Thanks everybody! I meant to start answering you guys on Saturday, but got way-layed; then Sunday spent the day trying to finish up some more of the photo-tweaking and that took ALL day. Then, it had let up raining a bit, so I went out and took more pics of what still looked decent. That added over 100 more to be tweaked. Geez. I'm kinda glad it rained all day today so I couldn't get out to take pics today!! LOL Carol, you are so right about us needing summer. We need that sunlight to get out of the winter funk! I do take Vitamin D plus lots of other supplements. As far as a bush shot of NIGHT OWL goes... unfortunately there's not a whole lot to see! It's a whimpy twiggy thing that only puts out a bloom every so often, and certainly isn't much of a climber. I think mine is barely 3ft tall after 3yrs. Jackie, I can understand rain into June, but freezing cold temps is just too weird. Hmm... my VEILCHENBLAU doesn't look like it's going to do much. It had a handful of blooms awhile ago, but I think it's done. I never did get around to deadheading it or fertilizing it. Lyn, I know what you mean about those spring grasses and other weeds. I've been putting off doing several beds that are overgrown. But then with this weather, it's been really hard to even try to get to them! And you're right, the forecast looks good for the rest of this week... FINALLY!! Bustopher, my CHARLES AUSTIN doesn't repeat all that great. I may get two really good flushes. But the blooms are usually really pretty and a lot of them. Connie, sorry your roses were all crispy for your daughter's wedding. That must've been really disappointing. But at least you had the florist roses. I hope the wedding was wonderful! Kay, KUROSHINJU is a great rose. I got mine from Hortico many yrs ago, and I believe they may still offer it. It's always got gorgeous velvety dark black-red blooms on it. The plant averages about 3-4ft wide and 4-5ft tall. Ya know, I don't remember ever checking the scent on it. I'll have to try to remember to do so after the rain is done. Ingrid, this dog we got is turning out to be a royal pain in the butt. I had no hand in picking her this time. My husband and younger son picked her. I wanted to wait a bit, but they felt she was such a great dog, they didn't want to pass her up. She can be a very funny dog, but being a border collie mix, she's rather high maintenance. I just wanted a dog to keep the deer out of the yard. She's become more of a pain than the deer. I just came home to find a rug all shredded in the front walkway. I could care less about the rug, but she makes such a mess and digs up the gravel in the walkways. The people at the pound said she was about 1 1/2yr old, but my son thinks she was younger. I know it takes time for them to grow out of stuff like this. Maybe once the weather is better my husband will take her for walks and do some things with her. Right now it's just hard to do anything. She probably has cabin fever just like we do!! Seil, you're absolutely right. Everything just takes time. But sometimes I just get impatient. I'm getting too old for this crap!! LOL Kathy, no kidding about the dang fungus. Looking at the garden yesterday, I see more powdery mildew than I've seen since we moved here 11yrs ago. And I'll be danged if I didn't see some frickin' RUST on a few roses. I used to never get rust, except on the grassy weeds. Yuck... The new camera may have come with some Photoshop program, but I can't download it onto my computer due to having the Lenix program UBUNTU loaded instead. It uses other programs not made by Microsoft. The GIMP program is very much like Photoshop, but it's just slow. But, my son says it just could be my old computer. I have a Sony system that was waaaay superior to anything that came out at the time. It's now almost 9yrs old. I want to get a new computer, but just can't right now. Gotta finish paying off some home repairs and car tires, and the friggin' roses I bought this winter. Then, my husband wants to either fix his POC (piece of crap) old motorcycle, or get a new one. That's not cheap. And the younger son needs dental work and we don't have insurance for him.... it just goes on.... Thanks guys for the compliments and encouragement. Sorry that I didn't answer everyone individually. I'll try to post some more pics in the Gallery later on....

Chosing to believe that government is inherently evil and cannot fix anything, would have led to the US doing nothing in the S&L scandals of the 1980'... I guess that's where the whole "specific, minimal government intervention" thing that you completely ignored comes into play. Given that the Founding Fathers talked about government assistance in the cases of illegal force, fraud, and monopolies, for example, could it be that they were a little more on the ball than you give them credit for? Why do you think they created the Electoral College? It was BECAUSE they actually didn't trust the judgment of the 'common man'. And of course, the 'common man' meant: white, Anglo-Saxon male landowners. Women and minorities need not apply, thanks. First and foremost, the College forces candidates to spread their attention to a much larger area than if they just pandered to large population centers. Additionally, during any given cycle, it is possible that low population areas would end up being "battleground states" and receive more attention than they EVER would if it were strict popular vote. Second, the College does a much better job at keeping fraud from affecting the outcome of an election. The only time this whole Electoral College / Direct Popular vote come into question is when the vote is close. As such, even minor changes in the popular vote could send a different candidate to the White House. Let's assume that Illinois, home to the phrase "Vote early, vote often", submitted thousands of fraudulent votes. Under the College, they've diluted the vote of just those in their state. However, under a popular vote they've diluted the votes of everyone in the country. Third, it comes to our favorite election subject, recounts. The Electoral College isolates recounts to those states where the outcome is in question. Take a scenario where in each state the popular vote was split 60/40 for one candidate or the other. Not a single state has its outcome in question. However, the national popular vote is within a few hundred thousand - a statistical tie. Each state would have to do a recount because even the smallest change across a few states could affect the outcome. You end up with a situation that is 50 times worse than the Minnesota Senate race, which, by the way, is STILL not resolved. Of course, you still need to account for the fact that the Federal government has no jurisdiction to force a state to do a recount. Finally, about half our states have laws to prevent or punish faithless electors. I guess those states didn't get the message about not trusting the judgment of the common man. The past may be a more comfortable place - especially if you're going to pick and choose which parts of it you like - but we can't and shouldn't try to live in it. Who said that the past was all hugs and puppies? Not I. If anything, we should learn from the past, lest we be forced to repeat their mistakes.

