hey ladies mail just went through I received a very nice gift or gifts from kim /little_green_thumb :) thank you so much for thinking about my critters :)) My birds:) kim sent a tweety bird xmas tree ornament i think in honor of my birds :)) then for me a carousal ornament for me hope i spelled it right:)also Hersey's dk rich chocolate kissesssssssssss fillllled with cherry cordial creme' oh how they melt in your mouth but sure don't last long that taste leaves you wanting another & another same on you kim I think you just buy them for the game pieces & send your friends the candy so you don't gain the lbs . thank you so much for the sweets & ornaments :)) today i'm catching up here at home after going shopping to fill the pantry once again :) i have my meats marinating for my kabobs tonight . dad does not like bar-b- que but he loves my veggie & fruit k-bobs . didn't get much sleep last night the gals & i were out till 1 am we talked about all the old glass mates 40yrs we have been out of school this yr & we all still look like tittty bobber I mean teeny bobbers hehehehhe. i wrote on marshanne bathroom mirror with nels lipstick :)) but nel also did it marsha went in to use her bathroom came out & said oh how sweet i will never wash the mirror again ;))) I did offer to wash it off but she said no . I hope that when you all reach my age you will still have your glassmates to chum with :) we have a ball when we get together without husbands or kids :) & sometimes with our family my dad is their dad as their parents we mine also & now we all have just my father all their parents have passed . will i 'm sure you all know how much fun i had last evening so will shut up :) DJ's Comming for the kisses so have to go put them up . thanks a bunch kim I'll think of you when i pull out the scales :))) hugs to all susie

heather_on - your husband and I would make quite the pair at the grocery store checking dates. It seems that many of the same customers seem to frequent the larger chains at the same time and I have been asked to check for later dates for a few others as I am already bent over or on my knees reaching for the back. Picking out apples is also a thrill. Heck, I even check the expiry date on my beloved little bottles of Coca-Cola (I don't like flat Coke). These days with perishables travelling from the main plant to central distribution to general distribution for X store and then to X's various locations and then of course sitting in the aisles while staff often (sad to say) go to lunch - well that can really affect the best before date - as in a product has often turned by the next day, even though dated 2 weeks in advance. I carry ice packs in the car - in a cooler and only shop on the way home. We do not eat much in the way of canned or packaged goods so I have to be very careful - especially with meat, milk, eggs and my husband's yogourt. Actually at a well known Ontario food store I saw yogourt and eggs on the shelf dated best before Feb. 1 - and this was in late April. I have returned chicken breasts (free from) dated 1 1/2 weeks in advance that were bad day one. I only buy meat from a butcher now. I need organic milk - and I prefer Organic Meadow or Harmony. If I wanted to buy Neilson, Natrel or PC Organics (double UHTd) I would - so I go elsewhere for it. Then there is a small fruit and vegetable store where they will chop up a squash or melon for you - as you wait - at no cost. I will not buy bagged salads since I have found that despite the date the leaves are often "wet" - and I do know something about how they are kept "fresher". I avoid any foods made in China (this is hard since often the product comes from China (or one of its "affiliates") but is packaged in Canada in something larger than the product itself. Then there is Mexico. Certainly products grown in Ontario can be contaminated but I do try. In Canada we do not have all of the coupons that Americans have and we pay a fortune for dairy, meat, eggs and butter (good thing I don't buy butter - husband almost fainted in shock when I presented him with a free pound of butter given to me by Sobeys based on my purchases). I do go through a lot of olive oil - too much, truthfully.

For Nanny98, there are quite a few train museum groups around Northern California that offer rides. We are one of the largest and are on the east side of San Francisco bay. I'll attach a link. If you tell me what area you are interested in, I'll be glad to point you to a train group near you. I'm one of the few women brakemen on ours and we are probably the group with the most hands on women working, especially at our age. We have women engineers, firemen, track layers, and head diesel mechanic. We are treated well and work alongside veteran male railroad workers from many lines, some quite elderly. It's an all volunteer group with over 1000 members, about 350 who work on restoration and operations all year long. If you're out this way, come see us. Here is a link that might be useful: Niles Canyon Railroad

Whew,...I'm back! Yes, Erica, your "Woo Hoo!" package definitely arrived,...like, I think, 4 days ago. We went to the wedding of some special neighbor friends of ours on the 1st, having the previous afternoon ordered a few select gifts for them from their registry at Bed Bath and Beyond. Thanks totally for all the great seeds (thanks to everyone involved, actually) and wonderful, fun extras! Wow! Like I said, above, "Woo Hoo!" - Also, I should add that I have been having trouble accessing the Internet for the past couple days. Called Charter Communications this afternoon and their automated trouble shooting service helped me set things straight, so,...I'm back, finally. Turned out it was a fixable modem malfunction. - Such lovely weather and other atmospheric gifts we've been blessed with, lately. Not only has it been humid and hot recently, but now we're capped by the smoke of an 8,500 acre fire nowhere near far enough north of here. The smokey air outside is nearly impossible to breathe most of the time, except for Saturday, thank God, for Dave & Linda's wedding. Believe me, I did some heavy praying that morning. While it remained basically hot, the smoke let up a lot. Yesterday and today, though, it's back in full force. Stouts Fire