Yeah, Michael really dropped the ball. Laura's collection was better than I was expecting--more variety with her look than I was led to believe. Uli's was fine I guess. Michael's? Some stuff kind of was pretty. I dunno. It was just a very disappointing experience. Don't know if I'll bother with next season. They're getting too close to jumping the shark. I hope Laura goes on to greater things or at least gets her stuff out there. Given an infinite amount of free time I'd like to go through the season and tally up the number of times people were criticized for making something that didn't look like "them" and the number of times they were criticized for making something that looked "predictable." But then I guess when you sign up for a "reality" show you're pretty much asking to be jerked around.

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

I am trying to match my marble to a paint. I am looking at BM. I wanted Revere Pewter but it doesn't look good with the marble, in my book. I did not want Gray Owl, but it looks good with all the elements, darn. It is lighter than the Revere Pewter too, which is a need, as my room is sort of dark. I have walnut planned for the cabinets, a darkish porcelain stone look for the floor with blues browns, greens, and grays in it. Then I have a Carrara marble for the counter. I will have a marble look alike in the shower. Anyway the Gray Owl is the only one that looks perfect, darn it, as it reads a bit blue. I thought I wanted something warmer but it doesn't want to go with the marble very well. I also have a BM Collingwood sample, it is not as intense as Revere Pewter and not as bluish as Owl Gray. I really like the Collingwood and it is not out of the running. I want to get my walls up, prime the place, then make my final decision. I am a slob, so I will paint most of the room before the tile, and cabinets go in. I just did a search for Collingwood to provide a swatch and came up with a blog site that shows Collingwood, Gray Owl, and Moonshine. All multiple pictures taken throughout the day and artificial lighting. I am liking the Gray Owl in these images. It is not mixed in BM base but Olympic. But I will link it, as it might be helpful. Here is a link that might be useful: Going Gray

Count me among the unimpressed. I see a cancellation in this show's not too distant future. But speaking of gameshows - anyone watch the PBS Pioneers of Television installment last night - on Gameshows? It was a real trip down memory lane and worth the watch. Even though it wasn't a complete history, it was very interesting to hear the old hosts, etc. talk about the audience, both in studio and at home, as well as what made a great host, which in some cases they still don't have down pat. And while they did touch on the scandals, it wasn't the focus.