I'm certainly a tomato lover. I enjoy them fresh in sandwiches, roasted on chicken, and fried with eggs. So when I randomly came across the photo you see in the middle, I knew I had to share a thing or two about this heirloom that's best known as the giant Belgium tomato. According to its growers, this variety is distinctive for its fruit that averages 2 lbs., but has been known to grow to an enormous 5 lbs! Tomatoes are dark pink and solid meat with smooth blossom ends and a delicious sweet flavor. Some people even make wine from these very sweet tomatoes. Planting season is now, make sure to find their seeds and plant a few. Probably won't regret it.


PS: I'm quite certain this would be the tomato Lisa Simpson grew before Bart sabotaged it! ...

School and summer don't mix.

In fact, thinking and summer don't really mix. Yet we don't want to return to school feeling like a lower-IQ version of Keanu Reeves. How to strike a balance?
 
I'm sure you've all had that feeling before: You bust out the first assignment of the new school year, you sit down and grab a pencil, you put that pencil to the paper and you... stare. Gaze. Daydream. Sniffle?
 
"Dude, how is this stuff even remotely difficult?" you say. "It was a piece of cake four months ago."
 
Yeah, then that whole summer thing got in the way. Funny how cruel overexposure to sunlight, fireworks, burnt hot dogs and fried Twinkies can be.
 
Four months off is enough time to forget a semester. Six months will erase a year. And as I found out l ...