Good morning on a frosty Saturday.  The weather people predict sun later on and temperatures near 40F.  The official temp in Chicago was 50F--very unusual for mid-February.  I got the cover on the mini-greenhouse but wasn't able to zip it up because the plastic is too stiff.  I will work on it as it relaxes.  I am making some headway upstairs in the sewing room but that will take a while as I sort it all.  I found three cross-stitch pieces half finished the I totally forgot about.  I will keep that box out so I don't lose it again.

We do have the TV on a lot, Nicola.  But we don't simply sit and watch.  Normally, we are on the computer--Mom has a number of games she likes and I have a very long list of blogs and news sites I read each day.  I recently noticed that a number of bloggers hadn't posted in a couple of years and weeded those out of my list.  Our programs?   Well, news for a good part.  Early morning local (Chicago) and late afternoon local and national followed by NHK World.  During the day we may put on CNN, or CNBC, or something on the History Channel.  But we watch segments that interest us and ignore the rest.  Mom has a touch of tinnitis and a background noise helps her.  More often now-a-days the news of any kind is annoying so we put Pandora on and listen to music.  Evening viewing is variable.  We like Bones, the Finder, Lost Girl, Alcatraz, The Mentalist, CSI (not the spin-offs though), Criminal Minds, Castle and a few others.  But again, we usually read or work (or play) on the computer.  We don't care much for the game/reality shows.  I need to put the computer away intermittently and pick up my needlework.  We both have the habit of saying we will stop after just one more (blog or game) and finding that we are still going five blogs or games later.  But Mom's latest check up with her doctor showed a trend toward high blood pressure so we both think some more activity that gets us off our duffs and moving is called for.

I think I should amend the section above a bit.  I said 'news for a good part.'  But our news viewing has been cut in half or better over the last few years.  We find the news programs so annoying or so unenlightening that we put on some other noise.  We both find we get more actual information on-line that we do over the airwaves.  We often review our budget and think about what we would do if we had to make cuts.  If we had to choose between cable tv and internet service we would choose internet.  Right now we don't have to choose.

I was surprised by this story because we had heard nothing about it in the mainstream media.  I checked  it out at other sites including the WTO official site.  Evidently the decision came last November so if the U.S. were planning to appeal the decision they should have done so already.  But again nothing in the main news.  Supposedly meat is the exception to this decision and can still carry a 'country of origin' label.  Good but not nearly good enough.  We read labels religiously and want to know not only what is in the product (especially food) but where it came from.

We got a big laugh out of this story.  I wonder if the little idiot tried to smoke the plant he stole??  Here are more details.

It is hard to believe but it has been 50 years since John Glenn's first orbital flight.