G.M., I didn't know her....only knew of her in terms of her being a relatively new firefighter with one of our county's fire departments (East Side VFD or Lake Murray VFD, I don't remember which one she had recently joined) and fighting her first house fire earlier on the day she died. You know how it is here....you may not know someone but you know people who know them, etc. House fires are few and far between, and one of our newer firefighters was also fighting his first housefire that same day, even though he's belonged to our department for many months now. I wasn't even there....I was home vacuuming and mopping floors because my sister-in-law was due to arrive from Pennsylania in just a couple of hours, although I had gone to the fire station and loaded up the firetrucks with drinks for the guys to take with them, and then spoke with several other Fire Rehab people by phone to make sure they had enough drinks, ice, coolers, etc. before I returned to my housecleaning. It was a pretty bad house fire that Sunday and they even cancelled church services at a church across the road and sent those folks home because of heavy smoke in the area and the risk of smoke inhalation. It was just a bad day. You don't give up....you pick your battles and something told you this year that it wasn't worth the fight. I understand that. With me, it is the severe drought periods that make me give up because there is just a point where you have to stop pouring water on the hard clay ground because it just runs off. I think it was luck for me this year, and being stubborn and refusing to give up, too. I do believe the fall harvest ends this weekend, because temps around 36 are now forecast for us on Mon. or Tues. night, and that's assuming Sun. night doesn't go that low. I've been watching the NWS, KXII, Weather Underground and Accu-Weather and trying to make sense of the various forecasts, and I've decided we probably are going to have our first freeze between Sunday and Tuesday. I've done the whole 'stripping the plants' of the 'final harvest' 4 or 5 different times already this fall when cool temps threatened, but I'll do it again Sat. or Sun. The coldest we've been here in our low-lying microclimate so far this fall has been 35 degrees and we had patchy frost and minor damage to the pepper and tomato plants, although the plants themselves did survive. I'm ready for it to end, though, because the holidays are almost here and I need to get busy with that. Our water bill was outrageous too during the dry spells, but here in Love County the rain rolled around just often enough to give me up and keep me going. If rain hadn't returned in September, though, I would have just quit watering because we couldn't handle another high water bill. When Tim and I drive by the long-ago-abandoned gardens in our area that haven't produced anything since roughly late July at the best, we are just amazed at the difference in our garden and those because ours still produces. It just goes to show you that if you can manage to water and get through the toughest dry spells of the summer, then you have a good chance at good fall production. I do think Love County consistently had more rain than Carter County this year, and I didn't realize how dry y'all had been until we went to Ardmore one day in August and I looked around as we were driving up I35 and realized y'all were looking really, really dry. Like you, I have plants in containers looking great for this time of year, and all the sunshine (and, LOL, attention to watering them regularly) has played a role in that. I think the cold may get them next week though. The whole breakup was so traumatic. Despite the fact that the former fiancee started dating his best friend, DS tried to be mature and remain friendly with them both (he handled the whole situation better than I would have!) but that didn't work out well either. It was VERY hard for us because Kristine was like a member of our family and we stayed in touch with her via the phone for a while, but it just was too awkward. Our new DIL is a jewel, and I hope this marriage lasts. We love her and her daughter dearly and just feel so blessed to have them as members of our family. I always tell people when unexpected things happen that "I think things work out the way they were meant to work out" even if we don't understand why at the time....so that's how I feel about this whole thing. It worked out the way God meant for it to work out. You have a wonderful weekend too! Dawn

Schoolhouse: That was the character of Precious Ramotswe, of "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency." Based on the book series by Alexander McCall Smith. I'm hooked on the books! For some reason, even tho I've seen the DVD at the library, I want to cling a bit longer to my imagination of what the main characters and the scenery look like... "Harry's Law" is not really a "detective agency" kind of thing but a defense attorney taking on cases others probably wouldn't. Or in the case of the premiere show, one that not so much "fell into her lap" as fell onto her head! You should watch it!

I thought it was OK. I'll keep watching it. But for me, it's not in my "priority" list (the shows that I Tivo that I will not bump off if another show recording is at the same time!) It just wasn't as satisfying as, say, Rizzoli & Isles (pardon the spelling -- probably wrong), Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice...

I was checking online for this exact scenario, well close to it anyways. I have a female rottweiler that will be 3 years old in a month. I have had her since she was 5 weeks old and she is a great dog. Loves kids to death and would lay down her life to protect any child. I know this cuz she has done it for a stranger when he was getting smacked by an adult at the park and she stepped in between them and protected him til the police arrived. She has been very well trained and has a great tempermant. Now for the issue. She bit my niece on the cheek tonight, but I know it was just a snap at her to let her know to chill out cuz if she were to bite, she would've done serious damage. My niece's and sister live with me and my dog is best friends with my oldest niece. She follows her around the house, plays all day with her, sleeps with her at night and really doesn't leave her side when they are both home together. she was just recently spayed 2 weeks ago and her belly is still a lil tender, and my niece wouldn't tell her mom if she did anything to hurt or antagonize my dog. She tends to "clam up" when she has done something she isn't supposed to, which leads me to believe that she must have done something to upset my dog. I already know what half the people here will say and it probably has something to do with the fact that she is a rottweiler. For anyone that believes this, you are wrong. She is one of the best and well mannered dogs that i have ever had and i get that same thing from alot of people. All I am wondering is if this may have something to do with her being pushed to far by my niece. My niece is somewhat of a pain in the butt and is kinda mean to animals sometimes. Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance. (if this a double post, sorry. my computer said the action was cancelled so i had to redo it all)