Jay, Maybe the cooler weather has helped yours perk up a bit---I know that mine are looking a lot happier this week than they did last week too. Unfortunately the heat is back. Our local forecasters are saying at least 10 days of lots of heat and no rain, and since we have had rain recently, our heat index numbers here in southern OK will be in the 104-105 range or higher. It is supposed to be much worse in southwestern OK which has a heat advisory warning of heat index numbers in the 110-115 range. It sounds like a good time to stay inside during the heat of the day and only venture out "early" and "late". I'm glad to hear you're seeing more fruitset. I certainly have seen a lot more blooms the last 3 or 4 days, so hopefully some of them have set fruit during the cool spell. When picking tomatoes yesterday, I noticed some tomato fruitworm damage, so will be out spraying the plants with Bt in just a little while. It will be the first time I've used Bt in several years. I generally avoid it because of the damage it can do to butterflies and moths, but I'm not to let the fruitworms take all my tomatoes either. The harvest is heavy and the days are long. I hope you are able to start saying that back to me before too much more time passes. Chocolate Stripes. Chocolate Stripes. Chocolate Stripes. This has got to be one of the prettiest tomatoes I've ever grown and today I'll be tasting the first one from this year's crop. This plant is loaded with fruit, so I hope they taste good! Your humidity is so low. Usually we are only that low when we are in drought periods, although we did get down into the mid to upper teens a couple of days during the last big hot spell a couple of weeks ago. Lately, though, since 1.25" of rain has fallen in each of the last two weeks, we start our mornings with 95-100% humidity and then it drops to the 30s or so in the afternoon. If I could choose between "heat + high humidity" and "heat + low humidity", I'd choose the low humidity any day of the week. Larry, Your humidity is just awful. I like to get outside early to beat the heat, but that is when our humidity is highest so it really is more pleasant here in the late afternoon and early evening when the humidity has dropped. Yesterday morning, it felt like a steam bath here even though temps were in the 80s and I blame that on the high humidity. Yesterday evening, with a temperature around 90 and lower humidity, it felt so much more pleasant. I haven't found that firing the weatherman gets you any better weather. (sigh) What it usually gets you is someone new who doesn't understand the weather you have and promises weather they can't deliver. Our current local TV forecasters are wonderful and are the best forecast team we've ever had since we moved here. One of them is a gardener himself and occasionally mentions gardening in his forecast, saying things like "I think it is OK to go ahead and plant your tomatoes now if you can cover them up if a late frost threatens....". It is pretty cool to have gardening meteorologist! Carol, How wonderful that your mom is still so healthy and active at the age of 98! I hope her birthday was wonderful and that she enjoyed her lunch out. We do have a lot of 'old-timers' here in her approximate age group. There's a couple up the street that are (I think) 95 and 94, and another one a little farther away who is going to turn 101 later this year. Tim and I have often remarked that the "old farmers and ranchers" seem to live extremely long lives here, and I've noticed many of them still have large gardens and do some ranching even into their late 80s to early 90s, although "the kids" often have to "make" them stop driving their tractor once they reach a certain age. Dawn

