Margret Sloan

OK – I’m willing to admit that we cheated a little on the tomato plants this year. We bought two plants at the Publix grocery store when they had some seasonal plants out front of the store. Each plant was only $12 and they both looked very healthy, so we brought them home and had a nice head start on tomatoes this year.

My goal has always been to have fresh homegrown tomatoes on the vine ready to pick by the Fourth of July each summer. Well, believe it or not, we’ve been picking ripe tomatoes for two weeks already! They are not really big tomatoes, but they are sweet and meaty and we are very pleased with ourselves!

Maybe this abundance of fresh tomatoes will encourage hubby to eat more fresh garden salads this summer. He eats them in restaurants when salad comes with the meal – no cucumbers, no fancy lettuce – just iceburg – ranch dressing is the only dressing choice – but salads at home are always disdained. If I was a completely confident cook I’d be offended, but it’s not me – it’s him.

Condo life sometimes means putting up with little nuisances that you might not have to deal with in a single family home with a yard and good distance between neighbors.

Even though this condo development is upscale and the construction is high end, there can still be nights where the noise from your neighbor’s TV or sound system creeps into your bedroom and makes sleep difficult. I don’t have a garage band next door, but for some reason the neighbors like to listen to rock and roll ALL night. Now, I like rock and roll, but not at 3:00 in the morning when I’m trying to sleep.

So we’ve come up with a solution other than calling the police and filing noise complaints against the neighbors. We bought a little machine called Sleep Mate, which makes a nice little sound during the night called white noise and you don’t have to listen to that rock and roll or even hubby’s snoring anymore. I’ve known about White Noise Machines for years, but it wasn’t until we moved here that I needed it.

And to take the chill off in the morning, I bought a pair of foot cozy heated slippers from Vat 19 – the same site that sells the Sleep Mate. A good night’s sleep is a whole lot easier now, and getting up in the morning is just a little nicer, too.

This morning’s newspaper came with a nice surprise – two free boxes of breakfast cereal were in the special plastic bag that holds the paper. There was a small box of Honey Nut Cheerios and a box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, along with coupons to save 75 cents at the grocery store on a full size box if you like the cereals.

It is always nice to get something free to try – it surely must open the minds of a good percentage of people who might not otherwise try a particular food or drink but soon discover that they actually like the product. Part of this is due to favoring brands or flavor with which you grew up or are accustomed to eating and drinking. Part of it is due to a natural resistance to try new things without some incentive. And part of it, in my household anyway, is that the person doing the grocery shopping is a creature of habit and only searches out the brands and items that we know we like or prefer so they can get finished with the chore of shopping and get back home as quickly as possible.

My son is getting more and more serious about his internet gaming. That boy spends hours and hours – after his homework is finished, by the way – playing these first person shooter games with his internet friends. Now he’s complaining that his computer is outdated and too slow and he “needs” a new one.

Well, since school is out for the summer, I thought it would be a great idea for him to build his own computer from a Do It Yourself kit. That way he can pick and choose exactly what components he wants and he will learn a lot from the hands on experience of putting together a computer.

There is a great site on the internet that sells the kits for different kinds of computing needs, including the super charged gaming computers like my son wants. The parts are all big name brands and fully warranted, so I’ll be sitting down with him tomorrow morning and choosing the specific parts he wants to order and we’ll order his DIY kit.

I love the holiday every June that we have for Fathers. I think it’s great to honor the men who take their family responsibilities very seriously and make the effort to be good fathers.

I know I was very lucky to have two such men in my life as a child. Although my parents divorced when I was young, they both remarried very quickly and I had the benefit of two sets of loving and caring parents as I grew up. My father was a good man and a great father – I miss him very much. And my stepfather was a good man and was devoted to my mother and their children during his life.

If you have a good man in your life that deserves the recognition and thanks for being a good father to your children, don’t forget to celebrate this special day and coach your children on buying a nice gift, being together all day if you can and shower him with affection. A great gift that everyone will enjoy could be a chocolate Father’s Day gift from Fannie May Candies. That was a tradition in our home and it could be the start of great new tradition in yours. Our father would open the box of chocolates and then pass it around for everyone to share and enjoy with him. Oh, what great memories a box of chocolates from Fannie May Candies can bring!