Morning Traveling Daylilies! Well, I never made it back yesterday. Just too much to do. Jo is right, I need to slow down. : ) Unfortunately, it's only going to get worse. But I do have a bit of good news. We hired one of DH's employees to work for us in the evening. He will be doing lots of stuff that I would probably normally be doing. That will free up lots of time for me to work on moving plants. I'm on my way out again, but wanted to take a sec. to thank Carol again and show my goodies.... The "Carribbean Stud" is the large stuffed parrot. He is holding a playing card and wearing a dealer's hat. You may or may not know this, but DH is a professional internet poker player. It is his 2nd job, lol. That parrot is just perfect! I LOVE him. I also go a Beanie Baby Parrot that I am thrilled about. I already had him, but my Macaw got ahold of him and chewed off his eyes. : ( I am so happy to have a new one. Also got: *A sweet stuffed bunny wearing a rain coat holding a bag of gumball eggs *A beltclip radio w/headphones and compass. Carol also included batteries.....this will be perfect at the new place in case I get lost in the woods. : ) *A wonderful set of Aromatherapy candles. I am saving these to use at the new house. *Dahlia 'Hawaii'......a nice large clump! I haven't looked this one up yet, but i'll bet it's perty. *Peeps bunnies in blue....yum! *Two glass drink stirs..........with parrots on top!!! Carol, I love these and will cherish them. *The cutest, teeny-tiny glass ladybug. I almost didn't see it in the box. It's precious. *A set of vanilla-honey bath salts, gel, and scrub with wooden applicator. Can't wait to use these in my new tub. I don't have a nice tub here and will be putting one in the new house. *Magnetic note box with pad & pencil that says "Friends Forever" : ) I can never have enough note paper. *Seeds! Passiflora Caerulea & Cypress Vine 'Valentine Mix' *A cute pink bunny filled with easter candy corn... *A very pretty card *The cutest green bug whirli-gig that will be going over to the new place today. I am working on the holding bed for my Iris and Daylilies. I will put it in there to help scare off the critters. : ) *An easter bag filled, and I mean FILLED, with all kinds of candy. Oh Carol, what a selection! I never buy this stuff for myself so it's quite a treat. I'll be filling my pockets up. *A chocolate bunny missing the head....well, it still had it's head when it arrived, but DH got ahold of it. : ) *A F$*% potsitter.......I love him, but MamaG would not. I hope I didn't forget anything. This all came in a priority box decorated with flowers and ladybugs. Cute! Carol, you really made my day and I love everything. It is a wonderful way to kick off the trading season and made me feel like Spring is really here! *Thank you* HUGS, ~Dawn (mamabirrd)

Straw: I would rate the climate of Amman close to 9a or 8b of USDA standards with few big differences. It has cool and wet winters with lot of rains and some snow and warm (but not very hot) summers with no rains. I think this aspect also plays an important role in the size of roses here. The roses grow huge in the Northern Areas of Pakistan as well and it also has cool summers with almost no rains along with very cold and wet winters. Additionally, the ground bed naturally has little soil in Amman area as it is mostly composed of limestone rock. Most soil put in the gardens for growing roses / other plants is brought from other places and looks like a fertile well drained soil to me. best regards to

My grandmother's parents and siblings left Alsace in the 1890s, and my grandmother (the youngest) was born in 1901. Their family name is German, as was my great grandmother's maiden name. My grandmother had brown hair and hazel eyes, but her sister had red hair and blue eyes. I don't remember meeting other uncles or aunts - just cousins. I guess the database is really too small to be extremely accurate, but I do trust the Neanderthal component. It did make me think that Europeans moved around so much over the centuries that it really doesn't make much difference anyway. I know my Saxon ancestors lived in both Hildesheim and Görlitz, and so they may have moved around Germany quite a bit, but they owned a lot of land before they left. The documents I have from them discuss sales of land after they had already immigrated to Galveston. They left Germany on a ship from Hamburg. Some of my American ancestors I can trace back to Charleston, SC around 1700, but that's about it. I don't know how they got to Charleston or whether they immigrated directly to there from Europe (probably England). Europeans that I've met have told me that I look like I am mostly likely from northern Italy, whereas my brother looks Irish or possibly Scottish. There are a lot of redheads in my family, but I am not one of them. I've read that that is a Neanderthal trait. Maifleur, is your family also from Alsace?

This morning, I plugged in the new battery that was charging last night (it takes forever!) and it held the columns in place so I could use my portable tank to go to rehab. I use liquid oxygen at rehab, provided by them. Called Inogen when I got home - could not speak with helpful young man from Mon night. He called me back and we worked on the danged thing. What finally made it work was to hit it soundly with the heel of my shoe. That finally got it all the way locked into place. It's like the old thing where one tries all the high tech and then gives the machine a sound kick and it works! I told him that I had tried multiple times the night before and that the instructions kept warning me not to remove the columns or use them for "practice". He said that's because some idiots throw them on the sofa where they become coated in nacho chips and spilled soft drinks and then won't work. In other words, in their attempt to "idiot-proof" the instructions, then completely disregarded the needs of someone who knows better than to treat an expensive machine like that!!!! The "tail wags the dog" so often today. So, it's finally working and I won't have to deal with replacing columns for at least a year. As to the delivery - he said Amazon has "spoiled" us by telling us if we order by a particular time, we will receive it at a stated time. He claims they're the "only company" that can do this and that my standards are just too high - that they are "pretty good". I asked him if he'd seen the ATT&T wireless commercial on TV about the surgeon who is "just okay". I told him I felt the same way about Inogen's service - "pretty good" and "just okay" just don't cut it with me. For a $2700 piece of equipment, surely they can be better than "pretty good". Now I have to get my SIL to come over Sat AM and bring down my stationary concentrator. UPS is delivering me a new one between 2 -6PM and they remove the new one from the box, replace it with mine that is not working properly, and then print out and slap a label on it. I'll then have to try and get someone to haul it back upstairs for me - it's quite heavy and I can't do it anymore. Thank you so much, mama for your concern. It means a great deal to me. Here you are so very ill and you're thinking about someone else's woes. But that's YOU, mama and it's why we love you very much on GW. Sounds like you've got good oxygen coverage. It varies so much from one area to another. It really depends on whether ones area felt they could make enough profit under the new Medicare guidelines for oxygen. I don't begrudge them their profit - I'm a good capitalist girl - but it sure makes it hard when the demographic just don't allow much choice.