My apartment maintains a temperature of approximately 68-72 degrees all year... as a second floor apartment, it has to have AC in summer, or we'd bake! The humidity is very low, however, and there's very little I can do to change that. I group orchids together in large saucers to keep more humidity, and I mist frequently. A room humidifier is not in my budget. The Christmas cactus is in regular potting soil... the plant is firm in the pot. Since I water based on who needs it and who doesn't, I couldn't really say how many days the soil maintains moisture. But if I had to guess, I'd say it gets watered maybe once a week, or a week and a few days... whenever it feels dry. It gets fed the same as everyone else... with a diluted solution of all purpose liquid fertilizer, and I add micro-nutrients. I got it about a year and a half ago, or thereabouts, from Lowe's. It was in a 3" pot, looked fairly healthy, and had buds. Shortly after bringing it home, all the buds dropped. Then, one by one, the leaf segments began to drop, too. It's rather short and hideous looking at the moment, and I keep thinking I should just dump it and use the room for a bulb! The thing is... many years ago, I had several of these plants... the ones with red and pink flowers... and they grew and bloomed just fine with total neglect! At that point in time, I knew little about how to properly care for each plant type, and I watered when it crossed my mind that if I didn't, everyone would die! I was a young amateur at that point! I've tried just about every situation I can think of... and the poor thing just sits here. Our apartment temperature fluctuates in winter due to the type of heat we have, but it's not that drastic of a fluctuation. I wouldn't say it's cool, though. Thanks for trying so hard to help! I appreciate the trouble you've gone through. I'm going to check its roots, put it in fresh medium, and if it doesn't survive, I'll replace it with a bulb. I think it's just one of those plant types that I can't seem to grow well... like African Violets!

I stopped by Harbor Freight. Picked up a propane flamer for $13. Looks like a walking cane. I toasted all the weeds in the cracks of my driveway and sidewalk. There were a few spots where I actually burned out the weeds, but in most areas, one pass with the flame and the little buggers turned bright green. I think another quick pass once every week or two will kill everything off. Dead. I did find out too late that the little probe that goes into the propane cylinder was not screwed in tightly when the flamer was assembled. It came out when I unscrewed the cylinder, and let some propane escape until I plucked it out of the valve. This weekend, I'm planning to singe many weeds on the face of the retaining wall that holds up my front yard. I think I'll just try to ol' Bernz-O-Matic with a flame spreader. Flame on.

Ok, first of all, the vivarium hardscape is awesome!! You have such a good foundation for adding epiphytes. Now, I am *assuming* that the background is made from expandable foam with coco bedding siliconed over it. In that case, you are set(if your background is different than this let me know). All you need to do is buy some stoloneforous bromeliads. Basically, they are broms that grow from sticks. The best type to use for vivs are the miniature neoregelia types. All you do...it's so easy...you just clean off the brom, stick its stolon (stick) into the expandable foam, and keep the center of the plant filled with water. Good beginner broms: neo fireball, neo superball, and any other mini neo species. Go to www.tropiflora.com, click on the "cargo report" and you're in bromeliad paradise. Bromeliads are very hardy. They can take a beating and it's hard to kill them - just water them a few times a week so that their centers stay filled with a little water. Now, for your lighting situation, why are you using actinic bulbs!? Those are for saltwater aquariums. They give off a weird looking blue light. My advice: use between 5400K and 6800K lights (basically light that mimics sunlight). As for the heat issue, just shoot for tons of ventilation inside of the light hood. Vents, fans, anything to move air through. Just be sure that you're not sucking out the nice humid air inside your vivarium. Hope this helps. Danny

The reason I think it is the egr purge solenoid is from what the alldata sites says for DTC27 QDMB fault DTC 27 will set when QDMB Fault line: Is "High" for 20 seconds or more tcc is commanded "On" (My car is a stick, so this does not apply) Battery voltage is greater then 10.5 volts Action taken: The Malfunction Lamp (MIL) will illuminate, and the cooling fan will enable. DTC test description: Check to see if DTC27 was set as a result of the EVAP canister purge solenoid valve circuit Check tcc operation Check intergrity of EGR circuit up to the solenoid. So from what I can see, it looks like the purge solenoid becuase when I had the tech 1, I did test the EGR solenoid (I had an old stored EGR code) I also tested both the A/C fan relay and the engine fan relay and I was able to start stop the fan from the tech 1. I did not test the purge solenoid because at the time, I did not know what DTC27 ment. Provided the freezing rain stops when I get home, I am going to swap cars around and pull it into the garage and check that purge solenoid. The thing that I can't understand, is why did GM have the cooling fan come on for an EGR system fault? Static