Seedmama, See there, I really can read your mind. Now, I hope you're taking care of yourself and not wearing yourself out too much helping everyone else. You have to save some energy in case one of the next weather monsters hits y'all too. By the way, I saw your thread on 'alerts' and agreed with every word. I like it when the severe weather threads stay high on the page long enough for everyone to see them, but there are times we need follow-up info from folks who are seeing new alerts or new developments and want to share them. It seems like a fine line to walk, doesn't it? Today, I am going to keep posting new alerts as new threads for as long as I can. It might not be all that long if the storms develop here first and move north/northeast. I have watched huge amounts of moisture stream overhead from Texas, across the Red River, above and beyond us and towards all of y'all. I don't like that. I am afraid all the Gulf moisture in the air could contribute to significant storms. It is so nice that your shelter is open to your friends and neighbors. Ours is too, but it is just one of those little in-ground ones that is about 6' x 8' so it doesn't hold huge numbers of people. I've already touched base with some of the neighbors to make sure they know they're welcome to climb into the shelter. I urged them to just come over, open the door and climb in, even if we aren't at home. I've been in the kitchen baking cookies and muffins so I'll have something to feed hungry firefighters if they go out on search/rescue/recovery missions during this round of storms, in addition to their usual fire and accident calls. Hopefully, we won't need the cookies and muffins and I can just freeze them and save them for another bad day. The earthquakes here surprised me a tiny bit when we moved here, but not a lot. We even have occasional earthquakes in parts of north central Texas, although they are less frequent than the ones in central OK. The large number of quakes the last 18 months or so in central OK does seem a tiny bit excessive. We moved here in mid-April 1999 and didn't have a tornado shelter. Then the May 3, 1999, tornado outbreak occurred and we didn't even know it. Because internet and cell service were almost nonexistent here then (later on, the addition of new cell towers fixed the cell phone issue but internet access was much slower) and local TV reception was very poor (DirectTV saved us), we didn't even know tornadoes were occurring in the OKC area until our phone starting ringing with folks from Texas calling to see if we'd been hit by tornadoes. That year, you couldn't get a tornado shelter here because of the huge demand in the OKC area, but we had a shelter put in early in 2000. Prior to this year, we probably hadn't been in that tornado shelter but maybe once or twice a year and some years not at all. We've already been in it at least 3 times this year because of storms. It does make a great root cellar too. I'm hoping none of us have to flee to the shelters today or tonight, but know it is likely some of us will. I think I am almost more afraid of the hail which they keep describing as potentially larger than baseballs than the possibility of a tornado. Neither one is a pleasant option though. I won't blame you for the earthquakes because you redeemed yourself by creating a whole new method for lasagna vegetable composing/bed building and strawberry gardening. : ) I think the genius of what you did there gives you redemption for causing the earthquakes in Oklahoma. C'mon, on a day like today, we have to find something to laugh about..... Dawn

WOOOOHOOOO I got Kym's box yesterday!!!! BUT I didnt want to post until I could get the photos to work FINALLY today Kodak and I got the software to load, tried to yesterday but what they told me to do didnt work. WOW KYM!!!! OMG, I love it! (You know who got the Chocolate lol!) WOW OH WOW KYM SENT! Strickers! She KNOWS I LOVE stickers LOL. Assorted Jumbo Fairy WALL STICKERS! Chocolate Hearts Candy Reese's Peanut Butter WHOPPERS! Yummy! LOL A Pocket Packet of Hydrangea Tissues (you know these will not be opened!) Ceramic Cow (it got broken) Ceramic Sheep Terra Cotta Garden Marker that Says: Gardens Know the Best Dirt Sun Flower Candle Holder Chocolate Scented Candle from the Chocolate Farm! A Flower Shaped Flower in a tin Flower Pot Decorative Sunflower Stake cute! A grow me flower pot cute The Cutes Little Garden Trowel, trying to figure out how to make this a Keychain! LOL A PIG PLANTER OMG, IT IS SO CUTE, I will get a pic of it by its self it is too cool! A Butterfly Wind chime this is gonna get revised, those darn strings keep coming off, I will be putting fishing line of these! LOL Kym made a BEAUTIFUL HANDMADE CARD she quilted it! YES SHE DID! She also made one for Marie in the Cupid swap! WOW!!! FLOWERS Bulbs: Anomone Dahlia Peaches and Cream Brodiaea Acidanthera Peacock Orchids OMG THANKS I WAS GONNA ORDER SOME! Caladium White Queen Caladium Carolyn Whorton Crocus Kit that includes: Jeanne d Arc, Pickwick, Remembrance SEEDS: Mawnature Sunflower (?) Tomatillo Gigantic (YEA) Dipper Gourd (THANK YOU!!!) Pepper Sigaretta Dolce Pasilla Bajio Culinary Pepper Red Corno di Tojo Rasso Franchi Pepper Giallo di Asti Yellow Pepper Pepper Greek Pepperoncini Tomato Giant Belgium Pink Tomato Red Cup Tomato Pomodona Red Noid Pink Columbine Sunflower Autumn Beauty Mixed Sunflower Feverfew Virgo Hosta Hydrangea Oakleaf Moonflower Bush Noid Coral Bells Mixed Sunflower Kyms Beautiful Handmade Card Close up Even closer of the HAND STITCHING ON THE CARD! This is the paper she included in the package I liked it too! This is one of the many wrapped packages she included in the box!!! SEE THE PIG PLANTER IN THE BACK> WOW OH WOW, I LOVE IT! The cow got broken :(! This is the butterfly Wind Chime and in the corner of the calendar pocket is the hangy things that goes at the bottom, and the fairy's are the Fairy Wall Stickers! This is a close up of the Candle holder it is the green round thing, the Flower Candle is the metal thing on the corner there, and the little cute trowel thing is sitting in it! Isn't it cute?! Kym girl WOW, what can I say? You out did yourself! Thank you so very very much!!! I LOVE THE PIG planter, I will get a better pic of it alone it is so darn cute, I hate the cow got broken what a bummer! AND HERE IS MARIANN'S WREATH!!!!!!!!! :) Fran

