Thank you Jeri. It was so beautiful as it fell. Krista, thank you. We hardly ever get any snow anymore and this was welcome. Ingrid, I hope you will love your GT as much as I like mine. Thank you. Joanne, I enjoyed this rare surprise very much. I'm glad you liked the photos. Chance, you sir are needed to come to this part of the country and see that blue sky in person. Linda and I would both enjoy that :-) You would love Biltmore House and Asheville too. Carla

Thanks acer ! I think you're right, its a keeper! when it goes dormant I'll move it to a nice spot with room to grow thanks again for the speedy response :) Laura

Neat! I've never seen a whole bunch in one spot other than after I just released a bunch, like today is 27 so far. Who knows, maybe some of mine ended up at your place. :) I'm glad you're getting to see so many like that. I still have a few dozen to release and then I'm done for the year. I had more casualties this year than any other year, but thank goodness a lot of them made it. I'll bet I lost 1/3 of mine to parasitism and disease. I'm glad that not every year is like that. Cathy

A cool front has passed through southern WI and is headed to the east coast. Relief is on the way. Behind the front, day temps are 70s to low 80 with drier air: Dew point 60 F. No wind to speak of so can not tarry outside because of misquitos - have to keep moving or get eaten. We've had our share of rain the past 3 days. The problem was the rain clouds were strung over 200 miles and were aligned with the direction of travel. The rain front was not exceptionaly wide. The result was 200 miles of rain clouds passed over the same spot. Menomonee Falls and Milwaukee, WI got flooded. Nicolet High School in Glendale, WI got flooded: 6 to 8 ft or water in the basement and 1.5 ft of water running down the halls on hte first floor. The gym floor went under. They had just gotten in new sports gear for the fall term and it was stored in the basement. Official's preliminary estimate is $1 million to clean and repair. They think that if crews start now and work 7 days a week, the school may be in shape in time to open for the fall term. And of course by now, you have heard about the Cadillac Escalade swallowed by a sink hole. The vehicle pulled up to a stop light, the street caved in dropping the vehicle into a 15 ft deep hole and to add insult, the stop light also fell and leaned on the car. Its going ot be interesting to see how the insurance companies react to this one. I can hear it now: This was flood damage and your policy does not cover flood. The real sob story goes to a the owners of 5 to 7 homes on the north side of Milwaukee. Their basements caved in; the city condemed the properties as uninhabitible and has ordered immediate demolition. One woman lamented: "I bought this house not long ago for $120,000 and have 20 more years of mortage left. I'm loosing my house this week, but the mortage lives on." She'll get nothing from her home owner's insurance because it is flood damage, and most homes in that area do not carry flood damage because they were not in a flood plain and up to now, it was not needed. A number of cars parked in underground garages were flooded. If the water level got up to the relay box under the hood or the fuse panel under the dash, these will be totaled by the insurance firms. Yes sireee, the is the second time in 15 years that we got a 100 years rain.