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Yup, this is why I qualified my recommendations depending on one's health and well being. However! Once you can't get around easily there are still lots of things you can do - if you can get out at all, tutoring kids (or even adults that are learning English as a second language or learning to read, for instance) is still possible, or they can come to you if conducive. Once you get to the point where you can't get out or don't want people that you don't know coming in, you can still write letters to members of our armed forces serving abroad (you can Google this - it is tremendously appreciated) or send greeting cards of the season with a personal encouraging note to people living in care homes that don't get any mail. There are endless ways to be of service to others in this life and my aim is to do something each and every day until my last breath. 😸

If you are still reasonably mobile and in decent health, this is your time to "give back"! And it will be more fulfilling than you can imagine! Go volunteer at a local food bank/pantry (either to stock the shelves or fill bags), go volunteer to tutor local kids that can't afford private tutoring (contact your local elementary for more info), go to your local library and sign up to read to kids or help kids read or do homework after school, go to your local animal shelter and walk the dogs or hang out with the cats to keep them socialized, and definitely not least, go to your local care home and adopt someone who never gets any visitors and show up regularly to just hold their hand and listen...or read to them if they prefer...the opportunities are endless.

So, so sorry - I wish I could give you a hug and some sympathy tears simultaneously. But 20+ years old means he had a good long life that is the main thing on which to focus. You'll see him again some day on the other side of that bridge...and he'll be purring up a storm.

Well now you will have the pleasure of watching "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" which is the Guy Ritchie movie that sort of defines this whole genre. It is remarkably good - some would say even better than anything he has done since...there is a good sequel too.

Yeah, I saw the movie some years ago (I think right after it came out because I'm a big Guy Ritchie fan) and thought it was too short! So I was really glad to see this version as well. I do recommend them both though the movie cast is hard to beat.

I eat a late breakfast when I can...often around lunchtime actually if the cats let me sleep in...but then I have breakfast food because I love breakfast (scrambled eggs with lots of cheese, or fried eggs with two-three strips of lowered sodium bacon...) and skip lunch, or just have a simple salad mid afternoon. Those days I only eat breakfast and dinner I am guaranteed to lose weight so its my easy go to when I gain an unneeded pound or two these days 😺

Yes! only though, in my opinion, if you are going to finish the whole stew the day/night you cook it. Squash gets too soft/mushy (at least the kind I would use - something without tremendous flavor, like butternut or whatever that yellow type is called) in reheating, whereas turnips, like potatoes, are starchy enough to stay as distinct chunks or cubes or whatever. Stew is so lovely for playing add and subtract with...I experiment with herbs a lot and also using different kinds of wine.

Unfortunately I am still entirely unimpressed by this Trina and find her devotion to the currently absent Spencer (of course he is not really dead, he'll be feeling much better whenever the writers need the character back) truly boring. The OG Trina had spark and tenacity and would not be moping around like this; she might be furious at the loss of her "great romance" but not to the extent of abandoning all her personal goals or drifting from place to place getting sympathy from all and sundry. Send her back to Paris or find another way to write this character out for good - she has no purpose really as she is currently, IMO.

Happy Easter to y'all! I am religious, and of the Catholic variety, so just spent the last four days in church singing at various liturgies and being a lector on Good Friday. The church was packed this morning (lots of what we call C&E Catholics = Christmas and Easter) and the choir did a great job so hopefully some will come back on a regular Sunday once in a while. Now on to the eating (especially the chocolate) part! And the sun finally came out here in central California after three days of rain and wind so it feels very much like spring has finally sprung! Have a lovely day, whatever you believe and however you celebrate! 😸

Yes, and if these laws had not been passed, the food pantry at which I work would be out of business! We are up to over 2800 people a month coming for basic groceries and we are spending about $4-5000 a month to buy food which is only covering about 1/3 of what we give - the rest is from the local grocery stores that donate because they get a tax break to not throw out food here in Cali now. During Covid we got lots of food from our main food bank - that is over and now we have to pay for the staple stuff (rice, beans, cans of tuna, cans of soup) so although I am not a big fan of everything our state legislature does, in this case they so got it right!

