The contest is officially over!! and if I can ever get this phat cat photo to cross over you'll see the phat lady sing! Thank you all for the warmth and humor you've shared - I really need it now that we're not going to see 10F for another week. (-30F windchills for the next 4 days - yes, sympathy please). SO! It's up to the judges now, the panel of 4 has their work cut out for them. We're picking 1 winner in the pond (aquarium) catagory, and 1 in the non-pond related catagory. Each winner will have $25 donated in their pet's name to HSDM. And as I've told the judges, every photo here is fair game, because while some photos are of the pet involved in their OCD behavior, other pix are of the pets and the stories are of their OCD behavior. And, yes, the owner's OCD! We're all family here and a picture of Aunt Mable snoozing in the Lazy Boy may bring up fond memories of that great Thanksgiving when she got a little tipsy and fell asleep before the pecan pie! There's often alittle history behind a photo. Winners will be announced SUPER BOWL Sunday! Thanks everybody!

I do not normally order hostas by mail. But here in Canada;s Ottawa Valley, I am fortunate to have two excellent hosta suppliers nearby in Budd Gardens http://buddgardens.com/plants.html and the Rideau Woodlot Ramble http://www.rideauwoodlandramble.com/ Both have posted their catalogues for the upcoming season. I will evaluate my needs in late May after the hostas and other shade plants have emerged. At that point I will decide what I would like to add based on foliage colour and mature size. Then I will visit the two suppliers and talk to the owners - both owners are experienced and knowledgeable hosta growers - before buying potted plants. I get to see what I am buying. Doug

Yes, that must have been it, Omar. It was pixies playing tricks on us or else it was me who was somewhat "pixilated' after all the talking and trading ... LOL I have a question: someone brought a jar for the door prize table containing something brown that looked like preserves of some kind, but it had a picture of a cleaning woman on it. I asked the contributor and she told me that if was for cleaning your hands after gardening and contained brown sugar. I'm fascinated, but can't remember what else the cleaning compound contained. Anybody remember who brought it and what else it contained besides brown sugar? The dates for both SAPS next year will be announced by Lorelei soon ... :-)

Hi Amy. I've been a Palm PDA user forever and think it is a great product. First thing to know is that these little mini computers have either Palm or WindowsME as their "Operating System" or OS. The Palm OS is intuitive and super easy. The windows ME is a variant of Windows and lots of folks complain about it and seem to prefer the elegant simplicity of the Palm OS. OTOH, there are complaints that Palm is "resting on its laurels" and really hasn't done much progressive since creating that great OS years ago. And now of course Apple has just muscled in with the stunning iPhone. (though iPhone is more about music/video/entertainment, and Palm is still better for calendar, words and numbers IMHO) Enough consumer politics. Scanning Ebay for you, cheapest used PDA looks like an old Handspring Visor or Palm Zire 21 or Sony SJ20 for under $10 bucks. It'll do what you need. (BTW, Sony and Handspring are out of the PDA business, so you won't see newer models from them down the road). But you'll soon be lusting for something much brighter, stronger, faster, AND sporting a high resolution color screen. Believe me on that. And there a lots of the more common midrange, very popular Palm Zire Z22 or a Sony SJ30. You should be able to get your hands on a used one for under $50. Both very nice products. Went for $250+ three or four years ago. And if going with a used one, know that an internal (vs disposable) battery might be an issue in an older PDA. I'm seeing a couple full featured (yet another step up) Sony Clie PEG-TG50 out there for cheap and wonder if dying batteries might be the problem. Some internal batteries cannot be replaced by the consumer - you gotta send it someplace. Yech. I would not go crazy and get a Palm Tungston level state of the art PDA. Way too much power and too many features. Ditto other upper end models. MP3 player, Bluetooth, swivel screen, voice recorder,camera, etc is probably overkill. Stick to basic. But fast enough and bright enough and with enough memory to work well for you. And the color screen, it's like a TV. Would you ever go back to a fuzzy B & W screen? No way. And while you say you don't want to synch to a computer, you may want to reconsider that for four reasons: 1) You will have to synch to get cool programs off the internet and onto the thing. Or photos! 2) You can move a bunch of info (like your address book or recipes) en mass from the computer onto the PDA by synching. 3) When adding a bunch of new data, it is much easier to type using your computer keyboard and transfer/synch later. 4) MOST IMPORTANT: Your computer will save *everything* for you at each synch. So if/when you smash or crash the PDA, (or upgrade) you just slap it all back on there with a click. Beats starting over from scratch! Last point is that you will likely have some snafus getting it up and running smooth. These electronics always have a learning curve, don't they? Palm is pretty easy and stable though, and there is lots of help on the net. Whatever your problem, you can likely find the answer with a Google or a support board. HTH, and good luck! -Celtic, who just upgraded to an Ebay Treo when my phone and PDA both conveniently tanked on me the same week. Loving it! Here is a link that might be useful: One to watch