Lucy, I'm so glad that you were able to meet up with me on my way down to Austin and on such short notice too. I had such a good time and I agree, the visit was waaaaay too short. Everyone, Lucy is just as kind and funny as she is here in the forum. Wish you all could meet her, she will keep you in stitches. The people at IKEA probably thought we were on something as much as we were laughing. We had the best time ever!!! Barb, I'm with you, it would be a blast if we could have a convention somewhere so we could all meet. It would have to be a whole weekend because I know we would have such a good time visiting with everyone. Deb

You are very welcome :) Love that fragrance here too. Reckon I should post a warning... Sweet Arlene came through winter great and started the spring 2 feet tall. 15°F weather a few weeks ago didn't slow her down. (it hammered some of the other early starters) I'm afraid there will be more Sweet Arlene photos coming soon.

Oh! Thank you everybody!! ItÂs wet and soggy here, but IÂm having a nice dayÂkids are at school, LOL! IÂm celebrating my 50th birthday today by having all the kids have a "spend the night" guest. WeÂll have spaghetti and birthday cake. Yippee! I AM counting my NYC trip as part of MY birthday celebration, even though it was REALLY for She and I spent 4 days in NYC! We took the Acela train from DC. It was wonderfully civilized! Lindsay liked (Ã la Star Trek) between the cars. Having already done all the obligatory monuments, etc, we got to really travel the city like locals. The first night we stayed at the Hilton on 53rd & 6th (Avenue of the Americas). The other nights we stayed at an apt on 55th and 2nd. WeÂd leave at 8:00 in the morning and didnÂt head "home" until 9:00 or 10:00 p.m. I knew it would be a good trip by bedtime the first day. We wandered upon filming for a We watched on the street for a couple of hours. He never got out of the car, but we were thrilled to see him. Finally we decided to head to our hotel. We walked down the street that had all the trailers. No one was around. Suddenly Nicolas Cage walked out of a trailer, right onto the street right in front of us! We squealed like little school girls! He walked up to us, chatted with us for a few moments (well, HE chatted; we babbled and drooled and shook!). He let me take a picture of . Ugh! I couldnÂt even hold the camera still or see the view finderÂI took a picture when he blinked! He was SOOOO gracious! I LOVE him even more now! But hey, Lindsay was so excited! We could barely sleep that night! We saw Mamma Mia the next day! Fabulous! We spent a day and a half in Central Park (and even ), walked all over the place. We didnÂt actually do a lot of shopping. We wanted to be out on the streets and see the sights! We walked through most of the neighborhoodsÂ.Lower East Side, Chinatown, Little Italy, Nolita, TriBeCa, East Village, Soho, Greenwich Village, Chelsea, Meat Packing DistrictÂwe logged some serious miles! We tried to eat something in every neighborhood. We were stuffed by the time we left! Our last was breakfast at Max BrennerÂs, (OMGosh!) Âall the time!! We had a GREAT time! A wonderful 13th (for her) and 50th for me!! Thank you again for the wonderful wishes!

Deb, you're welcome. I wish I'd have had some of the hot and spicy catsup left, instead of the milder and sweeter stuff, and I had no mustard at all. Darn it. The Cowboy Candy is one of Carol's (Readinglady) recipes, it's basically a bread and butter pickle made with jalapenos instead of cucumbers. Elery loves 'em, so I hope you do too. It's no where near enough of a thank you for your generosity, Deb, but you know I do thank you. Annie