Thank you all for making me feel a little less neurotic. We went out of town for 3.5 days last week. I left watering instructions for the cat sitter, along with a detailed drawing of an Earthbox copied from the website so she couldn't possibly misunderstand. We really didn't even need the cat sitter for that short period. However, I worried about the tomatoes and seriously considered calling to have her come a second day to water them. Heck, I wanted her to come EVERY day! But everything turned out okay. The water hadn't all evaporated, and the plants were healthy and happy-looking. The sitter left this note: "Cats were glad to see me -- you have fine tomatoes." What a remarkably observant woman! Thank goodness we take our big vacation in the off-season. This is my first year growing tomatoes; all indications are that the neurosis is going to get worse with time. Christine

You absolutely won't provide them with too much light by leaving those on for 28 hours. Leave them on.

Here are 3 places for plant lovers in St. Pete area: Saturday Morning Market Where: Downtown on the waterfront Saturdays, 9am - 2pm Huge and varied. Includes great plant booths - organic, herbs, vines, unusual. Live music, great food. Free. Park for $5 nearby. Florida Botanical Gardens Where: Largo, near Indian Rocks Beach Free, year round. Except, tonight begins the: Holiday Lights in the Gardens November 23 thru December 30, 2018 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. Suggested donation $5 for ages 13 and over. I like to go in late afternoon to see the plants in daylight, then stay as the lights come on. They made $17,000 last year with this event and it seems well spent: many more lights, fresh blooming plantings, succulents area expanded, and expansion of boardwalk through a northern wetland. (I lucked into seeing the lights being tested a week ago... gardens looked the best I have seen them). Then I like to go to a reserved dinner spot outdoors at Guppy's in Indian Rocks! Candlelight Tour of Homes Where: Historic Old Northeast Neighborhood, just north of downtown St. Pete. When: December 9, Sunday 3pm to 8pm This sells out - get tickets online asap. Lushly landscaped historic neighborhood (houses are pretty close together).

I avoid American whenever possible - I've had extremely rude and insulting service from the flight attendants, but since I've been avoiding them for many years, perhaps they have improved. We did fly AA to Rio via Miami (instead of Panama City), and I won't do that again, mainly because immigration/customs in Miami is a nightmare. My favorite air lines include Air France, Alitalia, Lufthansa, and Swiss Air. We flew Premium Economy on Alitalia to Rome and back from LAX and had a lot more room for about 50% increase in price. It was also the only airline to offer non-stop between LAX and Rome, which was a huge plus, and saved us significant time. I don't want to change planes in Heathrow or Charles de Gaulle, but I'm fine with Frankfort. I also enjoyed Fiji Airways to Fiji, and of course that was non-stop from LAX. I believe they are partnered with Quantas, and so there were a lot of Australians on the plane with us. Decades ago, I loved Canadian Pacific (now defunct) when flying between San Francisco and Vancouver, but I also like Alaska Airlines, except for their interior decor, which was the worst I've ever seen. My outfit clashed horribly with their upholstery, and after flying with them once, I started calling the airlines to ask what color schemes were used in their interiors so that I would not have that experience again. Unfortunately, it was difficult to get that info from the airlines. Alaska Airlines has the ugliest planes, and so you should dress accordingly. If you already dress like a lumberjack, you will be fine. If you dress like Sophia Loren, you might feel out of place. She was one the plane with me on Air France from Mexico City. Canadian Pacific had some of the best food, but so did Air France and Swiss Air.