GottaDEAL 2025 Prize Club Discussion Thread

[tracy0504]

[Kash]

Hello everyone!  I cannot believe it is Aug already!  Summer has just flown by

[rockpzazz]

I always try to come up with something to say each month instead of just checking in... but I really have nothing to say.  The weather has been a lot nicer lately (who knew it could reach highs in the mid to upper 70s the first week of August).  Making some progress on a few projects, but still procrastinating more than I should, maybe I can knock a few more out and motivate me to finish some more.

[bribri25]

Summer finally giving me a break after vacation and endless activities. Now, it's pretty much time to get back to school for the kids, but one waterpark day and a weekend of camping planned for August.

[bodotdot]

Just checking in for August, so--ACHOO!

 

Sorry about that.

 

 

Happy August.

[speeddiva]

August is a busy one here. My 40(!) year class reunion, a road trip to Oklahoma & Arkansas then a quick trip to Denver for a show at Red Rocks. Praying for some good weather. 

[tinkrbel]

Welcome August! Looking forward to a busy month ending with a trip to Chicago to see Oasis. It's been years since I've flown anywhere or seen Belugas

[msyves]

August is here. I hope everyone is enjoying themselves.

[packratfamily]

Checking in for a hot muggy typical August. Thank goodness for swimming pools

 

[HanShotFirst]

Hello August I guess.   I’m so over the blistering heat.  We had a lovely weekend last weekend with no humidity but it’s creeping back and will probably ledge to more heat advisories.   

[wittenlover]

How are we already almost halfway into August? Eesh... Time's been flying.

 

Little miss Mew (in my profile pic here) has been trying to give mama a heart attack lately with some health issues. Not entirely unexpected at 17.5 years old but I could do without the couple of emergency vet bills I've had to deal with when she apparently was just battling a bug of some sort. Antibiotics and time and she's back to being her spunky self. Go figure. No clue how long I still have with her but these past few weeks have made me more appreciative of the little things like the special moments when she chooses to curl up next to me vs in one of her other favorite spots, when she comes to me looking for attention, etc. 

 

This coming weekend is the annual Woodward Dream Cruise. As a classic car lover, this is one of the events I look forward to each year. I know the traffic on Woodward drives some locals crazy (and I get it) but I love being amongst all the cars from days gone by. Memories of being a kid and riding with Mom or Dad (or both) and having them tell me what the cars were and some little fact about them when we'd see one on the road. I'll be down there Saturday morning/early afternoon before I head into my weekend "side gig", camera in hand to capture some of the best and share with my fellow car lovers. 

 

Looking ahead to the end of the month, I am headed back to Cedar Point and will actually have my coaster buddy back with me, as she's been able to work in a couple days off to come back up for another quick visit. I'm happy to have her join me for that run since I know she loves the coasters as much (or more) than even I do. The day she heads home is actually opening day for one of my favorite local orchards, so we're talking about her potentially staying late enough for a quick orchard visit before she starts the trek back to her place. She's not been up here for that before - firsts are always fun and... She could take some fresh orchard doughnuts home. Bonus. lol

[Gator Pam]

Yesterday my landlords and I attended a pot luck brunch game party. We brought a brunch enchilada casserole made by my landlord and I made blintz casserole with homemade strawberry glaze/pie filling and homemade blueberry pie filling to be used as toppings. We also brought along sour cream to use as a topping for both casseroles as well.

The hosts made French toast, and the other couple in attendance brought a variety of sausage.

Frozen blintzes layered in stoneware in a single layer and rolled to coat in melted butter

 

Soufflé batter poured around and over the blintzes

Puffy and slightly browned

 

Enchilada Casserole 

 

My plate, starting from 12 noon and going clockwise:
French Toast 
My Blintz Cassetole tipped with strawberry, blueberry, and sour cream
Enchilada Casserole topped with sour cream
Various pieces of sausage

[magickallight]

On 6/5/2025 at 6:13 PM, Brad said:

Saw that Costco is testing out a version of Scan & Go. I tend to go to Sam's more often for that reason alone. If Costco rolls it out nationwide I'd probably shop there more than I do now. 

