Susan, My nose told me the cedar was pollinating before I checked the news and saw the high pollen counts. I've been expecting it and just hope it ends sooner rather than later. I grow the German chamomile, although the truth is that it grows itself with no help from me. I sow it using a highly technical and complicated method. Well, no I don't. The seeds are very small, so mix them with a little sand if you have some around to make them spread out a bit so they don't all sprout in a clump. Toss handfuls of the sand/seed mixture into the air so it will drift down to the ground where you want it to grow. Mist lightly if you want, or just expect winter dew/frost/light rain will moisten it. Forget about it. Before you know it you'll have sprouts. To keep the chamomile going forever, look at it often while it is blooming and say to yourself, often and with great sincerity, "I need to deadhead that stuff before it goes to seed". Forget to deadhead it. It will self-sow all over creation every year to the point of being weedy. It sprouts in my beds, paths, gravel driveway and bermuda lawn. It sprouts in my compost pile. It sprouts in tiny cracks in concrete. When the tiny seedlings sprout, you can transplant them wherever you want. You'll get blooms longer if you deadhead on a regular basis in spring and early summer, but it will come back every year if you let at least some of the plants self-seed. I planted it 8 or 10 years ago and have had it ever since. You probably could wintersow it on the surface of soil in a container, but you also can direct sow it right now and it will sprout in no time at all. If you wanted to start it indoors, I'd surface sow it on the soil surface of the flat, not covering it up at all. I'd water with a mister so the seeds don't wash out before they sprout. Dawn

Been there, done that...lint is such a HUGE annoyance to my life. We're in a 2nd floor condo where the dryer vent ducting goes to the roof through the attic over 20 feet and several elbows. My husband bought the condo years before we met, and the ducting was clogged after several years. At the time, he decided to disconnect the vent from the duct. The resulting moisture did some damage to the cabinetry (swelling of the particle board, even under layers of oil-based paint). Soon after we married, he decided we needed to fix the problem correctly. He went up into the attic and disassembled the ducting, brought it outside, and blew it out with his air compressor. I pushed some cleaning tool through it as well. We can't be doing this regularly! I mean preferably, never again! So, I had him put a filter -- a gallon paint strainer -- over the dryer vent where it connects to the machine. This clogs every month or so, we pull the machine out, disconnect the vent, clean the strainer, and put it back. This is still an annoying chore, but not the nightmare of dealing with the whole duct run. My husband had a cool idea, that what we need to do is sew a new, longer strainer that tapers to a skinny point, so that even when it clogs at the point, there can still be air flowing past the clogged strainer, and we should be able to go longer between cleanings. We got a new dryer last summer, and pulled the ducting out of the attic to clean it -- but it was already clean as a whistle. So, our secondary filter system has kept the duct run clean for 9 years. I found you can buy secondary lint traps with a door that opens to clean them out, but we don't have room to install the box in our laundry room, and I don't think it would work any better or be easier to clean than our homemade filter. When I redo the floor, I plan to put magic slider thingies under the dryer feet to make it easier to move in and out, plus I won't want to gouge my new floor. I have researched other solutions. People claim that solid metal vent will maintain better airflow than pleated, but I think it will still clog because we need 2 90-degree elbows to get it connected to the duct in the wall. And if it clogs, how do we pull out the machine with a non-stretching vent? If we could move the duct in the wall to match the dryer vent outlet, that would eliminate 2 elbows and would probably help... I also found you can install a secondary fan in the ducting near the exit, increasing the airspeed in long ducts so the lint won't clog. They cost $150-200, but if I never had to clean out the duct run or pull out the dryer to clean my makeshift secondary lint trap ever again, it would be well worth it. I also think that our ducting is leaky somewhere, because rooms on the other side of the wall (our master bath) get crusted with lint all the time. Finding and sealing those leaks would probably improve airspeed some, plus save me tons of work cleaning the lint all the time. I think the additional fan is the way to go. In 2 other areas where we replaced an ineffective low-cfm cheap fan with a high-cfm good one, like the hood over our cooktop, it made an amazing difference, night and day. Here is a link that might be useful: example of dryer duct fan

Stacy, are you sure it's a cyst? When I had my hyst, many years ago, I had a blood vessel fill with blood and they thought they might have to go in again and tend to it. But, they also waited to see if it would dissipate on it's own and thankfully it did, but it took weeks. Your body absorbs the blood. I can't believe they would leave an ovary in you that had any indication of a cyst when they did your surgery. If they did, shame on them. And, about the Mammo. Please don't fear them. They may not be the most pleasant thing you've ever done, but on a scale of 1 to 10 on the medical type tests and procedures, it's no more than a 2 at best. I'm saying that and I have very sensitive breasts. I've been off of caffeine for over 25 years because mine were so sore, swollen and sensitive. So please believe me when I tell you not to fear a Mammo. It's a piece of cake and you'll be out of there in 5 minutes. No biggie. It's just the fear of the unknown that has got you upset. That's a natural emotion. But seriously, you will laugh at how fast and easy it is.

It was quiet here too. My DD and SIL had a big cookout for his family and of course invited us but we don't know his family well and thought it best to just hang out the two of us. It rained all day so our local fireworks were postponed. Instead of grilling we went to our favorite Chinese restaurant and then came home and watched DVD Nite at the Smithsonian. Absolutely hilarious. Looking forward to the second movie which isn't out on DVD yet. Then watched the PBS special from Washington and then later the Boston pops concert with Neil Diamond. Don't need anymore fireworks until the big display in Cincinnati on Labor day. Hope everyone's Fourth was special to each in their way. I too have so many thoughts of when my DD and DS were little and we had BBQs and hayrides etc for all our friends. We're all older and more settled but I love my memories.