It has been raining here in Oklahoma for 2 months. It rains almost every day. I'm getting really irritated with all of this. Mildew is everywhere and moss is growing all over everything. I feel like I live in the tropics. Well, the plus side is that it's pretty cool. The minus to that is that the humidity is about 90%. I think we're all going to have to strip off like the Indians in South America because it's about 75 to 80 degrees, and everyone is sweating like champions. Usually it's about 100 degrees at this time of the year, but it is dry. We still sweat but we're not all nearly dead from allergies to mold and mildew.

The weather this year has been really crappy. First we had the ice storm which destroyed many of our trees. I lost my last apple tree this year. Then we had a weeklong freeze that destroyed all the budding trees. I lost another, very expensive, weeping mulberry tree to that. Then it started raining and my red-tip photinias are dying of a fungus. It never clears up long enough to spray them with the anti-fungal stuff. I figure that the weather this year is going to cost me about $5,000 to repair all the damage. And I'm really grouchy. Constant cloudiness makes me grouchy. I went to Colorado for two glorious weeks of sunshine in May. Otherwise, I'd probably be suicidal. At least it hasn't flooded here like it has on the plains. Texas has those terrible floods just about every year. But Oklahoma has flooded too. Since I live on the side of a hill, I don't have problems with flooding except in the garage.

The garage is where I have stashed the 6 or 7 puppies that a neighborhood dog had. We seem to have varying numbers of them. No one was feeding her and she was so terribly thin that I fed her. Well, she moved all the puppies to my house and has moved in herself. She's a lovely German Shepherd mix, but those puppies, while incredibly cute, are awful. Everytime I open the garage door they run into the house and hunt for places to poop or pee. They hang on their poor mother's boobs and the little devils have teeth. She has serious knockers what with feeding all those greedy little devils, and they are cut from the puppy teeth. Also they are covered with ticks since it has rained so much that no one can mow their yards. This is the worst tick season ever in my 16 years living here. I pick off about a dozen ticks from the mother dog every night and the little ones also have ticks, but I can't put tick killer on them because they are too young. So I pick ticks off of them too. I am a great lover of the garbage disposal because I can just grind up the ticks and they don't return from the dead. Next week I get to take 6 or possibly 7 puppies for shots and worming. Clearly I'll be broke after that and then I have to get shots for two older dogs and the mother. She'll have to have heartworm tests. Lord, charity can get expensive. Mother, who is now 87, thinks I'm crazy, but I just can't let a perfectly good mother dog die of starvation even if she does have obnoxious kids.

But she's a problem too. Yesterday, we had company from Illinois so I had a big spread to feed them. I had a buffet set up on the bar in the kitchen. Angua, the mother dog, ate the potato salad in its bowl on the bar. She's tall and can reach the food. So I had to toss the potato salad. But that's not nearly as bad as the time my old dog, Jasper, ate two filet mignons off the counter. It takes a lot of potato salad to equal the cost of those filets.

Well, I'm feeling better. I hope the folks in Texas and in the flooded areas of Oklahoma are doing okay. Maybe someday the sun will come out and we'll really get to sweat.

Well, hey. I'll look up the Brennan's recipe. It's good and does NOT include a bay leaf. No good shrimp creole contains bay leaf. Good French scalloped potatoes contains about a half a bay leaf. I'll look up the recipe and send it on.

Bless you bless you bless you for taking in that Momma dog and her pups. You have earned your wings right there.

All I can say about the weather is....don't move to Houston.

Bless you bless you bless you for taking in that Momma dog and her pups. You have earned your wings right there.

All I can say about the weather is....don't move to Houston.

What's the weather in Houston like?