Good morning to you all! It is raining cats and dogs this morning and my little doggie got soaked. I put him out and went to the bathroom and in the interim it started pouring down rain. He took it all in stride, wasn't even barking when I let him in and gave him a good rub down with a nice big towel so no harm no foul. He is up on his pillow on the coach asleep. I have been working with him to get him to jump up on the bed and he will do it with encouragement, but not when the room is dark. I will just continue to work with him on it until he does it in the dark also.

Jean: Hope you had fun yesterday. I used to like the real junky food like funnel cakes! Not much worse than that, fried dough with powdered sugar! The st joe county fair in Indiana had a place that sold marvelous rotisserie chicken. I once got ask out on a date to the fair when I was 14 and the guy was 19. We went to the fair with my older sister and her kids. We went off by ourselves, but he was from Scotland, smoked and I was wayyyyyyyy out of my league having it as a first date. Unfortunately, I looked at least 17 because as they say, "I was stacked." We didn't even talk much, as I was a nervous wreck so that was that for sure. He was a very nice guy but truth be told, I couldn't understand half of what he said! He was a relative of my sister's neighbor who thought I was hot! I am not sure he ever found out I was only 14. Used to happen to me a lot back then. I worked the concessions for my brother's little league team and Notre Dame football players used to show up there and would hit on me having no clue I was so young. I didn't even know how to flirt! I was pretty much the same when I met Jack even though I was 18 by that time. Thank goodness he hung in there!

Susan: We dumped tracfone too and went with att prepaid. The roaming is a lot better I think as the phone used to never work when we would go to Indiana. We like what we have much better now. I can't see paying a monthly plan for the bit we use it for. We are not tied to our cell phones like some people and what would cost $59 a month for most people would last us the 90 days in which you buy the prepaid plan. Rarely do I have to put extra money on the phones. I don't have long distance on my home phone either. I found that purchasing a 600 minute phone card for much less than $50 lasts months and months and it would cost me that in a month of long distance with bellsouth. It is also much cheaper per minute of talk time I think. Where do you get your buy one get one Ruby Tuesday coupons all the time? I love their salad bar.

Well work is calling me and I want to finish the few rows of the back of t's sweater then start on the sleeves today. I have the front done and ripped the back down past the 2 row stripe and am just redoing it all in the solid since the front stripe would have been right at the beginning of the neckline and looked stupid. I got the measurements for Jackson and my little zipper jacket is about 2 inches too short in the body party so it will have to be ripped back and added. Thank goodness I have never finished it. The sleeves are plenty long enough.

Have a good Monday and if it is raining where you are, try to stay dry! Faye

Good Morning, Flowers! It's promising to be another nice day in my neighborhood. I had a very hard time getting up and moving this morning. It was after 11 when we got home last night and I was tired. As we were standing in line waiting for the grandstand doors to open we discovered that we had missed "shopping" the booths under the grandstand. We didn't buy anything at the two buildings we did go through. It was crowded and every other person seemed to either have a stroller, a wheelchair, or be in a motorized cart.

The Gaither pianist is blind and his "funny" for the evening was that his family went on a cruise during their vacation. The ad said, "if you don't see a whale we will refund your money." The boats we go out on promise the same thing. The guitar player makes funny comments from the back of the stage and told about the band eating at a fancy restaurant. He happened to be leading the blind pianist and the poor guy walked into a wall. The guitar player felt so bad but said the guy was very gracious about it and loudly said, "well, I guess I'll have to get another dog!" The people sitting around them burst out laughing.

Susan -- I've gotten held up by the grain trains in the fall. They seem to go on forever! There is supposed to be a time limit that they can stop at an intersection, but I don't think they pay any attention to it. It is aggravating when you don't have a cell phone you can depend on. I don't know if it is the hills or what, but there are places between here and Sioux City where our phones are dead. The kids have the same problem and they are with a different provider. I'm glad the Challenge was a success for you! You are lucky to get coupons for eating out. Every once in awhile someone will call to sell us a coupon book. The stores are all big department stores and restaurants that are 2 1/2 hours away from us! When I try to stop their sales pitch they just keep right on talking. Sometimes I let them finish and explain we live in a rural area and I'm not about to buy knowing that we won't use 99% of the coupons.
Sometimes I just hang up on them.

"Gma" -- I had my corn dog last night, but it wasn't as good as I remember them being. The prices sure have gone up though! Two corn dogs and two small lemonades was $13. After the show we had to walk past the midway to get to the car and their food stands were still open. I talked Bob into buying a sack of mini donuts; they were donut holes and we got 6 for $4. One was enough for me and it wasn't as good as I remembered either. We all agreed on that one! Two new things I'd never run across was fried candy bars and potato craters. Our friends got an order of the potatoes shaped like a volcano -- they are fresh potatoes sliced very, very thin and deep fat fried, served with ranch and ketchup for dipping. They were crunchy and I can see where they might be habit forming. (The state fair had fried butter cubes which sounded gross to me.) None WW friendly for sure! I could sit and just people watch -- so many over weight and walked like they hurt. That makes me more determined than ever to stay active. Lots of younger kids/adults all ready showing signs of being obese.

I need to get back to my picture sorting and finish up the garage junk. Have a nice day!

Jean -- from Iowa!

Good morning, ladies! Beautiful day heading for the 80s.

