Hey Wanda. You mentioned on another thread that you have an unbelievable rollie pollie invasion this year. You do know that they are not insects but Isopods, a group of crustaceans. Aka: Lawn Shrimp. Perhaps you can boil em up with some spices? They have very few predators because they have a "distasteful secretion", lol. Anyway, if you're not gonna collect em and boil em, you need a bunch of these. Press on link. The "Sow Bug Killer Spider". Warning: Now I know the original bug link early in this thread had some "enthusiastic" bug People but this link has off-the-chart spider enthusiasts. (You've been warned.) P.S. Sorry in advance Wanda. I can't sleep tonight. I ran out of plants so I can't garden. My closets are clean. The only thing left to do is to "bug" you. ~di Here is a link that might be useful: Don't click this Marda,lol.

After looking up Alvin Ailey, I really appreciate your kind words, dcarch and everyone. Now, on to Daughter-san. Her year has been consumed with the college application process and with finishing high school. Getting into college is not what it was when I was a kid; it is much harder and more stressful today. Kids seem much better prepared, admissions are more competitive, and college costs are an order of magnitude higher. It is easy for kids and their parents to get sucked into the vortex of expectations, ambition and status. We got pulled partway into that mess, but thanks mostly to Daughter-san's level head, we got through it. She will be attending the Clark Honors College at the University of Oregon. It is a smallish liberal arts honors college of 700 students, with their own building, faculty, advisors, and dorm, in the midst of a 30,000 student university. I think she'll have the best of both worlds - a small school with personal attention, and a big school with a diverse student body and endless things to do. She'll be about two hours from home, which seems to me like a nice distance, and will allow her to come home when she wants to, to have her little brother visit, but keep mom and dad mostly out of her hair. The university has a biology program, which is her science interest, and also a full fine arts program (BFA, MFA, design, etc) which is her non-science interest. There is talk of a double major. Finally, Eugene is one of the most livable towns in Oregon, where a bicycle is accepted and adequate transportation. Naturally, I look forward to fitting out her bike for college duty; any excuse to wrench on bicycles is welcome. Because we'll pay in-state tuition, and she's getting some scholarships by reason of being a National Merit Scholar finalist, the cost is manageable and we'll be able to send her to study abroad as much as she'd like. I've suggested that she brush up on her French! Daughter-san had an interesting high school "career" which is how the kids refer to it. She started as a shy, introverted kid who was very much a study nerd. During high school she did a lot of drawing and photography, had a two-month solo exhibition, took most of her friends' senior portraits, and ended up being voted "best photographer" by her class. Her favorite model was her brother, who was even willing to dress in drag and bite .38SPL cartridges for her senior photography project, which was a photographic interpretation of Truman Capote's "Other Voices Other Rooms". (Unfortunately for him, that project is being kept by the photography teacher as an example for future classes.) She did some interesting things, like embroidering photographic prints. She also got involved in Speech & Debate, went to tournaments, became one of the team's officers and placed second in State in her event. In senior year she started doing theatre and made a whole new set of friends among the "drama kids". During the summers she worked as a cook and later assistant supervisor in the Berkeley camp in Yosemite, which involved responsibility, a lot of hard work - cooking 8 hours in a commercial kitchen during 100 degree heat waves - and, I'm told, some vigorous partying on days off. So Daughter-san is leaving high school as a much more outgoing, confident, social person than she entered. Her high school GPA is perhaps not, err, quite as good as it could have been had she remained less social, but it is pretty good, enough to get her into a good range of colleges. By the time she graduated from high school, she was Miss Popularity, with a whirlwind of parties and outings during the last month. She told me that, while fun, being so social was exhausting and she had started to turn down most invitations. Which was a relief to me, since I would like her to be a serious student in college in addition to having fun. She's back at camp cooking for half of this summer - a different Berkeley camp, after the Yosemite camp was burned to the ground last summer. She'll fly back to Oregon for college orientation in the middle of the summer, then will have the last month of summer free to relax and play with her brother before heading off to college. So there we are, all caught up. SWMBO and I are kid-free for a few weeks and even after DS gets back from his trip, life should be less hectic and I might even be able to do some cooking. Not that we've been starving, but the cooking here hasn't been interesting - just utility cooking. Hoping to change that this summer. Here is a link that might be useful: an online portfolio

I was really looking forward to this one, but have to say, have been majorly disappointed. Last night's show was a real waste of time--IMO. First a half hour review of what had already happened. Okay, maybe a few minutes for those who hadn't tuned in the previous weeks, but it was tooooooo much. The show just dragged. Basically it was a hour and 15 minutes of garbage (and commercials) for only about 15 minutes of actual dancing. It would have been much more effective if they'd cut it down to an hour show. If they're going to have to do that much filler each week, it's not going to be worth the time, I'm afraid. There's only one contestant that was chosen that I actually have a problem with. It has to be a challenge to choose participants who can: sing, dance AND work well in an ensemble situation. I do think they got one wrong--but then I didn't like the one who was sent home last week any better, so perhaps it came down to 'the best of the worst' in that case.

I was ready for Cloris to go weeks ago. And they know she can't do what's required of the participants...that showed last night during the group dance when she just stood back and jiggled a little bit. It's not fair that she's still there not having to do what everyone else does. It's time she goes. I didnt know that Julienne was having surgery. That should be interesting that Edyta is taking over, especially since Cody and Julienne have learned how to work together, bonded, etc. It's like he's starting over building chemistry with someone new midway through the show. I actually thought Brooke was still very good last night. I hope she takes it all the way. I'd like to see her win. Susan Lucci needs to be next to leave after Cloris. She could barely keep up during the group dance. She seems stiff and unsure. Warren...love him, he's funny!!