rj, It's been hot here in WTN, too!! 100+ for the past week. 104 yesterday and forecast for today. 100+ forecast through Saturday. Delirium settin' in. My hummer activity has increased during the morning and afternoon and diminished during midday. The overall activity has increased slightly in the last week - don't know if it's late fledging locals or early migrators.

That would be nice to see. I can't help thinking that maybe the fabric of the tableclothes may have influenced my opinion some. Please post your pictures here too. You know I was half watching someone on tv this morning setting a table and I thought they said the trick to a nice table is to pick ONE color and stick with it. I'm thinking if maybe you did everything in gold (well,with the exception of the plates) it could look really elegant. Have you tried a gold tablecloth? It sounds like it could be too much, but the table they had (which was mainly all silver) looked really nice. You could get one of those slighty shimmery gold clothes. Just thought I'd throw the idea out there; it seems like you're wanting to try different things/looks. I really think all of the place settings you have posted so far would look really good - you can't really good wrong.

Oh boy oh boy, so many thoughts swirling here. Twice in my life, I have had everything I own taken away from me by Nature - both times due to flooding. (Yes, we are finally moving to higher ground - you don't have to hit me over the head with a hammer TOO many times to get the point across! LOL) First of all, the original story posted - "no gift was worthy." It seems to me that this is also the theme of the Christmas song, "The Little Drummer Boy." I have no gift to bring / that's fit to give a king, etc. Well the simplest gift - the drummer's talent, his "here's what I do, only now I do it for you"... WAS the gift. The monk story didn't go quite far enough - no earthly gift was worthy, so he... gave nothing. Whereas in the song, no earthly gift was worthy - so the drummer gave of himself. I like both stories - but the theme of the song leaves me feeling more satisfied somehow. Not loving an object makes it easier to get rid of - true, unless it's useful. "Have no object in your home that isn't useful or that you do not believe to be beautiful" - or something like that, famous old quote. "Packing to move out quickly" - ohhhh, been there, done that, recently in fact. :) The first time our house flooded, we literally had 15 minutes' warning - we looked out the back door and water was rolling into the back yard. What did I grab? I stuffed some clothes into a pillow case, grabbed the stack of unpaid bills (??? LOL, yep - the BILLS... didn't want to get behind don't-cha know), and herded the dogs to the car (no kids yet). So even if you think about what you'll grab - the only way you're going to grab it is if you have some time to plan. Second time we flooded, we had several days to decide - packed mementos, genealogy research, family heirlooms, lots of clothes, etc. - but no furniture. "Bummed at the inconvenience..." - believe me, that is so much easier said if you haven't gone through it. Even though they are just objects, they have meaning. There is no sound sadder than the piano on which you learned to play as a kid, being crushed in a garbage truck. In our case, every single thing we lost, we had to personally pick up and throw away, covered as it was in disgusting river muck. It is easy to say, I wish it would all disappear - but when you see it like that, and you are forced to get rid of it, it is a lot harder than you think it's going to be. It is so much more than inconvenience - it is real, deep loss and sadness. Finally - regarding objects that have meaning. I am among other things a genealogist. I have found objects among my grandmother's things that are priceless to me because they connect me to my past: the shoe-button hook handmade by my blacksmith great-great-grandfather... the stirrups from the saddle used by my Civil War veteran great-grandfather... Grandma's class ring from high school... my mother's report cards and bone-china animal toys... sure they are "just things," but they quite literally connect me to my past. Do not cheat everyone who comes after you out of the opportunity to cherish something that belonged to you. You dont' have to keep everything... but don't ditch everything. Leave something for the future so when a descendent comes upon your name in the family record book, they can marvel at something you personally touched, or owned... I don't think this point is making much sense... I hated that episode of "CLean Sweep" where the guy made someone get rid of a painting that his mother had done when she was dying of cancer - she had always wanted to paint, and this was the only picture she ever painted, and the show's host told him, "It's not your mother, let it go..." And I just thought, what's the harm in keeping an object that reminds him of his mother and the fulfillment of her lifelong (and end-of-life) dream to be a painter? My advice... not that anyone asked :) If you want to purge, do it while it's still your choice to do so - before Nature takes it from you involuntarily. But, don't let others talk you out of keeping stuff that means something to you, just because it falls under the umbrella of "it's just stuff." Janet

We made 40 potatoes worth of latkes (by rights, there should be more in that pic I posted, but I ate few more than I should have while making 'em!!), and 32+ apples worth of applesauce. We always shred the potatoes in our Cuisinart (circa mid to late-'80's) with the "fine" grating disc, and then dump them into two cheesecloth-lined colanders (over large glass bowls). FWIW, the cheesecloth (old and re-washed and re-used) came from W-S--very tight weave, so the potato shreds don't fall through any open holes! We pour off the liquid that collects in the bowls, and save the potato starch at the bottom of the bowls to mix in with the latke "batter." The shredded potatoes turn red when they release the starch. We rinse them (over/in the cheesecloth) and wring them out very well. They are then dumped into a large cooler that we use for mixing up all the ingredients (it's the only thing big enough to hold all those shredded potatoes). This year we used 21 small-medium onions (adjust accordingly if using larger or smaller onions)--chopped up very fine/pureed in the food processor with the steel blade. We added 10 large eggs, 2 1/2-3 tsp baking powder, 2 cups bleached, all-purpose flour (give or take), and then salt (kosher and table) and pepper, to taste, and the reserved potato starch. I mix it all up with my hands (wearing latex gloves) and then drop spoonfuls of the mixture into hot oil, flattening the mounds slightly with the back of the spoon. You can adjust am'ts as needed--you'll know when you see how the first batch holds together/cooks up when you add it to the oil, and how the first few taste after they're cooked (you can always add more salt, eggs, onions, flour--but you can't take them back out) LOL! For us, the key thing, is allowing the potatoes to sit for a little while, to release the starch, and then rinsing them well, and draining/squeezing them out well. This way, the latkes come out nice and lacy and crispy, which we prefer (vs. gummy or doughy).