[Maggie]

GOOD MORNING MAGNOLIAS

OH it is windy here and cold & in the 30's in this Heartland. The forecast is for snow the rest of the day. Oh joy, Winter is upon us. I wonder if we will have a white Christmas. Makes me want to make a nice big pot of chili. I think for lunch we will be having that McRib from Mickey D's which is probably a ga-zillion points. I had better look it up so I know what I am in to. OK I just looked it up in my booklet and it is 13 points+. I'll be OK if I do have soup for dinner. Nice chicken noodle. Will is in his winter coat out back making a picture frame for one of the gals that works at Moca's. Running the routher around it. Bet he doesn't stay out there very long. I was looking though one of my gift cataloges and ran across a neat beta suncatcher. Looks rather oriental and I cut out the picture and will make myself one probably after the Christmas season is over. It is 5 1/8 x 10 3/4 inches done in greens, yellows & oranges. I will hang it in street side window here in my glass room. Will just came in and said he can't work outside and had to come in to warm up. It is snowing now. In the next couple of days it is said to go back into the 60's. We takes what we gets.

DONNA FAYE Sounds like you will be making the best with what you have and will fix it up nicely. Your breakfast sounds absolutely yummy. Question, how do you fix your flank steak? Have you ever done brisket? We first learned that in TN. I can certainly understand why you would leave off your bows because of the travel thing. I love to decorate and make neat bows and such. I like to put little things in with the bows and shred some of the ribbon and it looks like a party. With my jar mixes I try to find little things like whisks to put with the decoration on a jar of hot chocolate. Little cookie cutters on a jar of cookie mix. Jar mixes are now comming out in the latest Chirstmas magazines I have noticed. WW had a couple that look good in their magazine that I clipped out: Rocky Road Brownie Mix and Holiday Oatmeal cookie Mix. I have jar recipes for soup and other food items also. I have had folks that I have given them to tell me again "now" how good it was. Hint, hint. They look so pretty layered in a jar.

JEAN Looks like your day is all planned out nice and neat. They should let you sign the checks since you are the one dealing with it. Stay warm while out and about. That woman who stole the appliance and trashed the place is a prime example of the "have nots" taking what the "haves" have. Way back in the 60's my folks had a rental house that was a big nice 4 bedroom in a good neighborhood. Rent was paid on time and no calls were made for any repairs. One day my father received a call from the folks who lived across the street from that house. My father went to that town and found that the nice lady that was a City Counsil Official that rented the place turned it into a haven for illegals. She had 2 dozen living in that house and on cots in the double garage. He evicted her, fixed up the place and promptly sold it. Now that was back in the 60's ~ look how far we have come and still have not fixed that problem. I wonder if that gentleman in your town will ever get restitution. Give us the "rest of the story" when you get it.

Have a lovely day Magnolias Type at y'all later.

It is a bit later: Well I ate 1/2 of my McRibb and just a couple points of fries and feel full and happy and sassy. I also ate some fruit so am OP. It sure tasted good. for me.

[Jean]

Maggie -- Signing the gift shop checks has something to do with not charging tax and to get our own tax stamp (?) would be cost prohibitive, so we are using the hospital tax number. I should just stay there and write the checks but it's just easier to come home and do it in peace and quiet. My parents rented my grandma's house to a surgical nurse and her family; they were the dirtiest housekeepers imagineable although they paid the rent on time. The parents were hit by a train on a rural country road and killed. The children had just been left at their grandparents' house. One of the "have nots" (?) wrote a bad check in the gift shop a couple weeks ago -- no phone, no response to a follow-up letter, and account closed! The bank charged us $2 to return the $16 check. I suggested calling the sheriff but don't know if they did or not. The wind is still blowing but the rain has stopped. It's been a dark day and pitch black at 6:30 tonight. I have my little heater buzzing away so I am toasty warm. I need to iron a shirt for Bob to wear tomorrow so better get that done before I head for bed.

[gma22]

Good morning girls. I was sleeping all nice and cozy and Jack got called into work at 3 AM so I am up. I am going to do some chores and maybe knit a bit and probably go back to sleep for awhile.

