Sherry, I think that refers to rootstock suckers. If you cut them off it's like pruning the rootstock suckering growth, which is invigorated and grows back more enthusiastically than before. I'm glad you like the sound of R. gallica 'Splendens': it is a handsome creature. Mine has started suckering (top growth) in the last year or two, and perhaps I'll be able to get a bit of it and plant it somewhere a bit more accessible than its current position. I have a notion that some of these Asian jungle giants are just not adapted to our garden conditions. I've failed with R. laevigata, and 'Cooper's Burmese' is puny. Both of these could be just poor siting and site preparation, too. I mourn our lack of big trees able to support humongous climbers. Melissa

"at one point the sales manager put the phone down and said, "I'm giving an automotive lesson here on the phone! That irked me." Before you spend too much time thanking me for information, you need to understand that my perspective is identical to the sales manager's. I suspect you tried to back him into a corner and he felt he had to fight his way back out by teaching you more about the technical details of the repair than he was comfortable with, and that was really necessary. Now combine that from his perception of your initial conversation here, which started with distorted details. You probably don't want to, but you need to imagine how many times he has to deal with someone who got onto the the internet and was in fact not given accurate information who then feels they are informed enough to challenge the training and experience of the shop and it's technicians. I gave you as accurate of information as I could without seeing the car and diagnosing the issue myself. I'll bet he has to handle a dozen calls a week where the person only got the opinions from people who don't have first hand experience repairing a number of vehicles that have been presented with a similar issue. BTW, the seized screw thing in the distributor body is not uncommon at all for this vehicle, but having not seen one for a few years it isn't something that came to mind when I wrote my first response. In essence, imagine walking up to a complete stranger, slap him/her in the face and then try and ask them to help you. That's what those calls are like to us, so it only makes sense that they are not as helpful as you might want them to be. Now, don't get defensive, nor attempt to erode that picture. Unless you were on the other side of the counter day in and day out you won't understand what the cumulative value of all of those slaps does to the people who are there to make a vehicle problem go away for you. I have seen many people try and claim they know all of the secrets to auto repair, and there are things that they claim to know, and imply we won't tell you. They would not be able to sell their articles or books if they told you the truth and laid it all out there like I am doing here. "This morning when I called and spoke with the owner he had the same stand offish attitude." There are people who will never come back into my shop because of these kinds of exchanges, and that is by my choice not theirs. As a person, before I am a technician, certain types of stress cause lapses in my ability to perform to my own expectations. I have learned that its just not worth fighting to make everyone else happy, because that makes it impossible for me to be happy, and then I have trouble taking care of anyone. "He told me he had a reputation to uphold and that he could not warranty any of the work unless he did all the work and that no cheaper/reman parts were an option." He is 100% correct. "I don't need my mechanic to be a cheerleader, I need him to be honest with me and give me affordable options." Everybody is different, while this is what you say here that is all you need, I'll disagree with you to some extent. First you need accuracy in the shops ability to analyze the vehicle failure. They did that. They need to be profitable so that they are first of all there on the day you need them in the future, that should go without mentioning, but they also have to continually re-invest in their technicians training, and the tools and equipment to support many different cars and it is no small undertaking. This single expense category, tools and training, has increased some 500 times over what shops used to have to spend just a decade ago. The average person with an opinion about auto service that you will find on the net has no comprehension that this is taking place, nor how drastic of one it actually is. "This is a 16 year old car with 4 cyls. I don't think I need $10 plugs and certainly not $28 plugs." The price of the spark plugs reflect needed gross profit attributable to help cover the shops cost of doing business. "..I have been using Bosch Platinum for $2 each for the life of the car. I would not choose those for my customers, I get better longevity and quality repairs from other plugs. The quality of the repair ultimately affects the customers perception of my ability to service their car. If you ran a shop and used those, your customers eventually would not be happy with you. JMHO. "would have been happy with that but I guess we would have been out a warranty." Until the day came when one of them failed to live up to your expectations. Then would you blame the shop, or the spark plug? Repeat ""I don't need my mechanic to be a cheerleader, I need him to be honest with me and give me affordable options." There has been many things written about how "The customer is always right". Somewhere we lost the real picture that people at times stop being customers no matter how hard you try to make them happy. I said earlier some people will never be welcome back to my shop. Several have tried to come back when they found that they had specific vehicle issues that I was truly the only one in the area that was equipped, and trained to handle them. The high tech robotics in today's cars are on par with the most high tech inventions found in any field less than a decade ago. Yet we still have to deal with the perception that because some auto parts store will sell a cheap spark plug below their cost just to drag you in their front door that we are something less than honorable for not skimping on the quality that our trade demands.

