Matthew - they want lousy soil. I'm in the same zone(s) as you are and my folks practiced organic gardening here for 40+ years. Everywhere I dig there are big, fat worms so I know the soil is healthy. My lupines do okay but the neighbor next door whose soil is nothing but sand and rocks has GORGEOUS lupines. The ones above are my own 'Chandelier' and they're growing about 60 ft. south of my neighbor's:

Now keep an eye out for more each time you water and be sure to check the area where you plants are because there can be egg cases on pots, shelves etc. New growth is where you will find the newly hatched mealies so watch for them while they are still small. As long as you keep spraying at the first sign of a problem they should not get out of hand. If you have any larger plants that you can't move to water, spray and inspect be extra vigilant about checking for mealies that may be hiding. Like Denise always recommends it is good to connect with your plants each time you water them, look them over for any problems and catch them early. Mike

Walls. Oh, dear deity, walls. I can remember buying my first home--as a single person, I was looking at condos. My guess is that 99.999% of condos just plunk the kitchen in a corner of the living room, adding a counter/eating bar to create "separation." My agent had a hard time understanding that I wanted a kitchen that was a separate room. Open concept may be great for entertaining or if you have kids. But I am home alone a lot more than I entertain and I don't have kids. What I want is walls to contain the noise of the dishwasher and doors to keep cooking odors contained. The idea of having the kitchen in the living room and the smells and grease getting into my nice furniture is not appealing. And there's the dirty dishes issues, as expressed by lavender lass. There are mornings I don't have time to wash my cereal bowl before dashing out to work. There are days when I eat dinner and just want to collapse. So while the dishes get done promptly most days, some days they don't. And I don't want to curl up in the living room to relax and have those dirty dishes staring at me from across the room, reminding me that I'm being lazy.

NYCBD and Christine- Thanks. They taste fine and we will enjoy them for awhile as it made lots of cookies. I put a lot in my freezer to keep while visiting DM. Christine - did you post the cute Santa cookies on CEFs post or was that someone else? NY - still enjoying your marvelous kitchen? I almost made it to NY for the marathon(as support and not running that far currently) OldBat - have fun shopping. I think the silicon rolling sheet will work fine once I have the dough at the right temperature. This replaced my old Tupperware model. Loved your picture of your family with the snow out your window at Christmas. I am hosting a 3 Kings Party brunch on Jan 4(in reality it should be Jan 6th) but we hold it on the closest Sunday - maybe I will try some other new recipes.