I don't see any metrics that would indicate "shutting down" is being contemplated as a whole...and the royals forum was *shut down* by the powers that be, not because of lack of participation. I realize this is a commercial enterprise so I would assume the only thing that matters is if they are still successful at selling ad space and enough people are coming to see those ads..along with the content. If I am missing something else, do tell! eBay is your friend! Search in women's shoes, by size and location (I only buy things from within the U.S., due to shipping costs and also filtering for unscrupulous sellers), and if you prefer, by New With Tags...and then always, always check the seller's feedback before bidding (if it is a true auction) and the shipping costs so you get a true cost. My mom wore a 5W also (so I wound up getting her shoes on line because no retail store seems to carry any size under a 6 these days). Good luck!

Curious as to what makes you think that...care to share more?

Big game on Sunday! Man City vs. Arsenal - Pep Guardiola vs. Mikhail Arteta! Its at ManCity...but since the Gunners left Highbury I'm not sure how much that will matter. I'm jittery already because this might just determine the league winner...!

I've not heard of this author previously but since I am always up for good new reading material (and have got some great recommendations here!), I looked her up and wow has she written a lot of novels! Impressively prolific, but it may be a genre that is sorta borderline for me: is it fantasy historical romance/adventure stuff or am I wrong?

Are you allergic to salmon? (if so, never mind but I've never heard of someone being allergic to salmon/halibut/tuna) - fleshy fish like salmon are easily cooked in many ways and a great source of protein! The other possibility is nuts! Try throwing roasted or raw almonds and/or walnuts into your salads or just munching on a handful a few times a day - find whatever nut you prefer. And last but not least is eggs! You can have eggs for dinner as a frittata and throw every kind of lovely cheese/onions/herbs in...or just scramble or fry a few up as a meal or snack. Frankly, protein powder is a substitute for REAL food so try to get more real protein into you before you resort to a chemical, manufactured solution.

I have entirely switched from using potatoes in my beef stew to using turnips - you get the same addition of something bland and "potato-y" but with a little less carbs and more vitamins. I also throw in a quartered orange (leave the peel on) for the first hour of simmering (at the same time as I add lots of red wine and the water or beef stock), then take the orange all out - gives a lovely flavor and the acidity brings out the flavor of the meat and makes it more tender.

So when do we actually get to see the final set of episodes? Anyone know?

Oh....they only get better....incredible series. Enjoy!

Terro makes these little packets that contain the liquid but your cats nor any other creature that should not ingest the liquid cannot access. The ants go inside, get some of what is clearly a delicious (to ants) poison and take it back to their colony and then they all die there. Works really, really well, so look for the little modules (I don't know what else to call them) next time instead of putting out the drops (most all hardware stores sell them).

At the risk of being banned, I will comment that all this (especially the earning of "badges" for virtuous behavior) is so kindergarten level. If you give me dark chocolate, I will promise to do better though. 😸

Nope! Slam dunk of the year was TJD vs. Wemby...admit it!!

This is a common theme with packaged food now - in order to not raise the price so much that people (to be frank, mostly people that never cook because they don't have time or are not able to for mobility reasons) can still afford to buy the product, they decrease the expensive ingredients (i.e. meat/chicken/seafood) and keep the weight the same by just upping the filler part. I occasionally buy a shrimp concoction for Friday dinners because I get home late on Fridays and am often too tired to contemplate cooking: the meal I get is now down to three or four pathetic little shrimp - the rest is inexpensive veggies like broccoli and onion and some pasta (which I should not be eating anyways!).

Apparently. They were good though!

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. - John Acton

I once heard something to the effect that spiders will only weave their webs in harmonious households, so if a spider is living with you, that is a blessing. I really love all living creatures, no matter how many legs they have, so I kill no bugs ...everyone is ferried outside the house if they are in an inconvenient place. Now when it comes to chickens - I used to have them (for fresh eggs) and they are mean, dirty beasties so killing them for food (as necessary) was not terribly hard (the de-feathering is the hard part). We also had rabbits that were supposed to be for eating, but I could not conceive of killing even one, so eventually they all got released out into a verdant canyon (where unfortunately they probably wound up being eaten by coyotes or cougars 😿 ).