Thanks everyone. I miss you too, but thank the stars that my DH brought his laptop and we can get a connection. We are here with my DH's parents and sister and hubby and their 2 teenager kids. Our room is on the third floor and that just happens to be the only level in this house that we can get a connect. (happy me!) The ocean here is not bathtub warm, but it is warm. Feels cool, but you can just go right in with having to get used to the temp, no matter how hot it is. Feels cooler at night but still not chilly by any means. It seems much saltier to me than the Pacific...maybe because this is an inlet...dunno. Is the Atlantic saltier? Body buoyancy is much greater as a result (or could it be that my increased body fat just makes me float like a cork?----hmmmm. :) They are shooting fireworks again. The Garden City pier is 1.7 miles northeast of our beach house. A nice walk that I have become accustomed to doing every morning. The first day, it was all I could do to climb the stairs every day. I thought I would die from lack of air! I took it a little at a time, and walked a bit further each day and swam out a bit farther each day. Now I am able to comfortably stroll down the beach every morning and having a blast in the surf. At low tide every morning around 5:30, I go out and comb the beach for shells and things. Most of the shells are broken, but some manage to make shore intact. The moonstones are lovely - tumbled pieces of shell or quartz, about half the size of a dime. So lovely. I am finding black shells, which I had never before seen. Found a piece of branch coral yesterday. That is very rare in the inlet. There were some guys on the beach this morning that had been finding tiny shark's teeth. They gave me one - the best one they had. Very cool! I am enjoying the children on the beach. they are so cute to watch and delightful to chat with. The Legend of Captain Jack is one that is famous around here. I asked two little kids this morning who were sitting at the shore digging if they had found any of Jack's treasure yet. They looked up with complete earnest and said, "Nope, not yet". I said, "Me neither. Darn." they bobbed their heads in complete agreement of my sentiments. I asked them if they were searching for buried treasure and they looked up and beamed, "Ya!" "Have you found any yet?" "Nah, but we think these might be broken pieces. Not sure" They held up little black pointed slivers of something, and I could for certain say whether they were or were not pieces of shark teeth, but I suspect they were in all actuality slivers of black oyster shells and not shark's teeth at all....but I was not going to spoil their enthusiasm and fun. Darling little sprouts they were of about 5 or 6. ((HUGS)) ~ Annie Down here with some sorry "sunny beaches", but having a great time in spite of it all.

If the heat in your area of the state is like it is in my area of the state, their timing is perfect. Take a break and enjoy the company. kay

Sorry, I just saw this topic, I didn't know it had been resurrected again. Natal, Paula lost weight eons ago. Old news. Do you work for Google? :) Lukk, Paula is the one who made her health public. She's had the disease for a few years now and she is going to make money from advertising a new medication for diabetes. Since she kept it a secret for so long while cooking high carb and DELICIOUS food, lol, speculation is she only "came out" because of the money. Which rubbed a LOT of people the wrong way, even others on the Food Network. Tina, I did see the interview, she's in denial when she said there's only a "few" people who were mean. Once more she hedged and said how much her family loves her. But I guess I'd do the same. It's not going to die down unless she stops those interviews with Al. I'll still watch her show unless she starts cooking "light." Everybody with a brain knows it's all about moderation. It's like telling an Italian cook with Diabetes to can the pasta. lol I have to wonder though, will the drug company still use her now that she's had such bad publicity, so bad that her own, long-time publicist quit on her because of how Paula handled it? Stay tuned! I still like her though, she just made a questionable choice.

We had Thanksgiving dinner tonight! Over at the clubhouse of our lake association. Yummy! Only $9.99 per person, buffet with all the trimmings. Will have to do that again. I was planning on making ribs and potato salad tonight, but we can have that tomorrow night. Kathy G in MI