Since it just got bumped anyway, THANKS!!! to the latecomers. p.s. Kathleen - you've been missed. Come back soon or I'll blow all my snow eastward down 27.

Milkdud! WTG on that weight loss - you go girl!! I'm glad the knee is coming along well. Raeanne - yes, I am still going to Curves. This is my 2nd week and I made a commitment to myself to go Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. I stop on my way home from work. I feel better about me and am actually looking forward to getting measured again, I think in early September. And yes..I am definitely up for the book club. Marci - hard to believe it's time for school again. I saw the spinach squares recipe and will have to give them a try. John - enjoy the trip - the weather sounds promising. Be safe and have fun. Dee - another cruise?! Raeanne is right they will be naming a ship after you. ENJOY. Besh - menopause - I am right there with ya darlin. Zig - where are you - shoe shopping again??? Gotta run - check in later - Donna

Riesling Poached Pear Frangipane Pie Directions: Crust 1 9-inch Hannaford pie crust Poached Pears 4 cups water 1 Tbsp. lemon juice 6 pears, ripe but not soft 2 1/2 cups late Riesling wine 1 1/2 cups Hannaford sugar 1 lemon slice Frangipane Filling 1 cup blanched almonds 1/2 cup Hannaford sugar, divided 1/4 cup Hannaford flour 6 Tbsp. Hannaford unsalted butter, softened 2 large Hannaford eggs 1 tsp. Hannaford vanilla extract 1/2 tsp. Hannaford imitation almond extract 1 Tbsp. reduced poaching syrup 1. Bake pie crust according to package instructions for pre-baking an empty crust. Cool. 2. Prepare poached pears. In a large bowl, combine water and lemon juice. Peel, core, and halve pears, and place halves in lemon water. Set aside. 3. Combine wine, sugar, and lemon slice in a heavy saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat, stirring to dissolve sugar. Once this syrup mixture boils, reduce heat and keep it simmering. 4. Drain pears and discard lemon water. Add pears to syrup. Poach for 5 minutes, turn pears over, and continue poaching for an additional 5 minutes, or until pears are tender when pierced with a knife. Remove pears from syrup and place on paper towels to drain. Continue simmering syrup until reduced to 1 cup, about 20 minutes. 5. While syrup simmers, prepare frangipane. Combine almonds with 1/4 cup of the sugar in a food processor and process until finely ground. Add flour and pulse until combined. 6. In a large bowl, use an electric mixer on medium high to beat butter and remaining 1/4 cup of the sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating until well incorporated after each one. Beat in vanilla and almond extracts and poaching syrup. Reduce speed to low, add ground nut mixture, and mix until just combined. 7. Preheat oven to 350°F. Spread frangipane in pre-baked pie shell. 8. Slice 1 pear half into slices 3/8 to 1/4 inch wide without separating slices. Slide a spatula under pears to transfer without separating. Fan pear half by pressing on stem end. Slide fanned pear half on to frangipane slowly so you can place it correctly. Repeat with additional pear halves until frangipane has pear fans evenly spaced over it, with space in between. Place pie on a baking sheet and bake at 350°F for 45 to 50 minutes, until frangipane is puffed, golden, and solid to the touch. If crust edges start to brown too much, cover them with foil. Cool on a wire rack. 9. To serve, slice remaining pear halves in half. Place a quarter pear on a plate, drizzle with poaching syrup, and place a slice of pie beside pear. Extra poached pears may be refrigerated in an airtight container for three to four days, covered with any remaining poaching syrup. APPROXIMATE NUTRITIONAL VALUES PER SERVING: 450 CALORIES, 62G CARBOHYDRATES, 6G PROTEIN, 19G FAT (7G SATURATED), 60MG CHOLESTEROL, 100MG SODIUM, 6G FIBER

Cool Bri!!! First time I've met other hams here on the forum. Yes we both have our extra class licences, but haven't touched the equipment for a long while. I spent over a year working with my EC8 novice licence when we were restricted to using morse code only....no voice and on very small portions of the radio bands.....40 and 80 meters, and a small corner of 15 meters. I used to use an inverted vee antenna strung across our back garden and go though the night transmitting with an old straight key to Russians and Yugoslavians until the sun was coming up, using my Sommerkamp FT One rig, often QRP with very low power. The filtering on that equipment was awesome . It was such a challenge though as those Russians and Yugoslavs were working in very fast morse. The Italian hams also were fast and powerful. We also had a big three element beam with rotor that was great for contacting west coast North America and rest of the world but it blew down in one of our windstorms. And now we just have a small vertical antenna. I graduated to an electronic keyer for morse and had a wonderful time as many people were calling and wanting QSL cards from our EA8 area, which is classed as an African contact. After further exams and more morse tests I obtained my extra license and could them work all over the spectrum, including 20 meters which was always so busy it was intimidating. All exams were of course in Spanish so it was challenging to be studying electronics in that language. Do take morse if you can....it really is great to be able to communicate worldwide and is so exciting to think how far you can go with less power than a small lightbulb. Our station is quiet at the moment and we have to clean up the equipment and do some checking over of cables and contacts as there was so much humidity that there is some corrosion. Our German friend who comes regularly to stay with us keeps his equipment in another room here and works a lot in our station using his German DF3UT callsign in Pactor mode. Wolf is EA8AJS and I am EA8BUO. Small world eh? Sorry to highjack your birthday thread! Congrats to your husband and good luck when you do your upgrade. (And do the CW exam anyway, even if it's not mandatory. You can have great fun on the bands with it!) SharonCb