I better hope it takes me more than a year to get my garden soil up to snuff. I can't imagine what shape I will be in if I had both annuals and veggies going...... although the wife wants to try those upside down tomato things. Ginny, I would absolutely love some seeds, then again how can I say no! How about you surprise me. I have kong, titan and allmix from Mr. fothergills. i will send you some papaver somniferum in trade. I also have lots of mixed marigold (not smart enough to seperate last year) you could mass plant. Also have a few seeds left over from this year I could send a list if you wanted. I have the itch to plant out so bad I might start next weekend with some titan sunflowers. I was told not to start them but couldn't listen and in 3 days they have outgrown the 72 cell tray and I feel will outgrow the 2" pots they are in by the weekend LOL!

Bonnie, Hi. Just letting you know that I received my seeds sometime this week (I've been on a short little vacation the last week). I love the seeds you picked out for me. I got a bunch of seeds I wanted (like some yellow tomatoes, carrots, chard and watermelon) and seeds that I didn't know I wanted but am excited about (like Chinese Yellow Cucumbers and Thai Yellow Egg eggplant). I love these color of the month swaps. There is always something totally new and interesting (to me at least) when I open up the return package. So, thanks everyone, especially Bonnie for doing hostess duty, for another great swap! P.S. I, too, am anxiously awaiting the red seed swap. Hopefully it hasn't been canceled. If Tammy is too busy to do this swap, then maybe someone else can jump in and host. It would be a shame for all those red seeds to not find their new homes!

One day in LA (my only time there), within the span of about 2 hours, we saw Sean Hayes in a diner. I stood 2' away from him while I waited for the (single, unisex) rest room -- DH was in there and when he opened the door I pushed him back in, closed the door, and said much too loudly I'm sure, "OMG you'll never believe who's right outside this door!" I was a babbling idiot. Then we walked down the street to a Starbucks. My DS, who was probably 18 at the time, was standing in line for the rest room behind the musician Ryan Adams. Maybe two months before this, we had taken DS with us to a Ryan Adams concert in Boston, so he recognized him right away. When Ryan came out of the men's room and handed DS the key, DS chatted with him for a few minutes. Ryan was really nice to him. I was outside and knew nothing until DS2 came out to tell me what was happening. I ran in, again like a big idiot, and stood watching while Ryan got a straw for his iced coffee, then I went back outside to wait for him, fully intending to ask him for a photo, but he escaped out the back door. So sad. THEN, in the next store we visited, we saw "Janice" -- Chandler's girlfriend from Friends. This may have been the best day of my life. I am a total dork about celebrities (in case you can't tell). I love, love the singer Lori McKenna. Maybe no one here has heard of her but she is local from MA and does a lot of performing and song writing in Nashville as well. We have seen her in concert probably 12 times. She plays a couple times a year at a very small concert venue in the Boston area, and we always go. The first time I spoke to her it was because we, and our friends, were among the last to leave and Lori came out from backstage to get her guitar. My friend asked if she would take a pic with me, and she did, and we chatted for a minute. The second time I met her, it was at the same concert venue, and I had brought a CD for her to sign. After the show, I managed to be standing right in front of a door she was coming out of, and I asked her to sign my CD. She said 'yes, but a bunch of people are about to come out of there (the concert area), so come with me' -- she grabbed my hand and brought me backstage. She signed my CD, then had her DH take a bunch of pics of us. She was super nice.

Interesting thread, Ritamay. I probably mismanage time -- I have a lot of interests and a lot of curiosity and so it is super easy to do. I also like looking out the window at wildlife. That isn't really a waste of time, nor is reading on the Internet, but it doesn't have any physical product to display at the end of my musings. "Hang it, nail it, paint it" personalities would likely consider it wasteful. I tend to think of it more along the lines of unbalanced resource use. We use "sorta warm" water for laundry with a cold rinse. The washer is an older, compact (not huge) top-loading Kenmore that was barely used for $100 in Craigslist and it fit in the SUV (older, bought used). I don't wash on cold because from my experience washing and observing (dishes, hand laundered items, cleaning), I find that oils (everywhere -- food splashes, perspiration) are better removed or broken down by detergent if water isn't cold (like our icy deep well water). That cheap washer spins cycle is good. We hang, line dry but often machine dry 2/3rds of items. I love leftovers, but groceries can get forgotten. I try to make a rotating list of perishables for the front of our refigerator/s. We compost vegetable scraps (not rice) and fish skin, trimmed fats, skins get frozen to feed to birds in winter. I'd like to feed our opossum chicken bones after I've used them for broth, but it's likely that raccoons and coyotes would also come by & we don't want that. Most of what's in the compost is not very attractive for scavenging wildlife & it gets coffee grounds dump over it and mixed throughout. MamaP & others: know a good source for quality flour sack towels? I like them. We try to minimize our use of paper towels, not for tree preservation, but to sa e money. Like others, I buy a dozen or so plain white or light colored inexpensive (thin) face clothes to use (and keep clean) for all sorts of things, including as a dish cloth (bleached daily & washed). if you have a sewing machine, or can find a used inexpensive serger, you can make lots of no-fray cleaning cloths from older towels. Here is a link that gives ideas: https://www.seasonedhomemaker.com/un-paper-towels-reusable-paper-towels-paperless-towels/ We re-use those plastic shoppers, but Re_cycle most of them. Grocery stores have Recycle bins dedicated to clean, dry "plastic film" (packing film, wrap, shoppers). We use a lot of LED bulbs when we can, but we live in a wooded area and I like and need a lot of light. Off at night. Annie D. -- I for one am thankful that you spend time on the Internet ;) You post so many interesting contributions.