If you have bad soil and are looking for results in the short term then I'd wait on the coffee grounds until you've increased the level of organic matter in your soil. If I may jump in on this tread? This is the part that I don't understand in relation to lawns. My soil is heavy clay. I can and have easily amended my garden beds 'cause I can till amendments into the soil. But with a lawn, I just don't get it. Some sections of my lawn are so clay that grass just can't grow. (think pudding when wet) Seeds do spout and reach about one or two inches. Then the grass invertibly dies off. I've even physically turned over a particulary bad section twice...no help, grass died. If one does not the the money or the muscle to till admendments into a 5000 sq ft area, how does one incorporate material into the soil? (I got so discouraged this summer with trying to get grass that I turned over 200 more sq ft into garden/flower beds) Yes, I mulch mow high. Smile. I have plenty of fall leaves (and can easily get bags more) which I usually use for the garden area. Would mulching these atop the soil help amend the yard? Large amounts of coffee grounds are not an option. Compost on the yard is not an option. (C tea, lol , tried three times and kept ending up with a stinking mess which I was afraid to use. I just spread cracked corn which made the birds and squirrels very happy. It seems to me, that if you don't have the initial investment for organics, the program is hard to get started. What am I overlooking?

Before I started planning disposables for family dinner, and cooking and freezing at my mother's house, I did have a plan... (Donka, thanks for the sympathy!) My new kitchen is going to be initiated with an open house style party. Lots of hors d'oeuvre (borekes, especially, from the new convection oven), salads (steamed vegetable salad from the new steam oven), roasts, and breads and cakes. What I'm really looking forward to, besides reliable ovens, is capacity. The ability to put on a real spread. The dinner for 22 is usually just family dinner, and if I hadn't packed the stock pot, carving knife, roaster and company dishes I wouldn't be stressing. But fifty? I'm really looking forward to being able to cook for the whole family, let alone friends too...

I can also relate to holidays and missing loved ones. My parents passed away a few years ago, but the pain sometimes is all too fresh. I miss them terribly. I’ve spent many a holiday on my own, for various reasons, and I more-than-survived just fine. I’d tell of my ‘awful’ holidays, but frankly, some were nightmarishly horrible, not in a funny way and there is no way to make some things humorous (even for me). Between truly psychotic siblings and now, mean as snake in-laws, holidays are sometimes a terrible time for me. Did I say I miss my folks? I did, and do. This year’s Thanksgiving was a lovely improvement! DH and I married a little over a year ago, after decades of on/off dating and chronic bachelorhood’s on both our parts, and we are enjoying this wonderful new chapter in our lives together! Thanksgiving Day we worked in bitter cold installing a new vent inside, outside, and under the house for a new washer/dryer set to be delivered – DH felt the old venting was unacceptable (I love that things must be ‘just so’ according to him; he’s a can-do perfectionist). Later we made rather strong Old Fashioned’s, relaxing with a blazing fire as we warmed our frosty hands and toes. I prepared 2 enormous filet mignons with hollandaise sauce, baked potatoes, and steamed asparagus – we ate far past the satiated point! A simple meal to prepare, but delightful. With full stomachs and warming bodies we talked of how we are always working on the house now – laughing at and with each other over the day’s more humorous events, discussing how anxious we are to start demolition for our renovations, and other things… Things couples who’ve known one another for decades comfortably talk of. Life is pretty wonderful. I’ve much to be thankful for. …Then our heat pump broke. F@#%.

Ooh just reminded me in the mid seventies ( my best guess- 74-76) I saw Patti Smith in some very very small venue which might have been a basement of someplace. She spoke quite a bit and I can recall she said that Baudelaire was the first Rastafarian. It was all over my head, but I knew I was witnessing someone very special. I also remember seeing Bette Midler at the Copacabana maybe a year after I saw Patti Smith. I was absolutely astounded at her energy. She really put on an amazing show and the venue was really small enough to have real banter going on with the audience. She was so sharp and quick- kind of how she comes across but it was so authentic.