Ciao Martin, you talk about the canning your nonna had, yes, that is something I still do and learned from Nonna and zia Assunta. I at the time have 19 quarts of homemade macaroni sauce, I have 23 small pints of Tomato paste, about 10 pints of fried peppers and garlic, and soup base with lots of carrots, onions, garlic and celery. I tried to get a quick jump on all of this as my garden (vegetable) is producing quickly all at once. This morning i canned some fresh figs that I picked around sunup, they are from my Paradiso and my Peters Honey trees. cold packing them now. I will probably get around 100 quarts of just macaroni sauce this year. Sometimes I go to the Amish around the area and have to buy more Tomatoes when my small garden is done to fill my personnal quota. You figure we eat pasta easily now only about 4 days a week, so you need alot of sauce. I also grow alot of flowers and Olive trees. I grow mainly the flowers we had alot of back in Italy,, Bougainvillea, Cappero (Capers) which I can in Pizza sauce, Oh thats what I have to do yet, geraniums, Oleander, Italian Jasmine ect. I also have 2 Carob trees growing which my nonna used to chew like it was gum or something. I do have an affinity for the Jasmine and the Bougainvillea though. Yes just about all the gardening I learned from her and her sisters. There was NEVER a weed in their gardens. They would go out and talk to everything, and Pick pick pick weeds, everything was groomed perfectly. It is funny now, me heading into middle age, I find myself doing just what she did. Funny how history repeats itself. Drying figs outside you mentioned was also a fond memory for me. All the figs drying everywhere. Even though my aunt got a dehydrator for Christmas, she hasn't used it yet!! she still drys the figs in the sun. Ciao Maggie

Actually we are fat because of the fat fairy. Remember when you put your tooth under the pillow and got a quarter? Or nickel? Well, that winged (^(^((&&*&%$%$ takes the teeth and grows them into fat cells. When you are sleeping happily with all your adult teeth she sneaks in and glues it to your butt and thighs, and anywhere else she can. And uh, I kind of roll around in the dirt too, it sure makes me happy to be all dirty in the garden! Tally Ho!

"I'm confused. If the relationship has been sexual why did you ask that first question ... Have you ever had a relationship (NOT sexual) with a younger man??" A one-night-stand would qualify as a "sexual relationship" with a younger OR older man. I wanted to clarify, and wasn't interested in anyone's 'one night.' "On the first visit, his Mother introduced me as her daughter-in-law!" He moved back to DK and had told his entire family about me/us, and obviously the word 'marriage' came up. I don't find this odd at all. "It will be 2 years in Oct. since I last saw him on his 'summer visit' and we had a wonderful dinner." Did I ever insinuate *he* wasn't having sex? As far as i'm concerned he *still is* a free man who I just happen to be in love with. Many women equate sex as love. Many men equate sex as sex, and that includes married men who stray, but still love their wife. I never had expectations of him 'holding out', nor will I until we've come to a decision where this is going, if anywhere. "There *will* be a relationship first, as we still probably don't know each other as well as we should. " I never implied we *didn't* have a sexual relationship. mrsmarv, I myself am very cautious, and have 'feelers' for people or situations. Maybe i'm too close to this one to have inclinations 'there's something more behind this', but i'm not one who thinks negatively, either. "at the beginning of our relationship I asked if he's *sure* he's straight and not gay or a homosexual. We've talked about it very openly..." We were having dinner in an area known for having a large number of gays living there. As we were walking back to the car, a man turned around and checked out his ass. He also, very openly, said it had happened in DK also. I have a son who is gay, and also worked with 2 gay men where I was last employed. Out of curiosity I asked my son's opinion, and he immediately said his 'gaydare' wasn't picking up signs. The two men I worked with, and introduced him to, said absolutely not. He not a big man, is attractive, and has a nice physique, and these may be physical characteristics certain gay men look for, but not all. Not to be too suggestive, or blatant, but there have never been any suggestions of anything other than normal sex. Bisexual? Anything's a possibility, but one may also have a preference if that's the case.

DH has a Chilton book. I think it's one of the better ones as he's never needed anything else. HTH