Sounds fun (Palm Springs). I'm in New Jersey. Flew here today for my grandmother's funeral. She passed away last week, at 105 y/o. Her life was very full and long, her last year had been in a sort of gently fading twilight, and her death was, it seems, pretty peaceful and painless, at home with no tubes or machines. So her passing was as gentle as it should have been. Life was kind to her, and at the end no less. Laying on the couch, lights off, thinking about this house and the things left over from fifty years of being my grandparents' home. There are photographs, my grandfather's calligraphy scrolls, my grandmother's needlepoint art. Those will be taken, I suppose many have already been over the past couple of years. Then there is the random daily stuff that has no value, but that I recognize from fifty years of visiting and sometimes living here. Old toys and books, dishes, things like that. I suppose it will all be disposed of, except for a few bits that people might take for sentimental reasons. Then the house will be sold, as a fixer because it needs a total remodel, although in a nice neighborhood with a good sized lot. And that may, I think, be it for New Jersey, for me. My aunt and uncle and one first cousin live here, but without my grandparents, my connection to this place, a place I never liked much, will be done. I think I'm going to cook dinner tomorrow at my aunt's. She has a nice Bluestar range and that is where most of the family will be. Her daughter, my other first cousin, is flying in tomorrow. She lives in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia where her husband works for the United Nations. I don't think they like it as much as Switzerland, where they lived for the last several years. But the UN HCR (High Commission For Refugees) moves its senior staff around every several years. They don't get permanent cushy posts in comfortable cities; they have to go where the refugees are, so Ethiopia was, I think, better than some places they might have ended up. There isn't much scope for home cooking as an expat in Addis Ababa, I'm told. Especially with young kids who are adapting from their previous Franco-Swiss diet (and life). So I figure she might like a dinner at home, at her mom's home anyway. Menu undecided but I'm thinking about chicken marbela. I also have a hankering for ceviche. They may not go together, but tough. Otherwise, no interesting cooking recently. I have spent the last month on back to back to back business trips. So I've been eating like crap - airport food, hotel food, restaurant food. Occasionally a good ramen or other street food in New York, but mostly crap. As the weeks of this have dragged on, and I've gotten fatter and flabbier, I've started skipping restaurants altogether and going to grocery stores and delis to get "healthy" things to eat. So my diet has mostly dwindled to Greek yoghurt, canned sardines and tuna, bread and cheese, fruit, takeout sushi, and coffee. It's not a bad diet but there isn't much cooking or variety involved. Although I have discovered that canned tuna plus Greek yoghurt plus a little salt or soy sauce makes a creditable and oh-so-healthy tuna salad. And that chopped raw salmon, Greek yoghurt, and one of those super-miniature bottles of hot sauce that you can filch from restaurants makes a reasonable spicy salmon filling. When I get home on Monday, I don't have another trip on the calendar for months. I'm going to cook up a storm, enjoy being home on weekends, re-acquaint myself with bicycling everywhere, lose this travel flab, and appreciate springtime in Portland.

Susie, Happy Anniversary, and lots of good thoughts going to Steven and Charles. RR, lots and lots of hugs to you, I've been thinking of you lots. Shaun, enjoy your relaxing weekend and scratch Ricky a couple of extra times behind his ears. Linda, hug that baby. Sorry about the snow, we got a little but it didn't "stick". Good thing, I've been fixing fence. Nancy, don't work too hard, those tourists will work you hard soon enough! Maggie, it does hurt, doesn't it? I got the heating bill a week ago, it's higher than the last one. Sigh. And I keep the heat at 55 when I'm home, 50 when I'm not, still costs me $200+ a month. It sucks. I'm sorry. Neesie, welcome to the Cooking Forum and to TGIF. I think you'll have fun here. Joanne, I was wondering how those driving lessons were going, it sounds like you'll be driving anywhere you want to go pretty darned soon. Good for you! Katie, my employee finished her last day today, she got another job. Now I have to interview, hire and train a new employee which is a pain in the a**. Ah well, it's worth it. At least she never "forgot" to come to work, like yours did!!! This weekend? Let's see, it started today, Elery was here and I took the day off. We went fishing for steelhead this morning, I got a fish but it broke my pole and got away, lure, pole and all. Darn it. Afternoon was a trip to the doc, I've been having some "issues" and today got a biopsy done. Results in 5 days. Right now I feel like cr*p, so I'm just hanging around, drinking a cup of hot tea. Tomorrow too, I think, although I may break down and bake something. Sunday is some more fence repair. Nothing exciting, just normal stuff. Annie

Marilyn, You sure keep busy gal. I was exhausted from the trip...along with being cold. Enjoyed company, they were great guests. No grandkids visiting, but the animals were exhausted too from playing with the visitors. We all took a long nap today. Went to HP this morning and had to wear jeans and a sweatshirt, it cleared up but is back to the icky weather. I do know you live in the NW corner of NM, but was floored to hear their rainfall numbers. My guests are following storms all the way home to NC. Am on a roll though to get some things done. My son lives with me but travels a great deal, is with airline security and was called out last Thursday during the upheaval to LAX for a month. He is a great help when here but also tends to divert me from getting projects finished. Good diversions like watching movies and eating too much, when home he just kicks back. So, I have 4 weeks to play all day if I decide to. Bought tile at HP to finish the bath surround and have tile to do same with my fireplace. The kitchen had been remodeled about 5 years ago by previous owners, but they did a terrible job on the counter tile job. Tile was butted right next to each other, very little grout will stick in seams and I am constantly cleaning spills which seep in between tiels. Most likely this will be another tile job soon as I hate how it looks and the work. Am also putting a cement resurfacer on the concrete patio. Paid some good money to have this done on the driveway and looks like I can do as well myself. Thinking of putting a terra cotta tint in it. The patio is so old I really don't care if I mess up..hopefully next year will build a deck. If it turns out well, may not have to build that deck. Thunder and lightening....hot bath and snuggle in for the evening. Good grief, it is almost Sept. and we hardly had a summer....too early to talk about snuggling in. Sandy

I watered my tomato plants this morning and one of my flower beds. Cleaned the kitchen really well today. Washed all the dishes in the dishwasher. Took a good 2 hour nap then played on the computer. I've taken my shower and am dressed for bed. Will get up and water some more in the morning then to church. We will pick up some fried chicken for lunch. The son is preparing Father's day dinner Sunday at 6:30. I'm really looking forward to his grilling, he is a great cook. I'm taking potato salad and comeback salad dressing. That should about finish the weekend.