Diane, we are NOT getting older. Nope, we're not. 2013 sure flew, though. Lars, I'm sorry December was so difficult for you, I hope January is much better, and all of 2014. I'm sending you hugs, and some to Kevin too. Grainlady, here I have the world's best neighbor. He has a snowblower on his lawn tractor and always clears the driveway. In return I bake him bread. It's a great deal for me! Katie, beans and cornbrad sound really good, I need to get some more of those mayacoba beans, I like them a lot. Rob, you are definitely way late on the gloves. My problem is that I can't seem to do anything with gloves on, so whether it's pumping gas or shoveling hay, I end up pulling the gloves off anyway. Ellen, enjoy those grandkids. I have the Princess and Bud here for the night, so they baked cookies with Elery and we'll have Nutella Crepes for breakfast. Here I finally got garlic into the dehydrator, it was starting to sprout in the cellar. I had planned to keep some for seed garlic but since I put the house up for sale in October and my nephew was still living at the farm, I didn't know where the heck to plant it. So, all that heirloom garlic that Katie sent me is now dried garlic. (sigh) Maybe next year. Tomorrow we'll take the kids home and feed the stock and fill tanks. It was a high of 10F here today and about -3 when I went to the farm. It'll be in the single digits to below zero until the middle of next week and then warm up, but we have "dangerous wind chill" alerts going from Sunday until Tuesday. I hope the tank heater holds out... Angelaid, sometimes it's just like that. Take a deep breath, it'll be better. Stay warm, everyone. Annie

Getting to a chore that I have put off too many years. Hope to finish it this next month. Finishing a tablecloth for a classmate of my son's. He found it partially done in his mother's house when he cleaned up after he death. It has proven to be a far more daunting task than I thought it would be, and my trepidation has led me to put it away too many times.

First time poster on these threads but read them all the time. Annie, I feel your pain! Hubby retired 9/1 of last year, we put our old home on the market 10/4, moved and arrived at our new home the night before Thanksgiving (dinner last Turkey day was hot dogs and mac&cheese). We knew that we were going to be downsizing drastically when we were house hunting down here so the fixing, tossing, donating, going thru everything, yard sales, getting the house ready for listing, packing and dealing with the moving company almost did us in. Dinner last night (Friday) was ribeyes, twiced baked potatoes and brussel sprouts with garlic and bacon, roasted in butter and a little bacon grease. The best part was that hubby did all the cooking, which is very unusual (but much appreciated). Ate in the living room while watching the latest Star Trek movie that is now on DVD. Tonight we're having a very simple dinner. With my new found skills with making a good meatloaf, we're having meatloaf sandwiches, which we both prefer over a meatloaf dinner. Meatloaf is in the oven right now. Hubby had wanted to go out in the boat today but I nixed that idea as I'm feeling really lazy today. Mainly because the lake is always crowded with out of towners during the weekends. Most of whom think drinking and boating are one and the same. So we're going out tomorrow as most of the boaters will have left or will be working. A late lunch or early dinner will be at a restaurant that faces the London Bridge after we get back. Haven't been out on the lake since August when we had a large almost two week long get-together with very dear friends and family. When we moved here we were told that there were a few months when it's actually too hot to be boating (unless you spend all of your time IN the water instead of on it) and that even swimming pools often get too hot to be enjoyable during the heat. We scoffed....but found out how true that was. Went thru our first monsoon season here and boy was that interesting. Now that the temps have cooled off somewhat we want to take advantage of it. Hope everyone had a terrific weekend. Lifting my mug of cold coffee in toast to everyone. Jenna

I am ready for a nap just reading of all your plans. My weekend so far has been quite glamorous. I dropped Mom at the hairdresser. Today was Perm Day so I had a couple extra hours. I went through the car wash, got gas and returned a pan to BB&B. Then I came home and continued the ultra-glam job of scrubbing the kitchen floor. The grout was filthy. God, I hate that floor with a red hot passion.Then back to retrieve Mom. She smelled like ammonia. I swear I am going to start a blog about that hairdresser and all the riotous elderly patrons. Since the Californians are coming to visit soon, (bro and DS #1), I am trying to get the place straightened up. Never ends. Jakabedy, sounds like we are having the same sort of day. I also bought some tickets on a whim, to hear Mika Brzezinski and her mother, who is a noted sculptor, speak. I have to give the plants a good soak. My grass is now crunchy, it has been so dry. I even watered a young tree the other day. It's a Redbud and I don't want to lose it. And the rest of the weekend is pretty much the same. My two closest friends are away so I have no playmates. Earlier this week I made the drive from Philadelphia, to Portsmoth NH for the night, then Boothbay Harbor Maine. The return trip was Boothbay to Andover MA for the night, then home. My eyes felt like two burned cigarette holes when I pulled in my driveway. Saw one bad accident that put the fear of God in me, although there are still the idiots out there. Lots of backups along the way, too. I could not believe the traffic trying to get on the Tappan Zee going the opposite way from me. I'd have turned around and gone home.