As a buyer, and having had a 3rd offer on a 3rd home accepted, I can give you a bit of info from my perspective, may not mean much since I'm on the other side and I'm just giving you some info on my situation. The home we just put in an offer on last Friday (final acceptance yesterday) has been on the market for over 10 months, was listed mid January. I saw it around the end of March, beginning of April. I dismissed it due to a few reasons, one was the price, but also due to what needed to be updated in it, and another issue was my furniture that I wanted to keep, I didn't think it would place well/correctly in the master bedroom-few other reasons, but nothing major. Since that time, I put in and had contracts on 2 other homes, both of them failed inspection and I had to walk. Also, since seeing this home I even drove my Mom by the outside during the summer, just to point it out to her, her response was "Yuck, I don't like it at all!" After my last round of looking at homes and not finding anything, I suggested going back to this home. The realtor didn't want to take me back but reluctantly, we went. Nothing has been done in the house since I saw it, it's the same exact way, with maybe the exception of a framed piece of art being off the wall. From what I was told, there hasn't been a single offer on this home in the entire time it's been up for sale. The price has been lowered 4 times, and still nothing. The house is clean, but does need to be updated. What my Mother thought was "Yuck" about the house was the outside, the curb appeal - there is none. This house has ZERO charm, but as my Mom saw, it has a lot of potential. I was told the listing agent is the one who sold them the house originally. The location of the house is excellent as far as being easy to get to and near everything - not sure about the schools as it's not important to me, I'm beyond that time of my life. I think with a little landscaping, this house would have had more activity, but I think that alone may have been the point where someone didn't look any further at it. It's been painted, but other than that, I'm not sure what the sellers could have done to make it more presentable and not have to put in a bit of money. The kitchen needs updating, new flooring, but that's going to cost. Maybe in the long run, they should have spend some money doing it as it may have cost them at the end. It may not be anything the realtor is doing/not doing. It can easily be the economy. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink, as they say. But I can tell you, I've searched daily on the MLS listings to keep up with the latest new listings and the latest price changes. It's rare that I see a home newly listed sell quickly since there's so many homes on the market, but when I see a price drop, I'm seeing things move. Homes that were on the market for a long time are finally moving. Wish I could see your listing - would love to give you my 2 cents with me being on the other side. Why not post some of the pics from your listing, maybe you could get some feedback from doing that from those on this board. Below is the home that we are buying, as you can see, no curb appeal at all! It sorta looks like a trailer, though it's not. One thing, we were a cable show where they go in and spruce up homes that aren't selling - then they bring back buyers who previsouly saw the home before and just some minor and minimal costing updates made the world of difference for many. I was in awe of some of the things they did - makes me wish I had cable!!!!

sorry this is a long vent... Fingernails: aye, yes and it was difficult. his birthday so i agreed to go out one last time, i'm going away on business soon anyway so i felt like that would protect and reinforce that not seeing each other until that list is finished... i know it was screwed up to go out with him but somehow i really feel like everyone deserves a nice birthday... but then he wanted to "talk" about that list, started going over it, like "ok well, the thing about meeting with his teacher every week.... can you go with me? and, i don't know if every week is going to be possible, i mean, she might get really annoyed." I said "well, hello, i mean it just means contact once a week to get her observations on him... so after the first meeting or two in which you explain the situation you can just call her once a week." Reasonable, no? I mean, wouldn't any teacher have sympathy for a single father who appraoches her saying he's struggling and needs her feedback? But then he still wanted me to go with him... my heart was torn but I was like "no, listen, it doesn't sound like you really want to do this stuff on this list. if you don't agree with it, if you don't think you're at crisis point enough to tell the teacher, hey listen sorry Ms. Teacher to be bugging you, i'm only doing it because i'm at wit's end over my son" ... well if you don't think you're at crisis point yet that you're still worrying about what she'll be annoyed with and what she thinks about you... then you're just not ready. (And besides, I mean wouldn't it be strange for me as girlfriend to go along to such a meeting? it's not my kid! Plus not so much teacher's impression but my point that BF should be doing this stuff HIMSELF! though later i thought, maybe he's worried she'll think he's coming on to her and that's why he wants me along... and then i felt bad for refusing) Then he wanted to move on to the other stuff, and I sensed he was trying to turn it into some kind of bargaining session. He was like "hmmm maybe I can do 60% or 80% of this but not all..." Remember the list was: going to family therapy 8 sessions, hiring a baby-sitter every single time we go out, talking to boy's teacher once a week, reading 5 books on parenting, my ex getting a real bed for himself and sleeping in the second bedroom not in the living room.... I thought "what on earth?! an ultimatum is an ultimatum! this is not negotiable!" Like him saying "oh maybe it's going to be hard to get a baby-sitter, i mean if it were a regular job fine, but it would be hard to get someone say for the weekend if we go away, especially if it's only occasionally. (in the ultimatum it said, OR the child just comes along! simple no?) I blew my top then, not literally but just said "hey it doesn't really sound like you're ready to make real changes so whatever... it's your call..." which unfortunatley turned into this long coversation on whether he is truly ready, etc... at which point i said "listen there are some deep underlying issues here which i don't think it's good to hear about from someone like me, we're too close, but a therapist could help you figure it out reasonably quick if it's a good one." At which point he says "yeah well actually i'm thinking more about calling my cousin who's a pediatrician... " at which point i thought "great a pediatrician is really going to help you figure out your parenting... especially if it's your relative who needs to stay on good terms with you!" but i humored him adn said "that sounds like a great start, ask her opinion about the situatin, maybe ask her if she things family therapy would help" but then he continues "because you know she met my son a couple years ago, spent a day with us, and she told me she thought my son was going to have problems." INside i'm like "what the #$%$#!!! a professional told you that, two years ago, and you never followed up on that?! You never asked her why she thought that, and what you could do about it? I sure as heck would be concerned if a pediatrician told me that. I'd ask a thousand questions and call that person whenever problems did happen!" More and more I just can't believe this guy! we left with me saying "ok well call me way way down the road, and if and only if there have been radical changes." which he kind of took to mean never. so in that sense my ultimatum has failed, it seems by saying i wasn't going to budge on it and wasn't going to go with him to see teacher, like he gave up... I feel bad but I think I have to save my sanity no? Thanks all for just letting me vent. Sorry to have taken up so much of everyone's time!