I have had similar experiences this year. I had found and collected over 125 eggs from the Milkweed at school and then, oh I don't recall, but a few dozen eggs from home. I diligently cleaned and fed those larvae but despite the care, I had a HUGE proportion of them die from what appears bacterial infections. I do believe our strange weather (super hot) was also part of the problem. Hubby wondered if it was just 'bad eggs' and I said it could have been that as well and I thought that I may have had a sick mama that was ovipositing, too. I figured that the eggs that were 'bad' probably came from school since the ones that made it were about the number I had collected from home (I am careful about what I release at home so chances are good that the eggs were from a mama I had released myself after having been 'checked'). It just made more sense from a statistical standpoint. On a different note⦠I conducted an experiment of sorts just this week with two larvae (one 3rd instar and one 4th instar) just to see what would happen if I withheld food. I know they should pupate early, right? Well, these two just would NOT pupate! I didn't feed them for five days. I kept thinking, "When are you two going to pupate?" They didn't. So, on day six, I put some fresh food in there. I then observed both for literally TEN minutes. All they did was climb all over the Milkweed leaves and up and down the container. There was a bit of latex on the side of the cup which it appeared they'd 'taste' then move on. It was quite interesting! I thought that perhaps having been without food that maybe they just wouldn't eat at all...I mean, ten minutes was a long time to just wander around! Then, the 4th instar took a nibble at the tip of one leaf and just kept on going. A few minutes later, the 3rd instar started nibble the stem of a leaf. Neither munched a lot but ate a total of eight leaves over the course of 24 hours. I'm still watching to see what they do! :)

I know nothing about sandpipers, but are you the feather who posted a wonderful photo today on Weather Underground? The photo was called Storm Birds II and was taken at Glass Beach in Fort Bragg, CA. I rated the photo 10. Claire

Went to the showroom in Newport Beach - thanks for the tips on the phone numbers! Well worth the trip, totally made my decision easy. The Capital looks so much more refined than the Blue Star. The Blue Star was top of my list but it looks so industrial that I just couldn't put it in my kitchen. I thought I wanted a self-clean but after looking at both, I liked the manual much better. The shelves in the manual slide in and out much better than the shelves on rollers in the self-clean version. The rollers seemed to stick on the self-clean displays and the rotisserie is a beast! I'm sure if I was really into rotisserie cooking, it would be great but it looks like you could spear an entire turkey on that thing! Sam was super accomodating and made everything super easy - I ordered my 36 Culinarian the next morning and cannot wait for it to arrive . . .

That is pretty, flyleft. I think the reasons it works are the very high ceiling, the continuing brick work on the wall surrounding the mantel, and the raised hearth. Although that vertical brick makes me wonder about maybe doing stone of some sort in a vertical brick pattern instead of the square limestone tiles. Too trendy perhaps?