Good Morning, Flowers! I am up early for a 7:30 lab appointment and then see the doctor at 9:30. It's still dark outside but think it is supposed to be a nice day. The picnic last night was "ok" and same as every other year. The guys grilled pork burgers, and bought deli salads and fruit, no dessert bars nor cookies. There were kids there and I would have thought they would at least have chips and carrot sticks for them.

My computer is home again and the guy couldn't find anything wrong with it. He dumped some spyware and things that have gotten downloaded that I didn't need. He thought maybe part of the problem is the router is downstairs while the computer is upstairs meaning well constructed house materials and insulation between the two could cause interference with connecting to the wireless and speed when searching for something.

"Gma" -- I'm so glad you were able to find the yarn you need to finish your sweater! What a nice surprise to be able to find "new" clothes that fit while shopping in your closet! Congrats on another loss this week! I'm sorry about the too big pants but glad the swimsuits fit. I haven't heard any locusts yet. Doesn't that mean 6 weeks until frost?

Maggie -- Please send some rain our way! We are so dry. I, too, have special cleaner and scrubby "thing" for my stove. I clean it after every use if necessary.

I'm off to figure out what I'm wearing. Just remembered I have lunch bunch at noon today. Hope you all enjoy a wonderful Wednesday!

Good morning, ladies! 67 degrees ... and rain. Only supposed to be in the high 70s today so a nice respite from the heat.

Last night was quilt guild and we had a very good speaker from Charlottesville. She is very artistic in her work and they are beautiful. Her husband is career Army (still in it in intelligence) and she had incorporated some of his old uniforms into some of her quilts.

Just work and housework until Friday night and then it will be lock-in. Well, I do have the Y as well. They put out list of school supplies needed to fill backpacks for kids so I went and got enough for 3. It wasn't that expensive at Walmart. I also volunteered to take a child shopping next week. We go in groups of 10, each child having a volunteer, to Kohl's. The budget is $125 for each child and we help them choose and try on. There will be a total of 150 children in this and it's all contributions from Y members.

Yesterday there were 2 little kids not more than 10 years old who had set up a lemonade stand on the corner. I stopped and they said the lemonade was 25 cents and they also had cotton candy for 75 cents. I didn't really want either but told them I'd take lemonade and gave them $1 because they said they were collecting the money for the Animal Shelter. Hopefully they don't have to pay for the ingredients because they gave me a 16 ounce cup full to the brim - no ice available. So lukewarm lemonade. They were just so cute I couldn't say no.

I thought I was going to finally get a truck. I've always wanted a Dodge Ram with extended cab so I've been looking. Trouble is, I'm just too old and short for that big thing, even with a running board. I can't see me getting into it when I'm in my 80s. So I'll look for something smaller. I don't plan on buying one right now unless I can get a really good deal. Every time I take my Neon to be serviced, Rick tells me to drive it until the wheels fall off because its still in excellent condition. Only had that one round of repairs last year and it's 10 years old. I still get 33 mpg, too.

Faye, congratulations on the weight loss. I hope all your new clothes aren't too big by the time you go on your cruise...but that would also be a nice thing. You are doing so well. I'm glad you found your yarn. We had those darn locusts earlier in the summer. They sure are annoying and nasty looking.

Jean, tea is a meal. In England they have afternoon tea and high tea. High tea is not what most people think - it's equivalent to our light supper. Afternoon tea is what we have and at that you have finger sandwiches and sweets and scones. They are only 2 bites so not real big. We had chicken salad, Smithfield ham salad, pimento cheese (a staple of the south), cucumber and cream cheese, smoked salmon, and egg salad for the savory. The sweets were meringes filled with real unsweetened whipped cream and topped with blueberries and raspberries, lemon tarts, maids-of-honors (tiny tarts - pastry shell, then a layer of jam, and then a very thin layer of cake batter and then they are baked), swiss cake roll filled with unsweetened whipped cream and apricot jam. The scones were lemon-poppy seed and current for the sweets and cheese for the savory. They are served with clotted cream, butter, and jam. This sounds like a lot of food but as I said they are danity bites. It is served with tea of choice. I like Earl Grey or Scottish Blend. This is my carb overload for the month and when I started the research study I told the dietician I would follow everything else to a T but I would not give up having tea with my friends once a month and she said it was fine.

