Oh, my!

Wow, what a storm last night, starting about 11 pm - heavy rain, thunder, lightning, wind - and we have discovered that Charlie does not cope well with that type of weather, first digging at the closed door that stood between her and her bed (the bed is in the downstairs living area), so I let her go to that, and she stayed a while, until about two forty-five then was up and around seemingly needing to pee but also absolutely refusing to go outside - so little sleep for me last night. This morning she was much more her old self. (Had to take a short break to make Emily some hot chocolate.) The big event of the week (besides the weather) - instillation of two large raised beds, about 4 1/2 by 12 1/2 feet, filled with pea straw then rich compost. It will be interesting to see what we plant and how our gardening grows - just a few winter veggies to start - we will list them after we get them. Just a pause here to consider our blessings - we are well and financially secure and are thankful for that and for all the friends we have around the globe. Well, grocery prices are higher this month, and there has been a rising trend for a number of months - maybe you can translate from metric to USA measures remembering a liter is about a quart and a kilogram is about 2.2 pounds so - regular gasoline two dollars a liter, premium two-fifteen. A litre of milk - varies from a high of 4.25 to a low of 3.10. A 250 ml bottle of maple syrup - 7.99. A bag of mandarins - maybe 15 -4.79. Two long life small light bulbs - 10.99. 120 grams of yeast - 3.62. 6 pack of eggs, 2.99. 500g of flour gluten - 6.29. 500g of cheddar cheese - 7.49. 535g chicken soup - 2.69. Also remember that one Kiwi dollar is worth about 75 cents American. Have fun with your translations. I gave up on the cooking class - was not fun and felt I could have learned as much from a cookbook or two. We are using the bread machine more now, and enjoy home-made bread at least when it rises appropriately, which the last try did not - oh, my. I remember someone telling us they once had a failure making bread and it was so bad even the dog would not eat it - Charlie did eat some of ours, grabbing it off the counter, so must not have been too terrible, huh? Right now, at 4:30pm it is starting to get dark - the temperature outside not bad at 57, but inside only 66, so we dress warmly, and the kids have a heatpump in their rec room that keeps them warm and cozy. We are excited about the forthcoming visit of friends from Topeka, who will arrive here on the 7th of July - will be a contrast for them to Kansas weather. Well, as always, thanks for taking the time to read this - and I am sorry Google makes it so difficult for you readers to respond. My nephew, who will be living in Doha, Qatar for a while uses another blog service that allows comments - but I think he pays a little to use it. We are trying out Skype and will see how that goes - it is easy to get calling cards that only cost two cents a minute, so that is what we use now, since Skype only works if both parties have it. Sincerely, Manford