Oh, you girls are making me hungry. I went to the grocery store tonight so we had rotiserie chicken from there. Good excuse to save the container for winter sowing, lol. Tomorrow I will make beef stroganoff with wine and mushroom sauce to make up the last couple of nights, lol. I can cook really good but its not as much fun to cook for just the 2 of us and I have gained a lot of weight from my hubby trying to make me eat all the time. His favorite is rice. If he doesn't have it at least once a day he thinks the world is ending. On weekends he eats it breakfast lunch and dinner. I actually miss potatoes, lol. I bought me a couple to bake for myself and load them with butter sour cream, cheese and bacon bits. Look out arteries, lol. Can you overnight me some of those sticky buns, lol. Make a great midnight snack.

After having been an apartment maintenance supervisor for more than 20 years i never thought i would ever offer this advice to a tenant, but here goes. Believe it or not, one of the biggest gripes amongst landlords is the fact that the courts usually favor the tenants. The reason most tenants have a hard time is because they don't know their legal rights. Once you have entered into a lease, both parties, landlord and tenant are bound to the provisions of that lease. In effect, you are required to pay your rent on time and live within certain limitations concerning noise, pets, number of people in the dwelling, no alterations to the structure, etc, etc. In turn, the landlord is obligated by law to keep the dwelling up to all applicable building and health code standards and to maintain the dwelling in the condition it was in at the time the lease was instituted. By example, in many cases the need to supply air conditioning is legally determined by the climatic zone where you live. In some northern states AC is an option, whereas on the Gulf Coast it is considered essential. However, even if it is an option in your climatic region, if it was there, and if it was working when you signed the lease, the landlord is legally obligated to maintain it. The question now becomes, how do you bring pressure to bear upon a landlord to fulfill his end of the lease? God knows, the landlord will use all the legal powers at his command to get his money and insure you live up to the lease, now it is your turn, but be real careful here. Legally there is a right and a wrong way to go. We all know that if you withhold the rent he will have an eviction notice on your door in three for four days, right? WRONG. there is a legal way to withhold rent until the services are rendered. Begin by serving the landlord a written work order for the repairs that need to be made, and allow them a reasonable period of time to effect repairs. This is a touchy point, what is reasonable? The court will determine that it is reasonable to expect the landlord to at least contact you and inspect the damage with 3 days. And the landlord should be able to give you an approximate date as to when to expect the work to be done. Usually not more than 7 days. I would make a point of serving the work order request to the landlord by letter, keeping a copy of the letter for your records and also have a witness to confirm you gave the landlord the letter, or better yet, mail it to the landlord by certified mail, return receipt. That would establish in court that your made the request. If the work is not performed by the next time your rent is due, go to your local housing court, file a complaint, and pay your rent to the court. The court will hold the money in escrow and serve the landlord a notice to appear in court. You must also send a note to the landlord stating that the service has not been performed in a timely manner, therefor your have posted your rent on deposit with the court. You may rest assured that you now have the landlords full attention because the last thing most landlords want it to face a judge and explain why they dont do their job. The courts know only too well that landlords dont hesitate to use the powers of the court when it suits them, and it is so seldom that a tenant actually goes through the proper channels the courts generally feel it is payback time. It is within the juridiction of the court to have the dwelling inspected ( something most landlords do not want) and if the inspector were to determine the dwelling untenable, the court can actually direct the tenant into a motel at the landlords expense until the repairs are made. Many tenants are afraid to take these steps for fear that the landlord would take the corrective action, then immediately find other grounds for evicition, but the laws are specific. If it could be shown that the landlord sought eviction in retaliation, the landlord could be held legally responsible for all relocation costs, and if you were to move and had to pay a higher rent, the court could direct you pay the amount on your lease for the remaining portion of the lease period with the first landlord, and the landlord would have to pay the balance each month.

-17 this morning and the electricity went off. Been off most of the day but the temps climbed to 12 now. So miserable in the house I left around 1100 to go eat and drink hot coffee in the next town at Cracker Barrel. It was 59 in the house when I got home and the power was off...it came on twice apparently when I was out. Warm water in the water heater and KU told me the power was knocked off twice by power surges. I tried to turn my space heater on in the bedroom but it's dead. I think the power surge must've killed it. Decided not to turn the other other on for a while. I don't want to contribute to another outage.

I would consider installing a cat flap on a basement window and setting up an indoor enclosure for her in the basement that you could also access for cleaning or checkin up on her - is there a room or something you could block off with a door? Or if you have animals in the barn that would help keep it warm in there - put cat flap on the barn. It would be much more comfy in the long run for the kitty if she could have a comfy warm space somewhere -those winter nights get so long! She was obviously once someone's pet - she may not be cold so much as just wanting to be sociable and be inside with people. If she had been born a true feral you would not be able to get close to here without being shredded. Have you asked around to see if anyone's missing a cat? Of course it could be someone dumped her but you shouldnt assume that - its just as possible someone is heartsick at having lost her. (Im speaking as someone whose cat went missing for 6 wks)