Good Morning, Soooo sorry I'm late to the party. First, WELCOME Beth! The more the merrier on this journey together. We encourage and lift each other up as we are heading to a healthy weight. Tell us about yourself. I woke up one morning and while getting ready for church I started having the worst pain that started in my mid-back and came straight through my body to my heart and up the left side of my neck. That was classic female symptoms of heart trouble and it scared me plumb to death! That was my wake up call. I started that day to watch what I ate. It took me a week or so to get to the store and buy a set of scales. When I weighed the first time I was 180. I think that was sometime in March. Basically, I'm trying to stick to a modified version of the South Beach diet. That works better for me than any other diet I have ever tried. I say modified because I've got lots of allergies and can't eat onions, garlic, and most cheeses(due to the naturally occuring mold that happens in the process of becoming cheese). The SB diet has those as well as lots of fish. I HATE FISH!!! The real secret to the SB diet is low carb and heart healthy eating. It works for me. OK...... I have a confession to make, guys. Monday was my 55th birthday. We also had a Lady's meeting at church. Pastor's wife made these decadent mini-cupcake type thingies with melted dark chocolate poured over them. I ate one as well as LOTS and Lots of fruit INCLUDING watermelon. Y'all know my weigh-in day is Tuesday. I got on those scales Tuesday and it said 164lbs. I wouldn't log on and report that number because it would give me a 2 pound gain. I was ashamed and embarrassed. Yesterday morning I was back to 162 and would have come here and reported that number, but it was such a busy day and everytime I came near the computer there were people in the room. And y'all are the only people in this world who know how much I weigh. They say confession is good for the soul. I know I've felt guilty ever since I wouldn't come tell y'all the truth. So... there it is. Just like you, Harold - it is what it is. This morning I got great numbers, but I will stick with the true number that was there Tuesday morning and share the good number next Tuesday. Thanks, Harold for being honest. It really helps me to be accountable and true to myself. I got fat by not being honest with myself about my weight and what it was doing to my life and health. I don't want to go back there. I hope everyone had a great Holiday weekend. Lots of stress here. Still haven't made time for the treadmill. Swamped with paperwork trying to get DH's aunt's finances in order since we moved her in with us. Too many bills and not enough $$. The extra mouth to feed is hurting our already tight finances, too. I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel which we may get to in about 4 months, but the stress getting there is much greater than I thought. Every day brings more bills in the mail that we didn't know she had and she either forgot or just doesn't want to face. I'm a stress eater, but she is labor intensive and I think that has helped me to keep a lid on the overeating (execpt for last monday night!). I missed logging in and spending time with y'all during the week. I will try to do better this week. Everyone except Harold and me had a good week weight wise. Keep up the good work. Silver, you have set such a good example with your diet and exercise for us all. Don't wait too long to get motivated again and backslide on us. GREAT numbers for you both Ek and Jas!!!! Helen, A loss is a loss and you had a loss! I'm PROUD ;~) Have a great day, Betty

I thought the choice of the last 5 was perfect. To hold a large audience I think Nuttin but Strings could do it. I would like to hear them play some "regular" music sometime though. Neal is great; I just wish he would smile. Donald is super, as are the others. As far as Kaitlyn, she is precious, as are many 4 year olds who can perform as well as she. Remember the little "Cuppycake" girl? I really don't think they should let those little ones even try out, unless it would be a special category just for that age group. Sue

I just watched the finals and have not yet seen the results, but I gather from the discussion that Grace won. Good for her, but I would rather have seen the Clairvoyants win. Grace's songs were poignant and relevant to today's youth, much like the songs from the late 1950s, except those were written by adults. She is like Taylor Swift in that regard. Her voice is different, but she can carry the tunes, so she'll be fine. Laura Breton screwed herself in singing one of the most tragic songs ever written with a huge joyous smile and lolapalooza last note. When sung properly, even this song in Italian should leave non Italian speakers (and sometimes the performer) in tears. If you're not familiar with O Mio Babbino Caro, the singer is telling her father that she's going away to find her lover and if she cannot marry him, she's going to jump in the river and kill herself. The last lines are "father have pity on me" sung twice and NEVER with enthusiasm. This is not to disparage her vocal talent. She'll get plenty of work, but this performance definitely changed the way I saw her. If she knew what she was singing about, she would have done it differently. If you want to see it sung like it's supposed to, check out Sissel on YouTube. Victor Kee is a less skilled version of Michael Moschen from the 1990s. Check out what Moschen can do with his crystal balls and bouncing balls in the triangle on YouTube. Sal Valentinetti absolutely killed it in the finale. He won't have to deliver pizza for long. I can't listen to that genre of music for long but he killed it. Linkin' Bridge did the same. They're the first good thing to come out of Chicago since forever. Sofie Dossi is cute and flexible but all she does is handstands and neck hangs. Her cleverest trick was shooting an arrow with her feet. That's slick, but I think I see why there's no National League of Professional Handstanders. The Clairvoyants do a mentalist act. It's a version of magic with secrets all their own. They do it VERY well and are so charismatic.