Good Wednesday to all of you.  It looks like we got a bit of rain overnight.  The temperatures are still much above normal.  I checked all of the plants I left in the gardens and all appear to be doing well, so far.  The roses could be in mid summer from the looks of the leaves.  They are crisp and green.  The blueberries have only a few leaves left but a number of leaf buds just ready to open up at--hopefully--the right time.  The stems are a pretty light green.  The lemon balm looks dry until you push the dead leaves aside and you find nice bright green new growth underneath.  The German thyme looks just as it did when I put it in last fall--green and crisp.  I think I saw new growth under the old stalks and leaves of my mums.  I checked the hardiness of all of the plants before I left them out--all are hardy to at least one zone north of mine.

Well, this is good news.  When I first heard about 'pink slime' we had already eliminated all of the fast food hamburger joints from our patronage.  What I read (and read to Mom) about this simply reinforced our determination not to frequent these establishments and we wondered about the hamburger in the supermarket.  Our dissatisfaction with the quality of the ground beef in our local groceries had already moved us to grinding our own hamburger.  Having broken the fast foo habit I doubt we will be going back to it.

Just when I think the Repthugicans can't possibly be any more despicable they descend to a new low.  Check this out to see the latest.

Then, of course, there is military double-speak in this bit.  On the one hand, we have said for sometime that this mess is going to end with a lot of money spent (which contributes to our national fiscal woes) and with no real political gain.  I said that when we went into Iraq before finishing up in Afghanistan.  Double-talk, you ask?  That comes in with the military spokesman acknowledging the document and then diss-ing it by saying it isn't a 'strategic document' and merely reflects the 'opinions' of Taliban prisoners.