Maggie, the only thing my friend uses on her glass top stove is a Mr. Clean magic eraser and it is always spotless. It's from 1995 so pretty old, too.

Have a wonderful day!

Good morning to you gals. I hope your day is starting out right. It is beautiful here so lovely and cool that I turned the ac off yesterday and haven't had it on since. It was 62 at 4 AM this morning.

My yarn should be here on Monday, which is great. I just hope the dye lots are close so the sweater doesn't look weird up around the front shoulders, "'cause I ain't a takin' it back out again to mix the two color differences." I only have the neckline decreases and the shoulder pieces to finish then I can block it and sew it up and do the neckline and armholes and it will be done.

Man, I had a mosquito get me in about 6 places and it has been driving me nuts. I put aloe vera on the spots several times and that helped, but I have a spot on the back of my leg that it is itching like crazy this morning.

Busy day tomorrow as I have to go to the vets and pay the bill and give them his left over dog meds to give to someone else, then I have an eye dr appt, then to the library to renew my card, then onto peddlers bike shop to get my sil a gift certificate for his birthday, which is tomorrow. We are getting together on the 31st so I will just hold onto it until then and Kelly said she has her dad's father's day present to take on the cruise. I am hoping she bought him the cufflinks he wanted. I bought him USS Kennedy ones, but he wanted a pair of his squadron or USS Ranger which was the other ship he served on. I sent her the suggestion so I think maybe that is what she got him. He will be thrilled.

I think I have decided to go back to straight single vision contacts. I have to use reading glasses even with the bifocal contacts so why pay the extra money for them if they aren't working? They are twice the price as single vision and I am at the top level of bifocal power they offer so she can't give me any more power. I have single vision glasses and put a pair of my readers over the top to see if I could see with my current reading glasses power and they were great so I don't need to go up on power. One of the things is I have terrible astigmatism in my left eye so I don't get great vision out of that eye with these contacts. I can only correct it with toric lenses and they are not only really expensive, from what I have read and talking to the dr they have to sit perfectly on the eye and not move for them to work. Why pay $50 a box and have to be messing with them all the time to keep them on the eye perfectly? We have vision insurance so I pay a $25 copay then have $150 to use for contacts, but they now take the $35 fitting fee out of that so I have the remainder, which gets me about 3-4 boxes. Walmart uses 1-800-contacts which is much more expensive so I just get as many boxes as my allowance then I go and buy the rest online at vision direct. I have the same vision in both eyes so I usually buy an extra couple of boxes for tearing or whatever and can always get more as long as it hasn't been a year since I bought them.

Susan: What a nice thing to do. Hope you get a child that isn't a pain to deal with. Boy, you aren't going to get a lot of clothing for that amount at Kohl's. They should have used Walmart, but maybe Kohl's gave them a deal or something. Thomas is doing a couple lemonade stands this fall to earn more money for St Jude's. He has made his $1000 donation cap from sponsors for his half marathon, but he wanted to do the lemonade and cookie stand. He is doing one on college opening day at U of Memphis and one of Kelly's friends who lives by the university offered their yard to use.

Jean: I am nervous about Jack starting medicare I think it is next year. We will be ok as long as he is working, but when he retires our income reduces drastically of course so don't know. I know Gloria told me way back not to worry as what medicare doesn't pick up, Tricare for Life will, but congress and the president have messed it up so much who knows now. I know one of the reasons my sister got in the predicament she got in was he gave her a prescription for antibiotics and when she went to pick it up it was $300!!! She couldn't afford that as her insurance refused to pay for it. So all she got were breathing treatments which didn't do anything about the infection. I don't have labs and such until spring of next year, though my mammogram is due in November.