I am down to one gift card for Thomas to come in the mail then I have all the Christmas stuff and can wrap this weekend, UGH! I decided instead of dragging it all upstairs, wrapping it and then dragging it all downstairs, I would just bring the wrapping stuff downstairs and then take IT back upstairs. I have these quilted bags the stuff is stored in so it won't be a hassle much.

Here is Jackson and Thomas's finished hats and mittens. For some reason Jackson's hat's picture looks like it has a stripe down the center but I looked at it away from the camera and it looks fine so who knows? I don't care, I am NOT going to rip out another hat. I tore out the mitten yesterday and redid it, had it all the way to the top where you decrease for the top and discovered when I started the decreases it didn't come out right. I couldn't figure it out and laid the first one over the second one and the second one was wider. I was stumped then realized I had put the thumb stitches on the holder, but had only removed 10, which was the size for Jackson's mitten, instead of 16, which was for Thomas! I had to tear it out clear back to the thumb stitches, redo that row and put the proper number on then knit the rest. Ok, I am soooooooo over knitting for Christmas now! Thomas's hat is a short version of the stocking cap/night cap as I thought he would think the whole version uncool, but might like it in a flop over style not just regular hat. I tore out Jackson's whole hat and remade it and made it longer and more like T's but it doesn't flop over and he has a tassel like his cousin's, unlike the first hat.

My sil is doing the St Jude's marathon this year so we sponsored him. Not a big donation, but some. I am hoping he makes his full amount. It is the one charity I trust above all others as I know how the money is used and how much is used for other than the research and cancer treatment and it is quite a small amount. Kelly is asking people to donate this year instead of buying her lunch or such for her birthday, which I think is nice. She says she has so much that she would rather give it to the hospital. So, I donated to Tom's running. I told her I already had her bday gifts but would donate anyway so I did. It is a hospital where your children are treated at no cost to you so you are not hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt from cancer treatments. On top of that, we have a top notch Ronald McDonald house within walking distance of the hospital for parents to stay. I have never seen a children's hospital anywhere close to what this one does. Amazing research too.

Jean: I am wondering what we are going to get for neighbors across the street from us now that Tim and his family have moved out. We are getting more and more trash people living here that's for sure. A couple doors down they have gotten themselves a puppy that barks constantly. Drives me bonkers. They leave him outside all the time too. I think it is disgraceful to do so. It is getting cold now at nights and he should be in the house not outside. He is a scrawny looking thing too so don't know how well he is taken care of. I actually had the fan on all night last night! It got into the 70's here yesterday and stayed warm overnight, but the wind has kicked up and we are expecting rain today.

Maggie: Jack slices cuts into the steak diagonally and either grills it outside or in the broiler. We enjoy it and it is much leaner than other steak cuts. I fixed roasted asparagus in olive oil, parmesaan and garlic last night with some fried potatos (Jack forgot to put the baked ones in the microwave so I rushed around and opened a couple cans of sliced potatos and browned them in some butter Pam ) and it was all yummy. I love asparagus done that way. Only takes about 15 minutes in the oven and comes out all crispy as the garlic powder and powdered parmesaan stick to the asparagus and brown. People that rent to other people these days usually get stuck. I don't necessarily mean money wise, though that seems to happen a lot, I mean people don't take care of property that isn't theirs. When we lived in base housing, the only time we did, there was this couple with the brattiest twin boys I have ever seen. They were not potty trained until they were around 5 and they would wipe feces all over their bedroom walls. When they moved out instead of washing them down, which they needed a power washer because the whole room was a mess, they just painted over it. Disgusting and I occasionally think about the families that lived there after them. The mother was more interested in her cigarettes than she was taking care of those two. The little girl, who was a bit older was so sweet, but her brothers were hellions.

Well gals, I am going to go and put away dishes and use the handvac on the leaf pieces that got dragged in on the carpet last night. Guess we will be tackling that this weekend. Faye

[Jean]

Good Morning, Flowers! The sun is shining brightly and it's 27 degrees outside. I have WW later and need to continue on the clutter detail. I always have good intentions and then let myself get sidetracked. I think I was better organized when my kids were home!

