I choose to enjoy my plants when I can. I live in China now, so I have a good friend who is taking care of my collection for me. I have him send pictures during the growing season. I am trying to figure out which ones of my relatives are into c & s, so I can decide who to 'leave' my plants to. I start most of my plants from seed, including saguaros and pachycereus pringlei. So I have no hope of ever seeing them grow arms. I plan to be cremated and thrown into the Atlantic off Maine along with my dog's ashes. I can't validate, but I believe VT was one state that took up the issue of being buried on private property. The school I teach in was on a former cemetery. The bodies were dug up and moved somewhere else. China has a very large population and cemetery land is being reclaimed for second uses. The government is encourage people to consider 'green funerals' such as cremations and burial at sea. The whole area was once a rural village. Traditional Chinese want to be buried in their traditional hometowns, so many want to be buried here. Where do they bury them? Along the median strip of the boulevards under the electrical towers. Last Christmas, I saw one burial right out side the school gate. Coffin and all, along with one guy digging a hole and the other lighting off firecrackers (the ever preset firecrackers). I was told there was another funeral yesterday. You see mini cemeteries along the roadside. Walk along the road and you'll probably bump into a grave. Maybe I use part of my ashes as a growing medium for my pachys or pachypodium rosalatum!

Your friend still needs to be careful. Our daughter had an ex semi-boyfriend get crazy when he got more serious than she wanted to get. She got a restraining order. And things got quiet for about 2 weeks and then he came back with a vengeance. My God, the stuff he did AFTER THE RO was worse than what he had done before. Actually made an imprint of her house key through the lock (I didn't know you could do this)and had a duplicate key made. Bought an apparatus to get into a locked car, etc. Slashed 4 tires of her car. Went into her home, listened to her phone messages and called everyone on her phone list to threaten them if they befriended her over him. He even trashed the businesses her other dates worked at. The scary thing, among others, was that he was in the Coast Guard and was licensed to carry a gun. We hired a PI and did a background search on him. We learned he had done this in several states to other women and simply was transferred to other cities when he became a liability to the Coast Guard. He,too,was a real charmer but a real evil man. The PI followed him and had proof through phone records and pictures and fingerprints on the exterior of her car and in her car as well that he was violating the law. This was done over a period of 6 weeks and it cost us a fortune to have round the clock coverage of this man. But it also gave us protection for our daughter since investigators were right there should he have attempted to harm her. Well, we had proof but the police were dragging their heels. We got in contact with his commander on the base; met with her and he was permanently relieved of his duties. Then 2 weeks later, right after he called my daughter in the middle of the night, rambling and threatening, to explain it was all a misunderstanding, we left our home at 2:00 AM and drove all night to his home (crazy, I know) but we were desperate. We spoke to him and made him a firm offer he couldn't refuse. Well, what we said must have made an impression, because he packed his bags, left town and hasn't been seen there since. And that's been about 8 years ago. The police never did anything because the charmer explained it was simply a love affair gone wrong. Can you believe that?

Pauline, Me TOO. If logistics hadn't been such a problem, I would have met many of you long ago! I still hope that someday I can meet you in person. Don't Ever come to Kansas City without letting me know! It would just be sad to miss out on that opportunity...

The Invisible One is finally reporting in. After last SundayÂs gathering, The Bug got me down, eliminating my ability to say anything the least bit witty, not that I could have matched the others at that, anyway. DH and I enjoyed everyoneÂs company immensely. It was wonderful to dine among GW celebrities Igloochic (the delightful, devoted mother of adorable Jesse -- I hope he is doing much better), Buehl (who I later realized is the Kitchen Forum FAQ compiler/poster), and cooperbailey (with whom I had several things in common). It would be fun to meet more GW folks, whenever and wherever. We are in Towson, MD, so I expect weÂll be headed south when it happens. Some have pronounced our kitchen "finished." Now, we all know that "done" is a relative term. I hastily took some pictures of our kitchen before last weekÂs dinner meeting, and the only thing really missing is a window treatment. However, I need to straighten up the counters, find the best angles, and gather all the spec details before preserving our kitchen for posterity in the Finished Kitchens Blog. That new project is definitely on my Someday List  another relative term. :-) Alice