HA!!! Mystery solved!!! I got home about a half hour ago from a late night Wal-Mart run (got sunburned to hell driving with my cars top down all the way to Miami and back on Saturday and I needed some Aloe with Lidocaine... regular wasn't helping) Anyway... I got home and stuck out the bait envelope, though no one was around and I didn't expect any activity tonight. Well, I changed and put my magical blue potion on... and I set about getting the cat inside for the night. Looked out back, looked out front... out back... back to the front and wouldn't ya know... someone is walking briskly away from my yard... twas a guilty walk. So I start calling excuse me... and no response... I start briskly following (in PJ pants from Christmas, a tank top from middle school and fuzzy slippers). Down the street I go... I have no shame. Finally they stop and I see that its a girl that lives three houses down from me, the mentally handicapped girl that lives three doors down. *sigh* Well, she had the envelope. She told me she had been taking them and apologized. Here's the deal... she walks all day every day in the same pattern, over and over and over again... we all know it... and we're all used to seeing her walk around all the time (she's up before me in the morning and goes til dusk). So I didn't think much about it since she's harmless and is always around. She used to leave my boyfriend pictures and drawings all the time, she's sweet... just a bit off. I'm not sure what exactly her situation is, never cared to ask... I just take it as it is. I work with autistic children, so I have patience for special needs individuals. She found one of my envelopes one day because the mailbox was open, she knew that it had bubbles inside and likes to pop them. So she took it home. Then she kept coming back and checking for more. She says that she kept all the seeds and notes, and that she'll return them along with the envelopes tomorrow. I trust she will, and I'm going to speak with her older brothers that take care of her. She was very sorry, so I'm not going to report her... just make sure she understands she can't do that. Not the outcome I expected, but hopefully all my missing things will be returned to me and I can get the stuff sent out that I couldn't. Some people I already replaced the missing seeds for, and some I didn't have anymore of the type in question to replace with. So there we go... my thief was an innocent bubble popper gone wrong. Kim PS... she started to cry when I told her we'd have to talk to her brothers about it, she doesn't want to get in trouble. I'm going to make sure that she isn't, and I'm also going to take her some bubble wrap I have leftover from a recent ebay purchase. Hopefully this will mark the end of the seed heist era.

A long time ago someone posted about an experiment they did with rooting hormone on AV leaves. The conclusion was that hormone stimulated root development but seemed to retard the sprouting of new plantlets. So, I don't think it is a good idea. The best success with rooting leaves, for me, is to do it under lights and enclosed, somehow. And, the best way to enclose pots is to put them in small pots that are placed on a tray with a large dome that fits the entire tray--i.e. the "10/20 domes". This name refers to standard industry trays that have inside dimensions of 10" x 20". Domes come in two heights--2" and 6-7", and can be found either by mail order or in hydroponic stores. An alternative to domes is to enclose pots in plastic bags or to root leaves in clear "clamshell" containers from the supermarket or deli. But, doing all of the above under lights is better than in windowsills (at least it is for me). For mailing leaves the biggest mistake is to put them in a plastic bag with a lot of moisture or a wad of wet moss or paper towel around the leaf stem (petiole). The moisture will move from the wet wad and rapidly rot the leaves. A moist bit of moss or towel can be wrapped around the base of the petiole of a leaf, but it must then be wrapped in foil, with the rest of the bag dry. But for a few days in transit, leaves can be sent in ziplock bags without any additional moisture or anything. If they arrive limp, they can be soaked in a bowl of water for a few hours or over night before planting. Slightly amusing story: Once I was bringing home, via airplane, a very large number of ziplock bags of cuttings, leaves and plants. I packed them to tightly fill a small softsided suitcase--that way they wouldn't shift around and smash into one another. When I arrived the suitcase was about 2/3 full. The various air pressures of the baggage compartment had forced all the air out of all the bags, which were packed with out any additional air in them in the first place. All the bags were like vacuum packed! The plastic was tighly flat against the cuttings. I was concerned, but, found that all the cuttings were just fine. I think the flattening and squeezing out of air actually improved their freshness. So, I don't subscribe to the theory that bags of leaves should be inflated with air. Jon

I've taken some classes at the local Community College, since they transfer to my current 4 year school and are much cheaper and closer to home. While the classes themselves have been wonderful - great professors, good texts, lots of support, great schedule, dealing with the administrative process is a NIGHTMARE. Seriously, no one in administration ever picks up a phone or returns a phone call or email. Ever. Even when I go there in person, unless you get the rare staff member who knows what they're doing, there's a good chance something will be screwed up. I just sent in a letter to try and get transcripts sent somewhere and I'm sending all the positive thoughts I can that this will go smoothly. I may double order, just in case. Even the information desk staff is rude and grumpy. At the 4 year school in which I'm also enrolled, staff is a dream. Very helpful, kind and completely competent. I've also taken online courses, one from a school in Utah - Weber State University. It was a biochem class with lab and it was outstanding. Great class, and while the registration process took a little navigating, it ended up fine. Thankfully, I'm almost done with this process. So, yes, I feel your pain. In a big, big way. AM

bugsybanks : Finally get back to this . . . . re : "Regarding the change to IMAP, I have 3 e-mail addresses set up through my server on the desktop and all 3 are now POP3 on that computer. Do I delete each account and then recreate it as IMAP? Will I lose the e-mails that have been saved under Local Folders? " One thing . . . my "Local folders" only contain Trash & Outbox. All my other Inboxes, etc. are within separate acct folders. I.E., each other acct. contains an Inbox, Drafts, Sent, etc. - outside of "Local Folders." Anyway, there's a good chance that after you create an IMAP acct., the email that you have already downloaded using POP mail, and deleted from the server - won't show up in the IMAP Inbox. You'd have to import them back in. Just to be safe, I would export all your email first so that you have it as backup. Then make new accts as IMAP. See if everything looks correct, or if you need to import anything from the backup you just made. Finally, delete the POP accts. There is a really handy addon tool for TB : ImportExportTools https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/importexporttools/?src=search (That page looks complicated, but the use of the tool is not) The two different ways to export using that tool are - (and you get to the choices by right clicking on "Inbox" or any other folder) : 1) "Export folder" (w/ or w/o structure) This makes an Mbox file of everything that you export. It makes for just a few simple files that aggregate everything within the respective folders. So you will end up w/ one Inbox file, one Drafts file, etc. "Structure" just means you will keep the nested structure of the folders. The disadvantage is that you can't read them later w/o importing them back first (using ImportExportTools). 2) "Export all Messages" (and choose "eml" format here) This exports each email as a .eml file - and you can identify and read each one separately later after exporting. So if you export 500 emails, you'll get 500 .eml files. You can batch import them though using ImportExportTools. And you can read them just by clicking on them individually. There's no harm in exporting both ways if you like. Just create separate folders so you can keep it all straight. Play around with it a bit until you get the hang of it. For all the people recommending this way to do email or that - this debate has been going on for years. There are advantages and disadvantages to each - it really depends on your needs. I wouldn't say that any one of them is "unusual" as someone commented - what's unusual to one is likely normal to someone else. Personally I use them all, and all for different purposes - no one method seems to work for every purpose. I do use web based email for the most part though. Hope that helped. -Kent This post was edited by kbarb on Mon, Oct 20, 14 at 0:42