it's cold, it's wet, gimme comfort food

Well, the weekend was a complete washout weather wise. It was cold, wet, and windy. We did get the house clean, Craig mowed the yard, I cut up a large branch that the wind took out of a tree in the front yard, nearly hitting the mo-ho, and Craig made some wonderful meals. You'll see more cooking with Craig as we're stuck indoors more often. In nice weather, we tend to cook quick and easy on the grill, but when we're stuck inside, Craig has more time to spend in the kitchen. I stumbled on this recipe, and although it's a little more time consuming than some, it turned out wonderful!
It's called Asparagus and Chicken Carbonara.
Here's the prepping. Craig managed to steer clear of the camera this time.
Here's the finished dish. Doesn't it look yummy?

And the downside is a sink full of dishes.

But it was worth it! It was sooo good! And here's the recipe.....

Asparagus and Chicken Carbonara

Yield 5 servings (serving size: about 1 1/4 cups)
Ingredients

8 ounces uncooked spaghetti

2 cups (1-inch) slices asparagus (about 3/4 pound)

1/2 cup egg substitute

1/2 cup evaporated fat-free milk

2 teaspoons olive oil

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/4 cup dry vermouth

2 cups chopped skinless, boneless rotisserie chicken breast meat

1/2 cup (2 ounces) grated fresh Parmesan cheese

3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

4 bacon slices, cooked and crumbled

Preparation;

Cook pasta in boiling water 10 minutes or until al dente;

add asparagus during final 2 minutes of cooking. Drain pasta mixture in a colander over a bowl, reserving 1/3 cup cooking liquid.

Combine reserved cooking liquid, egg substitute, and milk, stirring with a whisk.
Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add oil and onion to pan; saute 2 minutes. Add vermouth; cook 1 minute. Add pasta mixture; stir to combine. Remove from heat; stir in milk mixture, chicken, and cheese. Place pan over medium heat, and cook 4 minutes or until slightly thick, stirring frequently. Remove from heat; stir in parsley, salt, pepper, and bacon. Serve immediately.

And it looks to be another busy week at the Salon. Today is 8:30 am to 7:30 pm. So I'm off to the shower, and then to work!

it's hell getting older

Good morning from a chilly, wet Lansing.
Its currently 45 out with a high today of only 57. Yesterday as expected, it rained a-l-l day. I got Craig up early, (8am) so we could have our coffee and make it to Kroger by 9am to get our flu shots. We arrived to find that day they didn't start until 10am. But we were able to fill out the forms so when we came back at 10, we would be able to get right in. So with an hour to burn, we went to the bank, post office, and then to Target. I had a $20 dollar Visa gift card to spend. I have a company call TDS Metrocom for my home phone and Internet service. As long as you remain a customer, every month you get points for every dollar you spend on their services. Since I have both Internet and phone, they add up fairly quick. So with another TDS gift card we went to Target to spend it. I do a lot of puzzles during the long winter, so I'm always looking for new ones. I found one there. I also have a dry scaly spot on my ankle that I've tried many products to get it cleared up. I saw an ad for Curel itch defense, so I wanted to pick that up. And then I also picked up Loreal Revitalift. I have inherited saggy eye lids. ( I know, it's hell getting older!) And this stuff really helps.
So... puzzle - $3.49
Curel - $5.99
Revitalift - $12.99
with tax, $23.82. minus $20 gift card, only $3.82. Such a deal!
Then it was back to Kroger for our flu shots, and then to Meijer for groceries.
Back home, I finally tackled the bathroom. I was going to do before and after pics, but the before pic was just to gross to post. Did I mention I hate to clean the bathroom? Craig did more laundry and vacuumed, and fixed a delicious dinner of pork cutlets with a raspberry glaze over stuffing with mexican veggies. Then on TV we watched another episode of Hung. If you get HBO, check it out. So far it's been pretty good. And Thomas Jane isn't bad on the eyes either!

Another cooking with Craig

And a good morning to everyone.
Yesterday wasn't a particularly productive day. I was hoping to get a lot done in the yard, but somehow managed not to. ;-)
Instead, I checked the tire pressure on the mo-ho, checked the water level on the house batteries, washed it, cleaned the windshield, and restocked the paper towels, toilet paper,water, and pop, in anticipation of an upcoming trip. Craig worked on laundry, bookwork and made a delicious dinner. That man loves to cook!

and this was the second pic of Craig I took. You shoulda seen his expression in the first pic! He hates me taking his picture.

And if this looks good to you, here's the recipe......

