I'm by no means an expert, so someone will probably be able to give you better advice. But here's what works for me. I also live in the Chicago area. I got a small (8" pot) gardenia from Home Depot three years ago. It's now three feet tall and three feet wide. (I'm looking for a new home for it, by the way.) I have it planted in one of those light weight pots. It spends summers outside in afternoon sun with me watering it every couple of days or so. There's a regular saucer under the pot. Winters, I bring it inside and keep it in the guestroom that has the brightest light -- faces west, but the plant doesn't get direct light. I mist it every day to combat the furnace and water it about every other. Once the danger of a hard frost is passed, I take it back outside. It stays evergreen and sets flower buds each spring without me doing anything with the lighting. Had one bout with scale, which I hand picked off of it. Two winters ago had a pretty bad aphid infestation. Used insecticidal soap, had some leaf drop, but the plant did beautifully. I feed her when I remember, certainly not on any regular schedule! A couple of days ago, my entire yard smelled like heaven. Seriously, she's getting too large for me and I'd like to see her go to a good home... Good luck!

A couple of light frost nips here in Novi (15 miles NW of Detroit) over the past couple of weeks. Nothing serious yet, though...pretty amazing for Nov 1...my cannas with their deep purple foliage and even a few blooms are still standing tall in addition to lots of annuals...some zinnias are hanging in there, impatiens are on their last gasp (still sporting a few blossoms), dusty miller (plant this next year for silvery color from spring, summer and right into early winter...it even overwinters for me here...and boy, does it look great with the green/purple kale plants I picked up this fall), alyssum, marigolds (also VERY cold tolerant) and more... But I don't mind all that much the plants that have given up for the winter and made their way into my compost bags...every square foot of bed I clear down to nice rich earth makes me think of spring and the things that will be bursting forth before we can even believe it... And plus there's always seed-starting to keep my thumb green over winter!

How you feel about winning a particular medal is a relative thing. Going in to a competition expecting to win nothing, you would probably be elated to win Bronze. Going into the same competition expecting to take Gold and ending up with Bronze, that's a completely different feeling. Not that I'm excusing anyone, just that I can completely understand. It's human to feel disappointed when losing a hard fought game. On the other hand, do ya just LOVE Apolo Ohno? He got disqualified in that final round in the 500 meter when he could have won silver. I'm CERTAIN he was disappointed, and he made some remarks regarding the fact that he disagreed with the judges' decision, but he still smiled and said how he had no regrets and felt that he'd had a successful and satisfying time. And speaking of speed skating controversial decisions, the judge who disqualified the Chinese team in the women's relay received threats on his LIFE! How's that for sportsmanship? Ah well, it's over. It was great fun to watch. Congratulations to ALL the winners. Looking forward to the summer games in London in 2012.

I can't say I've paid particular attention to most of the commercials during the Olympics. Except maybe the Visa ones, I love Morgan Freeman's voice! But I did notice off hand at least one commercial last night that I had seen (and disliked) during the Super Bowl. It was one of the ones which portrayed the theme, "you're not enough of a man so take solace in our product". It depicted a bunch of guys mentioning things they do which presumably they are forced to do in their relationship. The one quote that sticks in my mind is "I'll listen to your opinion about my friends, I'll even listen to your friends' opinion about my friends." After several of these type of statements, the gist of it is that the reason these guys put up with this is so they can drive some Dodge sporty-sports car. There were no less than three different commercials for three different products during the super bowl which had this same theme. Ugh. I only remember one of the other two, pushing a miniature TV which the guy should carry with him when the female S.O. forces him to go shopping with her. I'm guessing that they will be showing most of the SB commercials at some point during the Olympics in addition to the ones specifically made for the games. Like cyn427 I love the Olympics and am interested in all the different events. I wish they would show more variety on prime time and let go of some of the figure skating. I took my kids (then ages 6 and 9) to Atlanta in 1996 for the Summer games. It was extremely memorable. So memorable in fact that the 9 yo who is now 22 went to Vancouver this weekend. He saw Biathalon and Luge. Very cool.