Well, lookee here!

It's only July 17 and the first San Marzano plum tomatoes are getting ripe! This is the first year I've tried growing these and they're doing great. Should be good for canning, so hope I'm up for it - it will be soon!

Travel Treasures

Last weekend we drove through Wisconsin to Minnesota to visit relatives. Even though we had stopped near Janesville only last year to buy a year's supply of honey, we were already down to one gallon. Orlovsky Apiaries, a mom-and-pop business of sorts, said they could let us have (buy!) three gallons. Here they are all nicely packed in a cardboard carton in the trunk.



Next, we went to Osseo near Eau Claire to the famed Norske Nook for two grandiose pies to add to the roster of desserts at a family barbecue.



Everyone (but me) loves their banana cream pie, but since this was summer, it had to be regular fruit pies: blueberry and peach praline. Their pies are THE BEST, next to homemade (mine). We've almost got the requisite 7 pie tins to get us a free pie on another trip!

Fibber McGee's Suitcase

It's pretty amazing how much stuff can be packed in a regular carry-on bag. I almost don't believe this demo of super-packed luggage, but I will have a chance to try it myself in the fall. It would be great if we could get through a 15-day trip with just one suitcase each. See the slide show here.

Great YouTube on...... Plagiarism! (PG-13)

I'm past the time when I have to worry about school papers, but this really takes me back. Sort of like dreaming you are late for the final, can't remember where the exam is being given, haven't read most of the textbook, etc. Those Scandihoovians can be funny!

Victory after Almost 4 Years!

Middle Daughter came over for dinner last night. She wanted to play Scrabble afterward with me and her dad, but I was set to watch Charlie Chaplin in Modern Times, so I was going to skip the game. When I realized the DVD was only 87 minutes long, I announced that I would play until 8:30 when the highest scorer would be the winner. I always lose anyway, so I figured that a 45-minute game would keep things moving along.

As it turned out, I blocked 2 triple word scores and got 3 more for myself and won the game before the deadline! The picture at the right is the inside of our deluxe Scrabble game box where we inscribe for posterity the dates of each game, the winner, and any Bingoes. The sad fact is that I haven't won a game since September 4, 2006! In our family, I still claim the largest vocabulary and I'm the best speller, but I'm not good at anagrams and I'm losing ground at strategy. Thus the mighty fall.

Italian Food

I am deep into preparatory research on the countries, cities, and towns that we will visit this year. Planning a trip is at least half the fun! I've been reading memoirs by Americans who love and live in Paris, but now I'm learning about Lucca, the ancient city in Tuscany where we will spend a few days.

The other day I came across Why Italians Love to Talk about Food by Elena Kostiukovich in the library's new book section. This is a very readable treatise on Italian history and culture through the medium of its food by a Russian translator who has lived in Italy for 2o years.

Each section of the country gets its own chapter, and I'm lapping up the ones on Veneto and Tuscany where we will visit. I especially like the nice list of famous foods and food products for each section at the end of its chapter. Here's hoping I can avoid looking totally clueless in Venetian and Luccan trattorias.

Dirt Cheap (or Free) Phone Calls

Somehow this article from PC Magazine got passed along to me, so I'm sending it to you! See slides on 10 ways to make phone calls - from Bing to Skype to Google to..........