The type of lemon juice in jam is not an issue because jams are already acid products and the lemon juice serves other purposes (acid for pectin formation, flavor). So you can use fresh or bottled, whatever suits. The exception would be pepper jellies, which generally call for vinegar as the acid; there it's needed to compensate for the low-acid peppers in the mixture. Bottled lemon juice is standardized, so yes, in that way it's comparable to commercial vinegars. Fresh lemon juice, on the other hand, will vary considerably in acidity depending upon variety, season, growing conditions, degree of ripeness when picked, etc. That's why bottled lemon juice is specified in recipes like marinated peppers. For consistently safe results it's important to have assurance of sufficient acidity. Bottled lemon juice (and bottled lime juice) are more acid than vinegar. Therefore, whenever a canning recipe calls for vinegar, you could safely replace it with bottled lemon or lime juice. However, if a recipe specifically calls for bottled lemon juice don't substitute vinegar, as it's a weaker acid. Carol

Squirrels are a possibility. They repeatedly exposed the roots of a large hosta "fragrant boquet" that I planted a couple of years ago. Last year it came back in the spring but as a very reduced plant. it was so badly damaged I dug it up, divided it and re-potted it in 5 different small pots and am nursing them back to health on my screen porch. Back in the 90's I was planting a large order of various spring bulbs. I had placed the bags of bulbs where I wanted them and had started back at the beginning of the line and started planting. I came to a spot where a bag of crocus bulbs was missing. I looked all over and couldn't find it. I finally gave up looking. Later, around Christmas, I happened to notice something about 50 feet off the ground in a crotch in a large Red Oak. It was the very distinctive color of the bags of bulbs that I had planted in the fall. A squirrel had apparently carried it into the tree and left the bag there. As I think more about it the neatness you describe doesn't sound like squirrels which I've observed to be very messy when digging among my plants, throwing the dirt everywhere. It sounds more like a cat or a raccoon and my money would be on a Raccoon looking for grubs or worms. If you have outside water and food bowls for a cat or dog they will take pet food or things they've dug up and wash them in the water bowl. Makes a big mess but is a sure sign they are working your yard.

A suggestion and a question: Suggestion Obviously, most users of Incrudimail like to include little images (or animations) and emoticons occasionally -- or a lot -- and it's possible they don't know how to include such things using a 'regular' offline email client. Maybe those of you who know people using "that" email client could suggest that they instead snag some forum emoticons (I myself like the ones at the Opera forums), save them in their own folder in Pictures (Windows) and use them in their emails when the mood strikes. ?? Question A very minor, slightly off-topic query: I noticed in the article that ravencajun linked to that the poster (PeeCee) was a 'plain text purist' [my term], i.e. someone who believes that people should just send emails in plain text and avoid rich text/html emails altogether, including pics as attachments. I tend to think that's overkill (I mean, who doesn't include some italics or underlining once in a while ?), but I thought I'd ask here, as long as that article broached the subject: do you think there is any advantage in limiting one's emails to the plain text variety ?

Hi, iowagirl ! I think David Pye's site (http://www.davidpye.com/index.php) which is behind the link I posted above, does basically for others what you have creatively done for yourself. He has collected loads (over 3 megs) of smileys (and also has over 2 meg of .gif images. And lots of wallpaper.). He makes it available FREE. I asked at another computer message board regarding Pye's site and only got one response, but the person suggested (after reading Pye's home page and "about me" section) that it seemed okay (no spyware, malware, etc.). If one does download his "Smiley Vault" (Home Page > My Freeware > scroll down to Smiley Vault) be ready to deal with over 1700 smileys ! He also has lots of .gif images and tons of free wallpaper. Scott