"Gma" -- We used to get a middle-of-the-night call once in awhile. Usually it was the police saying that someone didn't lock the door in Bob's office. They would make him go in first to check and see if anything was disturbed. People used to rent the basement meeting room and then forget to lock the door. That hasn't happened since they moved their office from downtown. Did Jack come home and then have to go back to work or did he just stay there? That makes a long day! The hats and mittens turned out just great! You won't know what to do with yourself now that your Christmas knitting and shopping is finished. I could send you my list -- if I had one! I hope you get some nice neighbors across the street.

I need to get dressed and get moving. We have a church conference meeting tonight at 6 so need to decide on a lunch menu since supper will be something quick and easy. Enjoy your day and remember to smile!

[QuilterInVA]

Good afternoon, ladies! A cool 56 degrees but the sun is shining today.

Spent yesterday getting ready to go to retreat after work today. I'll take the ferry from here and that will cut down on the drive. As usual, I have a small suitcase for my clothes, and I do mean small, and the rest of the car is filled with my quilting gear. Good thing I now have everything on wheels!

Faye, those hats and mittens are really nice. You do beautiful work! I hope you get some nice neighbors for a change. I just buy gift bags and tissue paper and that's my gift wrap. It has to be quick for me.

Jean, the leaves haven't turned very much here and I'm sure not ready for cold weather. My boss gets those middle of the night calls from the police whenever we get new tenants in the buildings. He is not a happy camper then! How many people attend your church? Does anyone else ever volunteer - they seem to depend on you a lot.

Maggie - keep your snow! I'm hoping we don't see any this winter. I only get 29 points+ a day so the McRib is a big splurge for me. I do like it but it has to be a day I earn 10 APs. I try to divide my points 5 for breakfast, 8 for lunch, 11 for dinner and 5 for snacks.

Well, lunch is over so back to work. Have a great weekend and don't forget to turn your clocks back 1 hour. I'll be typing at you Monday.

[Maggie]

GOOD EARLY AFTERNOON MAGNOLIAS

It is a chilly sunny 37 degree day here in the Heartland, however, it is warming up and the snow will be gone to come again another day. I am so glad that Beanie is not on the kitten all the time now. I took awhile for him to settle down. Right now Cecil is in here by himself playing in his play station alone doing cat things. I am going to do some more storting of my glass making room for my shipment that will arrive any day now. I don't want to buy anymore glass holders for the rooms sake so will put some in another place and make a list of what I have. Some of the colors and textures I don't use as often as other pieces so that will work out fine. I won't have to order anymore for awhile. I am hoping to get quite a few of the buildings made that I want for my village this coming year. There is one certain building that is my favorite that I am itching to build. I think after I get this one built I won't sell it. Everytime I have gotten one built someone has come along and purchesed it which is a good thing but I want one myself. I want to get my village built before the prices go up again. The houses are of various kinds are one & two & three story ones. I make a small cottage with an outhouse which is so cute for I hinge the door so it opens. The 3 story I want to build for myself next has a gazebo I make with it. The village will contain: church, police station, court house & jail, post office, fire station, doctor/clinic, school house, library, dry goods/hardware, barber/beauty, eatery/coffee shop, market, butcher shop, flower shop, barn, train station, hotel and various houses. So far I have 3 of the shops built: fire station, butcher shop & barn. I do have three houses with tiny christmas lights around the edge of the roof, that actully light up, that I set out for the Christmas season. That, my friends is the plan and will surely keep me busy and out of trouble for sure.

DONNA FAYE I love those hats and mittens. You do such nice work and those kids will surely thank you for they are so cool looking. They will be stilin'. Poor Jack having to go in so early. That must be a real bummer to be rousted out that early. I will never understand why people refuse to respect others property. When we live somewhere we always leave it in better shape than when we arrived. Like this place, we have made so many nice improvements to it. Every thing we do makes it better for the next person living here. I believe that is the way it should be. But some folks are just trashy and maybe they would treat it that way if they owned the place. In fact we know some folks that trash their own places. What will you be doing between now and Christmas since you have now have it all done? I am barely getting started and here you are finished.

JEAN Clutter I can handle but down right dirty ~ you are NOT. Hope you are a looser when you step on that scale this day. Your temp runs kinda like ours does here. Will sometimes will get a middle of the night call but it is for a completly different reason and doesn't happen often for sure. Maybe you were better organized when the kids were home because you had to be. Now things have relaxed because there are just the two of you ~ three if you count the cat.

