dog and kids trampoline? Jess, how nice that your dog uses the trampoline. My old house had a lot 135X65 with about a third covered with the house, driveway, sidewalks and garage. My back yard was completly covered with roses. A 20X30 greenhouse was built over three rose beds and a pond. I grew 550 roses in the ground, a few more in pots on the driveway. Rhonda says it all with deciding what you must have for grass. I did have a small lawn in front and on the parkway. This took me all of 20 minutes to cut. It took longer to get the mower out than it did to cut it. I added roses every year although, towards the end, I had to be very selective due to space limitations. Because of my growing zone, I could plant on 18 inch centers. By mid summer the roses were intergrown but the overall effect was stunning. Each spring I ordered 10 more roses than I had room for. Some years winter kill or poor performance made room for the excess, other years I had to make room for the excess and for any I picked up in my travels. I seldom returned from a vacation with out a slew of cuttings or half a dozen potted roses I'd picked up along the way. So you see, rosepep, you don't need a massive garden and lots of space. You just need determination and a shoehorn. I must admit though, in your zone, 18 inch centers would be hard to do. Planting in pots limits root size, resulting in smaller bushes so that's one way to do it. That would make it easier getting rid of plants you don't want or moving them around to get a different look.

Our bathroom is small (for a master) and since our vanity is along an exterior wall in Maine, we couldn't afford to give up insulation depth for a recessed medicine cabinet over the lavs. I was worried about where we'd put all the stuff, and planned open shelving for towels and baskets or smaller items. However, now that we've installed the cabinetry, I found I have LOADS of space and don't need the shelves. We designed a very sleek, simple vertical cabinet over the toilet, about 30" high by 6" deep by 16" wide. It holds feminine items and medicines and first aid stuff, and is only about 1/3 filled. Our vanity is sleek and up on legs, but we designed the sink installation to avoid interfering with the space at the top as much as possible, so we have four cavernous drawers to use. I got divider things from Ikea (soft and girly for me, square and hard for DH, since he didn't like mine!) and you can't believe how much stuff is in there. I put a plug on my side so I can keep a hair dryer in my top drawer. All of our towels are in one bottom drawer. And there's still loads of room! Also, our two closets are just outside the bathroom, so I figured if I have any overflow (like a big bulk package of toilet paper) it could be stashed there pretty easily.

Good for you for looking out for your Mom. Your menu sounds delicious too. I have nearly always made the traditional holiday meals myself, from Easter to Thanksgiving to Christmas to New Year's Day. Guests can be anywhere from 10 to 40. This year we had three "Christmas" celebrations. One was at my son in law's, who lives three hours away and everyone brought something. The second was with my family, about 30 people, it was at the town hall and everyone brought a dish to pass, I provide the main dish and dessert. The third was yesterday with my girls and their families and I made everything. I've found that baked goods can be made a day ahead, I baked cheese rolls and made the cheesecake and the peanut butter pie the day before, as well as the pie crust for banana cream pie. I did assemble the banana cream the morning of the meal so the bananas didn't turn black. I made hoppin john the day before as well and sweet and sour greens two days before because my husband is from Tennessee and says you can't overcook greens, LOL. I had the steak marinating and stuffed and rolled it the night before so it was ready to pop into the oven. The mashed potatoes got done first thing in the morning and were put into the crockpot to stay warm, and the gravy was made a day ahead of time from beef stock which I'd canned the day before that. I just kept some in the fridge for gravy and didn't can it. I have a big Nesco roaster, a small Nesco and a crockpot. While the steak was baking, the potatoes were in the crockpot and the greens were in the small Nesco. The gravy and the green beans were in containers in the big Nesco and the rolls got wrapped in foil and put on top of those for warming. The hoppin John was in the microwave and the pies were in my "second refrigerator", which is my garage. It's Michigan and it's plenty cold, the only problem is that it might freeze. All cold drinks are also kept there. I have a very old freezer-on-the-top 17 CF refrigerator, so I just don't have usable space to spare, if it's not cold enough in the garage I use coolers for things like drinks and meat. I set the table the night before and always have a checklist of things that need to be done so I don't leave the sweet potatoes in the microwave or the fruit salad in the garage. This year's "casualty" was the fruit salad mother brought. She stuck it in the garage and it wasn't on my "list", so we both forgot it. (shrug) Many things freeze well, including unbaked cookie dough, so when I do 30 dozen cookies at Christmas I often make dough weeks in advance, portion it out and freeze it on sheet trays, then package in ziplock bags. That way I can take them out a dozen at a time and bake them as I want them. Everyone helps clean up, kind of. My husband will wash dishes left after my dishwasher is full. My girls clean the table, scrape plates, pick up glasses and coffee cups. That way I get to spend time visiting instead of hours in the kitchen cleaning up. At the end of the day I toss the tablecloth and napkins into the washer, have a cup of coffee and start planning the next time, what to do differently, what stays the same, while successes, failures and ideas are still fresh in my mind. Annie

Giggle. Yes, there is a product called Astroglide. It's a - ahem - "personal product." You probably shouldn't be using it on a moving motorcycle -- unless you're quite the wild child! :-) Harley makes several versions of the Electra Glide. What about rain? You get wet. Very wet. Even with rain gear. Remember how wet you got riding your bicycle home in the rain as a kid? Well, a motorcycle is going much faster, so there's more splashing of the water from the pavement. Depending on the design of the bike, the person on the back of the bike many get drenched even more. What do you do with your stuff? You leave it at home. You learn to travel very light. Will riding cause you to hurt? Maybe. Just as a sports car has more "road feel" than a limo, even a touring bike will have exponentially more road feel. Put it this way, my BIL is a serious Harley biker dude. He goes on day trips, but for longer trips like to Sturgis, SD (9-10 hours from here), he trailers the bike behind his truck and does short rides at his destination.