hi michelle...

glad your feeling better... back to it.. chop chop hehe...


re potatos.. i guess.. as with "normal" pots depends on the size...

Chris that tree will be coming down if we can get a chainsaw. The trunk is snapped.There was not a chainsaw to be had in Lowe's. All over this area the trees are like that.

Sarah we got the ice St.Louis got the snow.

Treez sweet pots don't take long in the oven.30 -45 minutes. Eat the whole thing love the skin.

I now have to make a trifle for a christmas pot luck tomorrow. I haven't made trifle in years. I couldn't find a small bottle of sherry so got malibu instead and will throw some of that in it

I bake big sweet potatoes (double fist size) for about an hour on gas mark 5 - until a sticky brown goo starts to ooze out of them - which makes them well done. I don't eat the skin - this doesn't mean to say that you shouldn't eat the skin - its just that it doesn't scrips up like ordinary jacket spud so it doesn't really appeal to me.

CG - what is a pot luck? I've heard of them but never found out what they are.

I don't know whats going on - our village has been invaded by door step salesmen. We can normally go months without having someone trying to sell us something at the door but this evening its been one thing after another. We even had some idiot from a dog rescue charity asking us to buy VERY expensive dog printed teatowels and stuff (definitely a scam) - anyway he wouldn't go away so I said I'd get him something for his charity - and I came back with Ellie - she wanted to be friends and put her front paws on his shoulders - strange... he beat a hasty retreat.

I have my exam tomorrow, and I'm totally gonna fail it. I hardly know anything about the subject and I've been cramming all day but my concentration is failing me. I spent all morning reading over my notes then I got my boyfriend to ask me questions on it and I hardly got anything right. It's a disaster. All I want to do is get a takeaway and gorge on some chocolate. Or flee the country, whatever....

Sarah everyone brings a dish. I said I would do trifle. The food is always good and you get a big assortment of dishes. You never know what you'll get.

Some of the things people are doing;
chicken tortilla roll-ups
red velvet cake
pretzel salad
brocoli casserole
7 layer dip
honeybaked ham
A lot of good eating.

I'll have to watch my helpings

The scales were a bit this morning, I hope it's just the effect of TOM and some water retention from the weekend. There's no way I gained 5lb since Friday!

I ran 7 miles with running club in the rain this evening, I like the fact that even when the weather's bad you can persuade yourself to do the long route instead of giving up early because other people talk you into it! I'm running again tomorrow, it's the Christmas lights run which will be about 7 miles in fancy dress. Although my fancy dress isn't too exciting, just some reindeer horns.

Sarah - you're lucky if it's just salesmen, I got the jehovah's witnesses yesterday. It's just a good job my mother wasn't here or she'd have laid into them. My great grandmother was a jehovah's witness (on my dad's side) and wasn't too happy about that relationship because my mother had all sorts of "unnatural" medical treatment when she was a kid.

Peacock, the whole thing almost gave me a stroke because I was nude and this guy was suspended in the air outside my 4th floor window. I screamed, and he laughed.

Helen that run sounds nice, we have a couple xmas runs here, the best one is an all male run for breast cancer, the men run in speedos and santa hats. HILARIOUS. Poor guys are freezing. There is another all male run in the spring, which is I think 3 miles, the guys have to be a minimum of 200 lbs, and at each mile they stop at a bar, drink a beer and eat a hot dog. NASTY.

My next run is a 10k on the Cape in February, may be a little bit chilly.

Re the window cleaner that happened to me when I was 13. I was mortified. Heard a voice behind me and there he was on his ladder smiling at me.

Yoohooo!

Don't know much about sweet potatoes, mine always seem to come out rubbish!

Helen - sounds a fabby running club you got there Can't you get a raindeer tail too? Then the boys running to catch up with you have something to watch

I'm HUNGRY - my breakfast was a smidge on the light side. I'd better get something to eat then.

Helen - I know what you mean about the JW's. When I was about 13 there was a girl in my class who didn't come back after the summer holidays - something to do with her parents refusing to let her have medical treatment after an accident. Very sad.

DH thought the whole window cleaner thing was very funny. I keep thinking that its a good thing that I haven't still got the incredibly high blood pressure that I had last year otherwise the shock could have killed me. I don't get it - for the last 5 years they have ALWAYS done the windows every other Thursday morning at 8.00!

I'm full of cold... or is it man flu? I only got about 2 and a half hours sleep with it last night and I think being so tired is making it worse. (Huge headache!) I can't be bothered to do any work - which just goes to show how yuck I feel - so I think its time for a nap!

I won't be around tomorrow - I'm being audited... again! Someone out there must really hate me!

:hugs: for Sarah, hope you feel better soon, get back to bed and don't do anything. Hope all goes well for your audit tomorrow...we get sudited in England now?

RSG, you can come and have a cup of tea with me after your 10K in Feb if it's on the cape Where abouts is it? I could watch, cos I know there's not a chance of me running...:rofl;

CG.. Brucie baby and a chainsaw? VERY SCARY!!!At least you'll get some more firewood though... warmed up any there yet?

Frus, eat some more food luvey, I like your idea about the reindeer tail fro Helen, I think she should go for it...or she could run in those three times to small shoes she was made to wear for her pics...

By the way, has the mag come out yet? Will it be out before next Weds? I could have my Mum pick it up and bring it over for me to read And say... I know that lovely woman... I talk to her on line My claim to fame.

Ok, I'd best get some things done around here... and off to curves...

I couldn't find a reindeer tail at lunchtime, honest! (Although I did get some grey over the knee socks for Friday night's schoolgirl outfit )

Redsoxgirl - there's one marathon in France I fancy, at all the "refreshment" stops they serve local wine and food! This is the course map with the "degustation" stops marked! I'm not sure what state you'd finish in if you stopped for a taste at all of them though...

The mag comes out on 3rd Jan - I'm actually away until the 7th so I won't get to see what she made up and wrote about me. I'm a bit off that she wouldn't let me see the article. Apparently it's not "allowed" - but surely if they're passing it off as my story, I ought to know what they're saying. Clearly not...

Chris - this audit is just a routine VAT thing because of my eBay biz. Pain in the having it the busiest time of the year - even though the inspectors that have been here before have all been lovely and very helpful.

Well, that nap didn't work - I feel worse than ever.

Helen - seems wrong that they won't let you see what you are supposed to have said.

for Sarah...

Helen - I'm waiting with baited breath!

Chris, I ate my food, it was good Onto meal number 3 now!

I scared a boy off the lifting bit in the gym! He was doing some wierd pull up thing with a stability ball on MY squat rack!!!! When he was done I threw my big heavy plates up and he ran away to the pulley machine I'm so hard! (flexing muscle smiley!)

Lol @ Frus at the gym! I'm picturing a guy that looks like Mr Muscle scampering away with his tail between his legs.

I'm feeling sooooo much better today, had my exam this morning so it's like a weight's been lifted off. Wish that was actually the case, but I've been eating better this week so maybe come Sunday a weight will actually have been lifted off. All I need to do now is convince myself to go to the gym and I'll be laughing all the way to size 16 for Xmas.