SUSAN OH no! We wouldn't want to be selfish and keep all the snow for ourselves. Got to share. Yep, you are thin and get fewer points. My McRib only cost me half of the 13 points+ for which I am happy for. Maybe you could freeze half and still get the taste and not have to spend the total points+ for it. I only ate half because I was full but did have the points to eat the whole thing. However, when I get down in weight things will change and I will have to eat just half. There is a difference to do it voluntarily and the knowing you have to.

Have a great day Magnolias. Break time is over and I have some things I need to attend to this day. Type at y'all later

[Jean]

Susan -- We have approximately 700 members in our church with around 500 actively attending and giving of their time as well as talent. We do have a lot of volunteers and lots of times it seems like the same people show up when there is work to be done. Do you have to find a sub for your WW meeting when you are gone for a retreat? I know you will have fun! I'm glad we are setting the clocks back this time since we are lighting memorial candles at the late church service; gives me some extra time to read the paper and drink coffee.

Maggie -- I hope your snow is all gone. I don't like it when the first snow stays on the ground and any after that just adds to the pile. It will be nice for you to have a complete glass village. I maintained again at WW; I need to regroup and get going again. The clutter bothers Bob but he can't see the dust bunnies or the cobwebs!

[gma22]

Good morning ladies. Jack and I crashed really early last night, I even miss Burn Notice so will have to watch it when it is rerun. He came home just dragging last night and said the day was long and hard. He laughed then and said the extra money will help pay for gas to Indiana for Thanksgiving!

Did you see that article about the poor woman stuck in the San Fransisco airport for 8 days because the airlines wanted $60 in baggage fees and she only had $30 to her name? I guess Orbitz didn't inform her of the baggage fees before she bought the ticket because a federal law requiring it had not yet gone into effect. This is disgusting and the reason we don't fly unless we absolutely have to. I am not handing over my hard earned cash just to make some creep in a suit more money. I read American Airlines charges around $450 extra for an overweight bag on an international flight. Pathetic!!! Another article was about a woman who scraped together $32 in quarters, went to one of these cheap grocery stores, Save a Lot to be exact and they refused to allow her to buy the groceries with the change saying they have a $5 limit. She went to a second store and got the same deal. It is disgusting that people don't care about one another these days. She even apologized to the cashier saying they were having tough times and waited until the store cleared out before cashing out so no one would have to wait behind her.

I am making Jack stuffed shells for dinner and I am having stuffed bell peppers again. I enjoyed them so much the last time, I decided to have them again! Besides, I can stick both in the oven and get other things done and the filling is basically the same, except I mix mine with rice and I put cheese in his.

Jean: Jack is not bothered by clutter at all in fact he is my slob. I only let him slob up his office, the rest of the house has to stay neat and that includes his shoes, which he tosses around. After all these years he knows he has to hang up his coat when he comes in, put his shoes under the counter, stuff like that. He left his flip flops under his portable computer desk last night, but he gets a freebie because he was tired!

Maggie: I am going to be working on my own cruise clothing since I have time now. It was nice getting everything early. I imagine we will have an early Christmas Eve dinner with Kelly, Tom and Thomas then we will just eat Christmas dinner together. I doubt we will go down to the casino buffet this year since we are trying to hard to lose weight, but we might. Maybe I will fix something we haven't had in a long time or something, but I know we won't be having turkey! Hope you get all your projects done in time. Part of the process for Christmas is just two grandkids and Thomas wants gift cards now that he is older, which cuts way down on shopping. Since we do the goofy Toys for Tots thing with the adults every year, I just buy one gift per person so that doesn't take much except brain power to decide what to buy to make a laugh and still be something a kid would want to pick out.

Well, Jack is up and will be downstairs in a couple minutes so I am going to go. Have a spectacular weekend everybody. Faye

[Jean]

Good Morning, Flowers! It's a "sort of" sunny morning and cold! We are in a wind advisory until tomorrow; I need to run a couple errands and want to stop at the hospital and check on Bob's secretary. She was hoping to be home but still isn't able to tolerate solid foods.

