Morning all, It is a beautiful, crisp, clear, blue sky day here. Finally some sunshine and I can tell that the days are getting longer. The other good news is that my tight blue jeans are just a little bit looser this morning. (I'm not planning on getting back on the scale until they fit)I thought if I saw the scale do something obscene, like be ten pounds heavier than the last time I got on it I'd have to kill myself. Anyway, I just finished rearranging my music on my new MP3 player that Doug bought me for Christmas and I'm going to rock and roll at the gym this morning. We've got a list a mile long of things to accomplish today and I'm just feeling like playing on my computer a bit longer so here I am. Monique! How fun is that. So happy you got your package too. What do you think about those mouse pads??? How neat is that? I thought you could use one and Les could use one. BTW, do you still have that fuchsia? I MUST have some of that so I can recreate that fabu combo next summer. Sue, Monique, Martie, Wendy, Chelone and anyone else interested, I'm going to plan for our annual Febuary Idyll get together. Is there any weekend that is better or worse for any of you???? I think Cynthia and GB should fly in for this also. (Wouldn't that be a blast?) MHT is such a short distance you could fly in and out on the same day if you wanted to or stay whichever worked the best. Michelle, how is that cold doing today??? Have you ever tried Zicam? I've used it for a couple years now and it really does work. If you start using it at the first symptoms of a cold it shortens the duration and lessens the symptoms of the URI. I've not been sick more than three days with cold since I started using that. Cynthia, good grief, aren't you feeding those furbies? They were so hungry they had to do a pantry raid in the middle of the night? Seriously, it's a good thing you heard the crash or you'd have had some sick puppies in the AM. Jerri, love, love, love the wolves story. Perfect! Thans for sharing that. Okie Dokie, I've got to get to the gym to try out that new workout music. Have a terrific Saturday everyone. Deanne PS Just for the record I really prefer birthdays on the Idyll thread but majority rules.

Good morning! Happy Anniversary Mary and Dan! I hope Dan is feeling better...having wisdom teeth out can be brutal. Honey, it sounds like you are doing everything possible for Bullet. I hope you are able to have more quality time with your beautiful boy. Jerri, it sounds like you are up to your eyeballs in puppies. I hope you are able to find good homes for all of your little furry charges. I've been reading along....just don't have anything to add to the conversations. I've tried to write but everything sounds either boring or whiney and I'm not willing to subject everyone to my grumblings. :oD I've enjoyed seeing the birthday cards, the bird photos and all of the other photos. Right now everything here is a bit drab and doesn't entice me to pull out the camera. We got two more goats over the weekend. We usually would not be interested in bringing a couple of adult goats into our little 'herd', especially this time of year but the owners needed to find a good home for them as the husband was very recently given the diagnosis of ALS/Lou Gerhigs disease. They are having to sell their home & acreage so that they can move closer to family for help & support as the disease progresses. They are having to rehome most of their pets since they will be moving to urban southern California. I had a friend, that I spent a lot of time with, who died from ALS, so meeting these people and hearing of their devastation in getting this diagnosis has been difficult. I can visualize much of what they may encounter in the near future and it dredges up memories that make me incredibly sad. Well.....anyway. I wasn't going to be anything but upbeat. So....the new goats' names were difficult for us to remember so we've renamed them and now they are Tall and Wide. The male is very........well, he is very Tall and the female is very, very, very Wide. We thought the g'kids would find the names easy and they are fitting. They have always been confined to a barn and smallish paddock area unless they were taken out for a walk by the owners. They aren't sure at all about the wide open expanse of our pasture. We've been keeping them separated from the others during the night, they are in an enclosure that allows them to see the others, but keeps them from being bullied throughout the night hours so they can relax, let their guard down and get use to being around our 'critters'. Finally yesterday they went out to graze with Boo so that was a very positive step towards becoming part of the 'herd'. Our other 3 goats have not given them much notice other than to butt them to establish the pecking order. To see the jockeying for herd position has always been a bit sad in my eyes as I feel for the underdog (undergoat? lol)....but under these circumstances, knowing that they are frightened and probably a bit overwhelmed, I feel even more badly when I see that they are still not accepted by the others. I know time will make it better....but I want it to happen in hours instead of days/week(s). The previous owners were visibly upset (teary eyed) when we loaded the goats to take them home. They had raised these goats from kids, bottle fed them and the goats were considered comical pets that gave them much enjoyment to watch them kick up their heels, play and interact together. To have to find homes for your beloved pets (whether they be cats, dogs or even goats) when you don't want to give them up, nor do you want to give up your home, acreage and way of living because your world has been turned upside down.......it is awful. Okay, so I didn't stop...and that is where my mind is right now. Being an empathetic person is a good thing....having sympathy for others is a good thing.....compassion is very good......but it all has a tendency to hurt deeply. I guess I'd rather hurt then to not care, I just wish I dealt with it a little better. So.....anyway.....the twins are 4 months old already, finally not being bobble heads all of the time and they are cooing, squealing and generally being darn cute! Jamie is 3 and acting like it more often than not. His mom isn't letting him get away with much so hopefully he'll get through this stage --- soon?! LOL Guess that is it for here.... Hello to all.......hope it is a good day!

I try a new early tomato every year. This year, Glacier was my earliest. They're OK. Early tomatoes don't impress me much. The best early I've grown was Matina. It was better to me than Bloody Butcher or Stupice. Personally, though, although it may not be considered an "early" tomato Jaune Flammee is always less than a week behind my earliest tomatoes, but even the first Jaune Flammee off the plant is as good to me as the best late season tomato. There is no early tomato that can compete with it for flavor, IMO. I try one new early variety every year just to extend the season a week, but I'd rather have more space in my garden for late season tomatoes, which are far superior in flavor.

Have them remade correctly and wait. A few weeks really isn't much...we had to replace a cabinet that the granite installers damaged irreparably. We had to wait approx 4 weeks. In the end, it won't really matter - you'll have the right cabinets, built correctly, and still under warranty (more on that in a minute). When the kitchen is done and you are living in it every day, you don't want to look at things and regret your impatience...making do b/c you're too impatient to wait for the correct cabinet to be made and shipped to you. What's 2 or 3 weeks compared to the years and years of living with the cabinets? BTW...To me, one of the biggest issues and what would annoy me the most on and off long after the kitchen is done is the base cabinet - the one that is a trash pullout, not a 3-drawer base like you ordered....that's the one I would have made the biggest noise about. A note about "fixing" cabinets. Most likely the cabinets your GC modified are no longer under warranty - the warranty is void now that your GC modified it. Many, if not all, cabinet manufacturers will void the warranty on any cabinet you modify - whether it's to scribe it to fit a sink that's too big for the sink base or cutting into it to make the opening bigger.