After months of being in a serious drought, we have had five days of rain here in the Tennessee Valley section of Alabama. Oh, not downpours continually but a steady gentle rain most of the time. It even brought on Flash Flood warnings further north (and at higher elevations) from our area. We really needed it and I am anxious to get a report on how much cumulative rain it has actually produced. I know it hasn't compensated for the 16 inches below normal that we were deficit but I am sure it has helped out.

The one area we didn't need it though was in the WEED sector. My garden is so overrun with weeds that spending a couple hours each day hasn't made a serious dent in it. I can only get small areas done before the rain drives me indoors...about a 3' x 3' patch. Worse is the fact that the Beast planted too many watermelon plants, not realizing that they *vine*. Ditto the cantaloupe so you have to be double careful since some of the tendrils are curled around the weeds. They have to be separated before you can yank the darn things out of the ground. Add the rain factor and they are growing like...well, WEEDS ! I need enough time to get it done or I will lose some of my cucumbers and the beets are in danger now too. *sigh* All I can do is ask for four or five continual hours so I can get this growth of weeds out of the garden before we make our trip to North Carolina to visit the Beast's aunt at her cottage.

Cottage! Ha! That's a laugh. There are people who don't have HOMES as nice and fancy as her *cottage* that she only uses for maybe 5 months out of the year. It does have a gorgeous view and wonderful deck out back though. I sat on it for hours a couple years ago when I was driving back to Florida from Columbus, SC after visiting my dying cousin. I needed the peace of that since Cathleen and I had been close for most of our lives. We were only about six weeks apart in age and her dying of cancer made me feel as vulnerable as I had felt when my mother died of it (only a different form of cancer that took Cathy) at the young age of 56. I guess that's why I am now a bit reluctant to go there. My last memories of being there were really not happy ones.

At least my hubby agrees that we will only stay three days at the most. He is so involved with getting his projects here at the new house completed and his lawn *patched up* that even he didn't really want to go. Normally, he would go without me if I urged him to but he's discovered that he just doesn't enjoy things quite as much if I am not there to share it with him. Weird, huh?

I don't know if it's the rain or what but the hummingbirds are back at the feeder now. Maybe their eggs have hatched. I really don't know but I am glad to see them again. I was wasting a lot of nectar because I heard that you shouldn't let it stay in longer than two or three weeks due to bacteria that can build up in it. I figured I would rather be safe than take the chance with their health so I keep fresh nectar in it at all times. I told the hubby that I was going to do a little research and plant flowers that attract butterflies and hummingbirds next spring. I think *natural* souces of food are preferable to the *nectar* we put out although I will keep that as a backup since flowers have a definite and finite lifetime.

The beast completed another project of his making. He put a storm door up on the door from the house to the garage. Now this may sound strange but....the main door for the garage definitely does NOT seal well and during the winter, means the garage is almost as cold as the outdoors. During the summer, if he's not running the AC for the garage, it heats up unbearably. This way we do not have the leakage from the house to the garage or vice versa. The storm door seals great and tight. It also has a hideaway screen on it so we can slide the screen down to open up to any breezes. The front door and back door both have storm doors just like it and, during the cooler morning hours, I open up everything I can to air out the house and take advantage of prevailing winds. If I could do without air conditioning, I would but it does make those 90 degree and above days much more comfortable

Has anyone watched *The Dog Whisperer* on National Geographic Channel? That Cesar is the most amazing dog trainer I have ever seen. It's just incredible. If you haven't seen him, check on it on Tuesdays in your area and watch it. I guarantee you will find it both informative and enjoyable.

Well, time for me to get us fed. Tonight it's leftovers so it's just nuke and eat..:grin: Hav3e a wonderful evening and a great tomorrow. Any day you wake up is a good one so dance as if no one is watching.

It's been an interesting few days here in NE Alabama. First we are suffering from a drought. The weatherman did not predict any certainty of rain other than *20 percent chance* of isolated showers on Saturday. Well, guess what we have had for two days? You got it....rain. Oh, not a heavy rain but a steady drizzle with intermediate showers of some volume. There were flash flood warnings yesterday in two counties just north of us that are at a little higher elevation. I know we are not out of the drought but it has helped make my weeding in the garden a lot easier. I still have a day of weeding to do since it's slow going with all the wandering cantaloupe and watermelon vines. Since we have melons on both, we have to be careful what we are pulling and make sure it isn't going to tear up something we want to keep intact. Next year, I swear.....a bigger garden and there will be some changes made to keep the vines under control.

Back to the Chicago trip. I won't call it a family reunion although all of us siblings did get together and enjoyed ourselves and the food immensely. A girlfriend of mine from high school (yes, I do remember those days still) came and spent the afternoon with us and had a good time too. Assorted friends of my sister-in-law came over, too, to add to the variety. The kids had erected some borrowed canopies and we had an assortment of chairs and tables borrowed from friends and neighbors so we could relax and enjoy the very beautiful weather we were blessed with for both days of events. The next day was a double graduation party since one nephew had graduated from grammer school and the other one from high school. The leftover food from Saturday did not go to waste.

By 11 P.M., we were pretty much exhausted from cleaning up and the fact that we hadn't gotten much sleep during the previous week didn't help matters. We find so much to talk about after a year of not seeing each other (and yet we talk on the telephone and the internet a lot during that time). I am always amazed at how much we find to talk about and laugh over.

