Ok, don't lob a snowball at my head but for some reason this year I am not in the whiney pre-spring stage. This winter has seemed to go by fast and while I am of course looking forward to spring, I am not in the least unhappy with winter. We're going through some of our coldest temperatures right now as usual, with overnights well below zero - but I'm ok. What I am most happy about is that suddenly the days seem appreciably longer. I love being able to watch the sunset through the bare trees *from home!* instead of seeing a bit of it as I drive my 40 minute commute home and then have it be darkening as I pull in the drive. Still, a pot of mini roses to fuss with wouldn't be a bad thing at all. I've done that before and ended up with as many as 5 nice little plants that went outdoors in spring to become a pretty border to my front flower bed. Hmmm...I'll have to go shopping after work today. :-)

Just purchased our new Leibherr refrigerator/freezer and had the same experience- repair tried to tell us how to repair ourselves we demanded in person repair from company we purchased $8,000+ from they got involved and sent local repair - ice jammed, door stuck, bin cracked etc etc a mess ! We had to purchase a Leibherr because we were replacing a 34 yr old Subzero which we loved ! All their frigs have standardized to 83 inches and our space with drop down could only accommodate 82” with out tearing out ceiling - long story - anyway we love the frig but the ice maker is problematic- to say least - repair man came diagnosed- reset ice maker and said it had stuck in position that didn’t allow water to fill it - then Leibherr sent wrong draw to replace cracked one he came again And had to convince someone on phone it was wrong drawer (we never would have known that !) new drawer arrived then installed-still ice maker didn’t work - ordered new ice maker - installed yesterday working - keeping our fingers crossed alls well - I reall appreciate the reviews here and am left wondering why Leibherr doesn’t engineer their ice maker in a superior manner - the fridge is great What we know now is that the ice maker was over filling causing the blockage in the first place so we’ll keep an eye on that and now we know we can adjust that ! Thanks to all participants- I always say there is nothing like advice from “the front lines” !!

Interesting thought, fly! I spent a good deal of time on the website linked below - but this woman isn't a pet psychic, I get the feeling she's more of a hand-holder. I wonder if she would give any better advice than what I've received from you all here? (I'm doubtful. Still, I'm somewhat intrigued!) In all honesty, I don't know if I could fully put my trust in a psychic. I guess my biggest issue would be that I'd worry I was simply handing over $ to someone who was taking advantage ... I don't know. I really know nothing about such things. I've just returned from yet another neighborhood scouting mission, and just about gave my stupid self frostbite in the process. DH is certain that Molly is not going to venture out any, if at all, in this cold. But I do see numerous cat prints in the snow, and somebody is coming back repeatedly to eat from the dish on the front porch. Could just be that big tom though ... ::sigh:: Here is a link that might be useful: Cat Profiler

Thanks for the thoughtful answer on so many points, Dave! Re: chemo and allowable diet; he actually hasn't been restricted through his other rounds of chemo except fresh fruit/vegs need to be peeled or well washed and no deli meats. The unit he's in in the hospital focuses on blood cancers and has incredible and plentiful staff; part of their job is to help their patients find a way to eat so heating the contents of a jar won't really be extra work if it means he eats. I understand at some point he may not be able to eat things brought in from outside, but he should be able to while going through the chemo phase the first few weeks. It breaks my heart that he's going in for this horrendous 4-5 week long process and the thing he is dreading the most is the food. I know he might not like anything I send, but if I find even *ONE* thing that tastes good to him that he can enjoy or even tolerate and eat safely, all my effort will be worth it. I've shipped jars of stuff to family for years and, while I haven't looked it up recently, I did check in the past and there's no issue with authorities as long as I'm not sending alcohol. :) Re: the Chicken Curry recipe - I messed up copying the packing step and don't know if I can go back and fix my original post. But it should say "pack ingredients to 1" headspace. Ladle hot broth over ingredients, leaving 1" headspace (you may have room for only a few tablespoons of broth)." So, it's definitely not following the 50/50 rules for soup, more like following instructions for raw pack canning of straight chicken according to the other Ball books. I haven't cracked open a jar yet, but it doesn't look scorched. If anything, it looks way more liquid-y than I expected. I'll definitely try the squash soup, good to know I can trust the Fresh Preserving website. Kathy