lovemesomejoolery

And I agree with what you've said here, as well as @PearlClutcher. I get really uncomfortable when some of the snark turns to the financial stuff. I don't know any of these people we snark about personally, so who am I to comment on their financial means or lack thereof? And especially with such authority. That's just my personal bugaboo......if you heard me around my non-cyber friends talk turns towards something to do with money, you'd think I was the finance police. We have a friend going through a divorce and it's been 6 years and they are "dating". Talk of them always devolves into how one of them is holding out for the money, and I just nip that talk in the bud. People don't know my financial state and I don't want to know theirs or even speculate - I think it's unseemly. It's the "southern" in me, I guess (10 years or so ago, my friends used to call me the Julia Sugarbaker of our group......I am sort of like her character on that show!). But here, I'm not offended or upset if someone else speculates or comments, I simply don't join in.

Corection - the salad I got at Cheesecake Factory was the Santa Fe salad....I called it the southwest salad in error. Now I want one. Grrrrrr.........

I like the Cheesecake Factory but haven't been in a few years for two reasons: 1) they got rid of my favorite sandwich - shrimp club. I used to get it with only two pieces of bread. I loved that thing. 2) if I didn't get the shrimp club, I'd get the Southwest salad........but then one day, I was on the web and there was a slideshow of the highest calorie dishes in chain restaurants. The usual ones from PF Chang and Olive Garden and TGI Fridays were on there, as well as my beloved salad. I swear I can't figure out why it's so high in calories, probably the dressing, but suffice it to say, I'd have had less calorie intake if I'd just eat two Big Macs. I'm not kidding. I was floored. So I refuse to go anymore. Plus, the hubs doesn't like it - he doesn't like any chain restaurant anymore. And he thought it was pricey for what you actually got, which is very true. One more thing - if you like bananas, the Banana Cream cheesecake is really good. But the last time I was there it was like $8.95 a slice. For cheesecake!!

Good advice - on this board and in general, life! My husband sometimes sticks an imaginary remote from across the room, to turn me off when I am getting on his nerves. First time he did that to me, I was irritated.....then I realized it was from some movie.....I wish I could remember, it was a Peter Sellers movie. I am the worst when it comes to Shawn Killinger, and even I don't like how I sound sometimes when I rant over her stupidness. I just watch less when she's on, so I don't come across way negatively. I will apologize in advance if I seem like a total Beyotch.......I can't help myself with her.

Will you PM me and let me know what happened? I tried to PM you and couldn't. And whatever happened to the "G" - garden - in HGTV? Nothing at all like they used to have. Now it's all house hunting, Carribean house hunting, Mexican house hunting, tiny house house hunting........ Give me my gardening shows back please!

OMG! That was YOU on the nightly news I heard about? Michigan woman wears loose top and no bra while "doing her thing" and walking on the wild side!! Ha! Ha! Welcome to the dark side - I go braless around the house, too! Quite liberating!! In summer, try their peach milkshakes. To die for!

I am late to the table here, and hopefully will catch up on this thread and hear what happened. But know this - no matter how old we are, or how old our moms are, at the end of the day, they're our mom! You miss them no less or no more than if she were 60 or 30........ I'm not a particularly religious person, but when my own mother was dying, a cool minister led me to The Book of Psalms in the bible. This one gave me comfort and continues to. Hugs to you!

Me, too!

Creamed corn in meatloaf sounds good! I've never been one to put ketchup in my meatloaf or on top of it, though I've had it and like it. We're the same way in this house. All of my relatives are in Kentucky - lots and lots of relatives (my great grandma had 17 kids, my grandmother was the oldest) so they cook very southern. Their way of making meatloaf was the same way I made it for years and years, and probably about 10 years ago, I changed up in favor of brown gravy. The kind in a jar with mushrooms, I think by Heinz? I used to make a version of meatloaf like my grandma's - usual meatloaf ingredients - then put peeled potatoes around it and cover the meatloaf and the potatoes with Campbell's tomato juice and bake it for about an hour and a half. It's good, but it's not like the tomato juice ever gets really thick or anything. 15 minutes. I think my grandma made this version because she had huge garden and canned her own tomatoes as well as made her own tomato juice that she put up every fall. Now, I make my usual meatloaf, and my secret ingredient is taco sauce. I also sauté the onions and red bell pepper before I put them in the meatloaf mix. I don't have a recipe/ratio for the breadcrumbs added to one pound of meat. But my meatloaf always comes out fairly moist, because of the taco sauce. and the small amount of olive oil used to sauté the onions/pepper. Oh!!!! I am making this! Thanks for sharing!

This sounds wonderful! I am going to have to try it on my potato salad! I already do a similar version of this, which we eat all summer. I make a version of potato salad that uses a vinaigrette base instead of the traditional mayo. I just steam some potatoes, then when they come out, I immediately pour Girard's Champagne Vinaigrette over them, then add whatever vegetables I have on hand. This past weekend, it was leftover thin green beans, some yellow bell pepper, green onions, carrots, zucchini and snow pea pods. I put the snow peas, green beans and zuchini in the microwave for a few seconds, then add them. It's a great way to use up vegetables. I've thrown radishes in there - anything I had a few extra of. And always the few cherry tomatoes that are around.

