Mmmm, all this sounds so good--well, maybe not that pork roast that got this thread started (you go out with your oven on? You have an amazing sense of adventure). I've made Wellington a couple of times and while it turned out fine, I finally decided I don't like to go to all that trouble. So I'll just come to your house and eat yours. I'll bring the cosmos to make sure no one will notice whether it turns out wonderful or merely terrific. I want to know how the standing rib roast turned out, so please post an update. We had a crown roast of pork--mindless preparation: season, put in oven, cook until done--plus garlic-mashed potatoes, and veggies (my fave was the braised red cabbage with apples, yum). The topper was my DIL's pumpkin pies which thankfully she didn't do lo-fat this year. I whipped heavy cream to go with it. Ice cream is nice with pie but there is nothing like freshly whipped cream. I must get back to my ordinary and a lot more abstemious diet, starting soon--but not today. I'm taking my "girls" (daughters, DIL, granddaughters) out for an elegant lunch today. Maybe next week. . . .

Good morning! I too try to visualize people and it rarely, if ever, works out. it is nice to put faces to names. Shirley, still thinking of you and keeping you in my prayers. i know that's your daughter, brittney and dawson -- who are the others (inquiring nosey minds want to know) and as for your mom, you never know what the next roommate may be, perhaps you can hold off on the move until you see what comes in LOL, however, I think I'd want to be with my own and her secrets kept!!!! annie your dogs are beautiful, as are you. my aunt and uncle, for as long as i can remember, were the first home for service dogs until they were ready to go into training. they had several different dogs from what i recall. sorry about your lizzie...i know how hard it is to lose a beloved pet. my next dog is going to be a shepherd, but it's been decided that we will only have one dog at a time now, so I have to wait my turn. (we'll see) i made an anniversary cake for a group i belong to, it was our 7 year anniversary so i made this massive cake. i filled it with alternating layers of buttercream and lemon curd, and dang, if it was not tasty. I was able to take a slice home for the family to taste and seriously wish there had been more leftover, would have made a nice breakfast!!!! a real nice combination, even though it started out that i was going to use raspberry as well...i just couldn't get enough to cook them down to make a nice sauce/filling. it's still so cold and seems to be staying that way until at least next week, when it's supposed to go to the high 40's, with rain. by then, i'll think it's summer. this cold is bone chilling and of course, they are calling for more snow. we haven't got much of it, but.....this year it is bothering me like mad! i shouldn't complain, there are parts of the country that are in the negatives, so i'll just keep my mouth shut on this subject any further! so whose left to post their pic? come out. come out whereever you are! speaking of which, jeanne, how are those triplets of late? is mary ellen still a part of this group? i feel like i haven't seen her in a long time...maybe since she became a grandmom, or right before that? hae a nice thursday! maryanne

First, I haven't made my thank you cards, much less sent them and I do every year, usually between Christmas and New Years. This year I had been ill and I just opened packages and I really don't know who gave me what for the most part so I'm having trouble figuring out what to say. I usually say thanks for whatever I/We love it and plan to do whatever with it. But I'll try to get it done soon, I'm feeling guilty bigtime now. My first Christmas with my husband 11 years ago, we did the frantic Christmas eve in a nearby larger city shopping. We both hated it, big fight, spent way too much money and I said, no more. The next year we either bought early or put things on layaway and it was better. I finally got brave enough to make things the next year. He was sceptical at first but when he saw the response and the extra cash in his pocket, I took care of the supplies bought early, he was behind me 100%. Luckily all of the women are crafters or quilters, ect. and their spouses and children know about these things. We receive verbal thank yous and sometimes notes on my Jan. birthday cards. While I've never had the awful experiences of most of you, especially you, Jude, how heartless of anyone. I love having someone take the time to make me something. I can relate. I've only had a problem with a bachelor uncle. I sent him two knit stocking caps, he likes to jog and hike, lives on east coast so don't know where he does this, never heard if he received them. I'm still mad him. Every other year we've jumped through hoops over his gift.We cut down on what we spent on boughten gifts this year and still spent three times on him what we did on everyone else, he is always very generous to us (even though sometimes the gifts are nothing we really care for either, but still thank him) so makes my husband feel cheap if we don't spend a lot. That's it, though, next year he is in budget and if he doesn't like it, too bad. He wasn't impressed this year when my husband told him we were using his Christmas monetary gift, (easier to carry on plane and since he really didn't know what to get us, he explained,) to buy a hay ring for my horse and goats. My husband had already suggested before Christmas doing this with any cash gifts we received. Thought uncle was going to rip the check out of our hands, oh, well. We love the hay rack and it saves us time doing chores and the expense of hay wasted. Revenge is sweet even when you don't plan it. Should this be a hehehe? Janie

I would like to say that it is also possible that the woman who owned the dog before taught the dog to be hostile to men - I think it is wrong to blame men for the problem without knowing the entire history. People very often teach or transfer their own fears/phobias onto their animals, and if a woman shows fear of men when she is walking her dog, the dog will learn that men are not to be trusted. Some women are more paranoid than others, and I have seen this happen in such cases. I think it is more likely that the owner is to blame for the phobia than that the dog was treated badly by a man. If a dog is treated badly by one man, that is not enough to cause a general phobia, but if a woman shows fear of all men that she encounters while walking her dog, then that is a very strong case to make for the phobia coming from the owner. There are lots of dogs who have been trained to be hostile to people of different races, and this is also taught by the owners. I personally think that there are a lot of women who get large dogs primarily because they have a fear of strange men, and this fear may be justified for the women, but when it gets transferred to the dog, it becomes more irrational, since most men are harmless and should not be singled out as untrustworthy people. The men I have known have treated dogs equally as well as women, and yet I have encountered many hostile dogs that were owned by women. My boss has terriers (I forget which type), and one day she asked me to come to her office when she had one of them (I'll call the dog Surrey) in her office and had me wait at the threshold. Surrey barked wildly as I stood at the threshold, but after I entered the office, the barking stopped. Then I took Surrey for a walk. As it turned out, Surrey had a fear of men only at thresholds but was otherwise fine with us. I think this is a fear that could have been learned, but Surrey died a tragic death in the Northridge Earthquake before the dog psychiatrists could determine the cause of the phobia. I think people should be very mindful of what fears and phobia they may unconsciously be transferring to their pets. I also want to say that I think most women do not train their dogs to be hostile to men, but I do strongly believe that there are plenty of women who do. I personally have a phobia of large dogs, due to having been bitten by at least three of them on separate occasions when I was fairly young, but I do appreciate the Great Dane next door that has reduced to squirrel population in my immediate vicinity.