May I shout out Good Afternoon? Sort of? It's storming and blowing just like yesterday, Sunday, Sat afternoon, not a 'good' afternoon. Wind, heavy rain, hail.....I want Spring. Why does my lawn think it is Spring - it needs to be mowed and it's too darned wet. On the happy side, the shellfish certainly are good here this time of year. DH cooked another 26 live crab on Friday, no - not all for us but we've been OD'ing on crab and razor clams for 5 days. I even called this morning and moved my checkup with my endocrinologist out a few weeks on the chance I'm loading up with iodine :) Carla, I've never seen poison ivy...Can you get poison ivy in February?

I completely agree with everything Fran just said and more. I have been watching this amazing woman for three years now juggle family, job and this tremendous plant sale. She goes to work at 4:30 AM at Costco and then sells plants when she gets done work until she needs to go home and take care of her two youngest children. She is instilling a sense of community service in her children - they all participate from potting plants, growing seeds, painting pots and selling plants. The are a wonderful family! What was gratifying to see this year was the volume of repeat customers and referrals. So many people said "you don't have to tell me - I've been coming here for years", "I come every year to support you (Michelle) and the Childrens' Hospital". New for me at least were the non Costco members who found out about the crazy plant lady from Costco members who bought from her before and recommended them to buy from Michelle. The network is also expanding so hopefully more people will volunteer to help Michelle and her family. I can't say enough about how much effort Michelle and her family put in to making this event a huge success and she deserves every ounce of credit for its accomplishments. It is an honor and pleasure for me to be associated with Michelle and her family in this endeavor.

I have a Nam Doc Mai #4 in the ground here in Pearland. This is its first year in the ground, so time will tell how it does. I'm in Pearland and the tree is planted in a pretty protected area. Also, for winter, I built an enclosure out of garden stakes (it's only about 3 1/2 feet tall right now) which I wrapped in a few layers of frost cloth and then fill with raked leaves. If it gets colder than it's been, I'll probably stick some water jugs in there. I think it's gotten down to 29 so far this year, and it looks good in there. Mine's from Joseph's Nursery too.

If you ever drive from Houston to San Antonio, you'll know Bucee's. It's an extremely glorified version of a highway roadstop. They sell everything! And have tons of clean bathrooms. But the best thing about them are their funny billboards. Here is a link that might be useful: scroll down to se several of their funny billboards