O.K., here's the deal: We here at HotWaterBath are pregnant. Pregnant in the way that makes all thoughts of food or its preparation white-knuckle experiences. As you can imagine, this is interfering with the whole canning thing (as well as the grocery shopping thing and the clean-up-the-kitchen thing). My dear husband has been taking up the slack as best he can, but with the new job it's been a bit hard for him to do much since he has accrued little in the way of time off or the political capital required to come in late or leave early with no consequences. He's very sweet about the mercurial illness factor - oh! I feel sick. No wait, I feel great - but it's still a huge burden on our family.


To the degree which previous pregnancies are predictors of current or future maternal experiences, this should be passing (more or less) within a month or so - just in time for the beginning of August garden overflow (not mine, though, as we've established) and heading into the harvest season. Perfect! So although I feel like crapola now (and, believe me, this kid is going to be born into a "time out" for doing this to me!) things should straighten out more or less in time to take advantage of the fall canning season. We're in desparate need of tomatoes, so that's on the agenda, as well as salsa, pickled peppers and a few dozen other things. I'm also thinking of being a little more experimental, so if there's anything you'd like me to try, by all means make a suggestion. It's time I expanded my horizons a little. The only things I won't make are sweet pickles of any kind, which are an abomination and a sin against nature.


And finally, just to tie up some loose ends, I'd like to report that the weather in Buffalo was glorious. We went swimming (in both wading and large pools), played in the sandbox, taught the boy wonder how to use a swing and just generally had a great time. My son is one of four grandchildren (soon to be six - my youngest sister is also expecting) and is, so far at least, the only grandson. He was treated as the Crown Prince and has in the space of one week become completely spoiled. In short, the trip was exactly what a summer vacation with the grandparents is meant to be.