I'm not a landscape designer, but I'm very familiar with Washington state. From your picture, your zone, and your statement that you live in central Washington, I gather you live somewhere at the base of the east Cascades in the area where the conifer forests of the mountains mingle with the sagebrush steppe of the Columbia Basin. The forests typical grow on well-drained gravelly soil, probably acidic, but not always (depending on underlying rock). The Basin has more alkaline soils, sometimes sandy, sometimes clayey. Before you start selecting plants, you need to determine the pH of your soil and whether it is sandy, gravelly, clayey or loamy. And, before you settle on a landscape plan, you need to think about that bugaboo of eastern Washington forests: fire. It looks like you live outside of town. If so, you need a fire break around your house. I think 30 feet minimum is a common recommendation, but you can probably find someone in you county for advice. No wood piles near the house. If you don't have a wood deck, don't build one. Etc. Keep the plants near the house green and watered. Back to plant selection. "Xeriscaping" in eastern Washington isn't quite the same as xeriscaping in, say, New Mexico. Eastern Washington, like western Washington, has a long wet season, from about late September to early July. July, August, and September have hardly any rain. The same is true in western Washington, but in eastern Washington, there's no humidity either. Both soil and air become very dry. It's this pattern, not the dryness per se, that your plants need to be able to tolerate. There are an awful lot of plants that thrive in a broad range of the eastern and central US that can't take the dry period or the long wet season of eastern Washington. The good news is that there are a few plants that those people with humid, hot summers lust in vain for that will thrive where you live. Don't be afraid to experiment with Rocky Mountain specialists (penstomons, etc.) I can't tell you specifically what to try. I live in Pullman with alkaline clay soil, which you likely don't have. If you really want to know what sort of ornamental trees and shrubs can take the climate, drive around and look at abandoned home sites to see what is still alive. Kelly Cassidy

I am not going back to that bag, at least not any time soon. The surgeon said it could take a year or more to get more normalized. I have had leaks with the ileostomy bag, plus skin yeast infections, rawness on the skin. I got to the point that I absolutely hated it, hated it. Having part of my body sticking out made me feel like a freak. But I know I needed to have that in order to heal. I have to give my body a chance to see if it can become better. When I have been having problems it's because I have eaten the stuff that upsets my intestines like raw onion, ice cream, milk, other veggies. And then the problems start within an hour or two and last until things settle down or the system is empty. Plus I am out of immodium which I will buy this morning. I think I might have screwed up - I was supposed to have a phone interview with this office furniture sales rep yesterday at 1pm. Well, I went with the kitchen cabinet refacing salesperson to one of her appointments to observe. (After all that driving and talking, she did not make the sale and so received NO money for her efforts, not even gas money.) We were there from 10am to almost 2pm so I missed the call, I called back two different times that afternoon and left a message saying I could not get to the phone since I was driving at the time. (I know, a lie.) But this place has taken months to get back to me, very slow. Plus this is a phone interview so I am sure there would have to be at least one interview in person. I am going to keep looking for other opportunities maybe something close to home or even work from home, although almost all of those are scams. Off to the hunt!!

Lets look at this from a bit cold blooded strategic planning perspective ... a business decision ... for indeed what you decide can either enable opportunity or destroy your life position and functionality and opportunities. Say he was a CAR ... and he had bad inherant design, multiple malfunctions that might temporarily go away with operation under specific conditions for a short unspecified period of time, but was it was obvious from the design that he would break down from time to time rather dramatically and expensively, and you have finally gotten up the courage to pay the cost to dump that lemmon of a car and either get a new car or a bicycle ... something that left you with better health and peace of mind and financial stability. Would you want the lemmon back? Why? It would be a completely irrational act. Ditto a human being who has inherant brain and behavior defects ... Answer ... absolutely NOT ... you take back such a person into your life you are a complete and utter fool. that clear enough?

Yet another P&P spin-off will be hitting UK TV screens this Autumn with a new series Lost in Austen. The story line appears to be . . . our modern day heroine is a big JA fan and finds herself able to go back into the world of P&P. But will her knowledge of the outcome of the story alter what takes place in the world she has entered? Also look out for yet another TV adaptation of Tess of the d'Urbervilles. Many of the outdoor rural scenes were shot in my area. They wanted a realistic 'backwards' landscape. :-) Pity I didn't know it was happening, maybe I could have got a part as an extra playing 'an aged crone' or 'third hag'. Another Dickens series is coming up, this time Little Dorrit. Last year Bleak House was beautifully produced. Some of you may have seen it.