Merci, Pug, Mike thanks so much. You all made me smile today. Merci, I've been doing quite a bit of praying lately, I'll add one more prayer and hopefully HE will hear. BTW, Belated Happy Birthday. When was the special day? It was very nice of your mom giving you such a beautiful plant. It's healthy, lush, and very green. Does your mom enjoy plants too? You mentioned a problem adding vinager? What happened? It's too bad you can't summer your new Gardenia outside. Those nasty mites are terrors. I thank God my plants have been bug free, well, all except one. A succulent called Tiger's Jaw. I spotted white gook a couple months back, cleaned w/rubbing alcohol, but those little sh*t's won..Mealy are the worse. Mersi, what have you used to rid mites? Do you use chemicals? My plants are showered, but never left in tub/sink filled with water for days..I do soak African Violets and a few other tropicals like Anthuriums, but after the top of soil is wet, plants are then air dried then placed in their spot. I've also learned, the hard way, soaking shouldn't be done at night, especially if chilly/cold. My new Gardenias, for the most part, died. I'm not saying I'm not to blame, (in part it's my fault) but when they arrived, after thorough inspection, leaves weren't in the best of health. Most had light brown, soft spots. Is anyone familiar with these spots? Could it be a fungus? If anyone here grows roses, and have dwelt with, think it's called brown or black spot, the gardenia leaves looked simiar to rose spots. Merci, I looked at the photo of your new gardenia, and she/he? looks very very healthy. You are so funny though..Don't fear your plant..I honestly think, like pets, plants sense our feelings. Did you ever hear stories about dogs who smell fear in someone, and even though the dog is gentle, will actually harass that person? This happened to my little sister at a picnic one time. Or ever see the Andy Griffith episode where Aunt Bea takes care of a baby. Everytime she lifts the child, the little girl screams. At the end, Opie fed the baby blueberry pie. Aunt Bea comes home and thinks the baby's face turned blue, isn't breathing. She swoops the child in her arms, calling for Andy to notify the town doctor. But this time, the baby doesn;t cry. The reason was because she sensed Aunt Bea was no longer afraid of her but for her. End of story. I'm sure everyone reading this is happy hearing about Aunt Bea. lol. But I really believe plants sense our moods. We show them who's boss, they'll respond with a 'beauty pageant.' Flowers and healthy leaves. As for sun, my tree gardenia lives out front facing mostly west, some south and north. It gets a lot of afternoon sun, 'when we have sun, surely not this year.' I set it out some time in April. Some nights were in the 30's, and a few 80F days. Thank the stars it's doing fine..no flowers, but I think the reason is, too much rain, no time to dry out, no fertilizer or Superthrive, but the foliage is find. It gave me a big scare when still inside. That's the reason it went outside. Anyway, HAPPY BIRTDAY.. Pug, I hope you're well too..and the pups. With spring, I bet your plants are beautiful. lots of flowers? How are your fruit trees doing? And Coffee tree. Citrus. etc, etc. Mike, it's always great hearing from you. How are your plants doing? Any new additions? If so, please post. And how are you coming along? I hope everyone is well, it's great talking to you guys again. I missed you all. But things happen, life isn't always a bowl of cherries, unfortunately. My husband had surgery last week, the same time I came down with stomach flu, not to mention my puter kicked the bucket. All in one week! Oh Butterfly, before I forget, how in the world did your plant fly out of a car window, on the highway????? That's so sad. And dangerous, too. Thankfully, no one was hurt, other than your plant..Wow! Take care everyone..hugs, luv ya all..Toni...Amen

I've done repair work for a retailer (now out of business), and have repaired a lot of Ashley furniture right out of the shipping box. Very low quality and lots of problems from furniture that should have never passed QA or was irreparably damaged in transit. They used to joke that it should be called "Trashley." From another retailer, I replaced a couple of mechanisms from reclining sofa last summer. The consumer had had it three years and this was the second set of replacement mechanisms that had been installed, covered under a protection plan.

Congratulations, Annie! ! ! And welcome to the world, Madison. Annie, the cake is great, And the cupcake roses are beautiful! You do a really good job on them! I want so bad to try them, But no one here cares much for icing, so it would all get scraped off into the trash. And I hate to waste good ingredients! Oh, and congratulations to the new Mommy & Daddy, too! Rusty

I just talked to Carri a few mins ago. She said she was just coming out of the bathroom and some guy came running by her and about 6 cops running right behind him...They yelled at her saying "get out of here" She ran into her officse and said to the other girls we need to get out of here and hide. She went to her bosses office (which was empty) shut the door and hid in there. She works right out in the open by the lobby behind glass. She said the guy that the cops were folling headed for the revolving door in the front. She thinks thats how they caught him because the door revolves real slow and there were cops outside too. Her husband was home with the kids but had taken Brad to his ball practice just a few blocks away. So that left Tay home alone for just a bit. She turned on the tv and saw the live news. She's 12 and old enough to realize that was where mom works. She freaked. She called her moms cell phone. So Carri called a friend who lived near by and ask her to go get Tay because she was so upset. Friend asked sure, why? Carri said because there is a man out there with a gun... Then scared friend. She said her phone has just been ringing off the hook now that she is home...I can imagine. Thanks for prayers..Who knows, that guy could have shot a lot more while he was at it. anxious to know why he did this.. patti