I decided to take out any "sea" plants and try for others without sea or ocean in the name, since we really aren't on the ocean. So my new updated list is: "Nautical mix" petunias "beach comber" mix petunias Coastal Mist bearded iris Toy Boat dwarf Iris Sandy Beach Iris Beach Dance iris Ship Shape Iris Ships Are Sailing Siberian Iris Dover Beach Iris Lake Effect day lily Aye Captian day lily Beach Music Day Lily Moonlight Sail Day Lily Celestial Shore Day Lily Sailing Along Day Lily Aye Captian day lily Queen O The Lakes rose Rosa rugosa/beach rose Cottage Rose Lake Ontario hosta Great Lakes Hosta Lakeside Beach Bum Hosta Lakeside Beach Captain Hosta Lakeside Breaking Waves hosta Great Lakes Gold Hosta Lakeside Pebbles Hosta Lakeside Shoremaster Hosta El Capitan Hosta Summer Breeze Hosta Great Lakes Gladiola Sea Shell Cosmos Yellow Sand Coreopsis Sand Love Grass Lake Currants Cottage pinks (Dianthus) Splish Splash Larkspur Lobelia Regatta "Marine Blue" Lobelia Regatta "Blue Splash" Perennial Gerenium "splish splash" Sunset Coneflower clustered bellflower "marine" beach pea beach bluebells I also spoke to my hubby and we might eb moving the theme garden since we split some of our existing hostas over the weekend and ended up with so many splits we started a new hosta garden! Now it needs a companion bed to "even out" that part of the yard (aw, darn-lol) so this might move to a spot that would offer a greater variety of conditions, from full sun transitioning to open shade. Meaning I can add more hostas and other shade lovers! I am on the hunt for the Lake Ontario Hosta now, since I just found it in the registry. The registrar is semi-local, so I tried emailing him (he was/is? on the board of the local Hosta society). This is going to be a bit of a challenge to fill an entire bed without costing myself a fortune, lol. Gotta love plant swaps (got a rosa rugosa-beach rose-at one yesterday, as well as a dover beach iris), hopefully I can get a lot from seed too.

Try Toby's in Osage Beach. also contact mlna.org folks for info.

Jessica, he really likes to cook, he cans his own salsa (but has decided that mine is better, smart man!) and actually enjoys Penzey's, Trader Joe's and that Mediterranean grocery. I tried to convince him to sign up but he says that the forum is "my own space" and he's not going to "intrude on it". I think he's just scared of you! Plus, I figure after he meets a few of you, he'll be here out of curiosity. Annie

Well, we had a good week. Let's see, what about the eating part . . . we had ginger-garlic stirfry chicken w/ candied walnuts, classic hot and sour soup, abondigas (Mexican meatball) soup, pesto both normal/basil and tomato/trapanese, seared salmon with sweet sauce that I'd call ''semi-sashimi'', broiled beef short ribs w/ hoisin/BBQ sauce, miso soup, slow-cooked beef brisket, tomatoes baked and broiled w/ cheese and mayo, some excellent couscous in a great chicken broth, lots of tangy salads, orange cake, peach cobbler, spicy marinated and grilled steaks which put me in a food coma, two chicken and chorizo paellas which worked out even though we used long-grain rice, and some other stuff that I forget. Poor dishwasher worked overtime. Even though we dined like, well, oinkers, the total food and wine bill for the whole week was probably the equivalent of a couple of group dinners out. Doing your own cooking just beats restaurants all day long. Took a five hour kayak trip, mis-timed the wind (lake wind advisories the last couple of days) and paddled our arms off to get home before the whitecaps and waves got too bad. Some mild sunburns. A cigar and scotch night, which basically means me and W_____ being banished to chairs way far downwind, out where the coyotes prowl. Lots of ''stitch and b*tch'' circles, there was quite an obsessive knitting group - which is why we resorted to the cigars in the first place. Fixed some plumbing leaks - it is a very old cabin, and something always has to be mended. Some serious napping. Got caught up on our friend's lives, mid-life menopauses, growing kids, and how everyone is coping w/ the current economy - lots of ''re-inventing oneself'', ''consulting'' and ''living more simply'' going on, but things are okay. The BP oil spill cleanup looks to be a surprise positive for one guy's research funding, glad someone I know is benefiting from that. 13 y/o R_____ has become quite the jazz pianist. 11 y/o C____ does a mean Michael Jackson dance routine. Found a quirkly old-time gun and blade store that had a particular discontinued Forschner Chinese vegetable cleaver that I've been looking for. Then a 12 hour drive back to Portland, kayaks on the roof killing the fuel economy, and back to work today. The best thing is that we are all getting together in a month to rebuild a rotten deck at another cabin. And there's an excellent little oyster farm just five miles down the road . . .