I occasionally quote from Tennyson's "In Memoriam, AHH" with the "Nature, red in tooth and claw" line, but there is less of it that is so applicable as Kipling.

Chocolate is good, but a nice batch of smoked salmon, that will do it every time!

Mom, it was cool enough today that I cooked a big pot of turkey stew and the kids made pie crust shapes (cut out with cookie cutters) to eat with it. Mmmmmm! Meanwhile, with the cool weather, I'm wondering why I bothered to buy another dog house. Both girls have been curling up happily together in one. (They're so cute!)

Folks like Amos will just have to take our words for it that it cools off in the fall. San Diego looks like it's having it's typical warmish weather. Rapaire has probably been out shoveling snow already. Bunn--I don't know about your weather. And where is RR these days?

Chit chat BS doesn't exactly cleanse the pallet, but it does move us along numerically. I believe I already placed dibs on 10,000.