Yesterday, Mother and I took some local blackberries (the fruit not the phone) and put up 19 jars of jam.  It was really a lot of fun.  We had planned to do raspberry, but they were almost impossible to find.  First we drove out to the countryside to a place called Joe Huber's and there is a totally different place called Huber's Orchard and Vineyard.  Anyway, we went to the first, had lunch and looked at their farmer's market... they had blackberries but no raspberries.  The lady at the counter said that she would call the other Huber's to see if they had them so we wouldn't have to drive out there for no reason.  The person on the other end said they had lots of red and black raspberries in the market.  So, we drove over there, only to find that they had blueberries in the market.  The raspberries were U-pick.  There was a third nearby place called Stimler's.  So we drove there, but it looked abandoned.  Back to the first Huber's to get the blackberries.

We think that we will also put up some apricot jam soon, too.

Mother and I got up early to do some wonderful shopping at a bargain sale, only to find that instead of tables and tables of goodies this year, they had three racks of t-shirts.  *Grump*

My mother-in-law called to tell me that there were things wrong with her computer from "you know who" using it.  Top thing "wrong" was the bar that said something "nasty".... it was http:// .  Yes, the letters, h t t p  and the symbols : / /.  She wanted to get rid of this from her computer.

Then I wanted to make a cheesecake for a friends birthday.  While cooking said cheesecake the over door fell apart.  Completely apart, as in, I cannot cook anything until it gets repaired.

*sigh*

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Today, Lizard and I joined Weight Watchers.  He does really well on diets like this because it is a lot like a gaming system where you have X number of points to spread out over a day.  I just want to be sure that I am not walking around gnawing on the bookcases to keep from being hungry.



The weather is decent today so after I get some other housework done, do some laundry, do the hokey-pokey, I will get outside and mow the yard.  I have a lot of pressure from our neighbor to keep it looking nice.  Your yard in Indiana is a VERY SERIOUS THING NOT TO BE TAKEN LIGHTLY.  It is right up there with porch sitting (which I hope to do some of today, also).

In interesting news there was this news article.  It is about an event to gather the most Elizabeth's in one town (named Elizabeth).  From the article: In 1832, Elizabeth Armstrong, one of at least three Elizabeths living in the Apple River Fort settlement, played a prominent role in defending the community during an attack in the Black Hawk War....

Pretty cool.

In the disturbing world of news, is this article. It seems our diligent government is seizing laptops of it's own citizens as they come back into the country from being overseas.  Searching and seizing without due course.

" Returning from a brief vacation to Germany in February, Bill Hogan was selected for additional screening by customs officials at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C. Agents searched Hogan's luggage and then popped an unexpected question: Was he carrying any digital media cards or drives in his pockets? "Then they told me that they were impounding my laptop," says Hogan, a freelance investigative reporter whose recent stories have ranged from the origins of the Iraq war to the impact of money in presidential politics."

He did get his laptop back after TWO WEEKS, but some people are not getting theirs returned at all.  What ever happened to our rights?  I can understand x-raying the equipment for bombs and such, but what right does the government have to search my data cards?  What about company secrets, databases and such that business travelers may have?  I highly recommend people to read the book Little Brother -  It is available free online.