Southwest Pasta Bake

8 ounces uncooked penne pasta

1 pkg (8oz) fat-free cream cheese, cubed

1/2 cup fat-free milk

1 pkg (10 ox) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry

1 tsp dried oregano

1 pd lean ground beef

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 jar (16oz) picante sauce

1 can (8oz) no-salt added tomato sauce

1 can (60z) no-salt added tomato paste

2 tsp chili powder

1 tsp ground cumin

1 cup (4oz) shredded reduced fat cheddar cheese

1 can (2 1/4 oz) sliced ripe olives, drained

1/4 cup sliced green onions

Directions:

Cook pasta according to directions. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Beat in milk Stir in spinach and oregano; set aside.

In a nonstick skillet, cook beef and garlic over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. Stir in the picante sauce, tomato sauce, tomato paste, chili powder and cumin; bring to a boil. Reduce heat: simmer uncovered, for 5 min. Drain pasta: stir into meat mixture.

In a 13-in. x 9-in. baking dish coated with cooking spray, layer half of the meat mixture, then all of the spinach mixture, then top with remaining meat mixture.

Cover and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Uncover: sprinkle with cheese. Bake 5 min. longer or until cheese is melted. Sprinkle with olives and onions. Let stand 10 min. before serving.

work, sleep, and nachos

Good morning from a fall like Lansing.
Leaves are starting to turn, the nights are getting cold, and the daylight hours are rapidly shortening.
I'm writing this after cleaning the Salon this morning, and while Craig's still asleep. I've been getting up around 5-6am for a long time now. Not sure why, but that's when I wake up. I'm usually in bed by 10pm. I've tried to stay up longer, but I get so tired, if I don't, I fall asleep in the chair. Now I use to be able to stay up longer when I was younger, so maybe it's an age thing. After all, next month I'll be 56! Yikes! I've never had any problems going to sleep. I'm out within 5 min. of hitting the pillow. Now Craig, I swear he could sleep all day! And it doesn't matter when he goes to bed. He usually gets up around 9 unless it's earlier for work or travel. But he's always been like that. I need 6-8 hrs, and he needs 8-12.
We had a busy week at work, and I hope to get a lot of house cleaning done this weekend. I've spent so much time on the mo-ho and yard, that the house has been neglected.
And for dinner yesterday after work, we had home made nachos. So yummy!

And to make them better for us, we used baked tortilla chips, 2% Mexican shredded cheese, and 96% lean ground beef. Spread the cooked ground beef over the chips, top with diced tomatoes, and green onions, add the cheese, stick it under the broiler for a few min. and enjoy!

And today, Craig is trying a brand new recipe for dinner. If it turns out, more pics and a Cooking with Craig post tomorrow.

Now time for a shower, and wake up lazy bones. ;-)

funny friday

For this edition of ff, some random thoughts........

Why is a school zone 20 mph? That seems like the optimal cruising speed for pedophiles...

MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.


Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don't want to have to restart my collection.

I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

Bad decisions make good stories.

Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket,
hitting the G-spot, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey -
but I'd bet my ass everyone can find and push the Snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time, every time...

Have a great weekend!

yummmm, food!

It was a busy day yesterday. I put the mo-ho slides out so they could dry. It was wet when we left Ft Custer. Craig did laundry, bookwork and mowed the yard. I dead headed in the garden and cleaned up the inside of the mo-ho.

And as promised, a couple of recipes.........

First up..............

Now we ended up filling the cups to the top with the mixture, and still had leftover filling. We used a mini muffin pan for 24.

And Teriaki Chicken Wings.

No picture, but trust me, delicious!

1 cup water

1 cup sugar

1 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup pineapple juice

1/4 cup cooking oil

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp ginger

2-4 lbs chicken wings
combine all ingredients

marinate wings 24-48 hrs

place wings skin side up on lightly greased cookie sheet

bake at 350 for 1-1/2 hrs

enjoy!

Ft Custer

Good morning, We've just returned from our latest weekend trip. This one took us to Ft Custer Recreation Area. Just west of Battle Creek.

This was a MTTC camping trip. There were about 18 people attending. A real nice turn out. It's a very nice large campground with spacious sites. Here's a pic of our site.

The weather was nice. A bit chilly in the morning, but warm during the day. We got together with most of the group for an evening campfire on Friday. This was our first outing with this group and we met many people. Some in tents, some in campers, and some in mo-ho's like us.

