Good morning chicks,
I see the Wheels of Fire are back with us again.

Sometimes it's nice to come back to the old and familiar stuff that makes us feel like... home.
Toilet is fixed. Package says "whisper quiet flush" - I don't think so

Not that it's so loud it blows you out of bed, but it's not THAT quiet either.

But it works fine and that's all that matters. And DH didn't tear up his back hanging over the toilet and lifting heavy parts and that's good too.
Shad, not to shock you but I did get up at 6am. Took a peek outside - too early for Mr. Feral to show up looking for breakfast and it was very, very soggy outside. The night before we had drenching storms. So I saluted you and went back to bed for an hour

While DH was inside with the water off, I went outside and cleared all the weeds from one side of the house where the rose "garden" is located. Afterwards I told DH he had to praise me and tell me how nice it looked and thank me - just like I have to do to him

He did. He said he was telling me as he walked by on the driveway but I had my back to him and my Ipod on and I was busy singing Beatles tunes (off key he said

) so I didn't hear him. That makes one section down, 2 huge lengths in the front of the house to go yet. We decided to take out the roses because despite Shad's advice, they just don't seem to want to grow there. So we showered up, stopped at the nursery and picked up 2 hibiscus plants. They have giant flowers on them, I prefer the breed that has smaller blooms but about this time of year, things are getting pretty picked over. We have some shrubs in the front that for some reason are dying and we also have some spirea that DH hates (he hacked it to bits 2 years ago but it keeps coming back). I think we're going to replace them with these double knockout rose shrubs (see pics below). They are much more hearty than regular roses - more a shrub with flowers that bloom from spring until the first frost. I think they will be pretty. And the cover is coming off the frog pond, um I mean pool today - so we'll see how bad it looks in there.
So you're getting the muggy, stuffy weather too Mel? It's a shame to get cheated out of those few weeks of clean, gorgeous weather we call spring and float right into the summer stuff. Enjoy your jammie day. Are you still doing the pedals? I'm sorry you had to turn over the library duties. Maybe you should look at it as a transition from worker bee to boss lady. Heaven knows we need people to organize the shift crews.
Shad - there is nothing that beats the taste of homemade bread. And that heavenly smell

Nice thing about the breadmaker is that it takes care of everything for you, including the sometimes tricky getting the dough to rise - and you don't have to heat up the house with the oven on. That is crazy about the price of rolls going up so much. What is the reasoning behind that? Right now there is a big tomato scare in the United States. Certain types of tomatoes have become infected with the samonella virus. They know that it is entering the inside of the tomatoe via the spot where the vine meets the fruit but our wonderful government has not been able to figure out the source of the infection. As a result, tons and tons of vegetables are rotting and going to waste. Ours is not one of the states that has reported any outbreaks and this time of year I try to buy my vegetables from the locally grown farmers markets anyway so we should be ok. And thank you for all of your exercising. I jumped on the scale yesterday and saw a number that I haven't seen in a long while. It was fleeting (I generally bounce between 3 pounds) but it was encouraging. So your efforts on my behalf are paying off

I would exercise for you but I'm afraid we would cancel out each other's efforts - so I'll exercise for Mel and she can pedal for you. Although my money would be on picking up the exercise machine Michelle as your virtual workout buddy
Hope you're feeling better today Shy.
Ceejay - surely you don't have to take vacation time to take classes to keep up with your license? That would be wrong... vacation is precious. And yes, we got dumped on with those strong storms Friday night. We thought they would have stayed north but you must have pushed them down by us
Ellen - when it comes to quick and easy meals - I strongly suggest you take a look at
www.kraftfoods.com - they also have a free magazine (I think it's published quarterly). But they specialize in 30 minute or less meals - most of them using (surprise) Kraft Foods ingredients like dressings and cheese and such. I have tried many of the recipes from the magazine and website and was very pleasantly surprised at how tasty and easy the foods were. And even with using some prepackaged ingredients, they are not all full of fat and salt like you would think.
In fact, I'm about to go make up my grocery list and I am drawing a blank for ideas so I might take a gander there myself.
Hello to Madcat, Carla, Holly, Ruth, Patty, Painter and Annie who I hope is having a great time with Dave this weekend.
Catch you later...