I like O’Charleys better than Chilis and Applebys, but the O’Charley’s restaurants are a regional chain and are not in all the same cities that Chilis and Appleby’s will be.

I also like Cracker Barrel a lot, and love the way they will serve you a full country breakfast any time of day or night.

Looks like dinner will be in the evening rather than late afternoon as originally planned. LOL

This year we bought an extra bag of assorted candies from Sam’s Club. If we have any left over by the end of the evening, at least this is candy that we like and can enjoy eating ourselves over the next couple of months.

Here it is 5:00 pm and we already have kids coming to the door! They are very young kids with their parents, and I’m sure they will tucker out quickly. It is fun to see the imaginative costumes that are being worn this year.

My step mother made a totally different potato salad. She used Miracle Whip – which I HATE -and yellow mustard and chopped hardboiled eggs.

My mother in law made hers even more different. She used Hellman’s mayo and put chopped sweet pickles in her potato salad.

Who knew that potato salad was such a specialty?

The closest full service grocery store is a Food Lion. This store is good for basics and a quick trip when I run out of something mid-preparation. They have a limited selection of produce and all I usually buy there is maybe bananas, onions or potatoes. Their meat section is not much variety and too high prices, so unless it is on sale I might pick up a pound of hamburger meat or a ham steak. Their freezer and cooler sections are good and when they put things on sale I stock up.

But today I’m heading out for a long day down in the “Land of Excess.” Their grocery store is a marvelous wonderland of all kinds of treasures shipped here from all over the world. If they have some good prices on meats and vegetables, I’m prepared to take advantage because I’m taking my cooler in the back of the truck to keep them cold while I finish my errands down there. The temps will be in the 90’s today, so leaving groceries in the truck without benefit of a cooler is not practical. But I’m prepared – let the adventure begin!

John was middle aged and letting the weight creep up on him, 10-15 pounds per years. I’ve known him for at least 10-11 years, and up until recently you just thought of him as “could stand to lose a few pounds,” but not really considered him “fat.” But when you think about it, 10 pounds each year for 10 years and all of a sudden you are looking at 100 pounds.

So when I ran across him last week at the Chamber of Commerce meeting, I was shocked to see that he has shed almost all those pounds. It was a remarkable transformation and I’m sorry if it was ride, but I had to comment on it to him. He was so proud of his new look and didn’t appear offended at all. When prodded, he admitted he had been on the South Beach Diet for about 8 months and he looks marvelous.

John had chest pains one night and his wife rushed him to the hospital, fearing a heart attack. But thankfully it turned out to be severe indigestion. It was his wake up call,and he found his diet online by looking for great tasting heart healthy foods and discovered that the South Beach diet met his needs and matched his lifestyle. I think that’s was the secret to a successful diet must be: meet your needs and match your lifestyle.

Nuts were always a Thanksgiving and Christmas treat. Something you put out in a big crystal bowl with a couple pairs of hinged nutcrackers. You would site out on the front porch or in the kitchen and crack the nuts and chit chat. It was a great way to keep your hands busy while your tongues wagged.

Now I buy them already out of their shells and vacuum sealed in a can with the Planter’s Peanut guy winking at you. I like the mixed assortment with less peanuts, but I do like peanuts, so it doesn’t really matter. I don’t think I can pick a favorite, it’s a 3 way tie for first place between cashews, almonds and pistachios.