Basically, it's always been year 1 for me. Just a few adjustments over the past 5 years. This is year 6 for me. In my zone 5, where frosts can still kill of tender annuals until the end of May, snow flakes can fall in mid may during college graduations, we have been known to have a 2 foot snowstorm on May 9th and 10th, and the very last patch of snow, still sitting in the shade in the back yard will be gone during the first week in June.!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've learned these few things. Whether I sow perennials on the solstice, in January or up until mid February, they all still germinate within the same time frame of a week at the earliest, first to second week in April. Biennials can go out until mid to end of March and then the germination isn't quite as good as it would be. Annuals and tender annuals are safe to sow from second week in April on, but be sure to hold back some, just in case mother nature has some other ideas that year. Annual herbs and veggies go out then too. Morning gory seeds germinate far better for me if I soak them for 24 hours first and then sow them the 3rd or 4th week in April. A couple of times I've covered my well growing annual seedlings in May from the cold, and last year would have been a good idea too, but didn't and lost a few containers of zinnias, dahlias and cosmos, but I had plenty more to sow and just put them out. Beyond that, no fuss. I'm careful with the labels, sowing one kind of seed at a time and doing the tags for the containers at that time. My records are simple, really simple and kept in a cheapo spiral notebook. Date of sowing, then list of seeds and number of containers of each seed. mark whether trade, or commercial seed. If comm. seed, list the company. As containers germinate, I record the date of germination beside the seeds that are already listed in my notebook. It goes outside with me all the time and is handy to get. Somewhere along the line, before plant out time, I list the height of the plant as well Except for MG, sunflowers and cosmos, all of my plants can go in full or partial sun, so I never worry about that problem. My veggies all go in the back in full sun and the herbs get mostly sun Eventually the entire list is on the computer set up in word, no fancy record keeping there either. I guess I look at it like this. WS is supposed to be easy, fun, cheap and produce lots of seedlings that grow into plants. Don't like to complicate the process and that, to me, includes the record keeping too. Fran

Jeanne, your table is just lovely! The centerpiece is perfect, simple but so eye-catching. And you know that I love the addition of all the white bunnies (and tea pot). I am a firm believer that bunnies go with any and all holidays. LOL. Probably cause my house is overrun with the non-real kind. And none of those in the yard causing mischief, thanks to my life as a city dweller. Sorry I'm late to all the Memorial celebrations. And I never did get out my decor either. I'm going to give myself one more chance...4th of July...and if it stays packed again this year (be two in a row), then it will have to go. New rule I'm trying to enforce, stuff can NOT stay packed several years without seeing the light of day. I need to let someone else enjoy it if I can't. Anyway, I definitely enjoyed seeing your pretty things and am so glad you decorated for "us" here. ;o) hugs, Karen

Why don't you just create a new icon on the Desktop and see if it's what you are used to? Go to: Start / Programs / Internet Explorer; right click on the program, select Copy, and Paste it to the Desktop. When you paste it, it may give you the option of replacing the existing icon at the same time, which is fine. Otherwise, if you like the new one and the old one is still there, just delete it.

Wow Bigbird, I'm guessiing you're not in balmy Ontario! I'm in Kamloops BC and we've already had more cold days than last winter already - and double digit minus temps are forecast for the next few days yet.... Thanks for point out the thirty minute thing, which I was going to - I'm not doing it for comfort, we're not even using both vehicles every day, it's more for protection. My truck's cooland was replaced last may and was supposed to be good to -45C but when I tested it myself it read more like -15 C (I don't know if there's a trick to testing I don't know) - I want to replace a couple of hoses that leaked (ok after tightening clamps) when it first went cold and I'm not working right now, so can't afford to do anything right now, so am just trying to keep it safe for now. I've been running it on a timer, 15 mins on 45 off (I can select as many on/off events I want) just to keep it ticking over, I suppose if I was going out in the morning I could set it to come on continuous for a bit, but at the moment I'm leaving the heater on 100% for safety. Bigbird, I doubt your vehicle is affected by windchill, since that's related to evaporation and therefore more related to skin temp, however, -36 is close enough to the -45 I know most antifreeze is only good for, so I'd' say you're smart to play it safe. Can you plug in at work? My garage stays above freezing usually, thanks to the dryer vent duct running through there (free heat) plus leakage from the house, and residual heat from the car, unfortunately all our stuff from Australia arrived - well, it's unfortunate since all the boxes are filling up the garage and there's no room for the car - it was fabulous having a (relatively) warm car to get into in the morning, I'm sure my wife is missing that! We also probably get some heat from the bedroom above the garage, the floor in the bedroom has been feeling pretty cold. I'm wondering if the floor/ceiling's insulated or not - garage ceiling's clad in plywood which I doubt is wise (or legal) and I was going to put drywall over it, but I'm wondering if I should pull the ply off and check for insulation, or drill some holes in and place expanding foam, or just put battens over it and sheet foam insulation, then drywall. Only downside I can see is garage will lose some of its default heating, but floor in master b/r will feel a little nicer. Mark, have you considered putting a battery heater in your car? They're not too expensive, I've seen them in places like Canadian tire. Given the conditions you're experiencing, might be a good idea.