I never give to the first person that responds. They are the gimme types. They either sell the stuff, or hord it all in their attic, that is if they bother to either to reply to your e-mail or come get it if they do. I think some have auto reply to all freecycle e-mails and sort through the offers later. Lame I say. That tactic does not work with me. I take e-mails for about 1 week and then give to the person that either needs it most of I feel is most appreciative, or just made me laugh in their response. "I'll take that" does not meet any of those requirements. I love it when folks say HI "my name" say what they want and a little about why they want it. And are polite enough to sign their name. I just posted a freecycle list of things. Subject was somthing like "102 misc items". I got over 40 replies. That was a month ago and I am still trying to sort it all out. I reply to 1 or 2 at a time, to not get too confused and offer the same items to more than one person. All seem very greatful for what I give them, and stay to talk a little, which is great for me, since I can not go into public due to severve chemical sensitivities. I usually drag them out to my garden for show and tell. I ask if they are interested in seeing my garden first though. The last lady that came, offered me tons of leaves from her propery when she heard I was allergic to the moldy hay I picked up from a farm. This lady is even going to chip up the leaves for me. I am so happy. I need the leaves since the ground under a few of my trees is bare either from the leaves blowing away, or me stealing them for mulch. She said she had like 2-3 feet of leaves under her masive trees. She is trilled to have found a home for them. I also learned a lot of useful gardening tips from her. She said that she has no fire ants due to the fact sugar ants eat fire ants. She said you can't kill your sugar ants if you want he fire ants gone. Wow, what a tip! Fire ants like poor dry soil and the sugar ants like the nice loose stuff. She said if you do not have that kind of soil, to leave out flower pots of good loose soil for them to live in. Due to her good gardening and ant control techniques, she has converted her whole street to organic. Major feat, since my whole street uses toxic chemicals that they do not bother to sweep off the sidewalk. I have to walk in the street to avoid the junk. She sets a good example, others are anxious to copy. I was so impressed. She offered to bring the leaves to me, since I can't drive due to car fumes, but I am eager to see her property and said my hubby will bring me over there. I said, I wish I had something to give you then I said, oh I just gave you a lot of things, including a brand new printer. I guess when you give someone something you no longer want it really does not feel like you are doing much. I feel the leaves are worth more to me than the printer, and other things. Free cycle is great despite the no shows, the rude e-mails from the demanding sort, the folks that want and never give, and the folks that make tons of appointments to pick up their things and still never come. I give um one chance now and move on, especially if the do not e-mail to say they were sorry they forgot. I have a list I keep with names and e-mails of no-shows, folks that came but took a long time to do so folks with auto e-mail replies, I'll take that" folks that do not bother to answer e-mails folks that show up folks that are very nice So if I get more than 1 request for an item, I can look through my list and stick with those that come and are pleasant. When I am more selective in who I offer stuff to, I have less problems with no shows. Mary

Mercer is held twice a year, spring and fall at Mercer Arboreteum in Houston, Tx. Jennifer does all the leg work and posts it on the Texas exchange forum. Galveston County master gardeners have a spring swap, it used to be twice a year, at Jack Brooks park in Dickinson, or is it League City?. Yadda usually organizes a swap in Ft. Bend in late Spring, there are only a few of us that show up there. All of these will be posted on the Texas exchange page. With our climate things grow very well, sometimes too well, so always trying to find homes for things. It is easier to just load up someones car for sure. Josh, I don't grow any jades. They really don't like the humidity here on the island. I've got tons of other stuff though I'll work on a list next week when I'm off. Aloes, oputania, agaves, tropicals... PG, there are tons of plant societies in Houston, which meet about 80 miles from my house, usually on weekday nights so I haven't joined any. Just can't do the long drive through Houston traffic. Here on the island, nothing. We don't even have a really active garden club. Of course, our population is really down, around 45,000 of us left. Jim of Jimbos in Santa Fe raises bromeliads and other tropicals. He is a member of several societies and I may start car pooling to meetings with him. He's very active in the bromeliad community so I've gleaned tons of information from him, and like me he likes weird stuff, including cacti/succulents. I still trade on line, especially when the banana canna gets out of hand, $20 a rhizome!! And it's the fastet growing canna in the yard. Anyone want any let me know LOL! Tally HO!

I haven't been posting here for awhile, but will be posting again on a regular basis soon... I lost a grand total of 45 pounds in 2009, but will admit that I have gained back 12 of those pounds since the middle of November when all the festivities began. I sort of expected that to happen... but I am not at all daunted by that gain. I am already on my way back to getting on that wagon to lose another 20 pounds in 2010. I do that by walking every day for about an hour, sometimes more depending on the weather and whether or not I have any pressing issues going on at the time. But most of all, I make healthy choices and practice portion control. I eat mostly whole grains, lean chicken, fish, pork with just a small amount of beef now and then. I stay away from potatoes, breads, rolls, sugar and simple carbs in general. I don't eliminate them 100% from my eating, but when I do eat say... cake, I will only eat a small portion and only once in a great while will I indulge. I eat pasta and other starchy foods in moderation.... and eat mostly good fresh vegetables when available or frozen is good too. I too am on blood thinners (among other things) but I do eat salads, lots of salads... and my warfarin is adjusted accordingly... In lieu of sugar laden desserts, I prefer fruit... Helen

Well, we did a mini "refresh" on our kitchen in 1999 to add a dishwasher and standard-sized range, as we had one of those apartment-sized ranges that DH detested. When we did the mini refresh, we also changed countertops, sink & faucet, and we had put in peel and stick vinyl over the hideous gold linoleum when we first moved in. That being said, we still had issues with layout, with the only really useable countertop being the 15" to left of the range and 5" to the right of it. There was a small swath of countertop across from the stove, next to the sink, but because it was right by the back door, it became a catchall. When I took anything out of the oven, it pretty much had to go on the stovetop. Baking cookies just wasn't very fun after a while. I sorta stopped doing it. :^( Then there was the wall between the kitchen and livingroom that made the kitchen seem so dark and cramped. The lack of storage was the biggest issue we had. I still get the heebs when I think of that cabinet where the plastic storage containers lived. I don't know how many times I sat on the floor and cleaned out that blasted cabinet, just to have it heave out plasticware all over me the next time I opened that door. I'm pretty sure that DH would open the door *just enough* to throw an item in there. We had no venting over the range, instead we had a cabinet directly over the range, and it was lower than standard. When we did the remodel, we could see big black burn marks underneath. Lovely. Our garbage was located across the kitchen on the stairwell landing. If I had gunk in my hands, I had the pleasure of carrying it across the floor, leaving a nice little dribble trail. Fun times! The giant fluorescent light box, with that hideous tube light. I tried to "tart it up" at one point, but in the end, it was just a big rectangle with an ugly light, so it had to go. My peel and stick vinyl tiles, so wonderful and bright when we installed them, were pitted and cracking in places. No matter how long I scrubbed on my hands and knees, there were areas where the tile was worn, and the dirt was embedded. Yuck. The kitchen wasn't awful; it just was not a joy to work in. Now I enjoy baking and cooking in there, and putting away the tupperware is not an exercise in frustration! Hooray! Oh, happy day! :^)