klutterkara -- When I first opened this thread and saw the photos of your kitchen I thought "Wow! What a gorgeous kitchen! Those cabinets remind me of mine." But then I thought it might read as pompous if I wrote what good taste you and I both have! (although clearly, we do!) Thank you for the incredible compliment, although you've taken "our" cabinets to a whole new level. Please don't think once (let alone twice) about the names I or anyone else use to describe the colors of your granite (which is pretty dreamy, by the way -- reminds me of mamadadapaige's gorgeous granite) or the tile (which is also pretty fabulous) -- we all have our own inner thesaurus, let alone a) how inaccurately colors photograph (or at least my photos seem to always be nowhere near reality) and more importantly b) how wildly different our monitors present the colors. (When I first looked at your pictures I was on a different computer than I am now, and just between the laptop and the desktop I think the tiles look different. Go figure.) So please please please forgive and pay no mind to the color descriptions we use. The computer on which I currently am has the tiles looking like cafe au lait -- see what I mean about monitors? Also on this monitor the granite sill makes more visual sense than it did on the other monitor. The more I think about it the more I think having a granite sill, esp. above a sink, will end up being one of your favorite things. (I kinda hate water damage and how grungy painted wood can get -- and I live with lots o' grungy painted wood!) I don't know the vintage of your home but I am crazy for your kitchen windows, plural (!), and I lovelovelove the way the tile wraps around them. You are genius (seriously), because the height at which you have the tiles in / around your window just makes it feel so ... what's the word I'm looking for? Authentic! I also think the color of the tiles makes your kitchen feel not-brand-new (in a most excellent way), but as if it's from a lovely older home with character. (I live in an eleven year-old builder's house, so I covet those details!) I wish you could borrow some of our eyes so you could see your kitchen anew and see what we're all able to see now (and you will down the road), that it is one beautiful space.

Hi Jenn, Wow! I almost could have written this about 4 years ago. Many details are the same: depressed 15/16 year old (that started out cutting herself), then a suicide attempt, and bipolar & borderline personality disorder ex-wife. Eek! You have my heartfelt sympathies so my first advice is DON'T FEEL ALONE! :) and you are not crazy for feeling the way you do. It's hard for the best dad in the world to make up for the possible inherited emotional makeup and the influences of a psycho ex-wife. I dated my boyfriend for 3 years before we got married; after each being divorced once and knowing how hard it is to make blended families work we wanted to be careful. He had custody for 9 months out of the year, the mother had the summers. Most of our problems came to light after we were married. After the suicide attempt the SD stayed 9 days in a psyche hospital for troubled teens. My husband and I were blamed by some of his family and the ex-wife for his daughters problems. Her caseworker at this hospital was horrible as the ex-wife had convinced her we were the root cause of it all and I left in tears one day. Had he not stood up for me to his family I very well may have taken my son and left. But, he did stand up for me and he is a good, good man so we are still together and are now empty nesters. My second piece of advice is counseling - for everyone that will go; you and your boyfriend and especially the SD. But be careful, we had some bad ones during our troubles so make sure you get a good one. Don't be afraid to try another if the first one doesn't work. I guess it boils down to you weighing out what your relationship with him means to you, keeping the welfare of your daughters in mind of course as it seems like they are still young. Sounds like you jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire, so to speak. Not fun. However, kids grow up and (hopefully) start their own lives, so are you better with him or without him? My last piece of advice is pray. Pray and pray some more! Ask other people to pray for you and her as well. And find someone to talk to - a counselor, minister or the like, not just a friend. There is hope. Now at 21 my SD is really growing up and maturing. She has gotten off her anti-depressants and is beating her depression. She has moved away which means she's also far away from her mother who tends to cause problems. We have been taking small steps in the last year to building a new relationship and we are making good progress. Good luck to you!