Good morning to you all! It is going to be another scorching day today. Jack took apart the gas grill so it is now ready for charcoal. I saw that Lowes had a buy one get one free so we will probably head over there this weekend and get it and briquette fluid. We haven't used charcoal in so long maybe we will forget....

Jean: I have already ordered it because the online site gave it not to be delievered to the store until the middle of June so I wanted plenty of time to get it assembled and such. I just hope I don't have to go three rounds with the person at the pick up area when I want them to assemble it. If so, I will demand to see the manager of the toy department and if he gives me lip then I will tell him give me my money back and and I will tell him I can walk next door to Target or go to Kmart or ToysrUs and buy it and have them assemble as all three places carries this bike. They want to lose $70 sale that is fine with me. The one thing about Walmart is they don't charge to assemble a bike so I am keeping my fingers crossed. I noticed some of my Amazon stuff has already shipped so hopefully the things I want to ship to Jackson get here by midweek of his birthday week so I can ship them priority and they will get there in time for his Bday party on Saturday the 12th.

Maggie: Thanks for the two recipes. We have two scales in the kitchen and both work pretty well. I noticed the one always weighs 3 lbs heavy so I put a note to myself on my desk that it weighs over. We once actually lived with a dorm fridge when Jack was in the Navy. The house we rented didn't come with a refrigerator and we sure couldn't afford one so we bought a larger dorm style that had a small freezer. You do what you have to do when you have to do it I guess. My fridge has the filtered water and ice. I know I need to buy a new filter, but I never remember to do it. We are lucky as at least we don't have disgusting water. Memphis sits on a humongous artesian well.

Susan: I sure hope you aren't in the hospital or very ill. We miss seeing you here.

I am dreading the grocery shopping today as yesterday was military payday, Navy Retirement and Social Security! The store will be packed and we have a huge amount to buy to get me on my program so I imagine I will come home grumpy! lol

Have a nice Saturday! Faye

Jack finally got my photo program downstairs so I could install it. Here are Jackson's cartoon socks. The yarn is called "cartoon." Here is a picture of my little martial artist too! It is hard to believe his mom is hispanic with that hair, but he looks just like his daddy did at that age. He has sure lost all that baby fat that's for sure. He won't be three until June 25th and he is wearing size 6's and wears a size 9 shoe!

Commissary was quiet when we started and a zoo when we finished. I spent $326, most of which I think was fresh fruits and veggies! lol

Hope you like the socks.

Good evening, ladies! Hot and humid today.

Sorry to be AWOL but the internet has been out in my neighborhood for days. They finally got it fixed sometime today.

Faye, love those socks! I can't believe how big Jackson is! I go 1/4 a watermelon today and fresh Georgia peaches, strawberries, blueberries and so on. The peaches are so good.

Maggie, have you tried quinoa or buglar? I love them. Whole grains and little points.

Jean, did you enjoy your day at home? Sometimes it's nice not to do anything.

Thunderstorms are rolling in so I'm going to get off the computer.

Have a good night.

Good morning to you ladies. We are expecting little thunderstorms everyday for the next week. I went out to check the mail around 3:30 and it was sunny and bright and about 20 minutes later, Jack let out Fortune and said it had rained. So, if it does that everyday than it won't be too bad except it doesn't help with the humidity.

Susan: I almost have one of Jackson's slipper socks done and am about 1/4 done on Thomas's first sock and just a little way on my dr's sock. I switch between Jackson's and the other two because his is heavier yarn and it canbe tougher on my hands to knit with sometimes. It tires them out faster with the tiny needles and the thicker yarn.

Maggie: I know, Jackson is just shooting up. I saw a picture of he, his other grandma and his mom walking down a path away from the camera and he almost comes up to his mom's waist. He sure isn't a baby anymore but then both my boys are my babies forever.

Jack wants to get a haircut, laundry and a bit more shopping to finish up what the commissary didn't have then back home to watch baseball today. They did a fine job and beat the Cards yesterday so I am hoping they will take the series today with Dempster pitching.

I better go and get some more knitting done. Have a wonderful day all! Faye

Good afternoon, ladies! It's 90 degrees and clouding up for our daily rain.

