I'm one of those people who can't be ready in 10 minutes, no way and I'm not even high maintenance. It's my hair that is time consuming. Takes me more than 10 minutes just to dry my hair. My hair is only shoulder length but it is very thick and coarse. I cannot let it air dry b/c of its texture...it just gets really frizzy if I do that. I have to dry it completely, which takes more than 10 minutes, then depending on how straight I'm able to dry it, sometimes I also use a flat iron on it. I don't wear a lot of makeup so that part doesn't take long. I honestly can't imagine being able to shower, dress, do hair and make up in 10 minutes. Showering alone (shaving, washing hair/face/body) takes more than 5 minutes. As far as being a busy mother with no time to shower, yes, I do mean that. However, if I know I'm going somewhere out in public where I'm going to see people, I will drop something in order to shower/be presentable. But there have been times when I've gone to the gym, run an errand on the way home, then come home and spent the day cleaning, doing laundry, prepping dinner for that night, etc and along the way purposely decided NOT to shower (why, if I know I'm cleaning bathrooms,etc all day) yet still run into school to pick my 8 y/o from an after school activity. While I generally *dont* like to run into school looking like that, still in my gym clothes, I'm not going to waste that time showering simply b/c I'm going to see people when I run into school for five minutes. Knowing I can use that 30 minutes to finish another load of laundry, which, with four kids is never-ending, is more important to me than my friends/acquaintances seeing me looking not 100% put together. However, I don't make a habit of doing that. I prefer to look more presentable but sometimes it doesn't necessarily make sense. I run regularly with several women in the mornings after we drop our kids at school. One of the women is one I didn't know before being introduced to her by a friend in common when she showed up to run with us. Our kids were at the same school, but I'd never met her. I only ever saw her for months in the morning for our runs, in running clothes and hair pulled back in a tight ponytail. Much later in the year, at an evening school event, I heard someone yell my name and when I looked over, this beautiful woman was waving at me. It took me a moment to recognize her...she looked so completely different with her hair down and styled, make up and nice clothes on. I couldn't believe it was the same woman! She never looked bad w/o makeup, etc, but the difference when she actually put herself together was amazing. Alas, I'm not one of those women who can completely change her appearance with a bit of makeup!

Most of the tile that is being talked about above was made in the mid 1920's to about the early 40's I help my husband hand salvage these old tiles for over 15 years from homes and Historical sites that are being torn down daily. Most of the tiles are either Gladding Mc Bean or American Euncaustic Tile co. Sometimes we will even find some Pomona Tile co by Hermosa .These tiles were mostly done with a baked glass like glaze making them almost impossible to salvage. Often the same type of tile was used in the kitchen and or back splash area .I personally love the salmon color as well and there is an awesome lavender that looks like hard candy. There were also early American tiles that were used on the face of fire places and in fountains in the yard. All of these companyÂs can be found in the American Art Tile Encyclopedia it is a great source of education on early California Tile Company's. These tiles are worth keeping and make you a member of the Tile club. Wanda Saving History one piece at a time......

Our opinions are just that, our opinions! We might be nit picking, but in a good way. Joan Rivers used to say that it wasn't the person, it was the clothing they were commenting about. It's important to keep a sense of humor about all of this. I think it would be pretty boring around here if we all just nodded and only presented PC comments. I have watched Wendy Williams on occasion. She did a breakdown of style that was fun. Lindsey Lohan wore a white, tight short dress to a court appearance. It was hilarious how she commented on every aspect of how she looked. In this case, it was all positive. To be honest, even on a good day, I am not even half as pulled together as our blogger.

