For those that have had their gown cleaned and sealed - be careful. My SIL had her wedding gown professionally done. Five years after her wedding, she let me wear her dress since I searched everywhere and couldn't find one I liked. When we took it out of the sealed box, the pearls and lace seemed to be melted together. We were able to repair it as some cost, but the seamstress said it could have gotten worse over time if she had left it longer? For my second (and hopefully, last) wedding 8 years ago, I wore a simple lavender dress and it is still hanging in my closet :-).

So far.

I love things that I find in 2nd hand stores and feel like donating my things may bring joy to another person. I donated my wedding gown.

In my last home in Florida I lived on the water - deep water canal - in a subdivision with 2 lakes. Most everyday I'd see small alligators in the lakes. But, occasionally, there were big ones, 12 ft or more lying on the bank next to my yard.

When I lived in Southern California, they were warning joggers about the mountain lions/cougars because after they banned the hunting of them, the mountain lion population started to grow. However since they are solitary creatures that won't allow other mountain lions in their territory except during mating season, the older stronger mountain lions were keeping the "good" territory away from humans, while the younger less experienced mountain lions were being driven into the suburbs by the older ones. The way a mountain lion hunts is by ambush, they sit up in a tree till a deer runs under them and they drop on it and kill it by breaking it's neck. Unfortunately, the younger ones will do this to human joggers and the last time I checked (a few years ago) there had been more attacks on humans in California in the last 30 years than there had been in the 200 years before that. I'll have to remember to check the figures again and see if the problem is still bad out there, or maybe someone who's living there can tell me?

Living in Alaska, we have had moose and caribou come through the yard ... Watch out for the momma moose ... And have had brown bears in the neighborhood. You should never walk outside without taking a look around just to make sure the coast is clear. Our cat kept my husband from going outside at our remote cabin ... Large brown bear in the yard. I wouldn't live anywhere else!