Hey everyone....Thanks for all your tips and experiences... Larry....How are you? lol..You are too funny...I once almost hired a kid to water mine until he watered my fakes plastic ones too... Danielle..Congrats on that...If I meant away for a week and someone forgot to water my plants for just two days, many would croak..I've thought of having just succulents, but I can't seem to do away with my fragrant ones... Linda..Yes it has been a while..What's happening? I hope your fish made it this year..Boy it was brutal...All mine did. The water never froze because I kept it turbulent..Thanks for visiting and your ideas.. I'm sure you would do that for me. You are so kind:-))) Planto..Thank you so much..Yes, it is a bummer..It makes my heart heavy with sadness..Such a good guy and destroying his family...I hope he recovers. He loves my plants and the thought of taking care of them got him and I excited.. Purple...I am so glad you got to go away and came back to no issues...That's my plan...I hope you had a great time..You needed it I am sure.. Yes, being able to wake up and go to bed any time you want is something I have not done in years...Not to have to look at the clock is a luxery..I miss those days. I live in Northern Ma...Just on the border of N.H almost near the coast....So it can get cold here still by May which leaves me no choice except to wait until the end of May when all are safe outside. Ia m hoping to go to Florida..Far from here. I tried that stay home and relax thing and it did not work out. All I wanted to do was work on the house and more..Not good. I am talking about sleeping on a beach for days or reading a book on a chair at teh beach or by a pool, maybe Pugs house, Laurs or Patty's..lol I get up at 5 every day, run a cleaning buisiness, then work full time..Work out 4 days a week after work at 8 pm and then care for my parents about that. I also care for my home, feed the birds, cat, fish and plants...lol MIke

Yeah, Marquest! Awesome!!!! I reuse them until they fall apart, most of my plants are still in these kinds of pots. Also so easy to make the holes bigger or add more, which I do to almost any/every pot. Going to a swap in Panama City in a couple weeks and mentioned that I have too many on the discussion and somebody wants a stack. I don't make beds and I don't wash pots, and never throw away anything that's good for something to somebody. If I don't need it, it will disappear quickly if I put it at the curb, or I figure out who can use it and give it to them. I found a wholesale place in N FL that I go near about once a week. When there's no plants to buy over winter, I'll probably hit that place up for some better pots a few times. They're so heavy though. I already worry (well that's too strong of a word, but it crosses my mind) about the front porch. There's SOOO many pots out there, that are already heavy, at least 600 lbs of weight out there. And OMG I'm clumsy! I can drop a pot like nobody else, and soo often do. Usually right on top of another plant. Having a broken pot to clean up too would really burn my toast! Until somebody brings it up like this discussion, I don't even see the pots, just inspect them to make sure they're doing their job. Just wish clay pots had holes around the edge, not just the one central hole, but have had so few of them (and broken them so quickly) that I can't really talk much about them. Wish I'd put more thought into some of the selections I made this spring. Got a bunch of succulents, which are a new thing for me, and used black pots. So I think on the rare occasions they've had sun to bake in, the roots are getting too hot. Now this is fugly, but I used 2 aluminum baking pans as mixed nursery pots to propagate leaves, stick cuttings, and house some little ones small enough to blow away if left in tiny lone pots. Those have been great! I think the plants love the reflecting sun from the sides, and they don't get hot to the touch. Not for the front parlor, but for $.68, they make a fine shallow nursery container. The traditional pot shape is not suitable for all plants or purposes.

