The fissured, flaking bark on very old bonsai trees is precious to the illusion or the confirmation of great age in the tree. It is very difficult to repot 4-hand (large trees that take 4 hands [2 people] to move about) bonsai w/o using the base of the trunk or the lower branches as a handle or a place to grip the tree as you work. Often, we hang these large trees by a rope attached to the upper branches so we can work on them w/o even touching the valued old bark. While you don't need to take such extreme measures to guard against knocking a few pieces of bark from the tree, you CAN employ the hanging method. Cut back the bush, hang the rose from the base at a comfortable ht to work on, use a saw to remove the bottom 1/3 - 1/2 of the roots & then bare-root/repot into (very often) the same container it came from. Al

Hi Linda! I've been thinking of you often this week, and i feel for you. knowing the way our government works, i think i would put her name of that waiting list, and who knows how long it will be before her name comes up (i for instance have had my name on a waiting list for respite care for exactly 4years and one week!), at least you have your name there and you can always say no and then your name goes on again. i know here that the city owned nursing homes have a 3 year waiting list, because i eaves dropped on the lady beside al in emerg. last time he was in. i also remember the dear,dear man who lives across the street from us, he was forgetful, couldn't remember the way to the golf course, i mentioned this to his son who came to vist one summer, and told him his dad didn't want me to tell anyone, but i did out of love for this dear man. they took him to the doctor and he had the early stages of Alz. obviously he got worse, and i remember that sad day when they packed his suitcase and told him they were going on a short trip, and i never saw him again, they put him in the psych. hospital here - when it was open. he was so nice, loved the kids give me pernnials (of which i have named one of my pernnial beds "Tony's garden" and he was just like a dad to me. he did live at the psych. hospital for years and finally passed on. sorry for rambling on here, but i guess what i'm saying is with the mcguinty government the way it is, i think i would put my name down and worry about it when your name comes up. cloudy wet snow and waiting for spring! debbie

I am going to copy and paste my review for the Hoover floormate widepath (has to be the widepath) for $150. I bought a steam shark and felt it only pushed the dirt around. I can honestly say I have tried about every floor cleaner out there. Swiffers, IROBOT Scooba, Shark, what ever, you name it, I have tried it. I always went back to the good old hands and knees. Until we moved that is. Our house now has 1400 square feet of hard floors, and there is NO WAY I can clean them on hands and knees. I am ecstatic that I found the Hoover floormate widepath. I assumed like so many others that I have tried I would be taking it back. NO WAY will I ever be with out my HFW! You will be AMAZED at the dirt this thing picks up. Even in areas you thought were clean! Yes I had to change the dirty water out and add more to the clean tank quite a few times for how much square footage of hard floors I have. But no more so than any other machine I have tried. And I was more than happy to dump out that nasty water! I am actually pleased with how much dirty water there was, that means it is not left on my floor! It was very easy to assemble, took three minutes and no tools required. The dry vac part of it works okay to pick up crumbs prior to using the wet vac. However don't toss out your regular vacuum (or broom and dustpan) just yet. This will not pick up nearly as well for the times in between when you are not using the cleaning mode. The scrubbers do an amazing job of scrubbing the floor. If you have something that is really stuck on I would pour water on it to let it loosen prior to using the floor vac. Take your time when using this machine. It is not a vacuum, use it like you would to shampoo your carpets, slow and in a good pattern. The suction is AMAZING for picking up the water off of the floor. It practically leaves the floor dry. (At least it is dry within a few minutes.) I use only water to clean my floors. For one I am cheap, and what is cheaper than water? And two, I have alergies to many cleaning products. It is nice to know there is no residue chemical when my kids are playing on the floor. If I feel the floors need to be sanitized I add white vinegar to the clean tank. In the end, I still have to get on my hands and knees for nooks and crannies. But I would not expect a machine that works this well to get every tiny space. I have heard others complain it is heavy or bulky. I simply did not find that the case. It is about the weight of a decent (not cheap) vacuum. As I would expet for something that does a good job.

I sit down at my computer with my transactions page for that account open, and compare it to my paper checkbook register. (you can check off cleared checks in your register with a translucent highlighting pen if you have many transactions, make all easy to spot) I fill in any withdrawals for cash I may have made but have not entered in the register and add any deposits I may not have recorded. My bank shows actual check number with the amounts, I don't know if all do. If I have check numbers missing from my checkbook that don't show online either, I may have to wait a day or two more before they show online as having cleared (DH will take checks and forget to tell me, just assumes I have enough :)). Other than those, the balance online and the balance in my book should match. I hope I didn't sound harsh earlier, I just listened to a friend rant about having to spend a whole day straightening out his wife's checkbook this weekend - she's 50 with a college degree and my sympathies for the week may have been used up. I know it doesn't come naturally to everyone and takes a little discipline, which then turns into such a time saver.