tom8olvr, You were the one who told me it would be OK to start a batch of seeds today (April 13) after I got back from vacation, so according to you, you are not going anywhere in a handbasket. I'm starting Batch 3 today - my cherries and my "wispy" types. And I'm potting up Batch 2 today as well, which are about 2 1/2 weeks old. Batch 1 was started over 4 weeks ago and looking very awesome, but we will see if they get a little too big for their britches by May 16. Overall, my mad science experiment is 9 weeks/7 weeks/5 weeks from plant out, and a few of varieties in the 9 week batch are also in the 7 week batch. GWCW (GardenWeb Conventional Wisdom) says that the 7 week batch will do as well if not better than the same variety in the 9 week batch - I'll start posting pictures soon.

Oooh I love the St Charles idea, Pal. Yum. Your color choice would be ...? I think it also merits pointing out that aside from the general dearth of color, we also have so little choice in finishes today. I'd be much more enamored of the current options if they were only more durable. As a renter in my younger years, I had terrible dented pebbly white, smeary steam-discolored stainless, scratched black glass -- you name it, from the 1980's through the 2000's. None of them was impressive. My 1940's O'Keefe & Merritt stove is porcelain enameled steel, a finish that has been taking serious cooking abuse for over 60 years, and still looks gleaming and fabulous in my kitchen. (It's white too, by the way, although I'd jump for avocado.) Why can't today's manufacturers make a good solid finish like that, in ANY color?

So far, so good with the Neato. Jo, I didn't get the connected version. I got the D80. I couldn't find a D85. Best Buy has them in the store. Plus, they gave me a $50.00 gift card. They had the connected version in stock, too. So, the price ended up being the same price as the out of stock unit at Amazon. The only difference between the D80 and D85 was the filter. Apparently, you can use the newer, better filter in any of the units. I've spend most of today playing with the thing. I don't think it will replace the vacuum cleaner, especially the Dyson Animal. I've got two collies and I didn't expect any robotic unit to do everything. But, I think it's going to significantly reduce the workload. I also have a lot of rooms with hardwood or tile with oriental rugs with fringe. She was able to handle all of them except one that had particularly long fringe and a really big carpet pad underneath. It does get hung up in a few places. I would check on her ever so often and found her hung up twice. I got her back on track and she just keep going. The space besides the toilet pedestals seemed to challenge her. I frequently emptied the bin. I vacuumed the filter with the Dyson to clean it. I was surprised by the amount of debris it managed to find. There were some areas that I thought were already clean, but she still found stuff and dog hair. I broke the house up into sections and did them one at time. She needed to recharge twice. But, I was running her pretty hard. The best part of the day was watching the dogs watch "Rosie". They didn't bark or attack, but sat there completely enthralled. I've always been a little strange when it comes to gifts. My husband gets off lucky. I like things like really good small appliances. If someone needs an idea for the holidays, I really don't think you could go wrong with this one. I'd get one of these for a guy, too. It's just too useful.

Bella, Congrats !! Your garden is amazing and so breath taking. I love your "statue " of a girl carved onto . Absolutely beautiful :) Agree with Jjpeace, we need to see more :) I am so glad that i get to see this thread as i have no idea how it escape the first time around.