I have not ordered from the company, but I have had some contact with them. I have there catalog at home, they have a very good website also. I also receive their news letter. I emailed someone there with questions, they emailed me back very promptly with excellent help. The one thing I did notice and will probably be the reason I wont order from them is that there shipping and handling costs are very expensive.

Susan, Thanks so much for that link. That's a lot cheaper than ebay. I'll have to see if they'll take a check because we don't use credit cards. I'm copying all those aster names into a Word file that I've been saving so I can go back later on if I want to plant a certain kind of plant for a certain kind of butterfly, then I'll know which one(s) to get. Nope, they aren't New England Asters. Just to make sure, I went and double checked and they say New York Asters and are a dark pink color. I think they only get a foot tall. Nobody showed any interest in those asters and if they don't this year, then they might be getting yanked out of there too. Such trial and error I'm going through! Well, at least probably half the plants were successes with the butterflies. The butterflies showed little or not interest in Joe Pye-weed, Shasta Daisies, Black-eyed Susans (R. hirta), Phlox (it's white but has a nice smell), New York Asters, and Arizona Sun Blanket Flower. They did, however, like the Swamp Milkweed, Butterfly Weed, Butterfly Bush, Purple Coneflowers, Moonbeam Coreopsis, and Scarlet Flame Zinnias. I had bought most of those plants in late summer of 2005 before I had even known of this forum. It's when I had Monarch cats here and was worried I'd do something wrong raising them that I found this forum and have learned tons of things since then. I feel pretty confident now that I could guide someone else in telling them what would be good to plant in a butterfly garden, thanks to all of you here. I said to my husband and daughter that we're going to be overrun with butterflies here this year! ;-) Cathy

1st: I would have to agree with what Asolo and Asylum said about the IMac..... for a "regular user" there is nothing better, "it" just works....Or maybe go to Sears Roebuck and get one of their brand new Linux PC's at less than $200(US) BUT......Right at $200(US) Go to: pricewatch(dot)com and click on "Computers PC no OS" since you: >>>> "I do not game, I do not download music, I do not want to watch movies or TV on my computer, I am the only user, only computer in house, I want a desk top." Pick out one of the systems that are less than $170 and increase the installed RAM to 2GB....I would at the least get one with a CDR/RW, but there are always USB CD/DVD drives if you want to stick with the lowest possible price. Now that you have the PC, get a copy of PCLinuxOS, LinuxMint, SimplyMepis7.0, ZenWalk, or VectorLinux or DreamLinux and do the install........If the CD doesn't have all the software you are looking for/want/need, LOL, check out the distro's repository...More than you'll ever know what to do with, and if that's still not enough, there is more than you could possibly imagine available on the WWW. A repository is where a distro maintains all of their compiled specifically to run with that distro software. (Yes geekers I know, but that's the simplest way I know to say it) Your new PC w/Linux will run extremely fast, much faster and with more stability and "robustness" than any MSWin version on the same hardware. Run the OS in RAM and all your MSWin-fan friends will be amazed and jealous of the lightening speed your "budget PC" will outperform their super whiz bang with all the high dollar bells and whistles, maybe even astounded when you offer them a FREE AND LEGAL copy to try on their own machine. Oh yeah, and you don't have to pay the MS or the Apple tax for your Operating System either...And, Linux requires much less high dollar hardware, and I can say this from personal experience.... There is never any need for "Security" software... no scanners, no "Anti-Virus", no registry mechanics, no de-frags, no nothing.....This thing has been running for just a few weeks now w/o being powered down or ever disconnected from the WWW. It is currently running 3 browsers/14windows/44 tabs (I just counted). I have gone as long as 10 months w/o ever shutting down or rebooting or disconnecting from the WWW, and other than an outgoing firewall, I run ABSOLUTELY ZERO "security" software The Linux "learning curve" is, quite honestly, a vastly overblown issue mainly bandied about by people who either: A) sell PC's and know that there is a lot more commission to be made on a $200 OS installed on a high hardware requirement PC than on a "naked" hard-drive PC w/o no need for unnecessary hardware "upgrades" B) that have no idea what they are talking about, or C) can only figure things out when somebody is there to step by step them through virtually every click... If you can figure out "Vista" you can figure out almost any Linux. SimplyMepis7.0 is a 4 click install that your Grandma could figure out how to install, run, modify, and download/install to. But some folks swear that the others mentioned above are just as easy an install, I just prefer SM7 Get a few LiveCD's and try them out, and install the one (or ones) that you like best.... But if you don't mind spending the money, for "Joe and Jane User", an IMac is pretty hard to beat. AMD Sempron 3000+ Computer System; SATA DDR2 PCI-e -MBoard; 2GB DDR-2 Dual Channel RAM; 40Gb Hard Drive; CDr/RW DRIVE; DeltaChrome 3D 256MB Shared Video; 6-Channel Audio; 10/100 Ethernet (LAN); MIDTOWER CASE Assembled & Tested! $210 (US) or, $230 to my door in 3 business days... But then again, there is that $0.1325 per CD for burning an ISO image of each Linux distro you might want to try.....Or you can order them from the vendors advertising on DistroWatch.com for real cheap...like you can get maybe almost 100 complete operating systems and all the included software for the price of JUST ONE COPY OF MSVista! Oh yeah....BTW.... with a Linux OS you are free to copy, modify, trade, sell, give away, install on 3256 separate machines. Ever actually read the MSXP/Vista EULA? You don't actually even own the contents of discs you just paid $200 for. And with Linux you can add/delete/change hardware devices at will and unlike with an MS OS, you won't have to buy a new OS whenever the MS decides that you have made too many changes and need to buy a new OS, as in MSWorld your clicking on "I agree" you agreed to give MS the right to determine the hardware changes make your old PC a new PC,and therefore to disable your system in in its entirety. And your new (or old) PC won't be "phoning home" everyday to report to MS what your software and hardware configuration was yesterday, is today, or what it is tomorrow. Go to your friendly local Barnes and Noble, or Borders bookstore and get a copy of one of the Linux mags, I would suggest "LinuxFormat" and get the multiple OS DVD with the mag and try whatever versions are on the DVD..or CD.... And while you're there, get a copy of "Knoppix Hacks" you get Knoppix5.1.1 with the book. Knioppix, never leave home without it...no kidding... Don't pay any attention to anyone telling you you need even more memory, a big video card or any such bull.....Unless you insist on getting a "MSVista" PC, in which case you need a minimum of 2GB RAM, and a pretty good video card would help too....And don't fall for all ANY talk about buying "Vista Home Basic", if you want a "Vista" that actually works at a speed you can tolerate (with enough hardware resources) you gotta "upgrade" for a whole lot more $$$. And for a whole less than what a free Linux distro will get you, except for a whole lot more money? HAGD! Here is a link that might be useful: OS 's for a new PC

Thanks all, what I need is the ability to access my work computer from home. I have the same billing and scheduling software on both machines. Right now I use a flash drive to carry the data back and forth to keep both machines updated. If I don't go into work, it creates problems because nothing can be entered at work. I am the only person who handles the work. I'd like the ability to enter appointments and claims from home when I can't go in. I heard a commercial about "Go to My PC" and took a look at their website. It states that you can access your computer from any other computer. It says that it is secure and you don't need to be at the other computer. My guess is it acts like a Server, except it is on the Internet. I am not knowledgeable about such things, just thought it sounded like something which could be really helpful. Because no one has heard of it, I don't think I will take the chance. Thanks again, Jane