 

[mcwalker]

One third of the way through August.  The summer is slipping by fast.

 

Today is August 12.  Happy Birthday, Brad!

 

 

Edited August 12 by mcwalker

[Bopeep]

[cllehto]

Happy Birthday Brad!

[Kanyon71]

On 8/11/2025 at 9:44 AM, wittenlover said:

How are we already almost halfway into August? Eesh... Time's been flying.

 

Little miss Mew (in my profile pic here) has been trying to give mama a heart attack lately with some health issues. Not entirely unexpected at 17.5 years old but I could do without the couple of emergency vet bills I've had to deal with when she apparently was just battling a bug of some sort. Antibiotics and time and she's back to being her spunky self. Go figure. No clue how long I still have with her but these past few weeks have made me more appreciative of the little things like the special moments when she chooses to curl up next to me vs in one of her other favorite spots, when she comes to me looking for attention, etc. 

 

This coming weekend is the annual Woodward Dream Cruise. As a classic car lover, this is one of the events I look forward to each year. I know the traffic on Woodward drives some locals crazy (and I get it) but I love being amongst all the cars from days gone by. Memories of being a kid and riding with Mom or Dad (or both) and having them tell me what the cars were and some little fact about them when we'd see one on the road. I'll be down there Saturday morning/early afternoon before I head into my weekend "side gig", camera in hand to capture some of the best and share with my fellow car lovers. 

 

Looking ahead to the end of the month, I am headed back to Cedar Point and will actually have my coaster buddy back with me, as she's been able to work in a couple days off to come back up for another quick visit. I'm happy to have her join me for that run since I know she loves the coasters as much (or more) than even I do. The day she heads home is actually opening day for one of my favorite local orchards, so we're talking about her potentially staying late enough for a quick orchard visit before she starts the trek back to her place. She's not been up here for that before - firsts are always fun and... She could take some fresh orchard doughnuts home. Bonus. lol

Ya I’m going to miss the dream cruise, and fresh cider and donuts. I used to tell my wife cider was different at the mills. She never believed me until we went one year while visiting. She told me she thought I was crazy until she actually tried it. Now she knows.

[stationchief]

Ah, monsoon season, how I've missed thee. Rain expected all the way through next week. 

 

And... Happy Birthday, Brad! And many mo-oooore!

[Gator Pam]

With the nearly total inch of rain expected over the next couple of days here on the Eastside of Seattle, I went ahead and harvested my Mystery tomatoes, as I didn’t want to risk them splitting.

 

For those unaware, I saved seeds from Kumato tomatoes I bought from Trader Joe’s, unaware at the time that they are a hybrid and will not reproduce exactly the same. Since Kumato is proprietary, I don’t know exactly what the parent tomatoes are like, since they mostly have generic ID names. So, I had no idea when they would be fully ripe, nor what they would taste like.

 

How the colored ones looked on the vine

Clustered together after picking 

The one I decided to try, as it is the least firm. Pepper mill for scale.

Looks quite nice!
 

I cut out the core, since it was still quite green, then lightly salted each half. A touch tangy with some nice sweetness. The half where I removed the core was more tangy, whereas the other half was slightly more sweet. 

 

I haven’t decided if I’ll save seed from them for next year. I think it will depend on how many total I wind up with.

[magickallight]

On 8/13/2025 at 1:53 AM, stationchief said:

Ah, monsoon season, how I've missed thee. Rain expected all the way through next week. 

 

We got a little over 11 inches yesterday alone.  Today no rain, but the severe heat is back - I think I'll take the rain. 

[Gator Pam]

Today’s tomato harvest from the raised beds. These are far less ripe than my preferred stage for picking, but again with the potential rain coming the next few days I didn’t want to risk them splitting.

