Hi Beth, I'm up the coast by LAX. My biggest problem year-round is mildew and I've been culling, er, 'losing through attrition' the ones that are the worst. Rust is annoying because it defoliates, but mildew, in my experience anyway, eventually kills roses. I fear many of yours will have a problem with it so I'd start thinking what to do about it now. Speaking for myself, side from the environmental concerns I have finally admitted that I am not disciplined enough to spray. Now I've gotten into OGRs, fwiw. Of the ones you have... Disneyland - bullet proof, great little rose Gemini - pretty blooms which make me keep it (for now) but really struggles with mildew Olympiad - very disease resistant in the ground, HOWEVER, others didn't like being in a pot where they struggled and died from mildew. Love - had it a long time ago, may mildew Voodoo - loved it a lot, twice. If you're jonesing for orange, you might try Perfect Moment, mildews a bit but doesn't mind too much. Marmalade Skies is not as dark as Voodoo and a flori, but 'bout bullet proof. I think there are some other new oranges. I'd sure ask here so you won't be disappointed if you want orange or lavender colors. Henry Fonda - not on your list, but the most glorious *non-fading* bright yellow with frilly petals, the DH's favorite. Traviata - mine is the little engine that can. Some folks don't care for it because it doesn't smell, but I like the blooms and admire greatly it's complete resistance to mildew & rust. It did get defoliated by anthracnose a couple of months ago but you wouldn't know it today. Very upright. Lastly, you need to look up Grandmother's Hat (hybrid perpetual, Jeri's favorite, divine smell) and Golden Celebration (yellow Austin, also great smell) using the search engine here and on the Antique forum. You absolutely can't do wrong with either, I think you'll love the pics but will swoon over the fragrances.

As I grow older (I'm 46.75) I'm trying to train my taste buds to like healthy foods. So far red wine and salmon are winning. I'm also still trying to eliminate the taste for salt and sweets and am doing pretty good. I went out to lunch today and had some very salty (to me) turnip greens that were delicious but I won't make something that salty at home. My love for sweets has become concentrated: no carbs but pure sugar. A couple toffees after a meals is satisfying and I don't care for pastries or cake anymore. I mean, I still love them but they don't fulfill the need for a great sweet too often. Not that I don't find bread pudding tasty it's just that a piece of dark chocolate or caramel is equally satisfying- maybe more-as it's more intense. Often, I find a cup of tea with plenty of splenda equally satisfying to my sweet tooth. 7 year rule? Maybe 7 weeks. The great love I had for smoked oysters over Christmas is greatly diminished now and I'm not really sure why. Maybe the slug connotation. 25 years ago I adored pure fat: double cheeseburgers for example. Now, after years of trying to like healthy eating, I want great taste. Cheeseburgers don't do it for me anymore and the "fat" has to be highly flavorful to be enjoyed (but not necessarily in great quantity).

I should have posted my specs. This was done by an independent lab, before I decided to install a softener. The test performed by the Kinetico guy (using the colored water in a little bottle scale) was actually very close to the lab results. I was impressed. Hardness - 136 mg/L or around 8 gpg - I know that isn't that high, but white scale was killing me. Gone now! Manganese - 0.05 mg/L Iron - 0.06 mg/L TDS - Lab didn't do this, but Kinetico came up with 150 ppm Chlorine - not tested, well water Copper - not tested Alkalinity - 94 mg/L PH - 6.99 @ 19 degrees C No other minerals or bacteria were tested for. I wasn't concerned with bacteria as I've lived here for 31 years (we built the house) Kinetico installed a .05 micron whole house type filter BEFORE the 2030s WS. I had a really lame screen type WH filter before that didn't catch much. Finally, I agree that a re-test of my softened water might be interesting to see. I would like to be sure my PH is still OK, anyway. I think I've read a WS can lower PH by maybe a point max, which would put me below the minimum this lab recommended (6-5 - 8.5). They say PH below 6.5 is acidic enough to consider treatment. Concerning TDS, I don't know what is was, but I had TONS of black sediment stuff in my toilet tank before I put the .05 micron filter on. I think that stopped most of it, because now the filter & cartridge is LOADED with it when I change it every 2 months. Thanks for your thoughtful questions, justalurker.

Lars, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean that at all! I wasn't addressing only the women or lumping the men in with the women. I only meant that the proportion of women plumping for the raw size of rare was unusual to me. The men's responses seemed to be a normal or unremarkable spread. In the linked discussion, I could have said "people", but I said women just because I know about women's cooking behavior, both now and from my grandmother's age, as well as what I've read in old diaries and cooking articles. I don't know enough about men to say, though I have heard lectures about the kinds of implements that women used in the past, while I can't recall anything on the subject about chuckwagon cookies or other male cooks. My only memories of a being in a kitchen with a man making a reduction are by an astronautical engineer who is more precision oriented. I wasn't excluding men, per se, just didn't have any relevant information on how they do things so didn't speak for them. If something should like that should happen again, please chime in! There are some posters whose genders/gender identities aren't known to me, but I promise you I don't mean to marginalize men, and I certainly didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable. This is not a women's group, nor do I regard it as one. I have belonged to a women's group whose mission was to give women roles and authority, as well as a feminine voice, in what was otherwise a very traditional, traditionally male field, but even then men were welcome to participate so long as they didn't try to take over. This is not such a group and the only one I can remember belonging to which was 100% women only was the girl scouts. Neither textiles nor cooking are womens' fields (nursing babies is, though there are some men with acquired (rather than experiential) knowledge on the subject), nor does gender of any kind have much to do with them. While there are some sociological and biological differences in tastes, they're not prominent. That is something that desired meat temperature speaks to, however, which is why I made the remarks at all--it was a beside the way difference that I found interesting and educational.