Steve, my apologies (blushing). I didn't think you were 76, but I would have been impressed if you were. You know, my husband's grandparents are the perfect examples of living to be an old age (88 & 89 yrs old) from a healthy lifestyle. Papa still does twenty push ups every morning. They are very active and have a better social life than I do. They do have their aches and pains, but overall live very good lives. We really enjoy still having them around. Especially the time they get to spend with grandkids. I would imagine it must be hard for them when many of their friends have already passed on or will do so before they do. Then there's my grandpa who drank a pint of vodka every day of his adult life and miraculously made it to 70! I hope to be around for as long as possible. But one never knows what's in the cards and my intention is to try to live that way :) All the more reasons to grow more Vitamin C rich veggies this summer! Charlene

Barb, I'd LOVE to talk to that cat some day! ;-) Misty, It didn't really look as funny as it must sound--6" of whipped cream--'cause I didn't put it all on at the same time, but I had AT LEAST 6" total! I put some ice cream in the dish, covered it and filled up the rest of the dish with whipped cream, ate all the whipped cream with a little bit of ice cream in each bite, added a whole new layer of whipped cream and filled the dish again, and---repeated till the ice cream was all gone! Did I mention that I love whipped cream! Ok! It's not as bad as it sounds! I use/eat, at the most, two cans of Reddi-Wip a year! That's not so bad if you average it out! But NO 2 tablespoons when I DO decide to have some! If I'm gonna eat that many calories in one sitting, I want to KNOW I'm eating them! And Reddi-Wip, especially the "extra creamy" one, really has a pretty good flavor. And while the "artificial" ingredients may not be so good for you, the stuff keeps for a LONG time in the fridge! If I bought the "real thing" and whipped it myself, just think, I'd have to eat the whole bowl full in a couple days! And if anybody around here is gonna be using a "canned" whipped cream on Thursday--or any other time--here's the secret of getting it out of the can without it splattering all over the place! Invert the can COMPLETELY upside down before you "dispense" it! No splatters! (Learned that serving ice cream sundaes in an airplane!) You guys are absolutely not gonna believe what I'm thinking of having for Thanksgiving! I'm just gonna be home by myself this year, and I did buy a turkey--they're so cheap, how can you not--but I've been craving potato pancakes lately, and red potatoes were on sale last week, so I'm pretty sure my Thanksgiving dinner is going to be (German) fried potato pancakes smothered in applesauce! And I will EASILY be as overstuffed as everybody eating turkey! Actually, I think I'm gonna have trouble waiting till Thursday to make them! And maybe I'll have another dish of eggnog ice cream with 6" of whipped cream for dessert! Where ever you are, what ever you're doing, and whatever you're eating, I wish each of you a happy and delicious Thanksgiving, Skybird

I went with a Bayer rose and flower spray that specifically said it killed japanese beetles, and was chosen only because it was being given away by my late neighbor's son while cleaning out her house. I only sprayed it on the plants that they went after because I felt bad about using sprays at all. I usually make do with the soapy water but the infestation was just too severe. I'd go out four times a day and still find tons each time I went back. And even though I had very few escape as I tried to dunk 'em, it was still insane. You can't use it on vegetables or other edible plants. I just directly sprayed the affected roses, hibiscus, hardy hibiscus, kiss-me-over-the-garden-gate and one variety of perennial geranium in my yard. I chose to not spray the ivy geranium basket, as the flowers paralyze or kill them anyway. I've noticed no more than two or three total on all my plants combined now each day (I sometimes don't bother to remove them if I don't have time now), and it seems confined to just the rose blooms (which of course weren't anywhere near open when I sprayed). It's supposed to be systemic and not wash off (ha ha like we get rain anymore). I don't usually recommend spraying because sprays kill good bugs and bad bugs, but I have never seen anything like this (OK, the carpenter ant infestation we found when we moved into our house was pretty bad too but that's a whole other story...) and was concerned they would munch the plants enough to kill them. Here is a link that might be useful: Stuff I used on the plants

Good Morning, YEA, HAROLD!!!!!!!! Don't cha LOVE it? How "sweet" are the pants falling down! ;~)) Helen, Been there - Done that. It gives you a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach to see those scales go up instead of down. But, it's just a 'thang' and will be gone next week. And the friend's comment really helps your resolve. Ek, Seems like the foods you are adding back aren't hurting you. Good job! I may have lost a pound, but the potato soup and fried apples I had for dinner are high carb foods and made my scales refuse to move down this morning. They are 2 of Aunt Bern's favorite foods and I was just too tired to fix me anything low carb. At least I resisted the corn bread muffins she wanted!! (She fell 1st thing yesterday morning and scared me to death. Thank God nothing got broken, but I was on my feet all day and gave in to the not so healthy dinner.) This week - still 159. Betty