@CarpeDiem54 gave good advice.....another thing I do is take the half I don't eat, cut it up and mix with halved cherry tomatoes. Then, I put either lemon or lime juice, whatever I have on hand, and a little olive oil - or if I'm really lazy, a splash of vinaigrette dressing - mix it all up and you have a salad you can eat later. It doesn't turn brown. Still, only lasts about a day - the acid will break down the avocado and make it mushy when prepared this way. I've used a microplaner to grate the onion......but I like the idea of putting it in a food processor! Awesome idea!

OMG! I just watched that episode last night! Silly, huh? I'm starting to get bored with the show - they have to come up with some compelling storylines, or it's gonna be a long summer. And I, for one, am not interested in storylines that involve teeny boppers!

I don't know, those things are spelled out in the agreement, at least it was in mine. But keep in mind, the "no contact" rule isn't written into the agreement as part of the non-solicitation clause, at least it wasn't in mine. I would think that would be a hard one to enforce legally. In my case, it was my attorney's rule so that my former company couldn't say I was trying to recruit my former co-workers to come to the company I was now working for. His thinking on that was that if you simply don't have contact, your former company can't ever, as a nuisance only, go to the courts and complain that you violated the agreement. Because my company was paying for the attorney, and spending a great sum of money to do so, I did what he told me! And, the non-solicitation clause is only in effect for the time period as stated in the agreement, or the time period that a judge says if you end up in court trying to fight it. No one has the right to keep you from talking to anyone ad infinitum!

Not to contradict you at all....but I actually work in an industry with non-competes. Two scenarios I have personally been involved in: in 2009 the company I worked for made all sales reps reapply for their jobs and there were a good many reps who were laid off. I asked my attorney if I was laid off, would my non-compete be enforceable. The answer was, yes. Even if they gave me severance, yes. I could fight it in court, at my expense, and in all likelihood have the judge reduce the time (24 months), but in the meantime, other companies in my industry probably wouldn't hire me due to the non-compete and potential legal issues. Injunctions would be filed, and basically the company that hires you has to wait out your non-compete while paying you! So they avoid that, usually! At the end of the day, non-competes are put in place to protect the company from losing business should an employee leave. In 2012, for many reasons, I decided to leave my company after 23 years, and I had a solid non-compete. The company I work for now provided me with an attorney and my legal fees were covered. My non-compete was reduced significantly as long as I followed everything else in the contract to the letter. Mainly, two things - I couldn't contact my former customers and - this is why I think we maybe do not hear much from hosts who leave QVC - I could not contact anyone who I used to work with at that company for the same time period. The reason is because in most non-compete agreements, there is a non-disclosure clause as well as a non-solicitation clause. You can't be seen as airing dirty laundry or be seen as trying to recruit people from your former company to your new company. While the non-compete doesn't specifically say you can't talk to anyone from your former company, my attorney said not to, because it is the one clause that will get you in trouble - even the appearance of you trying to get people to come to your new place of business can land you in court, so he didn't want me talking to anyone at all. It was a tough thing, because I wanted to say goodbye, I wanted to be able to call people back when they called me, but I just couldn't put my current company at risk by doing something stupid. Every non-compete is different, and I also think it depends if you are employed in a Right to Work state or not. I'm not saying that any of these hosts situations are my experience exactly, but I have seen a lot of non-competes in my time as a manager and they are all basically the same.......it's just the length of time you have to stay away from your former customers that is different! Yes! I agree...it is unprofessional!

Nice! I am a huge fan of FM, too. I love Stevie Nicks and especially am impressed that she pretty much looks and sounds like she did 25 years ago. Whenever I'm in a "mood" I listen to Rumors or one of their greatest hits CDs. I like Silver Spring and also one that is primarily a Lindsey Buckingham song, Bleed to Love Her.

OMG! I love these! They just make me happy! Why can't you leave them on your balcony? Are you on a first floor or something and afraid someone would snatch them?

Here in Maryland, we were 95 degrees for three days last week.........then yesterday, barely 65 and not a drop of sun. Same predicted today. We have an outdoor, formal event to go to that starts at noon and runs until 4. What I had planned to wear was very spring like and I am afraid to wear it now. Not quite sure what I'm going to do.

That was a great list that @Girlydiva53 posted....I was going to tell you that I have used Alpha Hydrox. Many years ago, but it worked great. You can get it at a drugstore and I think Ulta has it, too.

I fell asleep at some point, but each group had to a sitcom type show and the one group who did the church thing - I still don't know what they were trying to say, maybe that religion doesn't approve of them? - and when the camera angle was like the one above, she had a look like she was smelling shit.......I guess it's the look you call "what the hell is going on?"! Personally, I wasn't offended or anything by the show, but given her strict religious background, and just who she is (or rather, who she is not), it seemed a very odd choice for her to be on this show. She was out of place and looked out of touch. And I'm not surprised that she didn't announce this on her FB page....she is probably very embarrassed to have participated.

so pretty!

I had to find some images of this online. I love the one with the gnome in it. Such an ingenious thing to do, if you have the type of yard that can handle this type of whimsy!!

I love this!

It'll be fine! Even mine had yellow leaves. As you probably know, Mandevillas thrive in hot humid weather. Bringing them from CA of FL, taking them out of the environment they love, and bringing them to our areas causes a tiny bit of stress. They are also heavy feeders, and no one's feeding them on that truck ride from wherever to your greenhouse - I feed mine once a week with Miracle Gro and they bounce back in no time!

I just posted and asked if these were Kinsman.....they are! How lucky hat you have a warehouse store to get some bargains! I think they are so elegant looking, and while you may pay a little more, Kinsman is known to hold up for years!