I'm highly sensitive to stench and everything these days seems to have to stink or people won't buy it. It's next to impossible to buy a plain paraffin candle anymore. Nope, has to be pumpkin scented, apple cinnamon or skunk backside scented, which is what they all smell like anyway. I do take a whiff of a lot of things to see if I can handle the stench, but never sample the stuff. I would suggest that someone's lips are probably far more sanitary than their hands, considering where the hands have likely been, what they're touching and the like. At least someone's lips get a bit of washing! Cosmetics probably have a larger profit margin than fountain pop and it just amazes me that the manufacturers won't spend a few cents to shrink wrap or blister pack all of that stuff. I remember in the days when aspirin, Tylenol, etc didn't have the "safety seals" on them until the big Tylenol scare. I recall seeing people in stores open up one container of aspirin and take another and top it off, put the caps on both, buy the one they topped off and leave the other for some sucker to get shorted. People with kids are amazing. We're supposed to pay for their extra-curricular activities, aka babysitting. And we're supposed to pay for their toys and treats in a store. I recall at one store where they had one of the photo booths taking kiddie pictures there was a screamer and the mother just went to the shelf, grabbed a family sized bag of M&Ms, tore it open and let the brat chomp away. Looking around the area it was disgusting to see all the opened packages of toys, food, beverages and the like sitting there. Sadly, the stores won't prosecute these kinds of thefts. They should. I can understand the stores having the 100% satisfaction guarantee schtick. If you don't like the color of the lipstick or the flavor of the pie, bring it back. But that doesn't cost anywhere near what the theft is in the store. And I imagine the cosmetic companies won't seal them up until someone sues them big time for getting pink eye from contaminated cosmetics, just like what prompted the OTC drug companies to finally seal up the packages. Frankly, I wish they'd put seals on shampoos, body washes, detergents and stuff too. Stores finally tightened up the policies on TVs, computers and the like to keep people from buying a large screen TV to watch the Super Bowl and return it the following day or buy a computer and printer to do a report and return it. kittywhiskers, I don't blame you for being upset. It's frustrating to see people steal and then the company won't do anything about it. A friend who worked at Lowe's talked about how people would buy nail guns on the Friday before a long weekend and return it on Tuesday claiming they didn't even open it, it was never used. One look and you can see they roofed their house or something with it and returned it. He even said if they caught someone walking out of the store with something they were instructed to let them go because even though they're stealing something, they'll still come back and buy more and they didn't want to lose the customer! A friend's son started working for Menards and they get back pallet loads of lumber that was not purchased there, that you could see was used, driven over and the like but because the contractor buys a lot from them, they give them full credit. It's maddening. Here's my little story. I was at a store about a year ago and this one person was going through the deodorants and taking the top off one after another, then the little inside cap, to sniff the contents. OK, that in itself isn't so bad, I've done that myself, BUT, she then took another and another and another, putting the caps from the other onto the next one. Now here's the kicker, she wasn't checking different scents! She was checking the same kind. I moved closer and made it obvious I was watching her but she just kept on. Looking for a "high" lady??? nicole__, I've got a similar story. Had a customer come into the station wanting a refund on a tank of gas because she didn't get the gas mileage she thought she should have gotten. The gas MUST have been defective or she didn't get all the gas she paid for was her argument. Had another who wanted to negotiate the price on the gas because she had never put that much gas in the tank before so it couldn't hold that much. She offered me 2/3 the amount she pumped. Then tried the threat of calling my boss (to which I said "here's the number!") and calling the state (to which I said the info is on the pump - right on the compliance test result sticker!). I maintain that when people hit about 18 years of age they should go into the service for 2-3 years. Teach them some responsibility. Then they should be required to work retail for about 2 years. That should beat the customer is always right attitude out of them!

"if you buy a Delta Faucet at HD, it's the same exact faucet you get at Ferguson or Amazon or anywhere so shopping at restrictive and often more expensive stores to placate your contractor is saving him money not you. " This is simply not true. Read aidan_m 's post. Specifically... "Nobody can ever convince me that the plastic faucet and the brass faucet are the same thing. The box and packaging look different. The plastic one says "Manufactured by ______ for _____ box store" The real one just has the name brand and model number. Once out of the box, both look identical. But when you pick them up, one is heavy brass, the other is light plastic. The finish on the plastic looks just like the finish on the metal. " I've dealt with it myself and it isn't just plumbing fixtures. "I've gotten better lumber from HD by hand selecting boards then when I ordered from 84 lumber " 84 is a small step above HD.