On Saturday, after our morning coffee walk, and talking with different group members, we headed over to Albion for the Festival of the Forks. A very large festival for a small town. Arts and crafts, food and music, and the weather was great! After spending some time here and getting hungry, and the lines for the food were ridiculous, we headed back toward the campground and stopped in Battle Creek for lunch. Found a nice little sports bar with good food. Back at the campground we went for a little bike ride and stopped and chatted with more campers. Then back home to fix our contribution to the Saturday pot luck. I decided on Teriaki Chicken Wings. They are wonderful! They must marinated for 24- 48 hrs before cooking. They're not messy-greasy, they dry out nicely in the oven, but stay moist and tender. I also made tomato cups, a recipe I got from fellow blogger Phillip, that were so good, there were none left. I'll put both recipes in a post tomorrow.
On Sunday, we visited with members as most packed up to leave. We then went over to the Firekeepers casino for a visit to Michigan's newest. They've only been open for a few months. We were not impressed. One of the ugliest building from the outside, and no rhyme or reason on the inside, It was a total confusing layout. They should give you a map when you arrive. We won't be gong back to this one which is probably a good thing since it's only an hours drive from Lansing, and as you know, we hardly ever do any good at these places. ;-)

So on Sunday night, we grilled pork steaks and Craig made a pasta salad, and added the leftover ingredients from the tomato cups. It was sooo good! Later, we packed up the campsite due to expected rain that night, and visited with the remaining group who was still there.

Monday morning, the rain quit, and we had an easy safe trip home on our new tires. I think it rides a little better on them. Our camping season is quickly coming to a close, but we still have 2 more outings in October.

it's a grass thing

Today, some ornamental grasses for your enjoyment. At least for my readers who also garden.
This grass is just starting to 'flower'. It's a very fine green grass. Very airy. It sits at the corner of the house as you'll see in the next pic.
And this of course is 'fountain' grass. It is about 2 1/2 ft tall and gets these cute bottle brush like 'flowers'. It completely circles a tree in the front yard.

At the end of our driveway, on each side is this massive grass. I think it's called Japanese Silver grass. I divide this grass every year for my plant sale and it just keeps getting bigger.

And below, a favorite of mine, Japanese Blood grass. It starts out all green, and the top slowly turns during the summer. Not a clump forming grass as the others so needs to be confined.
And last, a giant of grasses. I don't know the name of this one either, but it reaches a height of around 12 ft tall! It actually looks like very tall slender corn stalks. Very striking.
I have it planted in the middle of a large bed of perennials and bushes.

Even as fall quickly approaches, there is still interesting things in the yard.

I love chemicals....

I just wanted to show you the power of chemicals. As you can see in the first pic, Craig,(and he was not happy with me for taking his pic. oh well, I don't think he'll divorce me after 32 years. hehe)has gotten quite grey. And he hates it. So through the miracle of chemicals.....
We get rid of it! There, he's young again! Well, at least the hair looks young! ;-)

Oh, and he's not the only one with chemically treated hair.
Do you think I'm a natural blond? Nope! I've got real dingy dishwater blond hair, which is now also getting some nasty sparkly hairs, so the blond highlights help to camouflage them, and brighten me up!

So that's what we do in the Salon when we have some down time like this week.

funny friday

Okay, I know today is funny friday, but I'm completely out of stuff. My main contributor has not been sending me anything. She's been going through a tough time and I wish her the best. So instead, here's a funny pic.

If you look real close in the above pic, in the gravel, where we park the mo-ho, you'll see this....

A little Tomato plant coming up through the gravel! Of course, it'll never be able to amout to anything with fall fast aproaching, but I thought it was tooo funny!

So have a great weekend!

it's mo-ho tech time.

As promised, a few pics.
I noticed on a trip, when the outside door is open, from the inside, you could see light coming through the bottom of the screen door. That means of course another way for nasty little bugs to enter. So I got a strip of self adhesive weather stripping, cut to length and stuck it on the bottom of the door. Now it's snug.

Also the previous owners added Velcro to the little plastic slide door by the handle which is nice so when you shut it, it stays shut. But that left a gap at the top and the bottom because it no longer closes completely tight. So, another strip of self adhesive, this time brown, and cut to fit the gap. Now it's just a little harder for those pests to get in.

And we've had people ask us where we store the mo-ho. Well, we are fortunate that we have just the right amount of space between the garage and the lot line.

In the winter, it is backed all the way to the fence, and the kar kaddy is stored behind the fence on a gravel area.It's a perfect, snug fit.

