Aesculus x carnea var. 'Ft. McNair' Ospreynn, you are lucky watering is not a limitation! Do you have automated irrigation? Do you want the huge hippocastanum or the smaller carnea? I did 24/7 care for 3 years for a lady off Vista in Portland where the streets were lined with old red and white candled hippocastanums and it was so beautiful. Yes, a dense high dark green canopy that gave lovely shade in summer. The trunks were gnarled but interesting and attractive. Lots of bird nests. Bboy, these trees are so slow. But they can grow over the roof with time. Hard to imagine them getting that big. 2300 sq ft of one-story roof to occupy, LOL Except the Quercus virginia is supposed to claim that space. Or the Eucalyptus Scoparia, or Cedrus brevifolia, or the 3 Nyssa aquaticas, who knows. There's really a 70' carnea in Seattle? Cool! I just turned 48 so won't live long enough to see these become a problem. Acer macrophyllum is the Big Leaf Maple. Native to here, NW Oregon. They like water. They are wilting up here by August in our increasingly hot dry summers. Osprey, sounds like you'd like the trees here, also plenty of osprey here. I planted October Glories for maples because the fall color is so rich and they like water, put them in creeklets. Have a sugar maple that isn't doing so well and it's in a drier area. Of course Japanese maples do well here. A Big Leaf in New Mexico? Have you seen any thriving there?

Eloise if she likes long hair bunnies the AFL (American Fuzzy Lop) is a great choice as they rarely need to be brushed, if at all. The only thing I have to do with Molly is clip her nails. Unlike the other long hair varieties their hair won't tangle or mat. They make a good house pet or can be kept outside in a hutch. My ND's stayed outside because they were too freaked out when we got Bailey but Molly and Bailey get along quite well. They can also be litter box trained pretty easily. You should check out the ASPCA, House Rabbit Society or other rescue group. People are always giving up rabbits, especially after Easter : (

This will be a bit off-topic because it's about college education and how kids get the most out of it. Honestly, I think THE major factor affecting how much a kid values/gets from a college education is whether the kid is READY for one. I first went off to college at 18, by the book, like I was supposed to, in a situation that was an "in-between", money-wise. My mom & stepfather, my dad (but not his GF) and I all split the cost of my college expenses 3 ways, which seems very fair to me (and btw it never occured to me to resent GF not chipping in, but of course it did occur to her to resent my dad helping me). I always had a part-time job throughout school of at least 20 hrs a week. All in all, I think this arrangement was fair and ideal, because a kid DOES need to start learning how to chip in and take on work responsibilities, juggle tasks, etc. And parents *who can afford* to help with college absolutely should because there was no way I could have done all of it on my own. No way, and this was over a decade ago, before the standard-of-living/consumption reached the levels of over-the-top luxury for kids that it's at now (I work at a major university, so I see a vast difference between then and now: 18-yr-olds driving brand new expensive cars, getting plastic surgery for graduation, highest-end laptops & ipods, absurdly well-apointed GATED collegiate apartments, you name it... outrageous). But I'm just talking about BASIC, decent levels of safe & comfortable living. I got plenty of help from my parents, AND consistently worked at least 20 hours a week and scraped by both financially and educationally. Wasn't so smart about finances, had no sense of long-term future consequences for certain youthful mistakes, etc... many 18-year-olds don't. I did pretty poorly in college at that point... but I can't really say it was because of either TOO MUCH nor TOO LITTLE help from my parents. As I said, the arrangement we had was in my opinion about as ideal as it could have been in terms of fairness, realistic expense considerations and me taking on a *healthy* (reasonable) amount of financial responsibility. I dropped out after a few years. Then went to work full-time for a few years, working hard, scraping by but not exactly climbing the golden ladder. I woke up one day and decided to go back to school, decided on a major based on what I now knew I liked after living a bit longer, having more experiences, etc. and got virtually straight A's. Main difference was instead of doing school full-time and working part-time, it was reversed. And I'm lucky that my university offers free tuition for its employees, which I naturally have taken advantage of. Many of you might say that now that I was funding it all myself I was more motivated to do better. But I don't think that's REALLY it. I feel bad that I initially wasted the money my parents helped me with, first go-round with college. But they are all now extremely proud of me for going back and doing so well and neither has any regrets or disappointment about the money (well, except Dad's GF, of course, even though none of it was hers...) I really think the main factor is being ready for college, and with some kids that's right away and for some they may take more time deciding on something that they care enough about to give the necessary devotion. So I guess my point is, step or bio, the kid should really be ready. It's not *impossible* for them to find their own way to succeed if it's important enough to them, given enough years of sacrifice and toil, but if they're really ready for college and especially if they show it by doing well, then if a parent can afford to help, it's a worthwhile investment that helps kids tremendously. If the kid doesn't want to go, or is conflicted, or has no idea what they want to do, and then goes to college and does poorly... then if I was a parent I would say, not punishingly or angrily: "maybe now's not the time for you and college... But if/when you demonstrate that you're really ready for it, I am more than willing to help you." In general, whatever it is (college or trade or their own small business), if they know what they want and demonstrate ability & responsibility to do it, they ought to be helped with those extra funds that it seems to always take, here and there, to fully succeed.

