LOL!!!! @ cello music! Dang, yer a quick'un, Major RCG! CONGRATS to Yo Mama and the Giants!!! What a GREAT upset at the last minute!! With 2:something left, I thought the Yorkies were done for. What a fun ending! My favorite commercial was a toss up between Tide's Silence the Stain and Toyota's Badger....ok, and Bridgestone's Screaming Richard Simmons. LOL But Hank the Clydesdale ("Rocky") made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. Cars.com's Ring of Fire, etc., commercials were way up there, along with FedEx's Pigeons, Doritos's Kicka$$ Mouse (YIKES! LOL), and (Planter's?) Unibrow Lady. Ok, Charles Barkley's big mouth got a chuckle, too. :D Z-Chick, if you're rarin' to go next Sat. after having surgery today, then showing up at Clancy's is the least we can do! :D Hope you're feeling better soon!!! Bad toothache with an infected loose tooth here. WHAAAA! The dentist scares me a LOT, so wish me luck today....*whimper* Fi guy, thanks SO MUCH for doing this every year!!!! Brenda

I loved the House MD ad that emulated the old Mean Joe Green super bowl ad where the little boy walks up and tells Joe Green he's "the best ever." Green tries to ignore the kid until he offers Joe a Coke. Joe takes it and walks away, leaving a dejected looking little boy standing there. Then Joe turns around and says "hey kid" and tosses the boy his towel, making the kid very happy. In the House ad a little boy says "Dr. House, I want to tell you I think you're the best ever." and House says "me too." Then the boy offers him a churro and House makes a snide remark walks away. Then he turns and says "hey kid" and throws his cane at the boy, knocking him in the head. The kids yells "owwww." As House walks away he mumbles "I really thought you had that." Jodi-

Also a fan of Xochitl chips-- they are thin and so crisp! I will be making buffalo chicken nachos. I salt and pepper skinless chicken breasts then add a few pats of butter and completely douse the breasts in Frank's Hot Sauce. Bake until cooked through then shred with a fork when cooled enough to work with. I mix a little more hot sauce into the shredded chicken and refrigerate overnight. Right before serving I assemble blue corn chips, chicken, finely diced jalapeno, scallions and a mix of cheddar, montery jack and manchego (or a mix of whatever I have!). Bake on a lowish temperature (300ish) for about 15 min. I drizzle more hot sauce and some ranch dressing on top (I don't care for blue cheese) and serve with sliced cucumbers around the perimeter.. and extra ranch dressing. Black bean nachos are also a favorite-- and now that I've thought of them, I may change my mind and go with that instead. I assemble with all the same above-- but I add diced tomatoes.

I bought a whole chicken to cook this week. Usually, it provides 2 meals and a few jars of broth. The ones we bought from our friends are gone, so had to buy one at Natural Grocers. I like our friends' chickens better, but we can only get them when they process and IF they have too many for their freezers. I rarely eat poultry--maybe 3 or 4 times a year. I used to never eat it. Normally I'll roast it and then the guys pick off what they want to eat. I put the extra in the refrigerator to make either soup or chicken and rice the next day. Then drop the entire carcass and scraps into the crockpot to make the broth. If Tom would do the "harvesting", I would prepare them for the freezer. Thing is, I don't care a bit about eating it, but people in my family like meat and chicken. It's possible another friend and Tom could do this in the future. They raised pigs a couple of years ago. The meat lasted us about a year. There's still a few ham steaks in the freezer because I can't figure out how to cook them so that they like them. Maybe drop them in a pot of beans???? They also did a lamb a couple of months ago. I've made meatballs with it, but that's all I've done. Chickens could be a future endeavor. Speaking of chickens, mine are laying but not great. Maybe 4 eggs a day. Maybe it's the feed? Maybe it's my aging flock? They get lots of "free range" time and scraps to supplement their diet. Hwy, the greenstalk leaf is on sale right now. I'm considering buying one. I really wanted the original for strawberries, but would get the leaf one for greens and lettuce. I'm torn. Our patio gets lots of sun right now. There's currently very little shade. I just don't know how plants would do with so much sun. If we continue to live here, We want cover the patio. Don't want to spend the money on covering it IF the OTA runs us off. They are proceeding with their plan on our part of the turnpike--the east/west connector. It is just hard to know what to do. How much to invest in our property. The greenstalk COULD go with us wherever we go, tho. I do want to make this property (or our next) a bit different. I know that I would put a fast growing tree (Maybe a Globe Willow) on the far west side to provide shade if we were to move. I would also have our kitchen garden basically in our backyard for ease of quick harvest on things like cherry tomatoes, lunchbox peppers and herbs. It think the Vego beds are attractive for that purpose. Trying to decide what to do with the rest of the day....