It is Tuesday I Think! and from Plantation Florida!

There are big fires in the Everglades today! More than 12,000 acres are in fire! The smoke around here is crazy!! My inhaler is calling my name!

Tomorrow my friend and I are going to Miami to the Miami Sea and Aquarium. Her neice gets free passes as she is a courator at the Miami Zoo! I'm very excited! I haven't been there in in 32 years!

We are leaving for Chicago on the 20th. I really need to see my Vinnie!

So life goes on! I need to start my day down here in South Florida!!!!!!

I'll check back!

Carla

Hi Carla and all to follow!

So we got Krissy's  senior prom done, her 18th birthday, graduation and grad party done. I'm so tired I can hardly hold my head up. Of course she slept all day yesterday. Gotta love the fact that the old lady is still cleaning and working while the young ones are complaining that there worn out and tired...from what??? I guess having fun is tiring. lol! Hoping thing get back to normal I would love some peace and quite for a few days. 

Good to hear your feeling better Vickie, summer bugs suck!

Twink, good luck on your surgery, I pray for a speedy recovery for you. 

Connie, I hope things are going good with you and with warmer weather on it's way your joint pain is a little better.

Judy, Prayers for Sandi in the hospital and also for you.

If I forgot anyone I'm sorry but my mind is not what it used to be.

Thoughts and prayers for all, hope you all have a great day

Debbie

Good Morning Carla and OFF Family,

Carla, I hope you're okay with the smoke.  Be careful.  I have asthma, and would definitely need my inhaler.

Debbie, I vividly remember the whirlwind of high school graduations, proms, parties, etc.  My kids had jobs in high school, and rarely slept normal hours during the summers.  They were practically nocturnal.  Working, playing, partying at night, and sleeping till 1:00 in the afternoon.  My older son spent one summer on a quest to make the perfect hot wings.  I spent many mornings cleaning up grease all over my kitchen.  He once used an entire pound of butter, frying the wings.  What a mess.  I introduced him to butter flavor Crisco, and bought him a deep fryer.  

Well, I'm taking Isabel out for lunch for her birthday.  Her birthday is Saturday, but today works best in Colleen's schedule.  She wants to go to the food court at the mall.  I am looking forward to it.

Must scoot.

Hugs,

Trish

Good morning Carla and everyone.....

It is beautiful here today...sunny and warm! I am leaving the windows open until the humidity gets too high. The I will have to put the A/C on.

I have an appointment with my pulmonary doctor this afternoon. This will be my last visit with him as he is moving out of state. He sure is nice. I will miss him. I have a driver coming to pick me up at 2:15. She will take me there and wait for me and then bring me home. That is so nice!!

Other then that nothing much planned. I somehow find plenty of things to do to keep me busy!! I am always involved in something.

Wishing you all a wonderful day!

Prayers for our beautiful OFF family.

Much love and oodles of hugs to all.....connie d

Good afternoon sistas!

I have finally felt better today.  Whew!  Still hacking and coughing a bit, but no where near as ill as I have been since last week.  What a relief.  Poor Butch still feels pretty lousy, but then he was a day or two behind me in getting sick, so hopefully he'll start feeling better tomorrow.

We had a fairly busy day today.  We had to drive over to Seguin to the Social Security office to get Butch signed up for Medicare Part B.  Only, as usual, once we got there, all they did was hand us some forms and tell us to get his company to fill them out and then return them.  Grrrr!  WHY can we not do these things on-line???  Government is too big and too antiquated and just altogether stupid! 

Anyway, while we were over that way, we made a side trip to Luling (I know all of y'all are just fascinated by the Texas geography lesson--LOL!) and went to the Farmers' Market there.  We bought fresh pinto beans and purple hull peas (a type of black eyed pea), green tomatoes, and fresh shelled pecans.  If you've never had a fresh pinto or purple hull, you don't know what you're missing! 

So, tomorrow morning I'm going to make a half batch of my green tomato pickles.  I haven't tried canning anything in this lake house kitchen at all, and I don't have all my canning equipment here, but I think I can manage the pickles.  We love green tomato pickles with peas and with fried catfish, too.  I stopped at the store and bought a half dozen pint jars, plus the onions and peppers and things I need to make the pickles.  I'm really looking forward to my canning adventure in the morning.  I used to can all sorts of things from our garden and make all kinds of jelly when we lived in Nacogdoches.  I'm really a throwback to the 1950's, don't ya know?

Also have a haircut tomorrow afternoon, and heaven knows I need it!  I want to be nice and short again before we head to the beach next week.  In the kind of heat and humidity we have here in the summer, you either need to have hair so short, it doesn't matter, OR hair long enough to pull back in a ponytail.  Anything in between is just too much bother.

Well, I'm pretty pooped and it's time to lay down for awhile.  Oh, Connie, my new copy of Written in My Own Heart's Blood (Diana Gabaldon) downloaded onto my Nook overnight!  I can't wait to start reading it!  I may be up all night!  LOL!

