Homely it must feel rewarding to be eating out of your garden, I know my CT friend started eating lettuce from her garden a couple weeks ago and she just pulled a bunch of garlic to dry  and here I am, eating all store bought and not a single organic item because they're too high price. If I did have a place to garden, I can't see myself doing it because of the sun and bugs, a combination I don't like !

About your proceedure, be indulgent and eat something really yummy and fattening the day before because it's not going to stay in you long enough to add lbs to you :)

That is high price for such a small apartment and how lucky she was not to take it !

Hi, N Q - Truly, I am NOT looking forward to the prep! My husband must have that procedure perodically due to family history so I've been watching him go through it for years. Ugh. On better subjects, have been able to "eat out of the garden" for the first time this week. Made a lovely tomato galette and also used a bunch of my lovely thai basil to make this sauce for a great stir fry with ground turkey: http://hot-thai-kitchen.com/thai-basil-sauce/#recipe  

We were chatting about rent - DD was trying to rent a 300sf studio and they wanted $2500 per month. And it was in a terrible part of town that they are trying to gentrify... a month after she toured the building there was a double homicide at the front door. I'm very happy she is still here, instead!

Homely it's been too long since I followed any of MD's posts so I can't say if they seem off other than with signing the first post with MD and then stating she was on X which didn't seem like something she would do, but her info about me is correct and I can't really see somebody taking the time to go through old posts to dig up the info on me, so it must be her...time will tell.

Talking about time, yes it really has flown by and it's pretty noticeable with your son. I bet it is hard to have him so far away but how nice that's he's able to travel and live abroad in places. It'll be nice for you to be able to spend some time with your son but eweee with the colonoscopy ! I have a friend who recently had one and she stated she spent the whole night before on the toilet :(  Good luck with the results !

Hi, N Q and silversquirrel - SS, I'm not sure what is up with MD. The tone seems different but the poster does have the information. We will just have to wait and see if she resumes posting.

N Q - The passage of time is relentless and unforgiving. It's hard to believe I even have a 27 year old. At this point, I've not seen him since Thanksgiving, and he also did a deployment in Japan during the interim period. It's a strange feeling to have one's child that far away from you. Very excited though, because he is coming home next week for his sister's birthday and has extended his stay to five days. Sadly, I have a colonoscopy in the middle of all of that, but I'll take what I can get of him! He is also big into gardening so he is going to come look at my plants and give me some advice. To be honest, I think it is the constant rain we have had that is causing the most problems - my tomatoes got an early blight from it and are still trying to recover, and I think the basil is not enjoying wet feet, either. The Thai basil is up on the deck in an elevated tray, so it drans well and is partially out of the rain. That may be the secret, but have your friend give it a go anyway! I've finally gotten some tomatoes harvested, so tonight I am making a tomato galette for supper!

silversquirrel, it's MD, she has the correct info about me.

Hi Homely and NQ.   What is going on with MD reappearing?   It has to be spam.  Glad to see you here.  It's been awhile for me.  I'm hoping that Phoenix will see this post.  

Hi Homely, thanks for the new/old cam, I remember it as being the one that sorta aggravated me because I would see something interesting on it and the cam would swing away from what I was viewing :(

I had totally forgotten that you had told me that your son had gone into the service but I didn't realize he was 27 already, it seems like yesterday when you were talking about him in high school !

Rent is high pretty much everywhere, around here rent starts at $1800 for a single bedroom and goes up to $2700 for a double bedroom and small houses/townhouses rent is $3000 to $10,000 and at that price you might as well buy a house.

I have a friend in CT who has also had problems with her basil this year, I'll have to tell her to try Thai basil and see if that grows for her.

I tend to like pasta salads in the summer more than green salads and that recipe is easy, lasts long enough in thr frig so I can eat it most of the weeks with whatever else I'm having or just have it as a lunch salad. I forgot about adding grated parmasean cheese over it before serving, it seems to help blend the salad together.

Hope you had a nice 4th !

Oh dear, this cam is not working today. Meanwhile, and more distressing, I have just discovered that the "Add to My Cams" button is no longer working. And a truly lovely cam has popped back up that I had not previously saved. Putting it here for posterity: View from King-Albert-Tower on Spiegelwald - a webcam in Gr�nhain-Beierfeld, Germany, https://www.opentopia.com/webcam/6312 

MD - Your presence was indeed missed and those of us remaining kept checking back for months - years at this point. I was having a slow period at work and spent much time combing through the cams for signs of life. The last post I could find from you was on the bench on 11/24/2022 at 14:18. I missed your later post about Trix. Still slow at work, I resorted to combing through obituaries in your region but found none that seemed to match up. Decided maybe you were hospitalized somewhere, if we were lucky. If this is really you, then I'm glad our worst fears are proven untrue. Would be pretty funny to figure out how close my "investigation" came to finding you, but won't put you to the test :-)   The community is largely gone here, and we were definitely overtaken by spammers for quite a period of time, which wiped out the ability to communicate as we could not see on the main page who had been posting for all the bot entries. Eh, well, some of the faithful have remained, enough to exchange pleasantries. And it's someone's anniversary this week... I remember a virtual reception for him, once upon a time.

