Thanks FOAS! I will go look around to see if I can find the right type of microplane. Just a question... how do you catch the dead skin without a catcher? guess I can't do that in my bed any more. I do wear socks and slippers around the house but my heels still crack from time to time. The only way to prevent cracking is to apply Vaseline at night and wear my socks to bed. If I get lazy and/or become forgetful they will crack and I hate it! Al

I don't know if you've made up your mind or not but I wanted to let you know that hardwood is GREAT! I have a son, currently 7 and 2 dogs. Yes, the hardwood shows some wear after 10 years but it's super easy to clean the floor up even after muddy paws and spills. Almost our entire downstairs is hardwood, my son rides his scooter around the house (has one strictly for indoor use), we play basketball and wall ball and the dogs run wild sometimes. Just wanted to put in my two cents!

I grew up in a good sized central Illinois town, and we lived on a block of big, old houses. An empty lot was next door to us, and the neighbor kids had worn away the grass at the home plate, pitcher's mound and 3 bases. There was usually something going on. In the summer we played kick the can and flashlight tag at night, telephone on our large porch, Mother May I on the sidewalk, and stickball or baseball or mumbly peg in the lot. We climbed trees, picked cherries and blackberries, and climbed the roof of the garages across the street and jumped from garage to garage. In the winter we played Duck, Duck, Goose; Fox and Hound; and made snow forts, snowmen and snowangels. I was a tomboy.

Hi Daisy! I am so glad to see one more motorcycle/scooter rider in the garden forum! :-) Three of us, we all have/had Honda bikes! You are the captain rider here for sure-started riding in 1967. :-) I started riding in 2008, purchased my first scooter-2009 Honda Ruckus(50cc), had so much fun, but couldn't keep up with Harley one day on my way to a friend's house, so moved up to a Honda Big Ruckus (250cc); then fell in love with a Piaggio Mp3; then one of my back street neighbors stopped by with his red Vespa 2 summers ago, he needed to sell it to buy a car.......it's like God dropped a Vespa right in front of me, I couldn't say no! :-) Not good at selling things, so I keep them all. Still ride Ruckus a lot within 3 miles range-gym, library and stores. Ride the bigger bikes for longer rides and busy roads. Can't wait for Spring, really miss riding, still have a lot of snow on the ground, and salt on the road. Do you wear riding gear when you ride? I only wear riding gears and fullface helmet for bigger bikes, may be I should use a gear for Ruckus too. You're in zone 10, so you can ride all year round! :-) Hope Ken can come back here with another Honda. :-)