On Saturday night, my sister-in-law's pregnant cat started acting strangely. We had been told the litter was not due until late July or early August but....she kept howling and running back and forth to the door of the bedroom the sister from Indiana was using (my nephew graciously gave it up for her). I watched her and said *I think she wants us to follow her*. So we did.

Sure enough, when the sister from Indiana and I went into the bedroom and sat on the bed, she curled up in the closet and proceeded to go into labor. The darn cat wanted company ! I got a towel to place under her (I've been through this before) and sister stayed while I finished straightening up the house. She gave me progress reports and soon we had the cutest little kitten. It was a silvery gray and, while still wet, look a bit like a mouse.

We waited but there was only one kitten. Mother and baby settled down for the night after she had finished cleaning up and we finally went to bed. The kitten was born at 11:30 pm and I think the sister didn't get a solid hours sleep all night because of the newborn kitten mewling. Since I was in another room, I wasn't bothered at all but felt bad for her the next day and tried to help out a bit since the cat had adopted her as nursemaid. There was a bit of a problem because the kitten didn't seem to want to nurse even if you placed her right on the nipple. My daughter started *milking* the mother since she was filling up with milk and was miserable and the kitten would lick up the milk expressed. It at least put the kitten to sleep for a while so her mother could rest too.

We found out that my sister-in-law called the vet and he gave her a formula to make up and they have been feeding the kitten every two hours with an eyedropper. Mother and kitten are doing well and we are very glad she has three boys at home to help with feeding duties.

The graduation party was a roaring success. I swear there had to be 100 people that came and went all day. All the food with the exception of a tiny bit of a seafood pasta salad and some fresh fruit salad was totally gone. No leftovers to worry about fitting in the fridge.

I cleaned up as best as I was able before I finally faded for the night. The beast was over bright and early and we packed up the car for the trip home for everyone. I think we were all glad to return home for another year. I will be back up in Chicago later this year just because we can now that we live in Alabama. It's a much easier trip than from Florida. We can actually make the trip in one day if we pack a lunch and keep bathroom breaks to a minimum. However, I refuse to do that any more. We stop for the night and make the trip in easy stages. We can also stop and see points of interest along the way if we want. I find it a lot more fun that way. We will probably go up in December since the Beast's mother is not in good health and is become senile. It's also nice to remind ourselves why we left the north in the first place by experiencing some numbing cold.

Well, time to get my butt into bed. Another day, another adventure coming up. The Beast has started making our cigarettes and is having a difficult time learning how to pack it. He finally got his size down pat but we found out the machine he bought doesn't have an adjustment for making 100's so tomorrow we go in search of a new machine. I will send this one off to the Indiana sister who is having difficult times right now. She is anxious to try it out.

Have a wonderful day everyone. Be happy.

After being gone for almost 11 days, it was good to get home this morning. I have had my fill for a while of kids running up and down stairs, doors banging, the sweet sound of refrigerator doors opening and closing constantly as a dozen different kids look for hidden treasures of food and other assorted events that go on during these things. It's the sweet sound of...silence

We came home to a garden totally overgrown with weeds. They must have been hiding under the watermelon and cantaloupe leaves for us to leave and then they had a party. It will take me days to clean them all out. Our monster tomato bush looked awful. It was a big water hog and there wasn't enough rain to whet it's appetite so the outer, smaller branches suffered. There were at least a dozen huge tomatoes perfectly ripe so we had fresh ripe tomato slices on our sandwiches for lunch. I will have a wonderful tomato and cucumber salad with dinner later. I have it all sitting in the Italian dressing along with sliced onions right now so it should be perfect in a couple of hours.

As for the reunion itself......it was kind of a bust this year since so many had unexpected events that befell them plus we found out that the cousin in charge of letting everyone know the date, time and place of the event *forgot*. Actually, I assume that she thought that the person whose home we were using would take that over but she was the one with all the email addresses and snail mail addresses. She never sent them. I haven't spoken to her yet because she and her husband had to attend a funeral in St. Louis. Another cousin is being treated for breast cancer. She had hoped to attend but got pneumonia and spent 8 days in the hospital and only got out a few days before the reunion. She is due to begin another round of chemotherapy as we speak so she had to stay home to rest up for that. It ended up just me, my daughter, The Beast and all my siblings plus a variety of nieces, nephews, friends, etc. We are our own entertainment when we get a chance to be together so we enjoyed ourselves anyway. There certainly was enough food to feed an army but none of it went to waste because the next day we had a double graduation party that had a minimum of 16 teenagers (confirmed) attending plus parents and friends of the family.

I had never seen this popular *beanbag* game that everyone played before this weekend. It's not something big in the South apparantly. I am not sure just how many of the targets were in use but I saw three and I think two more were on the front lawn. Most everyone was out in the backyard playing on teams of two. Later in the day, it became a challenge game with a monetary prize. Now THAT was spirited but was won by two 13 year old boys to the chagrin of the adults participating. I thought it was funny but I was a minority.

My husband spent our time in Chicago at his brothers while I stayed, along with the sister we picked up in Indiana and my daughter, at the sister-in-law's home. I found out my daughter has not outgrown the talking in her sleep that she did when she was young. It was kind of funny since so much of what she was saying had to do with eating. She not only ate while she was awake but apparantly ate in her dreams too.

A lot more went on but I am going to save it for tomorrow since I am trying to get everything unpacked, washed and put away today while I have the energy and ambition.

I hope everyone has a wonderful 4th of July and, if you have fireworks, please be careful.

Have a great day.