 

I have quite a few green ones still on the vines. Hopefully they’ll weather the influx of water without splitting or developing blossom end rot.

 

They’re a mix of the four different varieties growing in my raised beds:

Black Krim
Mortgage Lifter
San Marzano-style
and
Selitz

[stationchief]

On 8/14/2025 at 5:06 PM, magickallight said:

 

We got a little over 11 inches yesterday alone.  Today no rain, but the severe heat is back - I think I'll take the rain. 

Muggy wet humidity with 100+ heat during the day here, then we get all the stormy inches upon inches of rain throughout the night. 

[bluebear]

It's been a rough last month or so at work,  with the start of the school year.  My husband also works with me, and our son works in an adjacent industry (with one of our vendors actually), so have all been wiped out.  Things are finally getting slightly calmer, so we are looking forward to that.

 

I did a big thing today though.  I went to my supervisor and told him a wanted a title change,  and presented documents outlining what the title should be and why.  It went really well and he promised he would have discussions about it.  But, I know it's a long shot because it has to go up a few levels for approval, and there are others with my current title who would then want the same.  But we'll see.

The important thing is that I took up for myself, and was taken seriously. 

[HomeinKS]

22 hours ago, Gator Pam said:

Today’s tomato harvest from the raised beds. These are far less ripe than my preferred stage for picking, but again with the potential rain coming the next few days I didn’t want to risk them splitting.

 

I have quite a few green ones still on the vines. Hopefully they’ll weather the influx of water without splitting or developing blossom end rot.

 

They’re a mix of the four different varieties growing in my raised beds:

Black Krim
Mortgage Lifter
San Marzano-style
and
Selitz

I am told that as soon as tomatoes start developing some blush they are fine to. pick and won't get any sweeter, I don't know if that is true or not.  Googling says that they should be about half ripe before picking, and most of yours look at least that ripe.  We have a community garden plot so we are probably best picking sooner than totally red to avoid damage and others from helping themselves.  Our garden is set up for each plot owner to take care of that plot and get the harvest.  

[amdskip]

School starts soon. I have no life this time of year.

[Gator Pam]

23 hours ago, HomeinKS said:

I am told that as soon as tomatoes start developing some blush they are fine to. pick and won't get any sweeter, I don't know if that is true or not.  Googling says that they should be about half ripe before picking, and most of yours look at least that ripe.  We have a community garden plot so we are probably best picking sooner than totally red to avoid damage and others from helping themselves.  Our garden is set up for each plot owner to take care of that plot and get the harvest.  

Yep, %.
 

My two raised beds are also in a community garden, which is located in a County park. It is amazing how many patrons of the park read “Community Garden” on the signage and interpret that as “the public can help themselves” as if it is a U-pick operation.

 

Our biggest problem is deer and voles, though. Thankfully the voles focus more on the in-ground plots than the raised beds, but the deer definitely liked my corn last year.

 

 I tend to like the tomatoes to ripen on the vines to about 70%; more than that and I risk losing them.

 

When I harvested the tomatoes above, all the rest were bright green. We started to get the rain that night, and when I returned to the garden the next day some of the tomatoes were turning yellow-ish, but not really blushing at all yet. I left them on the vines, and the rain continued through the night, but had let up this morning.

 

When I checked on the tomatoes again, some of the larger green ones had stretch marks, but the skins had not actually cracked. The yellow-ish ones were the same, although the stretch marks were more pronounced. But none were actually cracked yet. I went ahead and left them on the vines to turn more red than yellow. Hopefully the stretch marks won’t get any worse.

[setlok73]

Hope everyone had a great summer

[ilikefree]

Well, work day tomorrow and back to school on Wednesday. It doesn't look like it will be any cooler and, even though the school is air conditioned, that doesn't man anything in the cafeteria. It gets unbearably hot! The employee who gave us so much trouble with her attendance last school year is moving to a different position in the school. We found this out less than a week before school starts, leaving us a person short to begin the year. Wish us luck!