musa innh, I also have a propensity towards trying to grow the tropical in my Western MA garden. I just love the lush look, but, have been unable to winter over stuff in the ground, so far. I have 2 Musas in the garden, one in the ground, and the other in a large pot. This past winter I discovered an over-wintering technique, which I shall call "store and ignore." The one in a pot, I dragged down to the basement, on the evening prior to the first frost warning, and ignored it for the rest of the winter. The one outside died, as it did the year before, despite my heavy mulching. The one in the pot, in my basement, maintained a viable 3-foot trunk, and it got planted outside this spring. That Musa is now about 7 feet tall. I purchased a baby Musa this spring, and potted it up, to repeat the process this year. I have also discovered this "store and ignore" works very well with my potted Cannas. Those that I over-wintered in my basement are currently very lush and blooming. I had a dinner party the other night on my patio, and a friend commented that she felt like she was in Key West. Yea! Emily

Okay, I just went out and tagged the pre traded items... I have: Debra- persicaria- frosted violet - creme brulee sinbadsmom- hens and chicks-rosea-melton fire Annie- violet dusk- melton fire Marsha- what would you like for the balloon flowers? deidre- what can I bring you when I come to pick up? This is my revised list: 1 heuchera frosted violet left 1 Tiarella candy striper 1 columbine 1 ligularia baby 1 artemesia limelight 1 heuchera mocha iris superstition-cherubs smile and full tide rhizome 1 sedum xenox start 1 hose aubergine start added today: 1 sherwood purple ground cover phlox (marsha, you liked this at my house) 2 very low growing hosta 2 patriot hosta 1 solid green but not the traditional one, blue tones 1 bunchberry 1 black mondo grass just a start anemone queen charlotte geum miss wilmont lookin stressed out...... Lisa

Heard things? Yes. Mostly, I've heard questions. There is a similar thread going right now over on chowhound.com where somebody is trying to track down one of the rumored Samsung slide-in ranges with the flex-duo oven. Consumer Reports published a brief note about planning to test a flex-duo oven (on the radiant in the picture you linked to above. About the only a first hand review that I've found is the link below. Here is a link that might be useful: Samsung slide in with flex-duo review

sigh, my basement flooded, again, 2 feet of water (I'm north of boston, right near Saugus/rt 1). We flooded a couple years ago (first delay in new kitchen) and paid to have a very fancy interior drain system put in by Basement Technologies. Fast forward to Mother's day, and the dang pump was "faulty" and never activated. 2 feet of water. Ruined water heater, furnace, vinyl records!! :( and some furniture we were storing during construction. I am just now cleaned up enough to figure out if I get anything more than the $1000 (already got the pump replaced) they promise. It cost me $1000 to get a new water heater, which was only 2 yrs old from the last flood! More money which means more delays re-starting my kitchen. I really miss my apartment! But I did not have to leave my home or have sewage, many folks were/are a lot worse off. A brand new house on a pond on my street is for sale in the mid $900s, and instead of on the pond it became IN the pond...