Ace, my Elephant Hearts cracked like clay in drought as did Fortune. Methely not much and same with Shiro- we got a break from rain just as they ripened (I'm probably 50 miles from you). Satsuma did not crack much although likewise the YJ's are becomming big issue. Time to start trapping. Santa Rosa and Early Majic didn't crack at all and were quite good as was a numbered variety I have from Cummins that set huge purple fleshed fruit which ripened with and past Santa Rosa. I'm trying to get Cummins to propigate some more of this one-it is a wonderful plum for adverse conditions and almost immune to black-knot. All the plums mentioned here fruit heavily most years and require ample thinning. Let me know if you want any wood.

Ditto on the excitement. Have had mine for 3 years, from a baby, and it bloomed for the first time this week! Looked beautiful in the pictures---never knew it smelled so wonderful too! Jan

Yes, King Cakes aren't cake, they're a raised dough that's traditionally spread with cinnamon sugar, rolled up and formed into a circle. Don't forget the baby inside. When I lived in New Orleans I made and sold tons of King Cakes at Mardi Gras season.These days the most popular filling is a cream cheese filling, similar to Ann T's danish. Apple is also popular but they sell many different kinds. I still have a bag of babies around here. We never slashed them like that pic though, the baby might peek out. LOL.

Thanks again for all the great responses here. I'm happy to report that just tonight I finally made my decision and ordered a king! I went with the Novaform memory foam from Costco (they're on sale this week). I'm a bit nervous -- a bed seems like such a crucial purchase and it's so easy to get wrong -- but I feel like anything will be better than our tired old mattress. I need to decide what sort of actual bed to get with it. Since we previously had a queen I can't use the same box springs with the new mattress. I realize no box spring is necessary, but we don't even have a bed frame of any kind. We may buy a really nice bed sometime in the future, but for now I just want to sleep comfortably! I suppose it will be okay on the floor for a while, but I'll need to think of something pretty quickly. I don't think my poor old knees could take getting out a bed on the floor for too long! Thanks again for your input -- it really helped our decision-making process.