Maggie: We are doing ok on rain this year. I noticed the crops looked good when we drive out to the commissary, which is all rural. I did get some gorgeous Ripley tomatoes and ate every one since Jack doesn't like tomatoes. Have fun with your oven when you get it. Maybe when we get the kitchen done I can get one.

Well girls, I need to go. I have bathrooms upstairs to clean and should get to them right away before it warms up too much. Have a great day today. Faye

Maggie:

Good afternoon, ladies! 73 degrees right now. It was in the low 60s overnight. AC has been off for 2 days so I'm happy Dominion Power won't get as much from me.

Faye, I pay my medicare premium and have Human Advantage PPO. Medicare sends part of my premium to them and all my bills go directly to Humana, Medicare is not involved. Human gives me better coverage than Medicare, covers my prescription, gives me extras Medicare doesn't like basic dental, vision, hearing aid, and my membership to the Y. I pay $31 a month for all that. I know plans vary by region but I'm very happy with it. I just hope Obama care doesn't screw it up. When I had an Anthem Blue Cross supplement I was paying $135 a month plus another $47 for prescription drug. I just can't go back to having to pay for that. Didn't your sister tell the doctor she couldn't afford the prescription so he could give her something else?

Maggie, we're 11 inches of rain ahead of normal. It rains every day for weeks now. Everything is lush and green. Usually by now grass is brown and things are dying. The foliage in the wetlands has grown so high I can't see the water unless I go upstairs to look out. If the hurricanes stay away, I'll be one happy woman.

Jean, Kohl's is giving a large discount. These are poor kids so I doubt they'll be very picky.

Have a wonderful day!

Good Afternoon, Flowers! It's a cool 63 degrees, with a breeze, and clouds today. The street was wet when I got up but the rain gauge said only .01. I made a grocery run; yesterday was $.40 off a gallon of gas, for a $40 order but I didn't feel like going and didn't need to buy stuff I didn't need right now.

"Gma" -- I wear my bifocal glasses with my contacts. I could still pass the drivers eye test without the glasses but I usually wear them so I can "read" the small print on the radio or dash. I really think Congressmen should be under the same healthcare program that everyone else is. They get way too many perks imo. I would think there would have been somewhere your sister could have gotten help with the expensive prescription, or the doctor could have tried something else first. I know sometimes insurance will pay for something if other things are tried first and don't work.

Susan -- It sounds like you have a good insurance plan. I, too, hope Obama doesn't screw it up for you. I just don't see how people who can't afford insurance will be able to pay the so called fines for not having any. I wasn't the one who mentioned shopping at WM with the child. Years ago I took a little boy to buy a hat, mittens, and snowpants. At the time we had a Penneys store, but across the street was a children's clothing store which was more expensive. Guess which one he wanted to go to.

Maggie -- I will have to take a look at the toaster oven. I'm just not sure I want to give up counter space for something I have no experience with. Sonny goes slip-sliding on my floor. He likes to chase the little plastic balls around and sometimes over/under plans how far he goes. They really fly on the bare floor.

I need to head to the library and return my books. Hope you all enjoy the rest of the day and evening!

Good morning, ladies! 72 degrees and sunshine. I'm so enjoying this cooler weather.

Tonight is dinner at VA BBQ with my friends and then lock-in at Bella. I'll be having my usual pork bbq (no bun), cole slaw and collard greens.

Faye, I hope you get all your glasses/contacts straightened out. I use readers for reading in bed. My eye doctor told me not to spend for an optician to make them but to get them at some cheap place so I get them at the $ store. It sounds like your sister's prescription was for a drug not covered under her formulary. I don't even try to get things fix anymore. I just get new one. July 1 VA gas tax was repealed - it was 17.5 centers per gallon but gas sure has come down. I paid $3.13 this morning.

Jean, its easy to use a toaster oven. It not only doesn't heat the kitchen, but you save electric over heating up a big oven.

Maggie, I'm not supposed to have carpet or drapes in my house because of my allergies and breathing problems. They do harbor dust mites and other allergens. I have to wash all my bedding every week, too. I really need to get rid of the carpet.

Have a wonderful day!