We've had an extended dry spell. Over 2 weeks with out any rain. Seems weird after such a wet spring and summer. We are only .72 inches away from our normal yearly average with 3 months to go.

And now, time to get ready for another work week.

not so new tires

Morning boys and girls,
This little( actually quite l-o-n-g) post is a rant today, so be warned.....
So yesterday, I took the mo-ho in for new tires. I had surfed the Internet for prices, and they seemed to be running in the $350-$365 range. So my last call was to Discount Tire . They always seem to have the lowest prices, but they wouldn't touch them because the rims are 19.5. Said they'd be dangerous for their employees. That the 19.5s have a tendency to blow off the rims during installation. But they referred me to Wingfoot . I didn't realize they were a national network of dealers, but more on that later.
They quoted me a price of $319 a tire plus taxes and installation. Seemed like a good deal so I made an appointment for yesterday morning. After dropping off the mo-ho we went and did our banking and shopping. After getting home, Craig said we forgot to ask if they take charge cards. I said I'd call and also make sure we were getting 09 tires. Since they only last 5-7 years, you want the newest tires right? Well, I called, they do take charge cards, but they were putting 08 tires on. The guy said that's all they had. They never get 09 tires in. That's what Goodyear sent them. Well, I was not happy and told him. He said he understood, and they have a 5 year guaranty from date of purchase. But I said now I'll need to replace the tires a year earlier than planned, because I was technically getting 1 year old tires. He said he understood, but that's what they've been putting on all mo-hos. And what did I want him to do? I said I didn't feel i should be paying for new tires, when I'm getting 1 year old tires. He put me on hold to talk with someone and came back and said he could knock $120 off the bill. Since they already had half the tires on, I decided not to be any more of a bitch and said okay. What was I going to do? tell them to put all the old tires back on and I'll look around? At least I'm only paying $299 per tire, and with the Goodyear rebate of $50 per tire, I felt 1 year old tires will be fine. I mean, at least they were stored indoors for that year, and The mo-ho which we bought in 2005, was new in 2002, but the chassis and tires were from 2001. So I guess it's a common issue.
But then again..........back to this Wingfoot network of dealers. After I got the mo-ho home, I was checking out the paperwork from the tire I bought last week. It was also a Wingfoot dealer out of Saint Joesph, MI. Now when they came out to change my flat, they brought out a new tire. A 2009! Now why did this dealer in little Saint Joesph have a 09 and our big dealer in Lansing did not?
Oh well, but then, that tire cost me $389 which I knew was a little high, but when your sitting in a rest area along the highway, you don't have a lot of options. I could have had them just put the spare on, but that would have left us with no spare, with a lot of driving to go. And speaking of the spare, when we had our first flat 4 years ago, after getting home, we went to Discount tire for a replacement. The same dealer who now says they can't touch them, but apparently 4 years ago they could, well, while putting the new tires on yesterday, the guy noticed that the spare tire was a 225, not a 245 like the rest of the tires. That means, it was a completely useless tire we've had for 4 years. That means we never did have a spare! I dug out the paperwork for that tire, and the paper said they installed a 245. If I tried to take it back, I'm sure they'd blow me off. How could I prove it was even the same tire they sold me. Oh well, live and learn.
I know when John reads this, he's going to have a few comments on what I should have done different. I know I should have e-mailed him for advice, but he's helped me out quite a bit already on things, and I hate to bug him all the time, besides, I thought tires would be easy.
That's what I get for thinking!
Okay, I'm done with this. Tomorrow, I'll post a little mo-ho project I'm working on.

a beautiful day

Good afternoon!
It's a beautiful day here in Lansing. After I cleaned the Salon, woke up Craig, and read the paper with our coffee, we decided to go for a little bike ride. We haven't been downtown in ages, so that was our destination. Loaded the bikes on the bike rack on the truck, and headed downtown. Parked near the River Front Park, and headed out on the River Trail. Lansing has about 15 miles of trail on the river.
Here's Craig with the state capitol in the background. And below is to be our new farmers market.And this is the old electric utility building that's being converted into the national headquarters of the Accident Fund Insurance Company across the river from the new farmers market.
And here's some people feeding the ducks on the river trail.
And when we got home from our bike ride, in our own back yard, was a great Blue heron, looking for an afternoon snack of frogs in our pond. Those birds are huge!
And while Craig did laundry and paperwork, I cleaned out the shed. It was a mess!
And for dinner, Craig's making Swiss Steak, with mashed potatoes and gravy, and grilled marinated Zucchini. Yummy!