Aaaackk! I'm so far behind I don't know how I can catch up, but I'll try. And, technically, this is a new month and a new week but I want to finish this thread before I start the new one. Bruce, It definitely is encroachment of a major type. Frisco and all the surrounding areas have grown, and continue to grow, exponentially. We drive down some of the roads mentioned in the coyote area occasionally, and they were country roads not too long ago and are city roads now. The development is occurring at such a breakneck pace that one of the things I tend to say to Tim every time we drive through there is ""where's all the wildlife being pushed away into?....what's left for them now?" Amy, It is alright. You've been through a lot recently and I am sure you have a lot on your mind. Now that you've found this thread, I'll go start the new one for this week in a few minutes. Regarding the chickens? We've had ferrets, weasels and ringtailed cats all get into coops we thought were secure, so maybe you have one or more of those sneaky beasties around? The first two, in particular, can squeeze through fences and through tiny openings. Congrats on the contract on your dad's condo. That happened fairly quickly all things considered. I know you'll be glad when you can cross the condo off your list of things you have to worry about. Nancy, The beautiful weather sounds nice. All too soon it will be icky again, either cold or snowy or windy or icy or some combination thereof. Today was only 56 degrees so warm but neither too hot or cold. All the wind the last two or three days brought down most of the leaves left on the trees, so we look really wintery now and even the last remaining red oaks in the neighborhood have lost their red and gone brown or naked now. It definitely looks wintery and I sure miss the green foliage. Fruitcake is an acquired taste. My dad made it as did several of my uncles, but I never acquired a taste for it. Early in our marriage I made one. I have no idea why. I wonder what I was thinking? Maybe I thought that making a Christmas fruitcake was a southern/family tradition I should carry on into my adult life? Nope, nope, nope. It wasn't worth the bother, we didn't even eat it, and I never made one again. If I wanted a fruit cake (and I don't) I'd order this one from Corsicana's Collin Streat bakery that ships tons of them annually: Deluxe Fruitcake A lot of people in Texas, in particular, consider this the ideal fruitcake, perhaps because a lot of it is not fruit---it is pecans. They sell about 3 million pounds of fruitcakes per year (mostly at this time of the year) and ship to at least 195 countries, in addition to the USA. In this particular case, even though I love to bake, I feel like they make a much better fruitcake than I ever could or would or have. Rebecca, I am not even sure my dad and his family members really liked fruitcake, but I guess it was a tradition from their relatively poor youth so they kept making it and eating it....despite not really liking it. I think maybe it is because their parents loved it and they lost their parents really young, so perhaps they clung to the fruitcake tradition as a way of hanging on to their memories of their parents. Larry, It is really kind of you to provide some entertainment for the cows. I know there must be some really good fruitcakes, but most of the ones I've eaten would not have been labeled as good in any shape, form or fashion, which is a shame considering how much work goes into making one. It also is tiring to try to chase down all the ingredients. I've noticed the last two or three years that a lot of the candied fruit type stuff that goes into them isn't even sold in local stores any more. Kim, I bought the Whole Seed Catalog at Sam's Club the first couple of years but it wasn't that special, other than just for reading it to pass the time, and I stopped spending money on it. Jen, I don't know of any way to tell the good seeds from the bad ones when they all look the same at the time you harvest and dry them. About the only thing you could do would be to run a germination test by sowing 10 or 20 of them on a wet paper towel or coffee filter and putting it in a ziplock bag. Check daily to see how many germinate. That at least would give you an idea of what percentage of the seeds you've saved will be viable. Keep in mind if the original plants were hybrids, their offpsring likely will not come true from saved seed. Jennifer, I hope your long day on Saturday went well and that you've spent today resting and recovering. Amy, I was watching the weather when the tornadoes spun up and was horrified when they started issuing Tornado Warnings for a "Particularly Dangerous Situation" type tornado emergency. It looks like it was horrible in the areas hit, but also seems like injuries were minimal and no one died. Why can't we have normal weather here? Tornadoes at the end of November are not unheard of but also not terribly common. We had some very strong wind gusts (likely in the 50s) as our severe tstorms roared through, but no real damage here. Some people in our county had portable structures, like sheds and carports, flipped or destroyed and trees damaged and power lines down and such, but I think it all was straight line wind damage and no twisties here. We got less that 0.20" of rain out of it, but I'm so relieved to not have mud any more that I'm not complaining. Rebecca, I hope y'all found a Christmas tree that was up to your standards. We bought a terrific and beautiful pre-lit one several years ago and I love it. I believe we got it at Lowe's. When I looked at the trees they have this year, none of them were anywhere close to it in quality though. It seems like everything we buy anymore just keeps being made more and more cheaply, although prices continue to go up. We had the girls this weekend and had lots of holiday fun, but I am exhausted and ready for the new week so I can catch up on my rest a little bit, Good-bye November! Dawn