to catch a ball or sing a song -- while poorly-paid public-school teachers are digging into their own pockets to fund school supplies. What the he!! is wrong with us? Every rich person has a vested interest in seeing the non-rich do decently -- because, if they don't, there won't be anyone making enough money to pay the rich's Social Security come the time, there will be much more crime on the streets, and this country will be much less attractive to those folks who we wish would move here and add to our culture.