Cuteness time! As I mentioned earlier, Nathan is with my sister Stacey and her baby Cooper, having a blast visiting my parents in Montana. Stace just sent these sweet pics today so I thought I'd share them for a few smiles. Coop's red-haired self looks pretty little in the shadow of those mountains, fabulous. Hey, that cool table has a fun history - it was buried in the pool house of my stepmom Susanna's parents' home, pretty beat up. Her mom had it restored as a gift and voila, it emerged beautifully to meet its table destiny - looking lovely and welcoming, enjoying a sweet view (!), ready to bear many a pretty plate topped with delicious food. It does its job quite well and in return, table happiness.

With everyone gone (Nathan now, John and my stepdaughter last week, all of us the week before), our poor dining room table is lonely, lonely. Perhaps tomorrow night we'll be back on track. And I'll have to get back into the groove of cooking for the whole fam. I've had a nice little reprieve here, cooking just for myself or for John and me. We definitely won't be eating as much grilled fish and seafood...other than shrimp, I can get the kids to eat grilled shrimp...yeah, it's been a nice (healthy) run.

Oh, Friday Morning Coffee with Suz has officially become Tuesday Morning Coffee with Suz and Kim! Started today, in fact. Yes, The Maven has a new job, which will mean Tuesday's off, so she'll be joining us for our sipping and chatting. We only steal about an hour but that hour makes my whole week, love it. Today I biked over to our coffee spot, whew, it's a HOT mother out there. I had to mop myself while we chatted, yuck. Luckily my friends love me even while I drip. Stay cool everyone.

And, rest in peace to my friend Mary's mother-in-law, Kathy Pappas.