So...whats for dinner?

lacey - that was the way I read that too, but then I think debbie's family issue comment was directed to seaside - the happy b-day to you was in the middle.  Not wanting to speak for her, but I had to read it twice too.  Seaside posted back on June 12 that she was having family issues and had been MIA. 

Thanks for the interpretation, Special. I hope things have worked out well for the other gemini triplet, too. Life is complicated......

Please pray for my daughter, or if you are Quaker, hold her in the light.

She is in an emergency room out of state and I am arranging for her to come home

Bedo.  Sending prayers your way..and to your daughter.

Eric

light and love being sent to your daughter Bedo! 

bedo - oh no!  Hoping all is well and that you can get her home safely - keeping you both in my heart!

Bedo, sending lots of love and positive thoughts your way! (((Bedo)))

Bedo - sweet sister holding you and your daughter close in prayer. Please let us know how she is.

Have been totally uninspired in cooking. The last real thing I cooked was the stroganoff a few nights ago. Spent yest. in Ft. Worth but sat for an hour in parking lot waiting for severe flooding storm to rain itself out b4 I drove home. At least 3rd day for flooding in area, but lakes are going up - some of them. Wettest June in 5 years. Unfortunately the lake that supplies most of our water and the one supplying Plano, McKinney and those N. suburbs has gotten little. The airport, Ft. Worth and Arlington had severe flooding. I had MO appt. yest in the same area that had flooded the day b4. Several intersections near the "hospital district" were underwater.

Did go to TJs yesterday. They had lovely little grape tomatoes and excellent black figs. Little hesitant about the figs since they still had mod. amt of green on them but they were good. $3.98/lb. Not too bad. I tried to go to Sprouts but already spent a bunch at TJs. Besides by then the darkness was descending and I decided to hightail it at least to the other side of town b4 the deluge hit. Read today that the area where I was shopping ended up with only pittance of rain.

Monica - so glad you're coming along so well from your surgery.

Lacey - are you due for company this weekend - DS and his GF?

Oh dear Nance, I am so sorry that our interloping voracious drug addict groundhog hopped a train to the midwest! I felt my blood boiling just reading your post! I feel even worse for you with all of your hard work   on your abundant garden.

Yesterday we had a man here who is going to install one of those wall heating/cooling units and he happened to tell us, when the conversation somehow  got on to gardens, that he totally shot and killed a groundhog that was in his garden. We can't actually do that in our town....even if we could even muster up the anti-groundhog courage to take the shot, which is too bad since I have great aim! 

RELATED GROSS STORY ALERT!! A man in our NH neighborhood caught a groundhog in his have a heart trap then heartlessly drowned it....then put the carcass back on his property for the neighborhood foxes, since he feels they are on his team. Yikes! Hope you don't have to go to such extremes for your garden. Good luck! And you can always out him back on the train east since there is nothing left here for him!!

Bedo, I also hope things are improving today for DD. There is nothing so awful as having our kids in any sort of crisis.

I know where this one lives, in a large brush/leaf pile where I'm sure he has made a tunnel.  I can see the entry clearly. We have a havaheart trap and can use it, but it's a pain. Missouri trapping laws allow you to catch and kill the critters, but you can't catch them and release them elsewhere. We don't like critter killing so much ( except for mice, voles and moles), although I'm not opposed to a well placed pumped up bb or two lol!  DH has even been known to catch and release live mice into the woods. I'm not that soft ;-)   We would have to break the law (gasp!) and transport him to a local wildlife refuge under cover of darkness.  I don't mind being an outlaw as much as I mind getting up at 4 am and driving 20 miles to the refuge.

Thankfully, the beans are fenced off from the rabbits and DH has a bunch to pick.  Yay!! Haricots verts!

But tonight is gong bao chicken with brown rice and a spring roll or two.

Lol!  Groundhogs eating jalapenos!  One got into my son's fire station - this photo is hilarious of DS with the groundhog in hand:

Very cute! Your DS that is, the groundhog, not so much  . . . .

Cute pic, Special! Tho the varmint looks more like a koala than the groundhog who lives (lived?) under our shed.

We have the same laws about not relocating such pests! But were prepared to with the help of a friend. It is annoying to have to be so stealthy. DH used to relocate squirrels that we trapped in the house eaves in our prior house. However, inevitably two more would move on in  (their social media obviously very effective for communicating available housing opportunities!) until we got the place all sealed up. I can still see DH driving to the local town forest at night with the cage on the roof under a blanket LOL! We lived pretty close to a future presidential candidate who had his dog on top of the same kind of car. I guess squirrels weren't so bad.....and they never got sick during the ride! 

It is possibly the most gorgeous day imaginable here today! Sorry for those of you who are suffering with so much bad weather....sure we will get it at some point. But today is glorious.....I even insisted after our lunch out that DH go golfing, which he promptly did. by the way, he had a greek salad roll up....I had a cup of chicken lemon rice soup.....needed more lemon!

Tomorrow we go to the wedding of the daughter of close friends of ours in the next town. She is a great young woman (went through school with DS2) who now heads up an agency in Baltimore that supports the inner city kids to get through school successfully and lead productive lives. Her good work seems to have been rewarded as she hit the jackpot for weather for her at home garden wedding. So happy for her!!

Luv, you are right about visitors, but the deal is that DS2 and his friends are going to be visiting our house at the lake, not us! They are all going to a separate wedding (than us...a different classmate from HS) tomorrow at Lake Winnipesaukee (not far from our lake), so are hotelling at our place. I have to laugh at DS2 who says...."we'll hardly be there....you won't even notice anyone stayed there, since we will be at the wedding events a lot". So my frame of reference is girls getting ready for the wedding, the beach, the rehearsal dinner, etc......I do think their will be some house use! The good thing is that whenever he has friends there he makes a concerted effort to clean really well, so it is no effort for us post visit.  

So, while we will not see any guests this weekend, we are heading into Seaport to meet DS2 and "Chicago girlfriend" for dinner on Monday evening. She is staying in town for most of the week? So this is our first official meet and greet other than their quick stopover here a couple of weeks ago...YAY!

Heading out to plant a few petunias that were leftovers from my planting efforts at the lake. I have absolutely no color in my back property so far.....except for the waning purple chive fleurs! Pathetic!

Oh, Luv, I was intrepid enough to plant some mint a few years ago, and it did not really take over every area, so I am quite happy to have it. Then we found a larger leaf variety growing adjacent to our yard fence, (it is probably a spread effort from my next door neighbor who cooks middle eastern food). DH, while weeding, dug some up so that is now in pots thriving. I have no trouble with having mint! wish it would take over our lakehouse property where we go totally rustic.

Joyce - lovely tribute to Michelle.  So glad you've remained close to Rick.

Bedo - you're still in our thoughts & prayers.  Check in when you can.

Special - what did they do with the groundhog after they caught him?

Lacey - hope the "chicago girl" dinner goes well.

I agree - I'm in awe of Debbie.  I can't remember one page back let alone 10.

OO Nancy you got the gourmet on for the rodents. I forgot how big they are until I saw Special's pic. No way would the gopher trap work. Might have told my Havaheart story. We lived in older part of FW - rented house in early marriage. Noises in attic. I swore it was squirrel. DH wired up sides of trap and filed off trip mechanism to just a hair trigger. I made him promise to relocate it if it was a squirrel. It was a very large rat. He used his trusty BB gun too and killed it.

Is it the rain bringing them out? News story about how many snakes are out and about. Friend from church bit by copperhead and she's not a yard/gardener person - bad COPD. Must have just stepped in the wrong place.