It's been my experience that hostas are pretty forgiving. I think spring is the best time, but I've divided many a hosta during the summer and fall, and I have never lost one. They will look a little rough and lop-sided until next year if you divide them- tying all the leaves together before you start will help to prevent tearing them all up while digging and dividing roots. Best of luck!

Elsa was 8lbs 1oz at birth, then she was weighed at 1 week because she wasn't nursing well and was 7lbs 10oz, then again at 2 weeks she was 8 lbs even, then at 6 weeks we had to take her to the hospital and she was 11lbs 2oz fully clothed, and then at her 2m appt she was 11lb 12oz. I swear she is at least 15 lbs by now. She will be 4m on the 27th of this month. She is a little bruiser...she is chubby everywhere but most of it is in her cheeks...they literally hang off her face, the little punkin. Shelby

I'd find someon who'll take a shorter listing. Several years back we signed with a hotshot - a real legend in our area apparently. Well, turned out he didn't really "do" small houses and had a team member take over. It was a month before our house was advertised anywhere, including even getting feature sheets printed. He had us sign for six months and didn't even return our calls. Being the witch that I am, I called the real estate board here and they told me who to call in his agency and exactly what to say to get out of the contract. Suddenly this guy was at my door. Wow. After much arguing and listening to him say, "Well, I know I didn't return your calls, but I didn't realize they were important..." (AS IF?!?!?!?) we finally got him to let us out of the contract. Mostly we let him know that the person in charge of his office was on side with us. He went to his car and called the gentleman and came back with a much better attitude. He then balked at putting our cancellation in writing and then the whole thing started up again. I didn't back down, but my husband was ready to give in. We finally got the cancellation in writing AND added a clause that we would not be pursued for any commissions after the fact at all. (We had had an open house and couldn't get any info on whether or not anyone came, I think the answer was no as it wasn't listed anywhere, and I didn't want them to come back and claim something when another realtor found a buyer later.) Three weeks after all of that was finally over we had an offer through our new realtor and sure enough, the first gentleman came back and tried to claim that he was "sure" the offer was from someone who had attended the open house (which he didn't even do himself). He tried to put forth the idea that our document was not valid. (Remember, he assured us it didn't even need to be written and yet look what happened.) Remember, he wouldn't even confirm that anyone came to our open house when we were still his clients, and then suddenly he was quite sure this prospect was his?!? Again, it took a call to the head of his agency to get him to leave us alone. Apparently the "great legend" in these parts didn't like not getting his way. We've worked with four different agents (four different moves) and the others were all great. I know most agents are above board and do the right things, but just to protect yourself I think it's a great idea to get everything in writing and insist on terms that you can live with. If that means someone won't take you, it's not the end of the world, someone else will. Our "hotshot" sold a lot of properties and really put on the charm when he was trying to get our business, but honestly did a complete turnaround after. I'm glad I at least pushed for written documents through the whole thing. And I'll never sign for a long term again. (I'd also suggest looking at a reasonable escape clause regardless of the term.) Assuming you're above board and honest I see no reason why you shouldn't have a way to get out of a bad situation. You change doctors, dentists, etc if you are unhappy. Go for three months and resign later if necessary (and you're still happy.) But that's just my humble opinion...

Thanks Emily. Litterbox seems fine, though he shares with two other cats so it's hard to see what he's producing all the time. But his urinalysis came back normal. He does seem to be drinking a lot but his kidneys came back normal too. The vet specifically did some extra tests to make sure the kidneys were fine. Appetite is fine, he's sleeping a lot too but I think that's correlated with moving less. He doesn't hesitate to jump up and down on things. We had an incident over Christmas break where another cat of mine got loose (he's separated and has his own room because he attacks my other cats) and got into a huge fight with this cat. The mean cat was chasing this cat all over the house, attacking, and i'm sure they both flew down the stairs. We were able to get them separated after a few minutes, and this cat seemed fine but I'm wondering if he was injured during that attack. This seems to be about the time when things started changing. But 2 months seems like a long time to have an injury that doesn't show up on xrays. The vet said xrays aren't really helpful in showing soft tissue problems. I'm just frustrated because he seems to be in pain but I don't know what to do for him other than continue the supplements. He doesn't need to use the stairs but unless I lock him in a room, he's going to keep using them. All his stuff is upstairs but of course he wants to be downstairs with the family so he ends up going up and down the stairs at least 10 times a day.