Great idea! It's also fun with grown-ups. We use our remodeling projects to spice up our Halloween parties. When we knew we were going to paint the living room, we urged guests at "The Zombie Apocalypse" to write on the walls, and the notes all together created a great story line about which parts of town were safe, survivors who lost and then found friends and loved ones, and practical tips on how to deal with the zombie hordes. Last year, we gutted the kitchen just before setting up "Stage Fright," and left one section up for guests to write on the "Wall of Shame." Turned out something like what you would expect to see written on a bathroom stall in rock club. Everyone gets into it. Future homeowners will be SHOCKED at the horrors that happened in the house before them! *insert evil laughter*

Jim, I have plenty of plants that don't do as well when I fuss, too. LOL. I've learned over the years to just ignore the hell out of my house plants because every time I leave for a week, they grow. When I'm home, they do not LOL! It also becomes glaringly clear when I come back and nothing outside died--in fact, some thrive if nothing is happening to them, including water. It's helped me cut down on pepper watering a LOT though I'm sure I still give them more than they need. But what I can't stand is ugly. Bring inherently lazy and hating the heat, I look at my overgrown mess and plan for DAYS just to go out and prune, tie and otherwise clean them up. It just annoys me. I may very well be slowing them down due to cutting off so many leaves but it is what it is. I have never had one die and short of this year when I got such a late, late start--I usually am sick of tomatoes in general by September. Of course, come January, I plant seeds again anyway, Walnut trees... All I can say is don't do it, The two black walnuts I had were massive, each being over 30 years old at the time, at least. The amount of shade they provide is ridiculous, but that's not the problem. It's the juglone that exists in every part of their being that kills off everything nearby....even my containers would suffer and in-ground was impossible. Other than the heavy canopy, the roots...omg, these roots would run through the lawn, under the house and basically everywhere. Because I had two on opposite sides of the property, everything in between the 100 feet or so in the middle was the dead zone. Therefore, all the way around the perimeter of the house was a small plot of land where I could plant. I suspect nothing had been planted there since the dark ages. Since I discovered this juglone issu late that first year, I bought two seedlings and planted them. This was back in....1998 or so, long before I knew any tomato is not just a tomato. I forget the variety...Big Something...but be it on account of the juglone or the location or something I did, those tomatoes were nasty. NASTY. LOL And forget about eating walnuts. You'll wage war on squirrels...and you will lose LOL. I have seen squirrels sitting on my fence eating walnuts and over time, probably because they knew I was terrified of them, they'd sit there and chuck walnut shells at me! Nasty, vile creatures. To this day, I just flat out hate squirrels. Hate. Needless to say, I do not miss that house. I shelled out over $100K on remodeling that house and my 3 month project took 15 months because of the worst contractor in history, during which time I washed dishes in the bathtub and cooked on ranges in the garage for my family of four. During the open house, the roof caved from the rain because the foundation on the new side of the kitchen/house started sinking. The squirrels still sat outside and laughed. I called an arborist once to cut down the trees and he tells me they're worth over $10K each, go figure, but that I could pull them both out and redo the entire lawn but the juglone would remain for at least a few years. Wretched trees, I tell you, Jim.

Matthew Martin looks different in cooler weather than in hot weather. It is a dark brown in hot weather and a lighter brown in cooler weather. Some blooms are splotchy. If you want some, maybe we can arrange a trade. Right now, I'm quite busy.

Alex/Whirlpool.....Has German spelling finally gone back to Rolladen? When I lived in Germany, the new spelling came out with Rollladen! Most people were furious, and German polls showed that most refused to add the extra "l". LOL Rolladen are awesome!!! The last time we were in Munich a few years back, I surprisingly saw more home A/C units than I have ever seen...but it is still VERY rare in most of Europe! I do not really understand this....while Europe's HOT season is MUCH shorter than what we have in the USA, but when it is hot in Europe, it is awful (people literally die). I had an apartment that was 6 or 7 stories high in Dresden, and some days my Wohnung/apt. was over 30C :-O