Raccoons love city living. Their population grows right along with us, especially in the Bay Area. For 18 yrs I lived in the Richmond district of SF, right outside Seacliff, between the Golden Gate National Recreation Area/China Beach and Golden Gate Park. If you're not familiar with the area, lots are 25x100 and older houses have zero setbacks, meaning they are side-by-side and sharing walls with their neighbors. No front gardens, relatively few street trees. Express buses run on three parallel streets every morning and evening and parking spaces are more precious than gold. IOW, a totally urban environment. One day I got back from doing errands, around 2p. Getting out of my car, I happened to look across the street. Strolling as casually as if he had all the time in world, was the biggest raccoon I've ever seen. It had to be three feet long and so fat it was over a foot wide across the stomach! No dog was going to bother it, and it was large enough to kill any cat stupid enough to get in its way. They especially love cat and dog food, BTW.

Hi All, I am planning to come to this swap too, now that I know for sure that it will be on Saturday. I am going to be on a plane to England on Sunday, so anything I bring to swap I am just going to be giving away, unless I see something that I just absolutely have to have! I probably won't have time before I leave to plant anything I get from the swap. If I find the time to dig on Friday, I may bring some mature starts, but most of my stuff is winter-sown seedlings, potted up. Fran, I know what you mean about waiting for the heat to break and hoping for no rain to get stuff in the ground. I have a bed I built before the heat came on, and I just have not had the fortitude to go out there and plant those hunk o' seedlings! Just watering makes me start to melt! Here's what I plan to bring (Keep in mind, these are all WS babies, they will probably not flower this year): Malva Zebrina Hollyhocks Rudbeckia Purple Coneflower White Swan Coneflower Hardy Hibiscus If I get around to digging, I will bring: Ajuga Yellow Coreopsis Johnny Jump-ups Foodwise, I will bring some fruit salad. Looks like the bagels and cream cheese and perhaps drinks are covered. Although I may bring a few 4-packs of Starbucks Mocha Frappuchinos, I am addicted to them, and at 9 a.m. I am going to need one to wake up! See you all there! Alison

I have never tracked my points on a daily basis on CORE. I probably should -- my weight loss has really slowed down in the last 6 weeks. But I did lose 2.4 lbs this week. My typical daily menu -- Breakfast steel cut oatmeal w/ 2 Tbsp. raisins and 1/2 c milk Snack Apple or banana Lunch 2 eggs scrambled with mushrooms, sundried tomatoes, spinach and FF cheddar cheese Fresh fruit or Large toss salad with turkey or smoked salmon -- lots of veggies --- FF dressing with blue cheese tossed over it Afternoon snack - more fruit or carrots --sometimes, I eat one serving of FF/SF pudding here to get past the chocolate cravings. Supper WW pasta with variety of sauces -- maybe with beef, shrimp or chicken or Grilled meat with roasted potatoes and salad and veggie or Soup with salad or a sandwich on 1 pt bread (always fill the sandwich with lots of goodies --spinach, roasted red-pepper strips, cukes, FF cheese) Snack Popcorn or WW ice cream treat I use most of my 35 extra pts on dried fruit,cheese,nuts (love almonds!) wine and the occasional slice of bread or English muffin. We try lots of the WW recipes -- just got the new Comfort food cookbook. Looks good to this midwest farm girl! Not a lot of pure CORE recipes but some can be used with simple changes -- like whole wheat pasta or FF cheese. and some things -- I'll just count into my pts. I don't have the patience to count points and since I am a bit of a health food nut (we can all our own veggies and fruits --over 500 jars a year) and buy all of our meat from local organic farmers........... CORE works well for me. But you have to "shake it up" -- If you eat grilled chicken everyday for supper and a salad everday for lunch -- you will get bored quick. Cathy

Hi LL and all.............Spent a quiet weekend......ate pretty good no serious binging or any for that matter but I was up 1.8 this morning...kinda discouraging since I have really been getting the treadmill work in......... I need to work on the smiling too...people in my area are big in that department but I've been kinda glum lately.....not feeling my best.... Hope everyone works hard and eats well..I am going to concentrate on this 1.8 pounds...