Today was our church picnic. Lot's of fun. Have mostly spent the day reading. I read all the time, but not for such a long time.

Faye, I've almost decided to knit myself a sweater. It's been years since I've done that but I'm feeling the need to do something different. I'm not saying I'll actually do it, but maybe.

I need to get my menus planned for the coming week. Winging it doesn't work for me.

Have a good evening.

Good Memorial Day morning to you all! Hope you are enjoying your holiday. We aren't doing anything just hanging out at home. I never got over to the store to finish up my shopping so I imagine I will do that today.

Oh brother, what a mess my husband made. He was all jazzed about converting our gas grill to charcoal, which he did but of course I had to "remind" him to put things into the garage and not just leave them all over the deck. Then he was bent on doing slow grilling of ribs using indirect heat, pans of water over the briquettes and under the meat, a memphis sauce recipe and a memphis dry rub he found online. Well, I tweaked the sauce because to me it tasted like mustard and ketchup mixed together so I added some cayenne and a bit more brown sugar and it turned out really well. The rub, the man does not pay attention to his directions and instead of putting 2tsp he put 2 tbl of salt in it. I don't like dry rub at all so it didn't affect my ribs. He got sauce on the floor, sauce on the countertops, dry rub everywhere, etc. His ribs didn't quite get done enough so I put a pan of water in the oven and put them in the oven for about half an hour more and they came out really nice. Unfortunately, my kitchen was a disaster. I had a sore left ankle from twisting it just a bit so I was pretty mad having to clean up sauce off the countertops, the floor, the backsplash of the stove etc. There was dry rub all over the counter then he took the pan of water out of the oven and it was just an aluminum one and it caved in and there was water everywhere. He didn't stop there. The dog needed water and I was going to use the big glass he had used to add water to his ribs pans and he said he would do it and overfilled the dish and then didn't clean up all the water that splashed over and I almost slipped and fell. I told him I didn't think I was going to let him cook anymore because he was a messy cook. Thank goodness the meat tasted good or I would really have been mad! lol

Jean: My Cubbies lost big yesterday due to pitching mostly. Who knows what is wrong with that stupid team. I think that picture looks a bit like Thomas too. He really doesn't look like Thomas, but he has shot up and thinned up so much that he looks more like his dad at that age and Thomas kind of looks like Jay did at that age. Guess they both just have their grandparents genes! I think the only really complicated knitting stuff can be intarsia, which is like those colorful ski hat patterns and such, or lace patterns can get a bit complicated because it is easy to get lost. You only have two stitches for knitting, then you just combine them with different approaches to get what you want. Once you get going, most people don't have a lot of trouble.

Susan: I have a sweater half done that was supposed to be Ruth's so I made just rip it out and use the yarn for something else as I didn't get it finished for my girlfriend. I also have a cute green sweater I am knitting for myself for vacation next year, but have put that aside to get socks done and haven't worked on it in quite awhile so will have to rip some of it back to figure out the pattern as it is an intricate lacey pattern. I too am going to set up menus, I eat what is on them and that is that, period. I start tomorrow on it and know for about 2 weeks I will probably feel hungry then it will go away. Kelly emailed me yesterday that their pool is open so I can go over there and start swimming. Their water will be freezing as their pool stays shaded and so even in high heat it takes awhile for theirs to get heated up, but that's ok.

I bought some nice little boys with screw tops that will work well for Maggie's soup so I imagine either today or tomorrow I will make up a batch and put in containers to freeze.

Have a wonderful holiday today and thank you to all the men and women who sacrificed themselves for our freedoms! Faye

Good afternoon, ladies! Happy Memorial Day to you. A hot one here in the 90s.

Nothing going on today. I don't even feel like quilting. I watched a couple of movies.

Faye, if that isn't the typical man in the kitchen - leave the mess for you to clean up. Stan was the same way. There was always a underling to clean up for him at work. I'm glad the meat was so good. I know you'll enjoy the pool.

I never run the dishwasher unless it is full. We live with summer water restrictions and you only do full loads in the dishwasher or laundry. You get a considerable surcharge if you use more than your alloted amount in the summer

Jean, I can see where a little boy wouldn't want to be on a team called the Pineapple Sherbets. Who named them?

Maggie, congratulations on the scale victory!