I can see again

We received the new mirror in the mail today. And as soon as I got home from work, I wanted to get it installed. It was actually very easy. Here you see the temp solution I used to get us by. I had soo many people laugh at the purple rubber bands holding it on to the housing.

But we took the old housing off the support, and snapped the new one on, and done!

It will be good to have the right mirror for the job.

In other news, work has been fairly busy, the weather warm, and it looks to be a nice weekend.
I picked some more tomatoes and peppers from the garden, but it looks like it's near the end. Craig is making sausage sandwiches tonight, and tacos tomorrow. Yummy!

funny friday and flowers

It appears Blogger is normal again, so with this weeks ff, I'll show you what else is still blooming in the gardens.
First off is a perennial Hibiscus. Now these are pretty cool because the flowers get about 10 inches across. Really large!

And below is a variety called 'copper king'. The leaves have reddish veins and so do the flowers.

And now on to our ff......

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One says to the other: "Does this taste funny to you?"

Sex is like air. It's not that important unless you aren't getting any.

Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.

Have a great weekend!

no pics just talk

Good morning,
This was to be a picture post of the rest of our trip, but this morning, Blogger wouldn't upload my pics, So I uploaded them to my Web Shots album and you can view them here. So instead, I'll talk about the rest of the story......
So on our day off after our trip, Craig mowed the yard and did bookwork, while I cleaned the mo-ho and then researched new tires for the mo-ho. We've decided it's time. I finally found a place right on this side of town, not too far from work. The tires were $319 each, and with mounting, balancing, taxes, etc, came to a total of $382 each. And Goodyear is running a rebate offer of $50 for each tire, so I think we did pretty good. We'll take in the mo-ho next Monday to have them done.
We finally got our new insurance cards. I was starting to worry, it was taking so long. We reduced our total monthly payment to $756 a month from $940 a month. But to get that we had to up our deductible/co-pay from $1500 to $5000. Which means we pretty much pay for anything that happens except for a catastrophic illness like cancer or heart attack. I'm not sure it's worth it. We're both healthy, but then, you never know! But think how fast that $756 a month would add up in a savings account.
Well, I've gabbed enough for today, I need to get ready for work.

Day 2

Day 2.

It was a beautiful Saturday morning. After our morning coffee and walk, we drove into the city. I had seen on the Internet, there was a street festival called Bash on Wabash. Looked like a fun time and in an area of the city we haven't seen. The south loop area. This area used to have numerous old high rise tenement type buildings, but were torn down years ago. It is now experiencing a revival being so close to Grant Park and the Loop. So we parked our car in our usual place, between Michigan Ave.and Navy Pier. It was such a nice day, we decided to walk, though that meant going all the way from the river past Millennium Park, the entire length of Grant Park plus some. But we figured, burn more calories, eat more food! Well, we arrived at the festival, and I must say, it was the lamest festival I've ever seen!

See the pic? this was it! it covered all of one block!

Yes, there was a big stage with bands, but no seating anywhere! A total of 3 food vendors with no place to sit and eat, and a handful of crappy crafts. This was a total joke! The saving grace of it all was a Mexican restaurant with an outdoor patio we passed 2 blocks before the festival. We went back there to have lunch, and it was wonderful! What a find! Skirt Steak sandwiches with tasty Sweet Potato fries. I think Craig was trying to be good by getting salad, but I went with the Chicken Tortilla soup. mmmmmm good! After eating way more than we should, we decide to walk all the way back to the magnificent mile and the Crate and Barrel store. Wabash ran parallel to Michigan only 2 blocks over, so it was a straight shot back. Then to finish off the afternoon, it was a short 10 block walk out to Navy Pier, for beer, music, and people watching. Then a few blocks back to the car, and on the road back to the campground. At our exit off the highway, there was an RV dealer. We decided to stop and see if they had a convex mirror we could try and make work till we got ours repaired, but of course, they did not. They had an entire mirror replacement assembly, but that was $165. Hope we don't have to go that route. They were also having an open house for all their units, so we wandered thru some of the mo-ho's. Fortunately for Craig, I didn't see one I liked better than ours.

And this is the kind of pic you get when someone is looking down and you sneak the camera and say CRAIG! He hates when I do that. hehehe

And more pics tomorrow!

another trip, another incident

We've just returned from another weekend trip. Safe, but not with out some problems.

