hi, Pat, Thank you for the Independence Day wishes and I'm glad to hear you're doing better. I like what you said, Ingrid. I especially love that sentence in the Declaration of Independence: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. Because we are all created equal and in the image of our Creator, we have the responsibility to treat each other with respect, knowing that we are all entitled to pursue life, liberty and happiness. Our freedoms to worship God and to pursue our dreams are precious indeed.

Molanic, yes, I have grown many plants to attract the Painted Lady, but never had any eggs/caterpillars at all. Maybe they prefer prairie habitat? I am a city gal, but I still get lots of them and American Ladies, too. I have grown the following: Hollyhocks False Nettle (still have for Red Admirals and QMs) Sunflowers Malva (High Mallow) Wormwood/Artemisia ssp. Thistle (Carduus ssp.) Lambsquarters (Chenopodium) Plantain (both lance-leaved and Dooryard) Yarrow The Dallas County Lep Society lists the following larval host plants for them, by family, genus and species. You can see I grew/grow many of the plants mentioned: ASTERACEAE: Yarrow (Achillea millefolium), Pearly Everlasting (Anaphalis margaritacea), Western Sagewort (Artemisia campestris), Mexican Sagebrush (Artemisia ludoviciana), Musk-Thistle (Carduus nutans), Basket-Flower (Centaurea spp.), Tall Thistle (Cirsium altissimum), Texas Thistle (Cirsium texanum), Wavy-Leaf Thistle (Cirsium undulatum), Bull Thistle (Cirsium vulgare), Common Sunflower (Helianthus annuus), Milk-Thistle (Silybum marianum). BORAGINACEAE: Borage (Borago officinalis), Blueweed (Echium vulgare). CHENOPODIACEAE: Beet (Beta vulgaris), Lamb's Quarters (Chenopodium album). FABACEAE: Soy Bean (Glycine max). MALVACEAE: Hollyhock (Alcea rosea), Common Mallow (Malva neglecta), Little Mallow (Malva parviflora), Running Mallow (Malva rotundifolia), High Mallow (Malva sylvestris), Globe-Mallow (Sphaeralcea spp.). PLANTAGINACEAE: English Plantain (Plantago lanceolata), Dooryard Plantain (Plantago major). URTICACEAE: Nettle (Urtica spp.). I have found several other butterfly species on a few of these plants, like Red Admirals and QMs on False Nettle, Gorgone and Silvery Checkerspots on Sunflowers, Buckeyes on Plantain, and Sooty Duskywings on Lambsquarters. You would think that as common as the Painted Ladies are, and as larval plant generalists, we would have found them on something, huh? I would like to add Artemisia ludoviciana, Milk Thistle (Silybum), and Pearly Everlasting (I have tried this but not been successful at growing it yet). Maybe another thistle other than Silybum, altho it's potential invasiveness makes me a little nervous about growing it. Also, you'd think with the numbers of PLs I see in the garden, at least one might be a gravid female, right? But, no such luck so far....... Maybe we will get lucky this year. Susan

Wait a minute. A truck crashed into your house? Did I miss this story? My MIL once was having lunch in Georgetown and a car crashed through the window of the restaurant. The waiters had to get her to move to another table, I think she would have sat there eating her salad while the radiator of the car was releasing its steam. :) I also want to say thank you to everybody for all the help and hand holding you are providing me with lately. Wishing you Joy during this Holiday Season. Bee

Me: (early on in the initial conversation) "Where do you see yourself on this scale of cabinet customization possibilities and price?'' Client:"Oh, I'm middle of the road. I don't need anything special or custom and this house isn't worth putting in custom cabinets." Client (after viewing initial design): "Why doesn't the door to the pantry line up with the doors on the oven cabinet? I don't like how that looks! Why are there different sized cabinets on the focal wall? I want them to be all the same size." Me: "In a middle of the road line, I'm limited in how we can customize the options. I can give you all of those things, just not at this price point." Client: "Well, how much more are we talking? I want things to look right." Me: "We could probably do all of those things in the next line up for maybe 10K more for the whole kitchen." Client: "Oh, I tbought it would be a lot more than that! Let's do it!" Moral of the story: Even when you think you are communicating your expectations, communicate them again, and be specific. Her ''middle of the road'' and mine were two different streets entirely. That's one of the lessons that life gave me about being specific with numbers rather than general. I got a 40K sale out of that (she added the master bath) rather than a 20K sale. Nowadays, if I can't get a specific number from someone, I don't do any design work at all. We won't be on the same page without that number.