Faye, we get Ruby Tuesday coupons in our newspaper. On the coupon it says:
"Want even more valuable offers? Sign up for SO CONNECTED at rubytuesday.com. I know we received a coupon yesterday from the server for their new Sunday Breakfast Buffet. Glory and I usually get the top sirloin with a baked potato and broccoli and you also get the salad bar. We have the server bring boxes with the meal and put half of it in the box before we start to eat so we get 2 meals out of one.

Jean, I'll bet you had a great time at the fair. Our Fall Festival will be the first weekend in October. That's the one that our quilt guild demonstrates quilting for and they pay us $350. It's juried vendors of arts and crafts, lots of fair food. I usually get a funnel cake and share it with Sandy and Shelley. I also get apple butter there. It's made in a copper kettle over a wood fire. I get the unsweetened one. There is usually a man grinding cornmeal, too, and I like to get a pound. We have the visitor to our booth sign blocks for our Quilts of Valor we make for wounded soldiers. Last year we had 1,000 and ran out so this year we have 2,000 ready to go. That will make a lot of quilts.

Maggie, what's the latest kitty antics? How's the glass coming along?

Well, I have to get back to work. Have a great day.

Good morning all! I saw that Patrick Swayze finally succumbed to his cancer last night. He sure did fight hard. It is one of those death sentence cancers. I saw him in many films and liked him as much as a person as the actor he was. He also got big thumbs up from me for being married for a long time to only one woman. Not many actors do that these days.

Susan: I signed up at Ruby Tuesday and noticed they have full menu nutrition info so it is definitely another restaurant Jack and I can go to and stay within points. I saw the steak info and the points are really reasonable. They also have mashed cauliflower, which I would like to try sometime. We may go there for lunch today after Jack's cardiology appt. His cardiologist is going to be thrilled when he sees how much weight he has lost and how he looks. I rolled on the floor on Saturday. Jack came down dressed in a beautiful and might I add expensive pair of almost brand new blue jean shorts that were size 42. He had the waist all bunched up and belted. He looked like something from the beverly hillbillies! He also has drawstring flannel pj bottoms he wears around the house. They keep slipping off his hips because he has drawn the string as tight as it will go and they are still too big. Those look like some clowns baggy pants. They are so big you actually can't see the outline of his legs or behind or anything. He cracks me up because he weighs himself everyday!

Jean: I don't understand why stuff like that has gotten so outrageous other than you are a captive audience. Hot dogs at the ballpark are like $5 apiece now, for a HOT DOG! I was just thinking the other day about when I was in high school and we used to go and eat lunch at the soda fountain at the drug store. We used to get the absolute best ham salad sandwich with chips and a coke for 30 cents! Of course those were the days before unlimited soft drinks. The sandwich and chips were only 25 cents and the coke was a nickel. You could get a plate and I mean a big ole oval plate of ffs for 25 cents too. My girlfriend and I would get them and share them and get cokes for 35 cents total. I have seen those deep fried candy bars. They are supposedly scrumptious, but are probably a whole days worth of points.

My microwave went to Sears heaven last night. I was warming something, it made sort of a grinding noise then just clunked off. I went and unplugged it and replugged it and checked breakers, but I pretty much knew it was gone. I have had it for at least 12 years so that's not bad. Unfortunately, Kenmore's microwaves get horrible reviews. I must have read 40 reviews on different models and not one got above 3 stars and the complaints seem to be the same, broke down within a couple months, buttons quit working or the turntable would break. So, I found a panasonic with great reviews and with a couple new things I like so we are going to look and see if we can find one in town today and if not I will order one online and have it shipped. I can't believe how much we depend on it though. It is going to be tough to do without one if I have to order it online.

You gals have a great day. I am about halfway or so done with one sweater sleeve so I imagine I will take it with me to the cardiologist. No cleaning today. Will do the upstairs tomorrow. The downstairs I did yesterday so it is all nice and clean.
Faye

Good morning, ladies! A hot one is in store for us today.

Faye, my microwave is so old it isn't digital but it still plugs along. I'll miss Patrick Swayze, too. I loved to watch him dance. It sounds like Jack better go clothes shopping before he is arrested for indecent exposure! Good for him. The mashed cauliflower at Ruby Tuesday is good.

Jean, I sure will be making cornbread and corn muffins with that cornmeal. Our guild has already made over 400 quilts of valor in the last 2 years. We have committed to making them as long as the wars continue.

I finally found a Featherweight 221 sewing machine last night. It's a 1951 Centennial model that was made to commerate Singer's 100th anniversay of making sewing machines. I was lucky in that it has all the original attachments, manual and carrying box. Why did I want a 58 year old sewing machine? The Featherweights are work horses. They are coveted by all serious sewers and quilts. They are quiet, sew beautifully, have all metal parts and best of all only weight 11 pounds so they are perfect for taking to classes, bees, retreats, etc. They only do a straight stitch, but that is all you need to piece quilts. This one is in mint condition, no chips or nicks, all the gold scroll work is intact and it has been reconditioned and cleaned. I was happy to get it for $525. I'm going to see if I can find out how much they sold for originally. Probably $50. The price on them keeps going up every year, so I won't have any trouble getting more than I paid if I decide to sell it down the road.

Well, that's my report for today. Have a good one.