PoliticsGirl on the ACA

Happy birthday, USMC!

It's been 246 years since we were founded!

Semper Fi!

Rush Limbaugh Dead

Source: Fox News

Rush Limbaugh, the monumentally influential media icon who transformed talk radio and politics in his decades behind the microphone, helping shape the modern-day Republican Party, died Wednesday at the age of 70 after a battle with lung cancer, his family announced.

Read more: https://www.foxnews.com/media/rush-limbaugh-dead-talk-radio-conservative-icon

One-eyed Chuck the Wonder Cat brought in a Christmas present

this morning.

He caught a mouse in the garage and decided he would bring it inside to "play" with because it was too cold out in the garage. It promptly escaped and ran into the front closet.

I'll be setting mouse traps when I get home from work.

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Happy Birthday, United States Marine Corps!

244 years old today!

Semper Fi to all my brothers and sisters!

Happy 242nd Birthday, Marines!

Both past and present!

Wiley nails it again!

First foray into heirloom tomatoes

I planted four varieties of heirloom tomatoes in my garden this year - Cherokee Purple, Mortgage Lifter, German Queen and Black Prince. I also planted some Romas and Better Boys.

All the heirloom plants are around 4-1/2 to 5 feet tall (about doubling the height of the Romas and Better Boys) and are producing like crazy. They're starting to ripen (I planted late this year - my garden plot has really heavy soil and doesn't drain real well so if I plant too soon the late May and early June rains drown a lot of plants).

One of the Cherokee Purples was ripe enough to pick today. Now, I have to preface this by saying that growing up I was not a big tomato fan - I don't think I really started liking them until I was around 25 or so. Even then, my tasted buds usually went "meh!" at the taste of tomatoes. Where were the Cherokee Purples when I was growing up!? They're absolutely delicious! Firm and meaty with a hint of sweetness. I can't wait for the others to ripen so I can taste them.

I want to finish with a "shout-out" to NRaleighLiberal. I probably would not have considered growing heirloom tomatoes if not for your posts. Thanks!

My mother died this morning

She was 79.

She fell and broke her hip on Friday night. Once we got her to the hospital it seemed like things were stabilized, but on Saturday afternoon she suffered a heart attack. The surgeons installed a couple of stents in the affected artery, but the damage was done. She had two more heart attacks later and, near the end, it was only the drugs that were keeping her with us.

She had suffered from pulmonary fibrosis for years and was on oxygen (when she was first diagnosed the doctors gave her 6 months to a year - she beat that by about 10 years). She was also diagnosed with diabetes a couple of years back - which she was managing well.

We weren't very close for most of my life, but had become so over the last 12 or so.

I think what I'll miss the most is her off-beat sense of humor. She was the queen of god-awful puns.