1. Is it a perennial??? yes (tender above zone 7?) 2. Does it have colorful or unusual foliage? NO (NOT COLORED FOLIAGE) 3. Are there many varieties? No 4. Does it bloom more than once a year? Yes 5. Does it grow taller than 12"? Yes 6. Is it a shrub? No 7. Is this plant valued for it's flowers? Sometimes 8. Is it collectible? YES, not by groups per se 9. Is it considered an Herb? NO 10. Is it a tree ? NO 11. Does it get taller than 36" ? NO 12. Does it bloom in spring? YES 13. Does it grow from a bulb? NO (not a bulb) 14. Can it grow from seed? YES (from what I have read) 15. Does it grow from a tuber? YES 16. Does it bloom all summer? YES 17. Does it come in red colors??? YES (?) Nope Bunny, guess again, I love callas. This is a plant I would LOVE to have too....I know doesn't help much... :) Fran

Sorry for the confusion. In your previous post you mentioned PVB in millimeters ("...0.75mm vs a 1.5mm PVB interlayer."), so I switched to millimeters in my post somewhat out of habit. While some laminators use inches for the interlayer thickness - .030, .060, .090 - others use millimeters - .762mm, 1.54mm, 2.286mm. When you used millimeters I assumed that your supplier was talking in metric so I went that way. Not much different than glass; glass can be referred to as double strength, 1/8" and 3mm for the same product. And tempered glass is considered to be four times stronger than annealed glass, and at the thicknesses that you are considering distortion potential is minimal, but the possibility is there. Take a look at some large storefront windows when you have the chance and notice the distortion in the glass. That is the nature of tempered. Distortion in the storefront windows may be very minimal so that you don't even see it, or it may be really obvious - often depending entirely on the skill of the operator. I had mentioned in a much earlier post that tempering glass is easy, but tempering glass really well (flat) takes good equipment, technical skill, and a bit of artistry from the furnace operator. I am not entirely familiar with the hurricane requirements in Hawaii, but I seem to remember that the islands used the basic ASTM E1886 and E1996 reqirements - but I could be wrong about that... You will not meet large missile, or ASTM missile D (basically the same thing), impact requirements using either .030 or .060 interlayers. For consistent impact performance you need an .090 interlayer - either PVB or SGP. So, based on your last paragraph, what sort of impact are you considering when you mention "...thus decreasing the chance the glass will break upon impact..."? It is true that tempering the glass will help keep an errant baseball from potentially breaking your glass, and it will add a good bit to the level of windows that the windows can handle without broken glass, but if you are thinking of impacts from flying palm trees or coconuts in the event of a hurricane, then tempering the glass really doesn't add a lot to the overall impact performance. I am also a bit puzzled about needing SGP for windloads. You are using some very thick glass and considering tempered as well, so what windload are you thinking of meeting that you need SGP? I like SGP, I think it is an amazing product, but for sound applications I would suggest that it is not the best choice. Also, which island are you on? I lived on Oahu from 1981 to 1984.