DeeMarie: Did your MIL accept the invite? Why not ask her to teach you how to cook a Hungarian dish? She'd just have to supply you with an ingredient shopping list or maybe you guys could go shopping tohether! Couldn't DH pick her up? HAHA. I'm trying to make your weekend MORE busy for you! LOL! :) Raeanne~ Enjoy the weekend! Man, your kids sounds like jetsetters! They travel as much as you do! Marci: Glad you had a goood start. Hope Tuesday is smooth sailing. QOD: Today, I'm headed downtown for a lunch. It's DH's last day of his internship. Then I have to do some biz at work and get an emissions test on my car. Hope it passes. Tonight, DH and I are headed out to a quick dinner and a drink while one DD is at her high school football game. I have to be very, very careful eating out as I think I am entering plateau territory in my weight loss. The good news is I have lost over 15 inches in bust, waist, abs, and hips. Saturday, we're all going to the last fair of the year---it's the biggest. But if it rains too hard, we'll pass on it. Sunday is a birthday party for a family friend of my youngest DD. I will stay at the party to help my friend with her new baby while she runs the party. Baby holding!!!! I love it!!!! Then, later, we're having our neighborhood picnic and BBQ. They have it on our community tennis courts (lots of room!) and are having one of those blow up bouncy room-things for the kids----and lots of food---POTLUCK! There are 42 families and usually a good turnout. I am in charge of one of the grills, so I'll be having fun for sure! Somewhere in there, I have to balance a checkbook and reconcile 2 credit card statements. And there's the ever-present laundry! BESH! Are you still on WW? Check in! Have a GREAT weekend! Cheers!

Definitely Fall weather here in Yankee-ville. The swamp maples are turning rather rapidly and all other varieties are beginning to display their deep orange/red tiaras. The Summer that we had was short and dreadful. Very hot and very humid...with temps and humidity #s almost equal on those stifling days. Nights weren't much better and I have the electric bills to prove it. I have a rather ancient in-the-wall AC in my bedroom and as breathing is rather essential to my well being...I whispered sweet nothings to it every night...praying that it would last throughout this season. One appliance disaster a year is my limit these days and the water heater took precedence this year. This past week...the daily temps haven't exceeded the low to mid 70°'s and evenings/nights are dipping into the low 50°'s. All with nominal humidity. I'm in heaven! And...praying that this weather will last for a few more months....and me with it. :-)

Snowshoes And Spotted Dick - Chris Szajkowski ( LOL , the first time I came across spotted dick in a British cozy I thought we had a new STD !!)

I feel like I am so far behind I'll never catch up, but I'll try. Larry, Those cookies look awesome. I'm glad you ate one for each of us. Farmgardener, One of the things I love about this group is that we weave discussions about real life together the way it really happens---because none of us garden in a vacuum, so of course we must discuss grandchildren, great recipes, pets, wildlife, etc. At some points in the year if we could discuss only gardening, I think we might run out of things to talk about. Your story about your grandson is so cute! It reminds me of when Chris graduated from kindergarten at the age of 5. They had little caps and gowns and a ceremony and everything. On our way home, I looked over at him and he was holding back tears. I asked what was wrong and he said "I don't want to move out and get a job and get an apartment." I could hardly control my mirth as I explained to him that he didn't have to grow up, move out, get an apartment and get a job until he'd graduated from college when he would be in his 20s. He was so relieved! How a 5 year old ever got the idea that graduating from kindergarten meant it was time to go out into the world and support himself is just beyond me. I'm glad you got some rain! Our mesonet station got an inch of rain, most of it yesterday afternoon, but all of that missed us. I had expected the rain would miss us and had watered the garden and containers thoroughly the day before rain was expected so I didn't have to sit and worry about whether it was coming or not. Had it rained, I just would have considered that rain to be a bonus. Larry, I usually don't dig sweet potatoes until October, assuming the September nights stay warm, which they have so far, but of course you can dig them at any size you want. Maybe you'll find bigger taters underground than you're expecting? dbarron, I seriously hate this heat. It has cooled down a little bit, but not a lot, and I am so sick and tired of it. I'm ready for all the good things that come with cooler weather....I'd love a really chilly evening or morning, but that could be weeks away still. Because it is so warm, zinnia seeds from the current flowers have sprouted in the pathways and the little plants are 2-3" tall. I bet they get big enough to flower since the weather is staying so warm. Nancy, Cats are not allowed to sleep in our room with us because they are too disruptive. Of course, you have to train them to learn to handle the night without you. They have cat beds, blankets, toys, food and water. All they're lacking is human company at night, and they've learned they have to live without that human company until somebody gets up in the morning. We close our door at night and they've never destroyed it yet. If they are scratching at the door, I've been known to put them in the spare bedroom (with a litter box and food/water, and a cat bed and blanket that are in that room all the time) and close the door. Staying in the spare room hasn't killed a cat yet and they've gotten used to not being in our room with us. You know, you're the grown-ups and they are the fur kids, so you can train them to be the way you want them to be. Your sweet potatoes will be fine. The vines are protecting them from the sun and often sweet potatoes will enlarge enough to pop up out of the ground that way. Amy, I've grown ornamental sweet potatoes indoors over the winter before---I kept them near an east-facing window so they had morning sun and was careful to avoid overwatering them and they did just fine. I like to do this some years so that I don't have to buy new plants in the spring. I just dig up the current year's taters, prune the vines back sharply, replant them in pots I can bring indoors, etc. I usually leave them outdoors on the porch for as long as possible---until the nights start dropping into the 50s, and then I bring them in to stay. They really love warm weather and lots of sunshine, so don't grow as rampantly indoors as they do outdoors, but that is a good thing. If you went to see The Lion King, I hope the boys liked it. Lillie and Aurora adored it, though I think they liked Aladdin a bit more. I was a little worried that the death of Mustafa or the hyenas might be too upsetting for Aurora, who was 4 when she saw the movie, but neither one seemed to bother her at all. Actually, my sister and I felt like all my mom's great-grandchildren really benefitted from seeing The Lion King so close to our mother's death because we were able to discuss mom's life/death using the circle of life analogy from the movie in a way that even the youngest great-grandchild could understand. Sometimes in the garden we have that same circle of life discussion about both plants and insects in the garden, and I hope that lesson sticks with the kids. I'm doing to ignore the Burpee's sale if I can, but I'll say this...as expensive as their catalog seeds are, if they cut the price down to half-off, they're as affordable as seeds from most other companies. I only buy Burpee Exclusives from them, and not that often either, because everyone else beats them, pricewise on the things that are not exclusive to Burpee. Rebecca, I hope you found time for a nap. Afternoon naps are just the best! I didn't do any gardening today at all. It was CostCo/Sam's Club, grocery store and feed store day instead. I wanted to go to some of the big box stores and look at plants, but then there's the question why? What plants could I possibly want to plant in this hot weather? I'm still waiting for the autumn cool-down, and not waiting very patiently either. It also was NCAA football game day, but the only game I've been interested in watching is OU's game tonight. I just cannot get into football when it is 90-whatever outdoors and the heat index is near 100. If it doesn't feel like football weather (if anyone here remembers what it is like to sit on the bleachers at a football game and feel COLD, lol, then that is the football weather I remember from my younger years), I cannot really get into a football mood. We need to mow tomorrow. I am tired of mowing. It is crazy how fast the grass continues to grow even though we haven't had any rain in a couple of weeks now. Tim, of course, adores mowing so he'll be out that riding in circles on the riding mower, happy as a pig in mud. Dawn