Nifty, Josh! I like it! You really must get great light to grow and bloom such nice plants! The light here is much weaker during certain times throughout the year, and it shows in my growing. I have definitely found that the medium I use allows for much more evenly spread root growth down inside the containers. Except for that one orchid, the roots don't come toward the surface or circle the walls, anymore. It's really a neat concept! I may have seen the same three legged planter at a garage sale or two over the years, but they weren't in such great condition. Yours appears to be very nice, Laura... mine has a wobbly leg or two from age, I think. It just made me smile to see another one! Yes, lovely Jades, everyone! I do believe I killed my last one with kindness.

It's late so I'm just going to respond train-of-thought to your questions..... RE your exercises -- that's a lot of the stuff my last PT had me doing -- I think it's general leg strengthening stuff and probably all very good stuff to do, but the exercises the new PT gave me really get the butt and outside of the hips, which is what I need, apparently, to cure the IT band stuff. And it takes so much less time -- if I hustle, I can do everything in 10 minutes. re: pilates being too boring and slow-paced -- the more advanced winsor workouts are much faster-paced with less explaining. See if you can get a hold of the Maximum Burn series - she goes very fast in that one. There's a 20 minute one and a 45 mninute one. I think they're both out of print, but there are usually plenty of used copies on amazon (cheap!) re: your arches -- I think high arches are big contributors to knee pain. I'm sure you already did this, but make sure you have the right shoes -- high arched feet need neutral/cushioned shoes -- any sort of stability or motion control shoe will just screw you up further. I have Nike Zoom Vomero 4's -- they are the cushiest shoes ever but they don't last long -- my last pair needed replacing after less than 200 miles. You may want to see a different podiatrist for a second opinion on your orthotics -- I've seen a few and each one has a different opinion on what kind orthotics to make me. I have a set of old orthotics from my 20s and sometimes I wear them to run, sometimes I don't. I don't think they make much difference actually. (Part of me thinks podiatry is a hocus-pocus kind of field!.) A good book to read is "Running Injury Free" by Joe Ellis. He is a podiatrist but very knowledgable and I found it fascinating how he took people's weird pains and traced them down to all kinds of crazy causes (one woman had hip pain that he traced to a tiny nail that had penetrated the sole of her running shoe and was very mildly poking her as she ran -- she didn't even realize it was there, but it was throwing off her stride to such an extent that it screwed up her ankle, knee and hip. But anyway, he spends a lot of time talking about how people's arches and foot structure can really cause issues all the way up the leg - it's interesting to read. re: how long I foam roll - I usually foam roll for a few minutes. You are supposed to stay on each painful spot for as long as you can and at least 20-30 seconds. I will roll til I hit all my painful spots (some twice) or until my arms get tired from holding me up (I find that you have to be pretty acrobatic to get yourself in some of these positions, LOL!) If you have painful spots, you need to roll. The first time I did it, my right IT band didn't hurt at all -- not one bit -- when I foam rolled it (and of course, my right knee didn't hurt). My left IT band, on the other hand, was excruciatingly painful the whole way up and down my leg. I rolled for maybe 3-4 minutes total (it hurt so bad I had to stop) and the next morning, I felt so much better. When I rolled again (I was doing it twice a day at first, now just once a day), there were far fewer painful spots, and now I find that if I keep up the rolling regularly, I can roll and not find any painful spots at all (and then I'm done in like 20 seconds!). Basically, if you feel any pain when you roll your IT band, you've found a problem and you just need to park there on the roller and let the roller work the knot out. Seriously -- in just days, with proper rolling, you should be feeling far less pain during the rolling itself and of course, less knee pain during all your activities. re: the fluid in your knee -- the fluid in your knee might never go away but it is probably not causing your pain. I have tons of fluid in both knees (docs think it is from the trauma of the accident) but other than making really loud crackling popping noises all the time (seriously, in my first set of PT, people could hear my knees popping from across the room when I was doing those step-ups and stuff - it was gross!), it never hurt. The pain is caused by the muscles around your knee pulling your kneecap all out of whack. Once you release the tension in your IT band and strengthen the other muscles around the knee to hold your kneecap in place, it won't be getting yanked all over the place and your pain should go away or at least become a lot more managable. Good luck!

"Posted by foodonastump ------ Yeah but we know you pee standing up." "Posted by shaun ---- I can pee standing up too." When we come to this world we all pee horizontally in diapers, and when we go, the same way. "Posted by jojoco --- Of course this comes to mind: Here is a link that might be useful: Pat from SNL" He/she/it was my favorite personality. :-) "Posted by lindac ----- For someone who says they are shy, there are lots of videos of you on you-tube." "Posted by ann_t ------Dcarch, you can't be too shy. When I went looking for advice on growing tomatoes I found a couple of your YouTube vidoes. It has been so cold here this summer that I told Moe I want him to build me a hot house like yours. Ann" Now you know I am even "creepier" than you think. Not only that I play with food, I play with many other things. :-) Ann, that's a removable/reusable insulated greenhouse that you can erect and demount in 15 minutes. It will give you about two more months growing time. It goes with an invisible 10' tall support system for tomatoes that has no-stakes and no cages. dcarch

I'm horrible at articulating what I want to say, but what do we do when our own happiness depends on a loved one's happiness? A while back I mentioned how DH became very moody and short tempered after he got sick (heart failure) and can change on a dime, even though he seems to be physically okay at the moment, but still sick. And 3 years ago when my son divorced his wife less than a year after they moved into the big beautiful house they built next door to us!!,,,,it killed me. Both DH and myself became deeply depressed and that's an understatement, and then DH got sick. My life was pretty damn near perfect. The only thing I can do to keep my thoughts from racing (I'm also ADHD) is to play games on my iPad and read. The games takes my mind off everything. I too suffer from PTS due to when DS2 developed bipolar disorder and we thought it was all drugs causing that behavior. It wasn't, it was both. He'd be home from college for a few days (he developed the disorder right before his senior year) and I knew without a doubt he was drug free, then BOOM!, a door would slam, the dogs running to me out of fear. When his first symptoms appeared and I didn't know it, I emailed both sons telling them their dad would be out of town for a couple of days and not to call me at night. That afternoon I got hang up calls 20 times in a row with caller i.d. showing "Private." I figured out it was DS2 and he stopped. Thank God that behavior stopped, but now I jump when the phone rings, if you look at me cross eye'd I want to cry but I can't cry because of the antidepressants, lol, and all I can do is go play my game or read. I have xanax but I rarely take it. The family peace keeper is what I am which I learned from a book about adult chldren of alcoholics. My dad was a functioning alcoholic and I cringe when I see someone in my family drink. So if DH gets in a mood my PTS kicks in. If my bipolar son gets into a mild manic mood, it kicks in. If someone walks up behind me, it kicks in and I jump. Sorry to ramble but it felt good! But you know what? It's nice to know I'm not the only one quietly suffering, that I'm in good company, even though I hate that you all are suffering too.