I am reading this thread which was sent to me by Bev, after I spotted two cats. in my parsley and did not recognize them. I have grown a butterfly garden for a few years, seen several monarch cats., one chrysallis (which was gone the day after I saw it), and although I have grown parsley for over 15 years I have never seen a BST cat., in fact the only time I saw a BST was several years ago in a lilac bush. Sadly, only one of my cats. remains. It is growing well and this morning I spotted it munching away. The parsley plants seem no worse for the moment, they seem to prefer the curly over the Italian. Still wondering if I want to grow them. Lots of interesting informtion here. I just wanted to know what the result would be. I also wonder what the major predators are. I will look it up. Thanks for all the info. Northerner.

I've been doing a LOT of research about this - I've been having some awful symptoms for the past 2 years (since turning 40) -- some of which are typical menopause related stuff and some are not, but I suspect all are related to hormonal decline. I've been getting bloodwork and basically, my estrogen and thyroid are both circling the drain --- my last bloodwork showed the estrogen level of a 60 year old (I'm 42! WTH!) I am pursuing bioidentical hormone replacement via cream. I don't have it all figured out yet (I get the feeling that there's a lot of experimenting on yourself til you find the right combo) but from the reading I did, I am pretty confident that this is what I need. Those of you saying you can't take HRT because of pre-existing tendency to blood clots or migraines or whatever might want to investigate the bioidentical stuff via transdermal cream. Blood clots are only an issue when estrogen is taken orally and passes through the liver -- if you are delivering it via skin or patch, there is no increased risk of blood clots (and in fact, your risk of other heart issues goes way down). Migraines are also one of the things that estrogen can help. And even the connection between estrogen and breast cancer is not as cut and dried as I thought -- I feel safe taking the bioidentical estrogen. I have read probably 20 books on the subject of menopause and HRT and the one I found most clear ad helpful is called Screaming to Be Heard by Elizabeth Vliet. I would recommend reading it - it pretty much debunks a lot of the things that I had heard about HRT including the results of that women's health study that caused everyone to abandon HRT -- did you know that whole study was done with synthetic hormones, not bioidentical? And that none of the horrible side effects found in that study have been found in studies that use bioidentical hormones? They are all related to the synthetic stuff like norethidrone and premarin. Because the pharmaceutical companies can't patent a naturally occuring substance and therefore can't make big bucks of bioidentical, there have been few efforts to educate doctors or do controlled studies on bioidentical hormones, but the studies that have been done show amazing benefits without the scary side effects. (Of course, the pharma companies don't want you to know that, because they want you to keep taking your premarin....)

LOL at the messiness showing comment krabby! Did you see my pictures above? My family room pretty much always looks like that, the messes in the kitchen are tame by comparison. My twins can really tear things up, and they are girls! OK, here's the plan I put together while I should have been sleeping (east coaster here, coming up on midnight, can we say obsessed??): peninsula: I think I love it... Deep drawer bases: 36", 30", 24", 18" 36x39 wall cab corner susan over fridge and over the counter micro cab 2 roll front wall cabs, 18" each and a 24" cab in the dead corner, facing the family room, for storage of seldom used things. I didnt want another corner cab so this was my answer... Thoughts? Concerns? Questions? Comments? Wanna come help me? This is a DIY remodel btw...

My DH and I were both raised in suburban homes. Neither of us ever lived where we could not walk right outdoors (except in college). After DH retired, we moved from one suburb to another twice as far from Chicago to escape increasing noise and pollution. That was 15 years ago, and at the time I hoped we could have at least 20 years in our new, one-floor home. Hmm...out in five? Eventually...and then what? We could stay in our home longer with taxi's to grocery, dentist, local hospital, and the RR station (four minutes). Our doctors are currently 20 minutes away. Our DS and family are 30 minutes away. We could move to assisted living in a townhome in this town -- or in an apartment closer to the city. We could become permanent passengers in a cabin on a cruise ship and keep circling the globe! LOL I think we will stay in our home and add help until we need assisted living -- or until the expenses of maintaining the home and yard outweigh our enjoyment of it. (Assisted living isn't *cheap* either!) One other thought: We've spoken of dangerous driving by impaired seniors. Yes, it is terrible news when one plows into something or someone, but I am more concerned about drivers of all ages who are overtired, distracted, or drug- or alcohol-impaired. News about these drivers infrequently makes it beyond the police blotter. My DH was broadsided by a 17-year-old girl who failed to yield to traffic coming over the RR tracks in the middle of our town. Didn't even make the blotter.