"Gma" -- I hadn't heard about the lady stuck in the airport. How sad! I can see charging for overweight luggage, but think anything else should go "free." So many people are trying to cram everything into their carry-on and then they can't get them squeezed into the overhead bins. We've seen items being checked by an airline employee, as the plane is boarded, and some people even try to take more than their alloted two items. That's a pain because it holds up the line for everyone else. Our pastor mentioned that he can't cash a check at any of the banks in town yet; they want to charge him a $50 fee! I wanted to ask why he just didn't open an account but figured it wasn't any of my business. I did see where the big banks aren't going to charge a debit card use fee after all the hoopla on the internet and media. Stuffed shells . . . ! I haven't made those in a long time. I always thought Bob's clutter mania was due to being in the military but that must not be the case for Jack.

My errand list is waiting so I'm off! Enjoy your FANTASTIC Friday!

[Maggie]

GOOD LATE MORNING MAGNOLIAS

It is a cool blustery day here in the Heartland this day. Will is out and about with the dogs and Cecil is asleep on his office chair. All is quiet ~ so very quiet in this house. I am going to sort through the papers I have in my "in box" afterwhile and see what I can toss or file away. It is a wire basket thingie that I can just toss things in and it keeps them corraled for me to deal with later. Works for me. OH ~ Will is back and here come the dogs for a treat. Cecil has to have one also. In my tray I have a top ten list of points+ snacks that I cut from the magazine at one time. They all look good and I have tried a few which were yummy. If you take that magazine you probably have that list also. I'll glue it into my snack cook book. I cut out recipes and try them and then they get saved in a binder. Tonight I will be making Crispy Pork Medallions with roasted root veggies AKA as carrots, onions and potatoes. I got a laugh at my mother who is 94. She said that for once she doesn't have a scrape or bruise or even a hang nail since that last scrape has healed. She was doing some yard work and scraped the side of her leg. Anyway she is leaves the "heavy" work to the hired help. Now that the scrape is nice and healed up she can get back in the pool. She loves to swim. Guess that is where I got the "love to swim" gene from.

DONNA FAYE By the look in Will's office you would never know he was ever in the ship shape Navy either. Mine has "stuff" in it but it is organized necessary things. I have to have a place for everything and everything in it's place when not being used. After I finish a glass project I clean up the area nice and neat and keep it swept. Sure makes it easier to start another project when my tools are in their proper place and handy. Will is having to move some of his things from the back yard that he works on under the awning to the basement now because of the winter chill. He has a nice shop vac to keep it all cleaned up down there. I am so glad he has such a nice big space to work inside. His office is just his office with books everywhere ~ where my office is multi-purpose. We are fortunate that this house is so big with all these rooms and we can have one fixed up as a guest room down stairs. The other two bedrooms down there are being used by Will as a shop and "storage." Plus there is a room down there that is as big as our front room (rumpus room) that he can spread out a big project. Houses here are built that way ~ lots of two story houses looking like single houses from the street. But they have a totally finished second floor down stairs as big as the one upstairs. That is because this used to be called tornado alley. Tornados have moved out east more now. At least this year they did.

JEAN You can keep your wind and have ours also. I don't like the wind. Your husbands secretary does need to eat solid food before she leaves and maybe this will be the day. I just got an e-mail from a dear friend that is just getting over a horrible experience. She had an operation in one of the top hospitals which I will not name that sewed her up wrong inside and she almost died. She is over it now and I can see a huge law-suit coming. You think when you are in one of the very best hospitals that you will get "the best." She did have one of the best doctors do the work and the ones that closed her up botched it bad ~ sewed some things together that didn't belong that way and caused her excruciating pain and a rush back to the hospital almost dead. Then again after 7 1/2 weeks the doc took out the tube on the right side. He screwed up royally because that night her sister had to call an ambulance and rush her to the hospital. She had to have 6 units of blood as the doc had created a major bleed inside. He never let the air out of the balloon inside before he pulled the tube out. I imagine her screams could be heard on Mars. They did her wrong wouldn't you say. Makes me not ever want to go to the hospital again ~ ever.

Time to go russle up some lunch. I think a nice 4 point sandwich will be good with a cup of broth on this chilly day. Type at y'all later.

