TM, you lost me at lipstick!! lol. Yes, they had a sextant, telescope, slide-rule, and star charts. They don't teach slide-rule anymore(thank you Jesus!!) so I considered it a technology whose time has passed by. Collins can see, though not well. They plot Menkent, and a star called Nunki - at least Collins is pretty sure it's Nunki - and Atria for good measure. But Collins has the last word: "God, I'll tell you, the visibility through that telescope is a big disappointment." Space travel is aided by powerful computers today, with laser guidance systems, with hardware and software no one even imagined in Armstrong's day. NASA would never dream of giving astronauts a second-rate optical instrument to find their way. But using paper maps of the stars and the moon, carrying slide rules to do calculations, Apollo-11 made it to the moon safely, 389,645 km from Earth, and back. When Apollo-11 reached the moon, the men had spent three days in a tiny cabin. It was dirty; urine leaked out of the disposal system and dried, leaving little brown particles in the landing module. Collins describes the spacecraft as "raunchy." For three days, Armstrong had been in charge of reaching the moon, a moving target. He and his crew hit their planned orbit within a fraction of a mile. But landing was hairy. The computer started issuing warnings on the descent (they turned out to be unimportant, but still scary), and the computer was directing the Eagle lander toward a crater with steep sides and big boulders. They flew back to orbit and Armstrong almost uttered another quote for the history books. As they left the moon's surface, Armstrong's voice is recorded as saying: "The Eagle is ..." But Aldrin interrupted: "Be advised of the pitchover." And it was back to the technical language of flying, though Armstrong did have time to wonder why he was sitting on three 3,500-pound rockets and couldn't hear them. So, there you go!! You do wonder what we will do, collectively, in the future with no slide-rules, no Morse Code, little in the way of basic math skills. Could we go to the Moon, the Stars, thus equipped?? But I digress. For stars: TM, Cynthia, Annette and Bobbie - everybody!! Thanks for playing. Till next week!! Nancy.

OK, I've been blaming it on my husband, but I'm just not a fan of the air bath experience. I'd prefer a soaker, but if I have to get something with action, I prefer targeted jets. I find the "whole body" massage of air baths kind of annoying. Its just not my thing . I do like to put my foot or shoulder directly against a water jet for a deep massage, then move out of the way... I like whirlpools with 6-8 jets that I can choose to use for a few minutes in a specific area, or not The Kohler Riverbaths look great, but the round ones are too big. We need to stay under 55" (round) I like the Sanijet 660, but my contractor is weary because of feedback he's had from another vendor. They say they installed one for a client, but when there were problems it was difficult to resolve because there wasn't a local contact to take responsibility, no local service people familiar with the product, etc. Currently looking at Duravit Blue Moon. Anyone with experience or other suggestions? Cost is high, but installation costs would be lower than other options because it comes with a deck and has te same footprint as our existing tub.

I have a string of bananas that is also similar. I propagate it the cuttings just like Rina said she does. A fun new trick I learned to keep the cuttings in place.... cut a paper clip in half and use the U shape hook to keep it in place without having to burry it too deep. :-) David - we have some similar plants - I find that my perle von Numberg requires soooo much light or it gets etoilated very quickly. I think your first pic is of Graptosedum , 'Ghosty' - that is what I think I have too - and that one I think likes lots of light too. Your 5th pic looks like my Echeveria runyonii 'Topsy Turvy' - which I just beheaded last night because it was quickly growing and dropping lower leaves. I'm not sure if that is normal or what - but I plan on repotting it soon. Right now I have it sitting on a little cup so its up right and the cut can callous before I repot.

Lovely, lovely hostas. You are fortunate to have so many great Valley's hostas. I finally got one, Lemon Squash this summer. Your collection is fantastic.