Yes we are sweltering. I'm sitting at the 'puter with 2 fans, my feet in a dishpan of cold water and an icepack on the back of my neck. I keep soaking my head and I am MISERABLE. Tried to get out to a local mall today for respite and wouldn't you know.....they had to evacuate the entire mall because a transformer or circuit board blew up. You should of seen the gridlock with everyone trying to drive away at once. I just hung out in the "shade" of the building for about 40 minutes 'til traffic congestion eased. I'd hate to see what would happen in a real emergency. Last night I drove 30+ miles to a 24 hour Walmart and hung out there 'til around 4:00 am. Stopped to attend a party at a watering hole along the way. Drank one beer and a lot of water and went on to breakfast and then Walmart. When I got home it was STILL hot. Never got those cooling ocean breezes we're famous for.:0( Today was supposed to be cooler but was actually hotter than the day before. This evening is a bit better so hopefully..... In the meantime I am staying in a holding pattern of weight control. Best I can do for now.

So this has become the RuthieG thread and I alone post here and can now call it my personal blog...so this time of year it is hotter than hades in our part of Texas...no one goes outside except back and forth to the air conditioned car...I will be heading out to the gym again today .....if someone would just turn off the danged heat it would help...I haven't lost anymore but I havent been bad with my eating ...my body seems to want to hang at 150 and that's too heavy.... Something really nice happened yesterday...stopped by the local plant shop where one of my neighbors works and she said "Hey girl" and then she said..Oh My God what has happened to the rest of you...you are disappearing...LOL I love it when people notice that I have shed these danged pounds....Makes all the hard work worthwhile.. ...Have a good day Ladies...eat well and exercise...I really believe that exercise is the key to successful weight loss.

I grew up in New Jersey....we called it spaghetti sauce, b ut knew that Italians called it gravy. sometimes we ate "deli" if unexpected company arrived....and sometimes as a treat. Eating deli meant going down to the German deli and getting 1/2 pound of boiled ham, 1/4 pound of hard salami, 1/4 pound of head cheese and half a pound of balogna...Oh yes and some hard rolls and half a pound of sliced Swiss cheese....and a pint of potato salad and one of slaw. Packing a lunch for school you packed a salami sandwich or a balogna sandwich or maybe some olive loaf and Swiss or braunschweiger....not lunch meat. Then I moved to Iowa and was served "lunch meat?...WTF? I opened the sandwich and it was baloney. I discovered that lunch meat always is balogna...if Mid westerners want salami they ask for it...or braunschweiger. A stove is a stove, not a range...a cook top is not an appliance with an oven beneath...it's just a cook top. I used to carry a pocket book but that seems to have turned into a purse. Tennies are little white things with rubber soles. Sneaks are a little more...like Reebocks with serious soles and cushioning. I eat dinner, unless it's a "light supper" like before a show or even after an early show. A light noon meal on sunday is Sunday Brunch....while a heavier one is sunday Dinner. It used to be that the kid who works at the grocery is a bagger or a bag boy....while in the mid-west he's a sacker and he puts your stuff into a sack not a bag. Iced tea is never served sweetened and it used to be that unless you specified "black" your coffee came with cream. And "Rye" when asked for in a bar means a blended whisky like Seagrams 7. And why can't anyone outside of New jersey, New York and eastern Pa make a real honest to God hard roll? Soft inside, hard outside crumby and delicious? Anyone got a recipe? Linda C

I love "giblet gravy" with boiled eggs and the giblets from the turkey. We had it every Thanksgiving and Christmas. My grandmother and Mom also put boiled eggs in the dressing. I make curried eggs when I have too many eggs sitting around. We eat it on noodles or rice. I have never had the eggs in tomato sauce. I think I will try it, though. Lisa