[Jean]

Maggie -- Our wind hasn't lived up to the prediction . . . yet. The sun is seriously shining and there's just a slight breeze with 52 degrees on the thermometer. Our 4 hard maple trees are finally dropping their leaves. Bob was hoping the wind would blow them to the cat hating neighbor's yard. Every once in awhile you hear of a doctor cutting off the wrong leg or fixing something that wasn't broken in the first place. Your friend is really lucky to be alive and all the botches made in her. I did stop by the hospital this morning and Nelda could have gone home tonight but her sister can't come until tomorrow afternoon so she opted to wait until tomorrow morning to go home. If another sister can't come we will be doing the honors. I will be grocery and pharmacy shopping for her if she calls today, as well as being her taxi until she can drive again. Her sister is planning to stay a couple days at least and home health care will be coming to the house, which is good.

[gma22]

Good morning to you girls!!! I hope all is well with you. Woke up to a chilly house this morning so it much be cold outside again.

I am about 2/3 done with a slouch hat for myself to wear to Indiana at Thanksgiving. I don't have winter outerwear and so am making a red and white hat and red and white mittens to go with my jacket from my stash of yarns. I always like it when I can make something from yarn I have leftover from other projects. I am using up the rest of the silk yarn from Thomas's hat and mittens and a couple skeins of wool yarn I used a few years ago to make my son hat and scarf with Cubs logo on it.

Well today I believe is bank transfer day when people fed up with fees transfer their accounts to credit unions and such. We found out that Navy Federal, which is our bank had a 38% increase in depositers since this started. I got a message from them and we were picked to use their new edeposit where you can deposit checks to your bank if you have a scanner in your home. Jack's deposits are all electronically deposited, but the occasional check we might get, I wouldn't have to mail it to the bank or take it out there I could just edeposit it since we have a scanner.

Maggie: I imagine you enjoyed the quiet while it lasted. It was really noisy here in the neighborhood last night and I was hoping it wouldn't last into the wee hours, which it didn't. Even though it is a rule you aren't supposed to, they sit with the garage doors open, music blaring and visit with each other. They were doing something like that last night and it was so loud you could hardly think. The police here won't even come out if it is before 9 pm and then on a regular call not an emergency it takes hours so I rarely bother just put up with it and hope for the best. We are having pork for dinner tonight ourselves. I fixed stuffed shells for Jack and I had the stuffed bell peppers again because I enjoyed them so much last time. Jack really liked the shells so wants to have them again too.

Jean: Jack's always been a slob at home. He is meticulous at work, slob at home. He separates the two and I asked him one time if he was this slobby at work and he said no. So, he keeps the Navy neatness at work and the husband horribleness at home! That's ok, I will keep him anyway and I have him trained pretty well by now. I guess the lady at the airport finally saw a church close to the airport and called them and asked them if they could help her and they got her to the money to pay for the baggage fees and the $150 because she missed her flight and had a nonrefundable ticket. The airlines take no responsibility in any of it, said it is their policy and tough luck was sort of their attitude. That's one of the reasons we are driving to Florida next year we can take as much baggage and stuff as we want as the ship has no restrictions. You have to be sensible unless you have booked a big suite or something because the rooms aren't big enough for tons of luggage. Jack read an article last night on his cruise website that says to bring a small gift to give to your steward, etc. A lot of people give them candy, which I guess they really appreciate so I imagine I will do something, maybe make cookies and such and bring a big batch they can share with others or something like that.

Well, I am going to sit and knit for awhile. I am still sleepy but Fortune was starving so I came down and fed him. Have a great Saturday all! Faye

[Jean]

Good Morning, Flowers! The sun was out for a few seconds and has disappeared behind a layer of low clouds. The wind is still blowing and is to pick up as the day goes along. We are taking Bob's secretary home this afternoon and I will probably go to the grocery store for her. I have a load of laundry in the washer and my flannel sheets are on the bed! I have the kitchen stove and microwave clocks set back and will do the bedroom ones next.

"Gma" -- Do you mix your leftover yarn willy-nilly or try to make some sort of design with it? I'm glad you are able to use it. We used to leave a $$ tip for the housekeeping staff when we were in Maui, but they changed from daily to service to once during the week. We can ask for clean linens but they prefer that we don't . . . we do if we run out. I figure for what we pay we should be able to enjoy fresh towels! There is a water shortage, believe it or not, and they aren't allowing any new hotels to build.