Have a good day!

Good morning to you ladies. Today starts my healthylifestyle program and I am excited and ready to do it. I am really hoping that having an exact menu telling me when to eat and what to eat will help me lose weight and then keep it off. I need to be healthy too and that is why I decided to leave WW. Like I said, I would lose, but would be eating too many carbs, not enough fat, whatever. This way it is all balanced out.

I have started a pot of eggs for hardboiled eggs and when I get done here am going into the kitchen and start a pot of Cornucopia Veggie Chili. It is a recipe from a vegetarian restaurant that closed several years ago in South Bend. I used to go there all the time for lunch when I worked at the law firm. If I was late lunch I was out of luck as they always sold out. The recipe is available in allrecipes.com and is restaurant size but you can scale it down and I did to 4 servings. Jack won't eat it so it will be just for me for lunches. I will probably make up the pot of Maggie's veggie soup tomorrow and portion it out so I will have it. My poor refrigerator is full to bursting.

Maggie: Congrats on your weight loss, that is terrific! Jack helped me clean the mess up in the kitchen, but he is bad about just laying things down when he is finished with them and walking away. I had to tell him to put the charcoal and lighter fluid away before it rained. We have been getting some short hard bursts of rain showers every afternoon here. The three restaurants they have the bbq from are awful! lol Leonard's used to be a great place to go, but their standards and their food has gone downhill. A and R isn't very good and The BBQ shop is terrible. Everyone I know loves Rendevous downtown, though I am not a big fan of dry rub and they dry rub everything. My favorite here in town is Corky's. We also have a lovely elderly Christian man that owns the shop across the street and it is literally a bbq joint, very small, but great food, quantities, and prices. He never opens on Sundays but does do a lot of holidays except religious ones.

Jean: Our regular gas here is down to under $2.50 a gallon. I just hope it keeps dropping and is cheap when we go to Indiana. That would be great, but that is 7 weeks away so who knows. Those poor boys, what a thing to name a boys baseball team no matter how old they are. I wonder what noodle head did that! It is so sissy sounding! lol I am sure he will have fun no matter what but I think the team mother needs to provide the team with sherbet after every game!

Susan: It was awful here yesterday. I had to go to the store and finish up and it was a zoo, it was hot in the store, hot outside and just miserable to have to do anything. The humidity is so high here you almost can't breathe. It would be really tough on you here.

I saw some pics of Thomas in his swimming pool last night so they made it home from their trip ok. I got the cutest postcard from him on Friday. I just loved it. He told me what they had seen and where they were going with a see you later for the post script with his name. I talked to Jackson on the phone and he was all excited because he got a postcard from Thomas on Saturday. He is all jazzed about his birthday party on the 12th and they are going all out. His mom painted a spiderman head and some green guy enemy on the front window. When I picked up the phone I said hello and nothing, I knew who was calling from the caller ID and kept saying hello and heard Jay in the background telling him to say hello. When he did I asked him, "Who is this?" He said, "Me!" lol I decided I needed to take another route so I said, "What is your name?" He chirped out "Jackson!" Ahh! lolol It was fun to talk to him and I can understand him pretty well. Thomas was really really hard to understand on the phone at that age and I think it was partly because he talks fast.

Well, I have to get my chili going and get my morning chores and breakfast. Have a great day gals! Faye
Cornucopia chili 5 servings (1 pt per cup serving or 149 calories, 1 g fat, 8 g fiber per serving
Ingredients
• 1 can kidney beans, drained
• 6 ounces textured vegetable protein
• 3/4 cup and 2 tablespoons boiling water
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup chopped onion
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 3/4 teaspoon molasses
• 3/4 teaspoon honey
• 3/4 (10 ounce) can chile sauce
• 1/4 (28 ounce) can tomato puree
• 3/4 (29 ounce) can diced tomatoes

1. Mix textured vegetable protein and boiling water together in a large bowl. Set aside.
2. In a large saute pan, heat oil over medium heat. Add onions; cook and stir until soft and translucent.
3. In a large stock pot, combine beans, textured vegetable protein, onions, spices, salt, honey, molasses, chili sauce, tomato puree, and diced tomatoes. Stir to mix well. Simmer, stirring often for at least 1 hour.