Yea, that Monique is a natural beauty....isn't she? And I too *love* that picture. Sue...you little stinker, I would have never guessed you had it in you to climb into that pot...LOL! Marian - actually hubby is the one who loves gazing balls...I really have never been very good with ornament, but I admit I really *do* love the gazing ball that Sue took a picture of. Yes Sue, I did notice the house. In fact I was thinking...wouldn't that make a unique picture to use if we did sell the house? :-) Did you guys know I painted the stand for it myself?... and the birdbath stand as well...have to brag a little cause I'm going to tell you guys something and I am being truthful and *definitely* not looking for compliments. I really don't like my garden much in late July or August. It always looks so busy to me. You guys were very sweet with your compliments, but I know in my heart, that it wasn't up to snuff. Admittedly, it was more messy because I left all the reseeders up, intending to share them with you guys and then forgetting to collect them...LOL! And yes, I admit it *did* kind of bother me to have you guys see it that way. Marian...I was nodding my head in total agreement when you had said you hoped they would come visit you in spring...that is my season too! :-) Late summer is the worst for me. Oh well, I'll be better about making a design in the next place. It's the backyard that mostly bothers me. For years it was just a collection place for all the plants I wanted to have and could get so cheaply when I was working in that biz. For the last couple years I have been trying to be more selectively and deleting some - trying to make it more cohesive and then the drought killed off areas I had fixed, but no matter, I'm not blaming it on the drought, I feel like I will never make the backyard look how I want it to...short of digging the whole thing up...LOL! Anyway, you guys know me well enough by now that I can't hold anything back and I spill my guts, so there I go...sorry...just ignore me! Marian...I wish I could give you a big *real* hug right now...well, you know what I think of you. I admire you, respect you, think the world of you. You remind me so much of my dear Mrs. Shack. Maybe I'm just getting sad and melancholy. It's been tough these last two years and every time I think I'm seeing the light...bam! Okay, here's the other news, my mom has broken 4 ribs and they are keeping her in the hospital for observation for at least 3-4 days, concerned about possible pneumonia or a punctured lung. Oh well, I was going to post this at the regular Idyll, but then just started spilling my guts, like I always do... geez, sometimes I even make myself sick of me.... Ei

When I was learning Russian, we were taught that a large portion of Russian is idiomatic and cannot be translated literally. For example, дождь идёт translates literally as "rain takes a walk," but really means "It is raining." This makes learning Russian even that much more difficult than English, not to mention the complex grammar in Russian with multiple declensions and cases for nouns and adjectives (even more than in Latin) and multiple ways of conjugating verbs, not counting all the irregular verbs. We were also taught that most Russians do not speak proper Russian - mainly because it is too difficult. English is much simpler and easier, and still native English speakers often do not speak proper English. It's too bad that Latin is not taught as much in schools as it used to be.

Borscht is delicious and while the variety I ate wasn't in a hotel, it was on the "circuit" of DM's meal preparation. The only "belt" involved was a loosening after indulging in helpings of beet soup, served by DM with homemade biscuits.

My wife called me at work and asked, "Do you ever get a shooting pain across your body, like someone's got a voodoo doll of you and they're stabbing it?" Sounding concerned, I replied, "No..." She responded, "How about now?"