Love you all!

Hi Vickie, 

My mom used to pickle gherkins and green tomatoes in an old crock when I was growing up.  I love the smell of fresh dill.  Around these parts, everybody has huge gardens, and does canning, including my daughter.  She's done mostly tomatoes, and green beans.  She grows large zucchini squash, shreds them in her food processor, and measures them for her zucchini bread recipes, and freezes them.  Then, she can make that bread fresh all winter.  Back in PA, I didn't know too many people with gardens.  Here, everybody has them, and they grow every thing.

Hugs,

Trish

I am going CRAZY....OMG!!!!!!! Got to work today turned the TV on in club house...no tv channel that we usually watch...hummm tried another one...looked closer to what it said in FINE print...NEED A CABLE BOX TO GET THIS CHANNEL NOW    WTH????????? So I called Time Warner...asked what that was all about. Yes you now need a box to view some channels. Cost $1.50 more per month. FINE. Come do it...have to make appointment. OK make an appointment. I need TWO boxes one for each club house. OK they will call you back in 24-72 hours to set up that appointment. HUH??????? you can't give me an appointment NOW????? No. 24-72 hours they will call you and tell you when they can come. WTH?????????? So we have all these NASTY storms that are going to be popping up starting tonight and go through Thursday and NO TV CHANNELS to wat*****lub house while at work!!!!!!! WTH???

Next thing that happens is this one...Rick calls me says CALL THE COPS!!!!! THERE IS THIS GUY OVER HERE ALL HIGH AND BLEEDING PANTS HANGING OFF HIS ASS AND TRYING TO GET INTO MAILBOXES AND HE IS TRYING TO GET INTO CLUB HOUSE NOW!!!!!!! CALL THE COPS!!!!!!!! I asked him what is he wearing so I can tell the cops...he yells at me what he has on...OK so I call the cops...they tell me they are looking for him and are on the way!!!!!! OK. I be line over to club house on other side see if I can see where he went...asked a tenant if she saw him...hell yes!!!! he was over here and I told him get the hell out of here!!!! He went towards the street!!!!!! OK...I couldn't see him...went back to my office...heard on scanner police in area...they found him...turns out it is a guy we have a no trespass on!!! I call police back told them we have a no trespass on him...she said she would tell the officers. Great!!! He goes to court tomorrow. IF he shows up...he didn't yesterday or today and he was told he BETTER show up tomorrow or else!!!!!! Not sure if they took him in or not now...PUNK!!!!!!

Got storms popping up in area west of us and headed our direction...need to go lock up now...just wanted to stop in and say I am going CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thoughts and Prayers for ALL that need them!!!!!!!!!!

HUGSSSSSSSSSSS

Oh my! No way I can follow Judy's description of her day.  My day was so quiet and boring, so will just say going for a shower and read some before lights out.

jennifer

Hi Carla and my OFF family:

So are your shingles nearly gone, Carla? I hope you're feeling better.

It was raining most of today, so we had to pick indoor activities to do in Springfield. We started off with the Executive Mansion because we could park nearby and the tour was indoors. It was very interesting, although I did have to climb a bit (elevator was broken because of storms awhile back). Not too bad. It was just lightly misting after the tour so we walked around the gardens after. 

We then saw the Union Station exhibit on the making of "Lincoln" ... not free but interesting and connected to the Lincoln Museum that we saw a few years ago. At that point we were going to go to the State Capitol, but it started raining harder. I suggested doing one of the wineries ... well, one was closed on Tuesday, one didn't open until 4 p.m. So we headed out to the only one opened ... Hill Prairie Winery (did I mention that just about every vacation we go on, I find a winery or brewpub?). After doing our wine tasting, the weather cleared up a bit, and New Salem (Lincoln's home from when he was 18 until he became an elected Illinois representative) was on the way back, so we did that tour. It was all outdoors. It's a re-creation of the village where Lincoln lived, set up some businesses, figured out what he wanted to do in life. Very interesting. About 3/4 mile walk. Shouldn't have been bad, but my little toe, with the bunionette, started really bothering me ... like someone was sticking a large needle in it. I really have to get that fixed. By the time we were near the end of our walk, I was in serious pain. My brother was making fun of me. I said I got my exercise in. He said the way I walk isn't exercise. He doesn't get it that walking as slow as I do is as much exercise as I can take.

Well, we finished that, drove back to Springfield and went to dinner at a wonderful brewpub called Obed and Isaac's Brewpub. I had a burger ... it was stacked with six onion rings. Of course, I had a beer, too ... it was called a Boilermaker ... it was their brown ale brewed with coffee liqueur. Oh yum. It had a high alcohol content. I did finish dinner, but only ate half the pretzel roll. Gary helped with the onion rings. 

Now I'm ready for bed ... tired ... need a pain pill. But it was fun although painful.