Good morning! I too try to visualize people and it rarely, if ever, works out. it is nice to put faces to names. Shirley, still thinking of you and keeping you in my prayers. i know that's your daughter, brittney and dawson -- who are the others (inquiring nosey minds want to know) and as for your mom, you never know what the next roommate may be, perhaps you can hold off on the move until you see what comes in LOL, however, I think I'd want to be with my own and her secrets kept!!!! annie your dogs are beautiful, as are you. my aunt and uncle, for as long as i can remember, were the first home for service dogs until they were ready to go into training. they had several different dogs from what i recall. sorry about your lizzie...i know how hard it is to lose a beloved pet. my next dog is going to be a shepherd, but it's been decided that we will only have one dog at a time now, so I have to wait my turn. (we'll see) i made an anniversary cake for a group i belong to, it was our 7 year anniversary so i made this massive cake. i filled it with alternating layers of buttercream and lemon curd, and dang, if it was not tasty. I was able to take a slice home for the family to taste and seriously wish there had been more leftover, would have made a nice breakfast!!!! a real nice combination, even though it started out that i was going to use raspberry as well...i just couldn't get enough to cook them down to make a nice sauce/filling. it's still so cold and seems to be staying that way until at least next week, when it's supposed to go to the high 40's, with rain. by then, i'll think it's summer. this cold is bone chilling and of course, they are calling for more snow. we haven't got much of it, but.....this year it is bothering me like mad! i shouldn't complain, there are parts of the country that are in the negatives, so i'll just keep my mouth shut on this subject any further! so whose left to post their pic? come out. come out whereever you are! speaking of which, jeanne, how are those triplets of late? is mary ellen still a part of this group? i feel like i haven't seen her in a long time...maybe since she became a grandmom, or right before that? hae a nice thursday! maryanne

I've had a blue star for years now and love it. A long time ago over on the appliance forum a blue star owning chef mentioned he turned the oven on to the degrees he wanted and didn't wait for the light to indicate it was up to temp..in other words he passed over the preheat stage and claimed cooking time was pretty much the same. I tried it, found it to be true and have been doing it ever since.(I've never had anything result in being dried out, or overcooked) The temp also seems truer than any electric oven I've had in the past.(I'm a big baker and worried about gas vs electric....at this level, the Blue Star owns the electric....results are amazing) Don't worry about too much stove. Think of it as a big toy. A big man toy. It's a joy to work on even if you're just boiling water for pasta. But all sorts of fast delicious meals will now be withing reach....and you may find your husband fighting with you to do the actual cooking. My DH went from occasionally cooking to pan searing steak, making stir frys,home made pizzas and other stuff just because cooking on a blue star becomes so viseral.(Of course you can never go out to eat again for fear of insulting DH:) ) In short, it(the stove cooking experience) stops being completely utilitarian and becomes fun.

We also had our air conditioner condenser overflow recently, and a leak under the kitchen sink. Now I have those sensor paddles all over the place - under each sink, behind each toilet, washer, fridge, hot water tank, condensers and DW. Most are one alarm with two paddles, so I can use one unit for two nearby areas. Lucky for me no leaks recently, so can't vouch for how they work! Got them on Amazon. Both my parents are decently handy DIY types. Not fancy stuff, but functional. And we lived with a "wet" basement growing up so we have always had a good backup pump around. I'm also pretty stubborn. If I get it in my head I can do something, I read up and plunge in, knowing I have "tech support" on call. Mom generally comes over to supervise and be entertained by my efforts, Dad comes over to "show me" (meaning I don't have to do the work!). You should have seen Mom and I laughing almost on the floor when I finally got the new bathroom doorknob installed. I was so excited after all the door planing (needed because i convinced myself i could just paint it, change the hinges, and hang it back up...nope!) and install that I promptly stuck the mechanism in and slammed it shut....without the handle installed! I think we both realized we might be locked in about 0.00001 seconds after I pushed it closed. We just looked at each other, just like in the movies, and completely lost it.

OK, here's a review at the two month mark. I understand that sewing machines are being bought quickly -- quite a resurgence, probably because of the face-mask need. If the lines at Joann's are any indication, a lot more people are sewing. Anyway, I digress. I love the machine. Pros: it's quiet, I love the speed control (besides my foot), bobbins are easy to wind and hold a LOT of thread, they are easy to thread. I love how much control I have with the width and length of a zigzag stitch, how many stitches I DO have, and the ability to monogram something. Cons: it makes more noise when going over 4 layers, and then there's that issue with the horizontal thread spool holder. I still forget to file off the notch or put glue in it, so I just use my cone thread holder. The monograms have to be stitched sideways...to me that's weird. I said in my previous post that I don't sew for hours every day. Well, with this pandemic lock-down, I have certainly sewn for several hours on a lot of days ... after doing my "office hours" for my work, of course. Donna