Good Sunday to you all.  We have sun and we will enjoy it because the next two, maybe three, days will be cloudy with snow possible.  Both of my patio tomatoes are peaking through as are all of my kale and lettuce starts.  I have the larger starter tray and its cover ready for the larger starts.  So far only two of ten spinach but they are from the oldest package.  Next weekend I plan to start the next batch of lettuce and spinach and will use different and newer seeds.  I won't plant any more tomatoes and peppers before mid-March.  I don't know yet what has survived in the gardens and probably won't have any idea of that for another month.

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It is now Monday and I hope the week is starting well for you all.  We are trying to reform our schedule  somewhat--get in more exercise and other activities.  Mom's insurance went up drastically--almost  doubled in fact.  But the insurance now pays all the costs for a Y membership.  So we decided to take advantage of it.  I am not yet 65 so mine is still full price but once we get ourselves doing things there I think it will be worth it.  The problem is, of course, breaking old habits and getting off our asses.  We also made a start with those monthly gardening classes I told you all about a couple of weeks ago.  The Y also has a canning and freezing class next month.  Should be interesting.  As I mentioned to Mom I haven't canned anything since I made jelly one summer some forty years ago and the books told cooks then to seal the jars with wax.  They don't recommend that any more.  We'll both get an idea of how much things have changed.  I don't know what this new pattern will do with my blogging but I have felt that it has been a bit stale of late.  The idiocy in our political arena , the inanity in our economy, and the utter nastiness in our social environment isn't going to go away any time soon.  And I am hard pressed to say anything about it that I haven't said before.

Shocking sight today.  We filled the gas tank and paid $3.78/gal.  But wait--that wasn't the shocking sight.  It was the price a few hours later at the same station: $3.99.

 I found this by way of The Apartment Prepper and, frankly, the whole thing pisses me off.  We don't need sweeteners, aspartame or others, added to milk.  And to allow the milk industry to add them without noting it on the label is a total crock of bullshit.  It is bad enough that the food processors have so far been able to avoid labeling GMO crops in processed foods.  And don't you just love the notion that we can fight childhood obesity by allowing them to add artificial sweeteners to milk?  Courthouse News Service has this on the issue.