Thank you for you wonderfully kind thoughts. Good idea, Tina, to try and get back once more and by myself. I'll definitely think seriously about that. Although we had a wonderful 10 day visit with my parents and family, both the flights there and back were absolute nightmares. Outbound, baggage was so unusually incredibly slow that, despite getting there at the recommended time, we missed our flight. So instead of departing at 6:30AM and arriving in Detroit at (approx.) 3:20PM with a stopover in Denver, we had a 3 hour delay in Albuquerque, then a flight to Las Vegas. A 4-hour wait there before a flight to Atlanta. Another wait there and then a flight to Detroit. We arrived around 12:30AM and after picking up our rental car and baggage, arrived at my sister's home at 2:20AM. Ugh!!! On the flight back, we were so paranoid about baggage check-in, we arrived 3 hours early . . . only to be told that our flight had just been cancelled! DH had a full schedule of patients booked the next day and was able to get the last seat on a flight that got him home here around 12:30AM the next day. The airlines sent DD & I to a hotel for the night and we were booked on the 6:35AM flight out that next morning. The hotel shuttle picked us up and delivered us to the worst hotel I've ever been in in my entire life. It looked perfectly fine from the outside, although more like a souped up motel with a big, new entrance.Three guys lounging in the lobby looked like pimps. They were obviously not guests. The room was dark, dirty and dank. My daughter's bed looked like it had a large area of dried urine on the top sheet. The table and nightstands were greasy. And one entire wall of the room was a plate glass window that looked out onto the deserted hallway. There was a heavy, dark, dusty, rubber-backed curtain across the wall, but would not close all the way. That was the only window in the room. The door locks did not work properly and we could easily hear the tv in the next room. We were out of there quickly, with me in tears by then, calling a nearby hotel and begging them to come and rescue us. They did and had their shuttle there within 5 minutes (bless them!). As our new shuttle driver was loading up our baggage, 3 very emaciated, disheveled young persons (early twenties), 2 of which had the black front teeth of major drug users and were obviously on some kind of drugs then, were holding on to each other , weaving into the hotel as we sat in the van watching them! Our driver just shook his head and said that "they should shut this place down"! I am not going to mention the airlines or the "hotel", as I'm already in discussions with the airlines CEO about it. As for the "hotel", his people are looking into that as well. I had nightmares for 5 days straight about that place! Soooo, that's my long, and hopefully somewhat entertaining saga about our trip last month. I'm still thinking about flying back again later this Summer . . . but probably on tranquilizers! (Edited for typos and to add:) And when we finally arrived back home here, I found a couple live bedbugs in the outside pocket of my suitcase! That was an additional nightmare I had to deal with for days after.