Some comments about the UFL sites. First, I would agree the information is presented well in a clean-looking, easy-to-read format and I find the illustrations of the trees helpful. The problems that I've had with it though is they would appear to have more than one publication for the same species posted in different locations on the web that often contain contradictory information. Their labeling of invasive potential is another area that I have a problem with. Almost every noxious weed they have a fact sheet for, they say has "little, if any" potential. Furthermore, I have long wondered why and or how they are able to compile this information when a great deal of the species they've written about won't even grow in Florida. Never the less, they will describe availability of certain trees or cultivars but it's unclear as to who that is relevant to. There are some discrepancies that I often find with size, growth rates, shapes and fruiting but do enjoy reading that site just for entertainment value and because the illustrations of a "middle aged __________ " can't be beat.

I have no idea where emails to 'gardenweb_user@gardenweb.com' go, but when you get an email like that from someone, it is because they have chosen a particular setting in their profile that prevents their address from being visible. Any email sent from GW, from that member, will have that 'cannot reply' bit. Even emails that are a result of ticking the 'click here if you would like copies' box will be 'cannot reply' kind of messsages. You can't do anything about that. You have to ask them to send an email from their mail program (not from GW) to be able to reply to them. You can still sort of email them back though - you just have to go about it the long way. The GW name of the person that sent it should still be visable before the gardenweb_user bit. You can either find a GW post by them and click on their "my page" link and send them an email from there, or you can do a search for the GW member on the 'Member search' page (click on 'Member Pages' in the 'community' section at the very bottom of the main GW page). BP

I sometimes get that message when I have a loose connection, either with my cable modem or the Linksys router. It will clear after checking the connections and/or pushing the reset button. Just my 2 c's. Bejay

I recently attempted to make an online purchase of a product that costs less than $4. The weight of the product (in a padded envelope) would be about 2 ounces -- including the weight of the envelope! The shipping charge was over $8, and there were no options for different shipping methods. I wrote a comment in the "Comments" section of the purchase page, saying that they really should offer more shipping options, especially on such a light-weight product. I keyed in my credit card and shipping info, etc., and clicked the Submit button. (For what it's worth, I never would have ordered it online and paid double the product cost for shipping, but I could not find the product ANYWHERE.) I immediately got an error messsage that I had exceeded the allowed character length by TWO CHARACTERS in some section (it had an obtuse name -- didn't say "Comments Section"), and I figured it had to be the Comments section because I hadn't written anything extra anywhere else. So, I went back and edited my comments to eliminate many more than two characters, and again clicked the Submit button. I immediately got the error message again, but this time it said I had FIVE too many characters! This time I went back and removed my entire "comment," and clicked Submit. Error - no particular reason given. I tried again, and again got an error message. By this time I was thoroughly ticked off, and didn't know if my credit card would be charged twice, or not at all. So, I went back to one of the site's product pages, and clicked on the bottom-of-the-page link to "Contact Us." I sent a short, terse, message that although I loved the company's products I hated their web site and wanted to ensure that my order would be canceled. The owner of the company sent me a very nice, very apologetic, return message. The message said that they knew their web ordering left much to be desired and that it was in the process of being upgraded. A few days later I received a box with well over $100 worth of their fabulous products. ~*~*~*~* About 35 years ago, all of the print ads for a ladies shaving foam included a razor that was obviously designed for women. I wanted one like it! I looked high and low for that razor in every store that carried razors, but couldn't find it. So, I wrote to the company (snail mail!) and asked if they could tell me where I could find one. Several weeks later I received a box from the company. There was a letter inside, saying that the razor didn't really exist -- it was a prop made specifically for the photo shoot. Also inside the box were about a dozen full-size bottles/cans/etc. of various other products made by the company.