My bro, in Central(ish) Vermont (I'm not sure if where he lives is considered the Smugglers' Notch region), used some astonishingly profane language -- even for him, which is saying something, given that he normally sounds like Eminem in a Mamet play -- regarding the possibility of tropical storm-level winds in Vermont.

I feel really bad for the smaller farmers in Vermont. This winter Will had customers who were making plans to upgrade machinery and stuff and now they are holding off. The flooding screwed everything up, hay didn't get mowed in time. Corn didn't get planted soon enough. So there's an issue of the quality of food and also if there's enough.

Right now driving around you'd think it was Iowa with all the corn fields. And it's all (or almost all) going to feed. But some farmer's maybe looking at buying feed for their cows because they couldn't produce enough of their own.

Will really knows corn. It's amazing, we'll be driving around at 50 mph and he can tell how mature corn is or if different types have been planted in one field. And if it's sweet corn or feed corn.

After all kinds of tests, the doctors determined that my mom's heart was doing just fine and the pain was probably related to the severe pain she's still in from the vertebra fracture. Did they come up with a different drug for the pain? Not so much. (She has some unpleasant side effects from opiates, so she only takes them when she can't bear the pain.)

Ginger - glad to hear that your mother's heart was fine.

Glad to hear the heart news is good, Ginger. I do hope they can deal with the pain more effectively though.

and the Justin Bieber purple glitter explosion

There is no shame in Bieber. Apparently underage Canadians are the sparkliest ever. And I want them on my toes.

That sucks for your mom, Ginger. Not the part about her heart doing ok, but the part about having no help with her pain management.

Apparently underage Canadians are the sparkliest ever. And I want them on my toes.

Won't that make your shoes kind of cramped?

Jilli, if you tried to call me earlier, I just realize that I wandered away from my phone and am...not really sure where it is. Um. Somewhere in the house. On silent.

Jilli, if you tried to call me earlier, I just realize that I wandered away from my phone and am...not really sure where it is. Um. Somewhere in the house. On silent.

Ahahahaha! Yeah, I did try to call you. I know, I will call you tomorrow! Surely you will have found your phone by then, right?

Won't that make your shoes kind of cramped?

I mostly wear sparkly silver sandals... Apparently when I had a birthday, I turned five.