What you describe is fairly common practice. Queen honeybees are "livestock" just like any other swine, cattle, chickens, etc. Clipping a wing is used to mark/identify the queen and her age. I don't do it anymore but when I did, I used sharp baby fingernail scissors. Frequently nowadays a coloured paint mark is placed on the queen's thorax to identify her age. There is a different colour for different years so her age is known to the beekeeper. A queen can live for four or five years but she is most highly productive during the first year or two. After that, many beekeepers will remove her and replace her with a new young vigorous queen. This is done in consideration of the overall health and welfare of the honeybee colony.

The problem is ALWAYS TDS! I did get a fourth account, this time with Yahoo, and I can send mail from TDS to Yahoo. Another example of the lousy service from an ISP when they know they don't have any competition so they don't care what the customer thinks of them: I got my monthly email that my TDS bill was available on line and ready for payment. My payment is taken automatically from my bank so I really don't need to do anything when this alert is sent. I do look at the itemized bill that is for my home phone, my DISH and my DSL service. From the time I moved here and established phone service with TDS, I specifically did not take long distance service. Almost all my LOCAL friends are considered long distance from my TDS home phone, so I use an MCI pre-paid long distance card that costs less than 3 cents a minute. There should NEVER be a long distance fee charged to me by TDS. So--this month I have a $5 and change fee listed as long distance. I immediately called customer service and eventually reached a rep who found the problem. The story I was told was that once in a while a lot of customers who don't have long distance service DO get charged. They said that since I had called to complain they would apply a credit against my next month bill. Duh----Apparently, even though TDS knows they have said "glitch" that charges unnecessary long distance fees, they don't bother to audit their records and automatically fix the problem. My invalid fee will be addressed only because I caught the "error" ?????!!!!!! I wonder how many unsuspecting customers just pay the fee without noticing it. I have automatic withdrawal for their fees and if I trusted TDS I would not have taken the time to log on to my account and find my itemized bill! My cell phone reception, first with AT&T and now with Verizon, often drops calls at my house so I feel I have to have a land line with TDS for security reasons. Also, their DSL is the only way I can get high speed internet except for maybe Hughes Net, which I am told is not a good company either. Nancy

the drying rack for hand washables: I've never liked them so I have always either put a towel on the counter and let things dry b/f putting them away or (now) use the sink with the items on the grid. The other option is to dry them as you wash them...that's what my DH usually does! (Not me, I hate doing dishes so every step I eliminate, the happier I am!) the paper towel roll: I bought two counter paper towel holders from BB&B, one for each side of the kitchen. It's OXO and it's the one that has an arm that "holds" the roll so you can rip off one sheet with one hand (with a 20% off coupon...sign up for emails and you'll start getting them). It's portable, more convenient than having to open a cab to get it, and when I have wet or "yucky" hands, I don't get my cabinets & knobs dirty when I need a paper towel. [Oxo Good Grips(R) One-Handed Simply Tear Paper Towel Holder] the kitchen towel: I hang it on the handle of the freezer door of my refrigerator. It's convenient to both the Cleanup Zone and Prep Zone, so it's an ideal location. I don't like those narrow towel cabinets...they get musty (at least my grandmother's used to). I prefer to have them air drying in the open. BTW...I successfully trained my family not to hang it on the oven doors b/c my ovens are front and center when coming in the front door! If I need a place for an extra towel, I will sometimes use the Warming Drawer handle. (Each night, the towel is tossed into the basement with the dirty clothes and clean one is brought out.) the phone: In my Message Center Niche. It contains the phone + answering machine, calendar, key hooks, sticky notes, pens/pencils/markers, and phone charger. It's centrally located so it's across from the garage (family) entrance, b/w the FR and Kitchen, and easily seen/accessed from the front door. This way, no matter what door we come in/go out... We can immediately see if we have messages The calendar can be checked b/f leaving or any other time Keys go right to the hooks b/c it's so easy (no more putting them down somewhere else and not being able to find them later!) Notes can be seen immediately when coming home, coming downstairs, just b/f leaving, etc. I don't forget my phone! (I have to see my phone or I forget it. Everyone else uses the charging center b/c they rarely forget their phones & iPods...I'm the only one that forgets if I don't see my phone when leaving (no iPod, I'm also the only that has no iPod)!) Here's a pic: We have a new, black phone that's smaller. The cords go through a hole in the wall behind the phone and into the pantry where we have electrical outlets & a phone jack. The phone charger cord also goes through that hole and is connected to a toggle switch that I can turn off when not charging my phone (to help cut down on the "electricity vampire"...

@Nebraska: I wonder the same thing. I've been watering "infrequent and deep" for about 3 seasons. Parts of my lawn look stressed in the hottest part of the summer, and the lawn is never 100% green except for spring and late fall (in NJ with KBG lawn). My next door neighbor mows lower than I do (I'm at 4") and waters EVERY single day, as does another of my neighbors down the street. Their lawns look mostly green while mine is a mix of green and brown stalks. Not bad, but just not 100% lush green. I posted about this a year or so ago, but I can't find it. Morpheus said something like the lawn won't look 100% like lawns watered every day, but they will be more disease/weed resistant and generally healthier. The pitch as I understand it is that watering every day for short duration causes the lowest levels of soil to get drier and the upper inch or so to be wet all the time. This encourages shallow roots, which also encourages weaker leaf growth. Shallow roots also promote formation of thatch in thatch prone grasses like KBG. Shallow roots also means warmer roots in the heat of summer which equals more stress on the lawn. It goes on and on as to why daily watering is bad. Like you, though, I look at their nice green lawn and I wonder. On the other hand, I mow high and I can tell you my lawn is considerably thicker and more plush to walk on. If you look down vertically there is a definite difference in density. So you do have to be careful about the lawn "being greener on the other side of the fence." I assume that the issue becomes a numbers thing. A lawn watered too frequently that is fungus free due to fungicides (free from good and bad fungi) may look great for two seasons and then be wiped out from some disease caused by the watering practice. (Can you really prevent all fungi with a fungicide?). If you look at all lawns, I'm assuming frequently watered ones crash and burn a lot more than ones watered "properly" do. This is mostly conjecture on my part because I haven't seen comparisons anywhere, though I'm sure the "deep and infrequent" mantra is based on good science. One thing is clear, though. If you believe a healthy soil ecosystem is important for the best lawn growth, then you can't use fungicides. If you don't think fungi are important for the lawn, then i suppose you can probably water every day, too.