My really weird Asian beans taste like a combination of asparagus and green beans....very good.

Word of the Day

The ness - A series of positive or complimenting words that all end in "ness" like greatness, coolness, awesomeness, sweetness, sexiness, etc.

Rebates. My Mom called me yesterday to remind me that I needed to fill out my rebate forms for the things that "free" items that I bought at the store on Thursday. Once I get my rebates back, the items I bought will have been "free"...except for postage. So, I filled out all my rebates and then got a couple of birthday cards ready to mail out. GI Joe and Mr. T both have birthdays coming up. And then, I put all the coupons that my Mom gave me to give to Sarge in an envelope and got that all ready to mail out. Lots of mail, ready to go out and I couldn't go anywhere because I needed to stay home because I was expecting the glass guy to come out to replace the windshield on The Gator. So, I called my folks and my Dad came over, on his way to the post office, to pick up my mail to bring to the post office. Done. My rebates are in the mail but they'll be sent to my Arizona house. These rebates all have to be used as money at a local store here in Wisconsin but I can save them all up to use next summer.

Meanwhile, while I was still waiting for the glass guy to come, I canned four quarts of ripe tomatoes and canned the two quarts of blackberry juice that I'd got on Thursday night. The glass guy didn't get here to replace my windshield until around 2:30 PM and it took him over an hour to do what he needed to do. Not too shabby, he vacuumed out my car and washed ALL my car windows, inside and out. Nice.

#1 Son and his girlfriend...who I think I'll call Truffles (in my blog) because she makes really awesome truffles, yummy, are going to be coming late/later tonight. I spent most of the morning clearing and cleaning up all my canning stuff. I've really spread all that stuff out so it's handy when I need it but with company coming, I had to unspread it so we can at least sit down for meals. When it's just me, I don't bother sitting at the kitchen table so the kitchen table has become fair came for canning spread. Besides, I've invited my folks to join us on Sunday for dinner and cards. Maybe I can talk #1 Son and Truffles into helping me pick blackberries again so we can have them for dessert on Sunday night. We'll see. If not, I'll just make rootbeer floats. I may do that anyway and just steam juice the blackberries for next summer's wine.

So, then I get a call from Sis, who is in Washington (the state), and she wants me to pick her beans, cukes, and tomatoes because when she called Mom, Mom told her that Dad was having a hard time remembering to take care of it for her and she didn't want any overly ripe cukes left in the garden. Dad isn't messing up but...I agreed to go check on Sis' garden tomorrow and again on Tuesday. Then, I was reminded that I should go out and check my own garden but my Mom called to tell me she had LOTS of beans and so I offered to can them for her and that I'd pick them up when I go over to check on Sis' garden. Then, coating my arms with bug repellent (organic), I went out and picked a colander full of beans (I'm going to have to do some canning on Monday), a few zucchini (I'm thinking Ratatouille for dinner on Sunday), and the first of my sweet corn. I've got sweet corn!

I cooked up my seven tiny ears of sweet corn for lunch. Yummy! Of course, a couple of the ears were kind of starchy...I should have picked earlier....but they were really tasty. I've never grown corn before so I didn't know when to pick it. I still have more corn out in the garden that I suspect is ready to pick. Maybe I'll pick it and serve it while #1 Son and Truffles are here. I think that would be a fair reward for them helping me bring in and store the rowboat for the winter...and for the box of jam that I made for them.

Random Thought of the Day

If money doesn't grow on trees then why do banks have branches?

Noteworthy Quote of the Day

If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. Men will believe what they see.

- Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862)