Tomatoes!

Word of the Day

Tworp - Describing one who is a twerp and a dork or dweeb.

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Happy Belated Birthday to HTP! So much doings this weeks. I sent a HUGE tub of popcorn to HTP for his birthday. Not nearly enough but we'll celebrate his birthday again when I get back to Arizona in October.

Meanwhile, the tomatoes are indeed ripening with the heat and humidity that has returned to The Lake. I've been picking every day and have gifted boxes of tomatoes to my folks and to BW Babe and JC. I'll be canning...probably tomorrow. There's no way that I can eat all these wonderful tomatoes by myself.

I did cook up a batch of oven-fried green tomatoes and ripe tomatoes and some oven-fried summer squash this morning. No, I didn't eat it all. I saved some of the oven-fried summer squash for tonight's dinner. I'm thinking about making an Italian-style meal, using the oven-fried squash as a base, topped with spaghetti sauce, mozzarella and parmesan cheese with fresh basil on top. Mini-Margarita pizzas without the high carb crust.

With all the heat, I decided to get an early start this morning on watering all the plants, picking the ripe tomatoes, and picking the pole beans. The pole beans have grown so tall that I have to use my 6-foot step stool to get to them. I ended up with enough beans for a meal AND enough to pickle. Three pints of Spicy Dilled Green Beans. I love pickled beans. Even with my early start, I ended up "glowing" all over the place, having to shower and change clothes before I could continue with my day. Thank goodness for air-conditioning. Today was certainly the day for it as The Lake remains under a heat advisory.

On Thursday, BW Babe and JC brought Toby over for me to dog-sit again. Kylee and Toby spent a great deal of time while Toby was here playing but I had to stow away Kylee's more fragile toys after Toby decapitated one and spread fluff all over the living room. After that little incident, they ended up playing with the Kong-style toys. BW and JC picked Toby up on Saturday night....and I got two bottles of wine out of it. They really didn't need to bring a gift. Toby is a nice boy and a perfect guest.

Friday, I had my mammogram....not my idea of fun times but necessary. Though there is no history of breast cancer in my family, I don't like taking chances. As it is, I've had to have a needle biopsy which was NOT fun due to a questionable dense spot on a past mammogram. The result was negative but they still need to keep an eye on the area. It's been several years since then but I still feel uneasy until the results come in every year.

I've started to think about my return trip to Arizona with only a bit more than a month remaining of my time here at The Lake. There's a lot that needs doing between now and departure day. But, I'd rather not think about that right now. My cold is better but is tiring me out faster than I'd like. Things that I wanted to do this summer are going to have to wait until next year. Right now, I've got wine that needs to be bottled, more jam and jelly to make, tomatoes to can, and, and, and... I'm not ready to make hotel reservations...not yet.

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Random Quote of the Day

Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.

Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)