Bob is off running errands and I need to get busy. Have a great day and enjoy!

[Maggie]

GOOD MORNING MAGNOLIAS

It is a chilly day here in the Heartland this day. I am sitting here in a kaftan and I need to put some heavier clothes on for I feel a chill. I put this on and stripped the bed so we can put fresh sheets on this evening and then didn't get dressed in pants and top. On bed stripping day we like to leave it bare to air the mattress out . I like to wear this one when I am doing glass work because when I use the solder sometimes it pops on my front and burns a hole and I have ruined too many blouses that way. This way this ole kaftan is a work outfit. Works for me. But I am not doing any soldering this day. Will has requested that I make a big pot of chili beans this day so that is on my schedule to get started when Will gets back from the store and the other places he needed to go this day. I will make enough to put packets of it in the freezer. Our tradition is that we have chilli beans on Christmas Eve and that way I will have it already made because surely there will be some left still by then. He is also going to pick up some of the items for Thanksgiving dinner we are making. We are going to smoke a couple turkey breasts. Oh, turkey is so good done that way. When I get my Christmas present of that indoor smoker I am going to cold smoke some cheese. I have an idea ~ I could make up some small gifts of some good crackers and smoked cheese to give friends for presents. That along with a jar of cookie mix would be a nice gift from the kitchen. Gives me an excuse to make up some neat gifts from the kitchen, as if I needed an excuse. I may even try to make some crackers by then. I have a recipe for Farmhouse Crackers that are 2 points+ per cracker but well worth the points. The recipe uses half white and half whole wheat flours in it. They keep several weeks in an airtight container or in the freezer for up to three months. It has been awhile since I have made any crackers since there are so many good ones on the market now but there is just something about "home made" if you are giving crackers as part of a gift. I love this time of the year. I enjoy cutting glass and baking goodies to give away. Last year at the after the holidays sale we got some nice wrappings for little or nothing money since they are marked down to sale. I will use that this year and then we can buy some more again after Christmas for next year. Life is good.

DONNA FAYE Maybe when it warms up your little pooch will sleep through the night so you can also and not have to be getting up so early. It is so neat that you can have enough yarn to make yourself something after having bought it for something else. I imagine your hat and mittens will be real pretty. Did you notice what church it was that stepped up and helped that stranded in the airport lady?

JEAN Looks like our temps are running about the same. Chilly here today with afternoon winds kicking up. That is so nice of you to help out with Bob's secretary. You are a real good lady.

Something happened to this post and it was posted before I was finished typing ~ it just went poof and there it was posted. Better than being lost in cyber space I guess.

Type at y'all later. Have a great Saturday.

[gma22]

Yahooooooooo! I am done wrapping Christmas gifts except for the boys hats and gloves and they are in cold vinegar water to set the colors then will launder and block them and dry them and then wrap them. I even have my dd's birthday stuff wrapped so all I have to do it get her a card.

Maggie: It was a C of C next to the San Fransisco airport, but I don't recall the name. I am just glad someone finally helped out.

Jean: When we stay several days at a hotel I don't grump about the sheets being changed daily, but I would scream bloody murder about towels and such I think. You pay good money to get services attached to the place and you should get the services, water or no water! lol Let then go down to the ocean and wash them!

I am going to go up in a minute and take a shower and get into fresh clothing. I have been working on my hat and cleaning up the house and wrapping gifts so I am not even dressed yet. Good thing we don't have people that just drop in or they would be standing out by the gate waiting!

I saw this cute recipe I am going to get the stuff and take it to Jay's house and have the boys help me make for Thanksgiving. It is little phyllo dough smores. You take the dough and brush butter between the layers and sprinkle graham crumbs and shove them down into cupcake tins then put a piece of hershey bar and a large marshmallow into them, fold them in on themselves and glue down with butter and bake them. They are called smores tarts. I want to get the exact recipe off the today show website as I saw it sitting watching tv when I was at the dr for my mammogram on Monday. I thought the kids would enjoy making them and definitely eating them.

Well, I should get out of here and check on the boys knitting so I can wash it. Have a good afternoon.