Ha ha, Paul! The cowboy roping theme wasn't exactly what I was thinking when I read the title. ;) Okay, so since others are listing their losses, here's the list of mine (P for potted, G for in ground): Andrew (P) Blue Lollipop (P) Cameo (P) Change of Heart (G) Cherry Tomato (P) Chirp (P) Country Mouse (P) Dragon Tails (P) Faith (P) Hope (P) Irish Luck (P) Itsy Bitsy Spider (P) Jack Of Diamonds (G) Lakeside Dragonfly (P) Lucy Vitols (G) Moonstruck (P) Peanut (G) Sara's Sensation (P) Spartacus 1&2 (P) Teeny Weeny Bikini (P) Tokudama aureonebulosa (G) Tropical Dancer (G) White Dove (P) Most of those that are minis were in the ground until I moved them into pots in August last summer, and the dang squirrels kept digging them out of the pots. I should have put them all back in the ground, they might had fared better. Oh well. Such is life. If Lakeside Paisley Print and Lakeside Midnight Miss don't come around, they may too be added to the list. Empress Wu hasn't come up either, she had a couple of eyes that looked like they may do something, but now it looks more like she's a goner as well. Karen

So you are drawing a general conclusion about Spring in New England based on the temperature of March 24? Your credibility is taking a serious blow. when the sun shone, the water sparkled, and one walked hatless outdoors in an open vest over a flannel shirt. The peepers were going like an extraterrestrial chorus downhill in the wetlands after dark. Skunk cabbage is starting to boil up out of the ground. Many perennials are sprouting. The tenants of our birdhouses are flying in from the south In what part of the US is this not true? Just substitute "skunk cabbage" with one of the prevalent plants of a particular area and that same statement could be made anywhere in the US. A few years ago, I had a picture of a fall scene in my office complete with a covered bridge and blazing fall foliage. A few people asked me if the picture was taken in New Hampshire. Their jaw dropped when I told them it was from Tennessee. If you are referring to D.C as the South, then you are seriously mistaken. As an Alabamian, I would never consider that area to be part of the South. It's hard to generalize anything about the South anyway because the states are huge compared to here. Most of New England would fit into Alabama. I doubt seriously that you have really taken enough of the South to draw any general conclusions. I will be the first to admit though that summers down there are unbearable. It's the main reason why I moved away. It's amazing the number of people here that talk about Southern people being disingenuous with their actions. Southerners are known for their friendliness and warmth. Since that trait is so rare for the people of New England, they really don't know how to deal with it when they encounter it. It makes me sad that people like you are so uncomfortable around genuinely good people. Claire, I would be one of those Southerners that thinks the beaches here are too rocky. The beaches in Alabama are very wide, the sand is snow white, and the beaches are raked so they don't have all of the rocks, shells, and seaweed to mutilate you as you walk across it. The water is warm and the breezes are refreshing. Here the ocean breezes are cold and strong and uncomfortable on all but the hottest days and the water is freezing at all times of the year. I think several of the beaches in New England especially in Maine are picturesque but not for frolicking.

I built 2 raised beds and filled them up with dirt this spring. One was for veggies, and the other was an extension of my partly shaded flower bed. I was late starting my tomato seeds and then the near triple digit heat in May hit. I've picked one grape tomato so far this year. The rest were split or stolen. I had 2 large green tomatoes, and yesterday I noticed that the squirrels must have twisted them off the vine and carried them away. My squash produced a few blooms and then got scorched to death. I planted potatoes for the first time, and I did have a pretty good harvest. I also picked a few cucumbers. My cannas and elephant ears never did come up this year. I usually cut them off after the first freeze, but I didn't last year. My guess is water/snow/ice collected in the stalks and turned the roots into mush. It seems I remember it got colder last winter than it has in many years as well. I planted a bunch of lily, iris, and canna bulbs in the new raised bed. Maybe 4 lilies came up. I think the squirrels dug up the cannas. I'm too depressed to even try to see what happened to the irises. After languishing for a few years, it looks like the gophers finally killed off my rose bush. It has been a great year for them. They've been in my flower beds and another hosta literally disappears each night. They've been celebrating in my fescue lawn as well. I've been on vacation this week, cleaning up and assessing the damage in the early morning hours. By 8 a.m., my shirt is already sticking to me. I planted a couple of knock-out roses I got a good deal on. I wrapped poultry netting around the roots and flooded all the gopher tunnels I could find. I purchased about $35 of starter plants and seeds on eBay just now trying to replace some of what I lost. They'll have to be babied the rest of the year and maybe grown in containers and overwintered inside. It can't stay this hot forever, can it?

For those of you wondering about the federal retirement program, it can be divided by those who began working prior to 1984 and those who started in 1984 or later. The earlier system, CSRS, is a defined benefit program that pays an annuity (not a pension) based on a retiring employee's age and years of service. Employees contribute 7% of their gross salary to CSRS. For example, an employee would first become eligible for an unreduced annuity at age 55 with at least 30 years of service. That person would receive an annuity based on 56.25% of his highest three years average salary. He would accrue an additional 2% for every additional year worked beyond 30, up to a maximum annuity of 80% for 41 years and 11 months of service. CSRS employees are not covered by Social Security, but can contribute to the government's version of a 401(k)which is called the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP). CSRS employees do not receive any matching contributions to the TSP. In 1984, the government's retirement plan, now called FERS, was changed to cover new employees by Social Security and to reduce the defined benefit portion of the annuity. The retirement age was also to be raised on an increasing scale from 55 to 57 based on an employee's year of birth. FERS employees still contribute 7% of salary, but 6.8% goes to Social Security and only .20 goes to the FERS annuity. A FERS employee who works 30 years would only receive 30% of their "high-3" as opposed to 56.25%. They also only receive 1% for every additional year, instead of the 2% that CSRS employees receive. However, they do receive Social Security (and should they retire before age 62, they would receive a supplement that would equate to their Social Security benefit until they are eligible for Social Security). Additionally, they receive an employer match on their TSP contributions that maxes out at 5% if the employee contributes 5%. Finally, whereas CSRS employees get a full cost of living increase based on the CPI each January as soon as they retire, FERS employees do not receive any COLA increases until they turn 62, and even then they receive a "diet cola" of the CPI minus 1%. Now, there are some variances to what I've written above, but that covers the basics. I hope that you've found this description to be informative.