Our latest trip didn't start out well. We no sooner left the house and stopped in a parking lot to double check the tie downs on the car before we hit the highway, when I discovered the bottom mirror on the drivers side mirror was gone. The top mirror looks down the road behind you, but the bottom one looks right down the side next to you. It takes care of the 'blind' spot big vehicles have. Anyway, Craig was sure we had it when we left, so we turned around and backtracked looking for it. And did we find it? Of course not. And I can't drive without it. At least I didn't want to. So I dug around the house, and found a small travel mirror I thought I could make work until we have a chance to get it repaired. It wasn't concave so it didn't cover as large of an area, but it worked well enough that I felt safe driving. So a half hour later, we were on the road again. That's why I like to leave early, in case something happens, we have time to take care of it and still arrive at our destination at a decent time. Well, that was just the beginning. 2 hrs into our drive, we heard a loud pop. That means we blew a tire. We pulled into a rest area, and sure enough, we blew the passenger side inside rear tire. At least when one of them blow, you don't lose control of the vehicle. So I called our Good Sam's emergency road service. And here I am waiting for them to arrive.

If you remember from our first trip 4 years ago, the same thing happened, only on the drivers side. Here's the poor tire.. I can't say enough good things about Good Sam's. It took about an hour for them to bring a new tire and another half hour getting the old one off, and the new one on. I could see that these tires are getting old when I compared them to the new tire. We've been trying to get as much life from these as possible because new tires would run about $350 each, and we have 7 tires including the spare. Our tires are now 8 years old. I think we've reached that limit. I think we need to bite the bullet and get new tires.We finally got on our way again, and arrived safely at our campground nearly 3 hours later than planned. That was okay, at least we arrived safe and still before dark.This trip took us to Indiana Dunes State Park. I'm sure you've noticed we stay here a lot. That's because we love Chicago! And we're only 45 min. from downtown.

I'll fill you in on the rest of the trip in my next post. Right now I need to unpack.

Happy Holiday!

Since this is a holiday weekend, and I'm sure everyone has much better things to do than read blogs, (especially mine!)this will be a quicky pic post.

Above ligularia dentana

Below, garlic chives.

And a pic of the pond with sweet potato vines taking over.

Hope everyone is having a great holiday!

funny friday

For this week's ff, I'm showing a pic of one of my compost bins. If you look closely, you'll see a very lush happy flower. I don't know the name, but I had some in a pot last year. Yes, it's an annual, and somehow survived the winter. Now in the fall I pull all the plants out of the pots and throw them in the compost bin. It somehow survived and has come up through all the stuff I've thrown in all year.

And for you non gardening people out there that can't appreciate garden humor, here's a ff just for you.........
For several years, a man was having an affair with an Italian woman.
One night, she confided in him that she was pregnant.
Not wanting to ruin his reputation or his marriage, he said he would pay her a large sum of money if she would go to Italy to secretly have the child.
If she stayed in Italy to raise the child, he would also provide child support until the child turned 18.
She agreed, but asked how he would know when the baby was born..
To keep it discreet, he told her to simply mail him a post card, and write 'Spaghetti' on the back. He would then arrange for the child support payments to begin.
One day, about 9 months later, he came home to his confused wife.
'Honey, she said, 'you received a very strange post card today.'
'Oh, just give it to me and I'll explain it later,' he said.
The wife obeyed and watched as her husband read the card, turned white, and fainted.
On the card was written:
Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti.
Three with meatballs, two without.
Send extra sauce.

Have a great holiday weekend!

the flowers continue

Well, after a chilly weekend, we're finally getting a slight warm-up. The holiday weekend looks to be warm(upper 70's) and sunny. We'll be closing early Friday to enjoy the last long weekend of summer. Damn they go fast. Yesterday was a fairly lazy day. Craig vacuumed, while I did some maintenance on the mo-ho. I needed to glue some trim by the bathroom that was coming loose, and did some more caulking on the roof and windshield. I still have a leak somewhere. I'm glad it's just dripping on the dash, and not somewhere else in the mo-ho. And Craig made a delicious dinner of boneless Chicken Breasts on top of stuffing mixed with frozen Mexican vegetables, all covered with Cream of chicken soup. Yummy!
But anywho, this time of year tends to be a little lacking in the flowerbeds, but I still have lot's going on. Here's more of what's blooming in the yard.....


The above is a type of Thalictrum. I have 3, and they all bloom different times of the year. This one is the latest. Below is a pale pink Anemone. Just reaching full bloom. I have a white also, but it's just now budding up.

And below is Turtle Head. I don't know who comes up with some of these names.

And now I've got to get ready for work. I have 2 very long and busy days.