Absolutely, Larry! Day trips, stay-cations, are perfectly wonderful. We spent heavily on 'the big' vacation last summer, though the memories are cherished. For this year, we've reserved a site for camping 3 different weekends, 2 in May, one in July, which will cost about 1/6 of the big trip last year - for all 3 of these camping trips. If your state parks have camping, it should be very reasonable. State parks in FL (where we like to go, we're less than 20 miles from the border) charge $24 for most camp sites. There's no restaurants to tempt us with $25+ plates, which we always go for when out in a hotel. It's just us, the beach, and whatever we bring with us. We did finally go to Raleigh last weekend. Romantic notions of taking pictures of quirky roadside attractions quickly vanished. Holy cow I'd forgotten how crowded it is in that part of the country. The 'scenic route' we tried between Charlotte and Raleigh was totally bogus, and full of traffic lights and big rig trucks, no more pleasant or bucolic than I-85. Loved visiting the people, but driving around Raleigh is not something I had any interest in until/unless we got hungry and wanted to go to a museum. Life's way too short to spend it sitting at traffic lights like those. I spent more time at those lights last weekend than I have in the whole past year living here. That's one thing we love so much about New Orleans (and camping, for that matter.) Park the car when we get there, then it doesn't move again until it's time to go home. What are folks' plans for this year?

Oak Ridge is liberal and so non-judgemental that their highly rated high school has no Valedictorians,etc. The older part of town was one of the places where Milky Spore was tested, and to this day, there are no Japanese Beetles there. The west side of Knoxville is more liberal, lots of restaurants (sadly most are chains), and largely newcomers. Huge numbers of half backs (people who retired to Florida, couldn't stand the heat and moved half way back north). Judgemental is not something that fits this part of the world. Mostly folks don't care to know your business. I met a couple, several years ago , who introduced themselves as the Lesbians who lived on the hill, and who were sure I must have heard about them. No, I hadn't heard anything about them and they were surprised that I didn't know who they were. I really don't think anybody cared. But, I've met folks who know my house and my roses, and don't know me. Someone from an adjacent county whose niece had driven him to see our house and how we were remodeling and rebuilding it because he had mentioned seeing the house so many days on his way to the ferry at the bottom of our hill. Another person, when I was launching DH and friends to kayak down the river, stopped to make sure my car was ok, and when I told him where I lived, "Oh, yeah, the old white house that's now yellow and being fixed up right nice." You will find educated, both with and without book learning. Common sense is harder to predict. There are still neighborhoods where doors aren't locked at night. Neighborliness is expected in some neighborhoods, and not in others. (Remember, I lived in New Orleans, and my T-shirt tackiness threshold is both higher and lower than most folks'.)(Lower in what I find irritating, higher in tolerance of some of the off color messages.) My red chinas look especially good today and the noisettes aren't slowing down. Take a look at the local rag, Metropulse, it's now on line and there was a real break out of voting patterns in one of the recent ones.

Karyn yes when they ate or slept...they were so cute and like angels ha ha ha Diana I had no choice....Because it was Maddy's Disney vacation. From now on...I go during the cooler season! I opened the door...the humidity hit my body and I started to sweat and it was just dripping and I had to wipe off the make up real fast ...first and last time I put it on while there lol Pam bad thing is...Maddy knows it lol Oh my gosh Kristy...that Ice cream was SO smooth...so yummy. It comes in ALL flavors...I had coffee lol Lucy

My condolences my dear friend. I guess my feeling to add that hug at the last minute was good. You and your family will be in my prayers. May God give you the strength to deal with the sudden loss as best as you possibly can. Karyn you are right....it is best not to know lol But 5 bucks round about for a nice sized hibiscus for me is a steal lol April it is long looooooooooooong ago since I went through the first day of school with the 1st born...but it is always harder on the moms to *let them go*. No matter how old they get and where life takes them, it never changes but if you love your child...you let them do their thing. That is IMHO. Barb the cuttings are on the window sill for now. Took as many as I could from the bigger bushes...the new ones...I will give them another season before starting to take things away from them. My neighbor came to the fence yesterday and told me that it looks awesome. Well and I am glad she gets to enjoy the flowers more close up now also :-) HOT....I need to get my stinky self in the shower lol Lucy