Clinking with my herbal tea! Happy TGIF, everybody! Hang in there, Stacie. Susie, don't work too hard packing those dishes! Hope Will enjoyed DC. gbsim, I'm envious of your horses. I owned two as a kid but they don't fit into my lifestyle anymore. :( Have fun & glad DH is doing so well! Annie, I guess it's pot roast weekend on the CF. I've got one stovetop (chuck) now in my LC...smells heavenly. I forced myself to let it sear a full 15 minutes & I got wonderful color & flavor. Usually, I'm impatient & it only gets half that amount of time. shaun, happy birthday to your daughter! amck, we lived in Bedford. I was in Loudon a couple months ago. My DS lived in Exeter within sight of Mustangs' family (near the little triangular park). Small world, huh? Lyra, I'm glad you're getting the OT. Very uncertain times. Not sure about the RK though! lol Cathy, the parades sound like fun. I'd probably like the kid's parade the best! lol Enjoy the festivities & visit with your family. I'm not sure what we're doing this weekend. DH is, as I'm typing, stuck in a dentist chair upstate NY. He was out of town & got a toothache. Turns out he needs a root canal & a dentist squeezed him in at 3 p.m. this afternoon. Not sure if he's going to feel like making the drive to Mystic tonight. I've got a pot roast cooking...better make some smashed potatoes in case DH does decide to make the drive & can't chew! I also made a fresh blackberry pie this morning before I knew about his tooth...wonder if he can manage the seeds? If not, I'm going to be stuffed! We got the last of the new window blinds installed Wednesday & had planned on rearranging furniture this weekend. I'm just staying loose until I hear how DH's doing. Hopefully, as soon as they get it drained his pain will go away! Have a great weekend everybody! /tricia

nancy, enjoy the wii. Wii love it...:-) We're interested in checking out the wii fit when its out. I'll have to have Will give you his critique on the games. I know we really like Carnival Games. Fun! Also, Super Mario Galaxy. Susie, you're sooo much a better person than I am. If Scott decided at the last minute to stay home and pal around with me, I'd be thrown totally off course and probably be a b!tch for the first couple hours at least! Chase, sounds nice. Scott leaves tomorrow for France - well, he's driving to his parents and then flying out. It'll just be me and my other guy...and Sammy and Bob. Have you met Bob? I finally got a good pic of him...aint he cute? Linda, I know what you mean about everyone being cranky! And I top the list! Sharon I'll be watching for that package from you. You know,,,the sunshine? Pat, I hope you don't have to deal with the new chef for a long time...enjoy your fun! Sally, sounds like a nice day! Just don't spend too much time - that roll call thread can suck me in and all of a sudden an hour's gone! Will and I will be taking the fourth Harry Potter to my mom's this weekend to watch with her. We're trying to get her through them, before she forgets what happened in the previous one, but it's hard. ah well, she enjoys the company if she understands the movies or not... Stacy

I'm back from dinner. It was great visiting with our snowbird friends and we talked for over two hours. We were neighbors when we both lived in the boonies and they moved back to Ohio shortly after we moved. We went on a cruise together with others from the neighborhood and had so much fun with them once. So now we e-mail and get together once a year :-( Dinner--not so good. I ordered the fettucini alfredo with bacon-wrapped sea scallops. The salad that came with it was very good,the scallops cooked just right but the alfredo was disappointing, to say the least. It was a big plate of angel hair pasta with a huge glob of alfredo sauce out of a jar. Ick, ick, ick! What could be easier than alfredo sauce? It's just a little butter, cream, garlic and lots of parmesan. They had little rolls that came with the salad that looked a little like those biscuits at Red Lobster, but were floury and dry. Now I remember why we don't like to eat out. Harry had fried oysters, baked sweet potato and hush puppies. He said on the way home it wasn't very good, but if it's dinner time I swear that man would eat plastic! Guess we won't be eating there again any time soon!

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