Thank you Jackie! I hope so too. This one has special meaning to me. :) James, I was thinking of brining the whole gang w/ me then take them to the Zoo/Seaworld on Sunday. So we might make a mini-vacation out of it. Now I must talk my DH into driving down Friday night so I can be at the door at 8am. I want to be the first in line. Thank you so much for the offer to drive me! I really appreciate that James! You guys are awesome! Ok make sure you all identify yourself so I can meet you all in person! I'm going to see if I can find my Mumu Dress I bought back from Hawaii... and of course I'll have Plumeria on my hair as well. You cannot miss me. LOL

Glenda, This is the real recipe from Carnival. The one posted above is just a copy cat recipe. There are loads of CC recipes around for cruise recipes.. but most of the lines put out cookbooks with the authentic recipes. I found it on the cruisecritic.com boards. It's in the Foodies forum. Someone posted that they had the orange sherbet soup recipe, but they never actually posted it. Glad you liked your cruise! Cruises are wonderful. We've taken 6, so far, and have 3 booked for this December. We hope to try Carnival some time. Anyway here is the reecipe for you. Enjoy! Strawberry Bisque 3 c strawberries, washed and hulled 1 ½ c water ¾ c sugar 3 T lemon juice 1 t grated lemon peel 1 ½ c red wine 1 c. sour cream fresh mint leaves Directions: Combine strawberries, ½ c water, and sugar in a blender. Cover and blend the mixture until pureed. Stir in lemon juice, peel, 1 c. water and wine. Stir in sour cream until blended. Chill for several hours before serving and garnish with mint. Silly

Lol, Monica. Tell the kid it's good for building his character and grit to have 200 green siblings growing in pots, and for mom to share her attention 201 different ways. :-) > Oh my, that would have driven me crazy!! It was actually a nice exercise in relaxation / meditation / deep breathing. lol There was only one time when a particularly adventitious vine grew around that tray so far that it was testing my patience limits when weaving it back out through all those other vines. And it did not help, of course, that the vine had a lot of tiny leaf nubs at the end - those get nicked at the slightest breeze, so that weaving could not have possibly been good for them. > It would be a nightmare if you got mealies or scale. I have not thought of that. I'd likely just use systemic and let the plant's vascular systems take care of that. > I'm constantly picking mine up and moving them around I do that too - but I move them in trays. So, they feel comfy growing into one another in those trays. > So how many different plants did that end up being? It started as 17 plants in that tray. 6 of those mother plants are going on ebay later today, and I am not keeping cuttings. 2 others need some cutting up and rerooting, not because they are in trouble, but to get the shape of the plant I want - that's the project for today. As long as I am cutting them, I'll probably also take a few cuttings to trade off or sell later. The tray looks much neater and more manageable now. I have 14 trays in total. (WHUT!!!) So, if anybody needs me, I'll be available... oh in about three years from now, when all THOSE trays are untangled, too. :-) That will take a lot of wine to complete. Hehe.

Btydrvn, bamboo is not a part of any habitat in the northeast along the Connecticut river. The risk of it spreading far and wide in the region is low, due to it rarely producing seed and the climate, but it does have potential to expand from its source and displace other plants on the property, assuming we're talking about Phyllostachys aurea. Some plants make a lot of nuts, seeds, fruits, shoots, leaves, or nectar as a direct food source for animals. Often insects eat a plant, then other species like birds eat the insects, creating a food web. Relatively few insects and animals eat the bamboo directly, it doesnt produce fruit, mast or nectar, and its contribution to the food web is relatively low compared to native species and even some non-native species. It also changes the soil and leaf litter dynamics where it is growing. Pretty much everything it does as a plant like erosion control, carbon sequestration, cover for wildlife, and providing building materials, other plants can also do while providing more food to other organisms. Forest service has some info about bamboo, albeit in the south https://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/graminoid/phyaur/all.html#INTRODUCTORY ETA: https://bamboo.org/GeneralInfoPages/BambooPests.html another link saying generally few north american animals use bamboo for food.