Hi, N Q - Time has passed too quickly... both of those kids are now graduated and (mostly) on their own. DS is 27 and in the military now; DD is 24 soon and working a real, live grown-up job, though living with us because rent is so high where we live that she cannot qualify for a lease without us co-signing for her. In the absence of child responsibilities i've taken up gardening. I'm glad to see you here again, and immensely grateful for the salad recipe! It sounds lovely and I am going to go to the store and get some of those little mozzarella balls and give it a try. Sadly, only one of my italian basil plants came up in the garden this year (though the Thai basil is doing really well), so I will have to buy some basil, too, while I wait for my lonely seedling to fill out. The weather here has finally broken a bit so we can use the deck and I will report back if we get to have your salad out there for a cool summer supper :-)

H

MD you have proven to me that you are the real MD and the gift is actually one that I've had since her cams were no longer on explore but thanks anyway.

I left Opentopia because of yours and Trix's cyber bullying of Susan Dennis, I've never gotten into bullies and since then I've only looked in occasionally to see if things had changed and only came back when Homely and the rest of the gang started worrying about you, it's them that you owe an apology to for coming back without answering why or where have you been, they all took the time to look for you and Homely went the extra mile to contact people to see if they knew what happened to you.

I'll still look in here occasionally but I'm not really invested in these cams, Homely I'll still be looking in to see if you've been around.

Hi NQ.  I read them  before posting on 1st July.  I quoted from that strange post that was supposed to be from me. Some of that is accurate.  I AM on Twitter and have been for 15 years. I DO attack Trump and Musk emails me regularly to block my account until I remove offending posts. Roger Stone has contacted me twice.

I really am sorry for causing such upset. That was never my intention. I do recall you telling me off at least twice for criticizing Susan Dennis. Once was for revealing that she bragged on her live journal that people donate wool to her, she knits the teddy bears, takes them to a children's home, gets a receipt for how many she's handed over and then SHE gets a tax benefit for HER donation to charity. Another time was when she said abortion was her preferred method of birth control.

So, again, I am sorry.  Please accept these live cams of Susan Dennis as my apology gift to you ..... but don't ask me how I got them.

http://susandennis.com/cam/all.htm

MD, take the time to read through the Internet Bench posts back to Jan of 2023.

Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.  I came to OT on 6th December 2022 to mention it was the third anniversary since Trix died. All of the recent posts were SPAM. I chose a cam at random. The final post on it was spam and the penultimate one was mine ... mentioning the second anniversary of Trix's death.  I just decided not to bother. I didn't expect to be missed because nobody was posting anything. 

Phoenix said the real MD would know her previous profile so I posted it ... Syrsa, and that she is originally from Troon and last I heard was living in Davie, Florida. She hasn't been on to confirm it.

In the early days we had racist posts and other unwanted topics.  I was the one who emailed Flemming Funch every time to get the offending posts removed.  I really am MD. 

Oops Homely, I forgot to add some onion and fresh basil to that recipe.

Hi Homely, I've had your weather the last couple weeks and I'm so tired of it but at least I have air conditioning, that helps a lot. I think pretty much all of the US is dealing with these hot temps !

My go to easy cold salad is cooked penne pasta, cherry tomatoes cut in half, sliced black olives, chunks of fresh mozzarella and Italian dressing over it and then refrigerated for a couple hours. It will last for a few days in the refrigerator and you really can add anything you like to it, I add fresh peas when I have them.

I hope you're not keeping too busy with work and have time to spend with your kids who I assume are both home for the summer from college ?

Hi, Silversquirrel, N Q, Phoenix, Moose, Feral Orchid, anyone who happens to be lurking out there - Still here, off and on, happy to check in and see a post from time to time. Miss our active chats but I guess that's the way things go. Super hot and humid where I am these days. I need an escape! Hope you are all well and happy. Anybody have some excellent salad recipes for dinner on these hot nights?

Hi silversquirrel, I was going to say I'm still here but it seems like I totally forgot about opentopia the last couple of months.

We started out with a warm April with temps around 85° which was too hot for this time of the year. This week we're now down in the 40s for highs which I rather have than 80s or higher.

I hope you also have a nice summer and you don't have too many 100° days !

Hi NQ and the rest of the members here on Opentopia.  Just checking in and wishing everyone a happy summer wherever you may be.  We seem to be staying silent since the passing of MD.  But I'm still here.