I love fruitcake - too much. I can go through a small one pretty quickly, so I rarely ever buy it for myself. There's no "off" switch.

I'm using the last eggplant from this year's garden to make fried breaded slices to take to across the street to the neighbor who loves it. I picked four of them at right before the last frost and have a fresh batch of babaghanouj in the fridge that I made with the other three.

Parcels have been arriving at destinations ahead of whenever our family decides to get together to eat and open gifts. A trick my son taught me - when I use Amazon he's in my address book there and is listed as His Name/My Name on the label, and that means they send me a photo of the delivery. When I had the mailbox delivered to my daughter I did that and was glad to see they honored my request to drive all the way up to the house and leave it on the porch. Their driveway is the equivalent of a couple of city blocks long, and I wanted to be sure it wasn't left at the road where it could be grabbed by a passerby.

Last week I put the new big orthopedic dog bed in the heavy-duty almost waterproof cover on the floor. It turns out the dogs seem to be surfing the tile floor with it. I come into the den in the morning and it has slid up against some or other piece of furniture. I may have to get one of the rubber mats that goes under a carpet runner to keep it a bit more stable.