Kathy I am so sorry your pictures are in limbo somewhere I do hope they show up. But I like the idea of dressing up again and have your picture taken. Our niece had a huge wedding fancy fancy the photographer she hired messed up all the pictures so she has no photos either. When my daughter got married the photographer was late, but I had bought those throw away cameras at each table with a note asking the guests to take pictures of their table and of bride and groom when they came to their table. The good news is that the photographer got there! Hurray and to make up for being late he stayed through the entire wedding so we have lots of memories. But let me tell you I was really stressed out!

I know that but it's no fun to see her drag her kids into it. I'd love to grab her, shake her or pound her head against a wall and yell "look what you are doing to your kids!!" " Don't you care????" and I know that I can't. Her relationship with her kids is her business but it doesn't make it any easier to watch. If she had called me, that's one thing. But, she involves SD by asking me through her daughter and she does that a lot. She's also got SD very excited about the wedding and SD brings it up frequently. I could be wrong, but I believe she has created a fantasy in SD's mind that everything will be wonderful when she marries BF... they'll be a family & she can go live there with them, etc. but that isn't going to happen. The craziest part of all, she HATES when SD and I get along. (more insecurity about that) but the more she ignores SD, as time goes on, SD turns to me more & more. I not only spend more time with SD, but I talk to her, I listen to her and even though she has an attitude with me, she knows she can count on me when she needs me. As she is realizing that, she has less attitude with me and we are actually becoming closer because of the way BM treats her. That only upsets BM even more, but instead of giving SD more attention, she has chosen to give less time & attention. It's really sad all the way around. I've also noticed other things she does to mimic our (DH & me) life. We ride ATV's, she went out & bought new ATV's for everyone last Christmas. We went to San Francisco for a weekend, she was going to do the same. We have an SUV, she went out and bought an SUV as soon as she moved there, even though her BF has a mini van that would accommodate all of them. She already had a new truck that her mom repossessed a few weeks ago. We've gone on a few cruises & now she's talked of wanting to take a family cruise. It's really humorous at times. She has no job, her BF's motorcycle & his kids dirt bikes were repossessed, her mom took back the truck she signed for because BM wasn't making the payments, they are about to be evicted & she can't or won't pay the $216 a month in support or any of the medical bills, but she is planning a grand wedding & all these trips. I think it's all in her head & she wants to create an illusion that she has a perfectly wonderful life. I'm not sure if she sees reality slapping her in the face... or if she just pretends it isn't happening. It will go away?

Plectrudis (viridiflora), I am surprised that you were told it wouldn't do well in the heat. Ralph who bred this rose lived about 45 miles south of me. While I am a tad bit hotter than he was in the summer, our temps are still like the surface of the sun on a summer day. That goes on for weeks on end and it may cool off at night to the 80's or so for about three seconds (give or take). Right now, mid February it is 80 degrees here! A bit unusual but seems to be the trend for the past couple of years. I had to wait about 6--9 months to get my rose on its own root from Burling. I then had it in a pot for over another year before I finally put it in the ground. It wasn't much more than three twigs at that point. I am glad that Burling told me it takes a very long time to develop on its own root. It has been in the ground for a year now. It is about a foot to a foot and a half tall. Slow is the operative word but I am still glad to be blessed with three of them. Here's hoping they will double in size this year. Third year, they should start to leap (keeping fingers crossed). Also, since the flowers last so long on the "bush", it is rarely without flowers even in our heat. Flowers in the heat last about a week and when it is cooler, about two weeks. A long time for a rose bush. I am glad to know there are others who want and like this unusual rose.

Arcy, it was not the 80s when the interest in antiques became huge - it was the 70s. In the early 70s there was a huge interest in Art Nouveau; in the 80s there was a renewed interest in Art Deco. At least that's what I noticed in San Francisco and northern California in those decades. In fashion, there was an interest in clothes from the 40s in the 1970s and in clothes from the 50s and early 60s in the 1980s. I noticed that antiques were much more popular in the 70s than in the 80s, but that varied geographically. Antiques have always been popular in places like New Orleans and Charleston but less so in places like Houston, where new and modern were more appreciated. In the early 1970s Houston received a lot of antiques from Europe because there was a lot of money in Houston at that time from the oil boom, and Europeans thought they could sell their antiques there, but there was little demand, and therefore you could get European antiques for very low prices. If you went to New Orleans at the same time, the prices for antiques were considerably higher because the demand was higher. One thing I especially liked about Houston was the way it embraced new and modern design and styles in art and architecture. Another of my favorite designers from the 80s was Nathalie du Pasquier.