Boy, I am really late. I just got my laptop back today. The 3rd would have been my DH's 81st. So was a bit sad for me. But......I hope you had a really really good day. Kathy

Thanks for the birthday wishes! This is the 5-0 birthday for me and it's just hard for me to believe it! After yesterday though, I'm FEELING it! LOL The house my boys lived in when they were in college is going on the market today so I was over there painting the kitchen cabinets and staging the bathrooms (cleaned them spic-n-span first). Oh my, I have soreness in places I didn't even know I had places! It probably didn't help that I came home and practically guzzled a bottle of wine while in the hot tub! So I guess 49 went out with a bang and 50 is coming in with a whimper. :-)

GGrGreGreeGreetGreetiGreetinGreetingGreetings everyone. Again - my thanks to each of you for your good wishes. I m gratified that so many of you chose to offer yours. And I am thankful to those of you who offered personal comments. Thanks Oly. The address I used long ago was ths.gardenweb.com and recently when I want to change, I click on the name of the one I'm using, I move to Google, and the Houzz icon is there. So I guess I'm using the Houzz access now. @carolb_w_fl thanks for the suggestion. Son, who's lived with me for over a year, has one, says it's useful sometimes - but a bit of a nuisance to haul around in between, and I rather agree not so great when hitchhiking. This is my third winter coping with snow, and the cart would be mainly useful in other seasons. @lucille I thought of buying an electric bike a couple of years ago - but didn't. Thinking of buying a car - daughter and son in law who visited last summer found one in Georgia, but we chose not to take it - then. But the eventual almost certain move to the city, at triple current rent before son came, double the current $1,000.+ a bit or more, would be covered if it would allow us to continue living here for six months to a year longer. @martinca-gw I've lived on what was step-uncle's farm for, come March, 20 years, renting this old farmhouse from the purchaser following his death, about 6+ miles from the village where I went to high school and about 12 - 20 miles from London, Ontario, half way between Detroit and Buffalo or Toronto - a couple of hours drive from four of the Great Lakes. Landlord allows space for garden, cultivates it, a few years ago I ran almost a mile of rows, took veggies to a couple of churches I relate to, much smaller recently. Story of car broken in colliision no injuries, loss of licence, hitchhike to village, bus to city, thankful for enabling health, friends advise move to city, thankful can afford it, elsewhere on this thread. @Cherryfizz - Greetings! How have you been? How long ago was it that we met in Windsor, do you remember? It was my first face to face with Gardenweb folks. Have you connected with Dances recently? Were there others beside the three of us? When I see your name, it warms my heart - even though my active forgetter can't remember the real one! Good wishes to all of you for the year ahead. ole joyful

We have postponed sushi until tomorrow or Tuesday - we have had too much to do today. Last week, our refrigerator at the Salem house died, and I guess we did not notice until a couple of days later, as much of the food in the freezer had spoiled. Kevin ordered a new fridge from Home Depot because he had a 10% off coupon, and the Presidents' Day specials had been extended. Thursday, the solar panel company came to install the panels, and they were here on Friday until very late, and still did not finish, and so that had to come back on Saturday, which is the day that the refrigerator was going to be delivered at the other house, but fortunately not until 3 PM. After the solar panel company finished, we went to the other house to clean the floors as much as possible from the mess that the old fridge had made, and the delivery came a bit early, which was nice. I had salvaged a lot from the old fridge, as it had a lot of flours in the freezer, along with way more nuts than I realized, plus some yeast. None of that was going to go bad in two days, and so today we took back all of that plus some hard cheeses that I had vacuum sealed - mostly Parmesan, Grana Padana, and Romano, but I had them in a lot of separate small packages. By the time we got finished putting food into the new fridge, I was not in the mood to go out, but I am fine with having my birthday dinner a day or two late. Thanks for all of the kind and thoughtful wishes - this has really raised my spirits on this birthday, which otherwise could have been somewhat depressing!