yogacat writes: 13)It's neither polite, nor helpful, to arrive at the host's house TWO HOURS early. I knew a couple who always arrived anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes earlier than stated on the dinner invitation. The first time it happened to me, I tried to lighten my annoyance by joking that they were lucky that I had on any clothes that early. The second time they did it, I was in the shower and not amused. I got out of the shower, marched to the front door with hair and body dripping wet and answered the door stark naked. They never arrived early to my dinners after that. I think I may try that tact at my next foray into large group entertaining. I wasn't feeling quite up to par with a nasty head cold, but did the whole nine yards anyway. Decided to take a short catnap, only to hear the phone ringing as my head hit my pillow. Thought it was one family member or another who live in other parts of the Country, calling to say Happy Thanksgving. No, it was a local family member/one of our guests, asking if it was okay for the five of them to come by earlier. ONE AND A HALF HOURS early. Well, I while tried to explain that I hadn't had time to shower, hor d'oeuvrs were coming with another guest, so nothing out to nibble on. Hadn't had a chance to do some last minute cleanup, etc. DD was napping in order to do some midnight holiday shopping, yada yada. I felt as though I was speaking some foreign language, and what my guest heard was ~ sure, that's fabulous, we would love for the five of you to come by two hours early~. After the explanation of why it would NOT be great for me, the guest offered to help with the last minute stuff. As I expected, that didn't happen. So, I did a few last minute things, and left the rest to DH, as it seems that it is his side of the family who seem to appear for things somewhere between 1 and 2 hours early EVERY time. UGH. I enjoyed a lengthy hot shower, and took my good ole time getting ready. I appeared downstairs in my home at the time I would have, had the early birds had the sense to spend a bit of time doing something else rather than arriving so early. When this has happened in the past, I rush through my shower, and don't get that 10 minute break I so badly need before the crowd descends on my home. Maybe the naked thing would've worked better, or at least send the guests a loud and clear head's up - please show up closer to the invitation time (which we had confirmed by phone the day prior)! I would never do that to any host/hostess. Oh, and I know you may be thinking these guests just don't know any better, you see, but they do. These people were raised "properly" and regularly attend cocktails parties, holiday parties, and the like as adults as well as through their entire childhoods. Entertaining and being entertained is something not foreign to them. Just cannot for the life of me, figure out what they were thinking other than they were already out, and didn't think better of killing two hours sitting in my LR while the last minute stuff was accomplished. So glad I am not the only one. Had I not been a bit under the weather & been my usual self, I would have been much better able to roll with it. But having last minute vacuuming and a few other things other than food-related things to do in the house, is very different than a guest coming in a few minutes early to share a cocktail and help you set out some things to nibble on. That kind of early is a-okay. Yes, we also have the guests who rummage through everything. But wait, they aren't just looking for a forgotten serving utensil, or linen bar towel to dry a pot. Nope, just plain curious I suppose. Another subject altogether! There's really no way to stop that behavior short of super-gluing the cabinets and drawers closed.

happyhelenr- We're in Santa Rosa Got back and the garden looks great! Planted late due to the vacation, so maters are just forming (we have a long growing season) Only problem is.....I broke my arm in Hawaii! Had surgery a couple of days ago. Thankfully I should be healed by harvest time! I'll be trying my first pesto, one handed this week. The basil looks fabulous! We'll see how hubby likes cooking on a day to day basis! He's a great cook, but tends to do big things rather than day to day! LOL Nancy

The pandemic and stay at home period hit at exactly the same time I've been under doctor's orders to stay out of the sun completely, due to the recent skin graft on my nose. So in a way it hasn't been so bad mentally for me because I would have been scurrying around wearing a hat and trying to avoid daylight anyway! That said I'm ever so grateful that we are retired for many reasons. Obviously we have tremendously less stress in that neither of us has work commitments that we are now trying to accomplish from home. And based on what I'm hearing from my best buddy at my former workplace, things there are very difficult. The university just announced a round of severe budget cuts and beyond the uncertainty I'd feel if I was still employed I am beyond happy I don't have to deal with needy college students, or their parents, right now. Add to that dealing with them by zoom or phone or email...yikes. We get along well and it helps that husband cannot stay still or inside. He heads out in his boat for shoreline clean up daily which is perfect for both of us: he is outside away from people being useful and busy and I'm inside without him around all the time LOL. M-F I'm doing a daily exercise or Pilates zoom class which gives some weekday structure and that helps too. I've also been cooking regularly and that's been very satisfying. Before retirement it was challenging to prep and serve meals because we like to eat early but that meant unless I got out of the office by 5 (rare) I was either frantically rushing or more frequently cobbling something together from the freezer or leftovers. It has been a pleasure to have the time to prep, cook, eat and clean up without racing around. We are very blessed.

I enjoyed seeing pictures of Bird and Dove Bar. I rehabbed several pigeons and wrote about them in my Bayou Tales stories. One of them, named Hue, used to follow me all over the place. I had another one named Checkers that I found in a trash can at Lowe's. They had a trash can sitting out in the nursery section, and were cleaning up and dumping the sweepings into it. I glanced in and saw a live pigeon in it. She was covered in tar. Of course I took her home. I got most of it off of her, but her white, speckled black feathers were stained brown after that. A hawk got her.