Yes Ruthie, nothing beats fresh picked salads. Try as I might though I cannot get my lettuces to last long enough to meet up with my tomatoes here :o( BTW> Enjoy your Special Day tomorrow!

Woke up to breakfast in bed this morning. Last night was homemade merguez sausages (lamb, curry, cumin, etc), and kale with cannellini beans. Oh, and we got called over to the neighbors for an impromptu concert on the new piano they got the kids. I taught the youngest the baseline to "Heart an Soul" (it's one of the very few songs I remember) and she spent the better part of the day getting it right. The kids are hilarious/smart and total hams, so it was pretty amusing. Your seafood sounds good, Michael. As does what I assume to be your summer off! Between boating, gardening and such, I bet you find an outlet for your energy... maybe you won't even require an insane amount of ibuprofen when you're finished. Thursday through Saturday was unbearable as usual. Our village promotes village-wide garage sales, and it seemed there was one at every sixth house. I've got nothing against garage sales, but imagine ten times the normal amount of traffic in your neighborhood, trucks pulling trailers making inexplicable U-turns, nobody obeying stop signs, and cars making stops for no good reason... I'm happy to see it end every year. Today is rainy and chilly, so I don't get to play outside, but here are two pics I took yesterday, and one I took a couple weeks ago. Is it any wonder spring is the happiest season of them all? Jaz and the tulips: Izzy smelling the tulips: Izzy smelling the daffies and looking at the trout lily carpet (a couple weeks ago):

Well i have a couple they're probably not what you're looking for but you never know email me and i'll send you the cover pics so you can see, is that any help? Tash xx Tasha100@hotmail.co.uk

Wishing you luck! And I think your feelings are completely justified! :-) The "new and shiny" stuff is not always better than "oldies but goodies", LOL. Please report back about how you like your new appliances. (edited for a typo) This post was edited by eleena on Tue, Feb 26, 13 at 20:36