Yes Annie! Don't bargin shop for cat food. Cats have tender tummies and do best with one flavor of food. One local grocer probably thinks I'm nuts because the only thing I buy in his store is catfood... and I clean off his shelf of my cat's favorite when I'm there. Sometimes when people ask how many cats I have I tell them just one but he is big and very hungry. I buy all my cat litter at Walmart because I can get 100 lbs for $10... yup big kitty (most regulars know I have several small adorable kitties with names like Annie and Jessy). I so seldom use coupons. I've made the cashier shake her head when I turn to the customer behind me and give away the register coupons. I think of myself as a value shopper. If a product has quality and I'll enjoy eating it then I buy. Even being single I'll buy a 10lb roast and cut it into usable portions. I like beans and rice so my grocery budget is not big enough to worry about. Meat and fresh fruit seem to be the big hitters on my bill... and of course beer is almost a budget of it's own. We have a super bargin meat market 20 minutes down the road but I hate using that much time and gas. When I do go I fill the freezer... beef tenderloin is currently $7/lb, lake perch $9/lb, any kind of beef steak between $3-4/lb, ground chuck normally $2/lb. They probably only make pennies a pound but they sell meat by the ton everyday. I've been working with a very nice lady that enjoys coupons so I give her my Sunday paper. Last week she saved $11 with them. She enjoys it so I was careful not to rain on her parade but when I asked what she bought she said "junk food and a couple things I normally buy". I'm a terrible shopper and usually just buy the same things over and over. I noticed I now have three bottles of my favorite vinegar in the pantry. At least I've done a fair job eating down the pantry and freezer so I can see what I have in there. Just picked another quart of tomatoes out of my garden. People were telling me a month ago to pull up the vines but they keep flowering and putting out new tomatoes so I'll hold back until the frost kills them. Hard to beat "free" food. : ) lyra

OK, here's a totally different take on chard. Last year at this time I was in Nice, France taking a cooking class on Nicoise cooking traditions (different from French) and one of the dishes that was talked about was tourte de blette, which the name would suggest is a beet pie, but in reality is a sweet chard and apple pie, often with spinach thrown in for good measure. Often, powdered sugar was also sprinkled on the top. I saw many intriguing variations of this, but didn't get a recipe. And then I remember on the market tour they talked about all the different kinds of chard, so I began to doubt that this is best made with the Swiss chard from my own garden. I began to over-think it. Finally I said "To heck with it! What's the worst that can happen?" and googled recipes until I found one by Emeril that looked about right. You know what? It was tasty! If you're "not one for vegetables" this is a completely different take on them! (I might have substituted walnuts for pine nuts.) Tourte De Blette Servings: 8 servings Ingredients === PASTRY === 3 c Flour  1/2 c Sugar  1 pinch Salt  1/2 lb Unsalted butter; softened  1/2 Lemon; juice only === FILLING ===  1 lb Swiss chard; washed, remove stems  1 lb Spinach; washed, remove stems  1/4 c Sultanas (or raisins)  2 Tb Dark rum  1/3 c Pine nuts; toasted  1/2 c Powdered sugar  2 Whole Eggs; beaten  1 Egg yolk beaten; for crust  1 ts Grated lemon zest  2 lg Granny Smith apples; peeled, and thinly sliced Preparation Make the pastry: Sift the flour, sugar, and salt together. Stir in the butter, lemon juice, and eggs. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and briefly knead. Shape into a ball and cover with a damp cloth. Chill for 1 hour. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Blanch the Swiss chard, and cook for 10 minutes, add the spinach and continue to cook for 5 more minutes. Run under cold water and drain. Squeeze out excess water and finely chop. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a small sauce pan cook the sultanas or raisins in the rum until almost all the rum is absorbed, about 2 minutes. Cool then mix with the Swiss chard, spinach, pine nuts, sugar, 2 eggs, and lemon zest. Lightly butter a 12-inch by 10-inch baking dish. Divide the dough into a one third piece and a two third piece. On a lightly floured surface, roll the two thirds portion of dough into 1/8-inch thick rectangle. Line the bottom and sides of the baking dish. Prick all over with a fork and add the Swiss chard mixture. Arrange the apples in a single layer over the chard. Roll out the remaining dough to 1/8-inch thick rectangle. Cover the filled baking dish with the dough. Crimp edges, trim excess and prick with a fork. Brush the top with the beaten egg yolk. Bake for 30 minutes or until the dough is crisp and golden. This recipe yields 8 servings. Recipe Source: ESSENCE OF EMERIL with Emeril Lagasse From the TV FOOD NETWORK - (Show # EE-2252 broadcast 07-12-1996)

With anything like this you still need to take the normal precautions. Get a good firewall, not the lame excuse that comes in Windows. Microsoft doesn't do many things right. Antivirus needs to be kept current. Spywareblaster should be installed as should a couple malware detectors. If you have trouble, run them in safe mode. Clean out cookies and temp files frequently. Check Windows Updates weekly. And if you run Internet Explorer, plan on trouble - it's the swiss cheese of browsers for security. And we've been seeing a resurgence of problems with it and with naive users over the past few weeks. Computers need maintenance, just like a car. And you have to be careful about opening attachments and the like. One of the latest threats is through .PDF files so Adobe Reader is vulnerable. I haven't used Adobe Reader for years. You can also go to an online virus scanner and check your machine if you're suspicious of your current one. Surf safe folks.

With deepest sympathy to you and your family JoAnn. Ken is no longer suffering. May this thought be of comfort to you as it did when I lost my dad. ((((((JoAnn & Family))))))