:lol::lol::lol::lol: Well, it's certainly not like that down here in South Florida, but my mom moved up to the north Georgia mountains when she retired (traitor! ;) ) and she lives in a small town now. I once had to go to the post office while I was up there visiting her and I had to wait so long in the line behind just ONE person. lol I told my mom when I got back to her house, "Man, no matter where I go to the post office I have to wait a half an hour. At home I have to wait a half an hour because it's so crowded and the line is so long, here I have to wait a half an hour for them to finish their conversation" :001_huh::tongue_smilie:

That's great! I still have my grout sealant too from when we laid the tile floors. :) Thanks so much. I have a different shark than you do though. Mind is the big canister one, but you can detach the mop head and the steam comes out of the wand like a pressure cleaner. Do you think I could like alternate between blasting it with the steam and then scrubbing it with a stiff grout brush and then hit it with the steam again and get the same results?

:smilielol5:

silly way saying, "precious".

"blech" Gollum said. "I...

:grouphug: Praying for you and your family.

LOL Sure. Well the rice is just... rice. lol I boil some water with a little salt and some oil and throw in a couple cups of clean, white rice and let it simmer until the water is just about gone and then cover it and put it on low to steam. The beans, I buy a 2lb bag of dried beans, go through them to get rid of little stones or junk that doesn't belong in there and get rid of broken beans or funky ones. Then I rinse them good with water and drain them then fill the pot up to the top with water to let them soak overnight. In the morning I dump out the soak water, rinse the beans again and then fill up the pot to maybe an inch- inch and a halfish above where the beans are. I throw in a few bay leaves and cover them and let them cook on low-medium until they are soft. In a sauce pan I put three ham hocks with enough water to cover them and throw a few bay leaves in there as well and cook them covered on medium (I start them the same time as the beans) until they meat is falling off the bone and the water is almost evaporated. They're pretty much done at the same time that the beans are done. Then I lift the ham hocks out of the pot with a slotted spoon and set them in a bowl to cool and strain the remaining ham hock liquid into the bean pot. When the ham hocks are cool enough to handle, I take all the meat off the bones and add it to the bean pot and throw the bones and fat away. Then in a large frying pan I put maybe 5-6 tablespoons of olive oil into a cold pan and add an entire head of minced garlic. I turn the heat on to say about medium or slightly lower heat and slowly heat the garlic up. When the garlic is soft, but not brown I add two cut up bell peppers, 2 cut up vidalia onions and 2 habanero peppers (seeds removed). (Make sure you coat your hands with oil or use gloves if you're going to use Hanabero peppers, they're really hot, but taste soooooo gooooood. :) ) I sautee all of that in the oil until they are soft, then I turn off the heat and pass the mixture through a blender in small batches (you don't want to get burned :) ) until it is all smooth and I add it to the bean pot. If you need water for the blender use the soup from the bean pot to blend them. Then I add maybe a teapoon of balsamic vinegar, a tablespoon or two of fresh lime juice, salt (to taste), pepper (if needed), cumin powder (to taste) and more olive oil (if necessary) to the bean pot. Give it a good stir. Let it cook maybe another 25-30 minutes more and that's it. Serve it over the rice and garnish it with fresh minced onion if you like. :) buen provecho. :) P.S. I make a big batch at a time and then freeze them in those square tupperware containers. They freeze really good and it's easy to just take down a tupperware in the morning and let them defrost to have with dinner that night. :) I'm actually cooking some tomorrow. :)

lembas bread and po-ta-toes.

whipped out Sting to

Not lame at all!:) That is so cute. The city where I live has all the streets named after presidents. You have to know your history to know if you're going north or south. You can tell your dd that. She might like it. The city is Hollywood and it's in Florida. :) She can even see it on Google earth. :) Good job to your dd and good job mom. :hurray:

Completely understandable given the circumstances. :grouphug: Why would you?? You thought he was going to throw them away. He said he was going to throw them away. He was the only one who knew that he was going to keep them and he kept that information to himself. ;) It wouldn't have crossed my mind either. :) I really do hope that he really did throw them away outside though. :ack2:

LOL cute! Your boy and the little piggy. :)

:lol::lol: I've been mulling over this thread in my mind and thinking about everybody's different experiences and it made me wonder about my dh. He has a lot of food intolerances that I don't have and he also isn't happy unless he eats a lot of meat. He's O+. I am A- and although I like meat, I really don't need much of it and can really eat it a lot less than my dh does and not even really miss it. I don't know if I could be a full on vegetarian, but I could definitely eat meat only 1-2 a week and be satisfied and I'm defining "meat" here as mostly poultry since that's really what I eat most days. I do eat some red meat, but not a lot. I don't know if our food preferences/tastes and my dh's intolerances match up with the diet recommendations for the blood types though. Again I haven't read the book yet. :lol::lol: LOL Oh yes, I love my black beans and rice. My yuca too. yummy. You see, those are the things I'll get cravings for... things like yuca, beans and rice guava or fruits, I don't often get cravings for meat and when I do it's usually for a steak. Is that weird?? :001_huh:

Samwise Gamgee jumped out

I'm curious about this diet as well. It's an interesting concept. I haven't read the book though (yet). Does the author talk about drinks as well or only foods? Does he mention coffee and things like that?? Thanks. :)

the ceiling trap door.

the rope ladder above ;) :D

I was thinking that too! :(

That is just ghastly!! Oh my gosh! Firing on funeral marches!! They are not even protesting anything!! What the?? :001_huh: :mad: :crying:

That's awesome! I'm going to have to show my dd this post. She's an aspiring artist too. :)

You're welcome. :)

She's in Canada. :)

hehehehehehe :D

I'm not much of an ice cream eater, I could go my whole life without it and not miss it, but if pressed for a favorite flavor I would have to say Publix's black jack cherry.

Mine are still decorative... unfortunately now they're Salvador Dali. :001_huh: One day I will make a music cd and possibly write a book (if I can ever find those darn crayons that is). :)