Yes, Permanent Wave is indeed unique in its leaf display, and bloom. It becomes quite showy and large with age. It was a seedling that Mom gave away to a close friend, Jim Langhammer of Royal Oak (thanks Jim for all the garden memories!) who several years later brought it back to her and said it was worthy of registration and a neat name, even though it was all green. She was not a fan of all green hosta unless they had uniqueness. After receiving the plant back into her garden, she wracked her brain (and mine!)for a suitable name. Mom was getting her Saturday hair fixed and as she sat under the hair dryer at the hair salon, her eyes fell on a poster for selling some "Permanent Wave", and thus the name was found. John Kulpa of course is a fantastic hosta hybridizer in his own right - but Whirlwind was a chance find in the trade. There has been a writeup on it and its progeny recently in the AHS Hosta Journal. Thanks, John for the great plants! Bruce

Tonight, while getting Mom ready for bed, we were in the bathroom and I put out her meds she takes before sleep, she looks at them and says "what's this? are you trying to poison me?" Honestly, I couldn't tell if she was serious or kidding with me, so I decided to laugh it off and she just took them...maybe there's a full moon? Tuesday, it was 84 degrees...really a beautiful day in Chicago and I come home from work and my house is completely closed up, no windows open, no A/C on....I ask mom's caretaker what's going on and she says "your mom is cold"...now...I am going through menopause and I am HOT, so I say to mom "I really need to open one window, right behind me on the couch" she says "no, don't, I can feel the draft" I say "but I am really HOT" and she says "you'll get use to it"....believe me, it wasn't funny, but now looking back I can chuckle about it. So I decide to get smart and the next day I had her wear a warm jogging suit. It was in the 70's and I was able to open some windows!!! Today, it was in the 40's (yes 40's) and tonite she tells me she doesn't want to wear that outfit again because it's too warm...GO FIGURE!!! Just when I thought I had her figured out. I just had to put my two cents in here ladies...we really really need to have a sense of humor or we will all go nuts....and thank heaven for all of you...Mimi

Luckygal, where in the world are you? Somewhere near a beach obviously--but which one. Sorry no good luck on the TS shopping, do keep trying! Jeanne, I have two baker's racks outside, one is a corner unit--but neither look nearly as cute as yours with your collections and vignettes. I need to work on mine I think. That is so neat that you do the Farmer's market too. Candy, I'm another one who does tablescapes for my "imaginary" friends. DH will only eat at the table when we have company--rest of the time he prefers to eat in front of the tv. Karen, I didn't do a table, but I did glue a little cheese tray and glass dome on a pedestal and decorate it--can I get any points for that? ;o) Kathleen, the rooster napkins like in your photo that you shared with me are some of my favs. We don't do sit down breakfast often, but I like to just sit the table and display them on the plates because they look so cute.

Sunny, One of the things that my husband agreed to early on in our marriage, is that if one of our kids wants/needs the step parent to do things for them (because the parent can't), then the child has to ask the step parent, not the parent. When my son wanted a co-signer on a car, I couldn't help him because I had just started my own business. I talked to my husband and he agreed to help but I felt that my son should ask him, not me. My son did ask him and got the car with my husband's help. My husband does the same with his daughter. If she wants something from me, she has to ask me. She still asks him all the time and he tells her, 'you have to ask SM'. My sons got angry a while back because they don't like when my husband has an opinion about anything. They think he should stay out of 'our life' but then I remind him that he's my husband and he is a part of 'our life' and I remind him of the things my husband contributes and that they don't mind when he does something where they benefit. They don't like it but they know it's true. What your husband should have told his daughter is that she would need to ask you to cook the food because he doesn't know how or can't do it all by himself. It really is up to the parent to expect their children (even adult ones) to respect their spouse enough to ask for themselves instead of going through the parent. It's much easier for kids to let themselves believe that their parent is doing everything for them and they don't need the step parent if all they have to do is ask the parent who then asks the step parent. Then they don't really appreciate the step parent because they can tell themself that their parent is the one doing everything for them. It's funny that my son will ask me for something and when I say, you need to ask stepdad yourself... he'll decide 'I don't really need it.' He has been giving my husband a hard time and would rather go without than ask my husband, well, that's HIS problem, not mine.