Oh, clm, I'm not attacking you! I was making some fun, and I'm sorry you thought I was attacking you, not my intent! Yes, you would need to prune away any dead wood, that is always a good idea as it can be a source for insects and infection to gain entry. But it's not necessary to prune very young citrus if they're a bit uneven. And, as John has mentioned, the Improved Meyer lemon's natural growth habit is more bush-like, so I would allow it to do what it wants to do, naturally. Now, all that being said, you can prune for shape, and even what I would call "severe" shape with espaliering of citrus. Lemons and limes actually do well with this, and the Bearss lime has sort of a natural "espalier" type of lateral, 2-dimensional growth habit to start with. So, if you're so inclined, and would like to try your hand at espaliering a citrus tree, pick up a Bearss lime tree that hopefully is already displaying some of the 2-dimensional lateral branching, and prune to espalier. Beyond this type of "ultra-pruning", it really isn't necessary to prune young citrus. I let mine grow for a bit to see it they can recover their shape themselves, then, if they are really, really lopsided, I'll either pull a branch down mechanically, so that it runs parallel to the ground to stimulate new apical branching (think of a climbing rose - you want the canes to run horizontally, parallel to the ground, so that new nodes are stimualated to act as apical nodes, and sprout new growth and flowers), or resort to some minimal pruning. Almost all plants will respond in this manner, and you can force new apical node growth from the nodes along that branch, and voila! New growth. No need to nick or cut the tree (which damages the tree, and you always run the risk, then of a portal of entry for diseases and insects). Remember, citrus are tip producers, so if you prune too much, you're going to prune away your flowers and then your fruit. Okay, some before and after photos of a couple of poor citrus trees I had ordered, and could not pick up for a couple of weeks. Had someone holding them for me, who forgot to water them. They were in very bad shape when I finally got my hands on them. Yes, I did prune out dead wood, but that's all I did for these two trees, and they needed every leaf they had, even if they were leaves on their way out (dying). These two little trees needed as much ability to generate energy as possible, until they could recover and produce a new flush of leaves. They both were rather rare varieties, so I was determined to save them, as they were very hard to get. First series of photos is my Chironja orangelo, before and after: And after (about 2 years, now). There is enough canopy growth to now support some fruit (as you can see): And, my little Ortanique tangor, which has a more weeping structure, sort of like a Satsuma mandarin. It was in very sad shape as well, I thought I was going to lose this little tree. I think it had maybe 10 leaves on it, and was all bent over sideways. I just allowed that branch to stay horizontal, as I knew it would create those apical nodes to wake up, and send out new branches. It did in a huge way. It, too, now has fruit that I'm letting stay to maturity. This series of photos is from the start, 1 year later, then just today, almost 2 years, now: Patty S.

I know this is an older post but I just had to comment. I LOVE the elliptical trainer much more than any other cardio equipment. I have used two different machines, one made by PreCor and the other Pro form I believe. The PreCor is much smoother and has so many different levels of resistance and you can adjust the steepness, much like a treadmill. I have knee problems and ankle problems and the elliptical trainer is much easier on my joints. It is a great workout, seems almost effortless (trust me, it's not) and I find it less boring than a treadmill. It helped me lose 50 lbs!

Several thoughts about potty training - things I have learned from experience, reading and other mothers. I strongly suggest you get boys in the habit of peeing sitting down. Here is my rule- when you are at someone's house, you pee sitting down. This is because little boys miss (as do big boys) and who wants to clean up my kid's mess. At public places, I prefer he stands. At home, he can do either one. But mostly my little three year old sits. He doesn't really have the coordination for the standing part yet. Although he does at times drag his stool over and try to do it standing. At some point kids don't want to be compared to babies and don't want diapers. We really have not pushed the toilet training. The only thing we would do is talk about how diapers are yucky and poopy and baby (she's just a year now) wears a diaper. If we caught him pooping in his diaper, we'd stop him and put him on the toilet. This was just to get him to know the feeling of when he had to go. Pretty soon, he'd start telling us he had to go. At that point we let him pick out a package of underwear and that is what he wore except for naps and night time. One mother in our playgroup tried just setting a timer and every hour setting her son on the toilet. That seemed to work great. Another mother I know tried the Potty Training in a Day system. It's more than a day. Recently I read that the average time to potty train a child is about 8-9 months. I'd skip the pull ups. Everyone I know who has used them has had problems with the kids thinking they are diapers. It is more confusing to the kids I think. The day care workers I know say the same thing.

I am at a loss here to understand some folks attitude. It is not illegal/immoral/unneighborly to walk one's dog at 0530. It IS at least unneighborly, if not against local noise laws, to allow ones dogs to bark incessantly at 0530---regardless of reason. Again, when a person decides to have a pet, they need to assume certain responsibilities---one of which is to prevent the pet from creating a noise problem. I fail to see how this problem is in any way the fault of the 'Trainer from H%ll---other than the person is making good use of a training opportunity. However, if she has done this 'training' for more than a couple of weeks and still needs to do it---the dog she is training is not getting it, or she is a terrible trainer.