Thank you, Jim and Cottagegarden for reviving this thread. I really appreciate the company of kind, and positive visitors to this forum. Like Cottagegarden, I bought 2 soil-test kits from local stores: Lowe and HomeDepot. They are totally useless and gave false result. Then I paid $20 for EarthCo. (professional soil-testing company) and my soil test came back high pH at 7.7, and deficient in everything, plus barely adequate in calcium ... I was so sure that my soil has plenty of calcium !! I'm next to a limestone quarry. For years I disagree with my neighbor on calcium. He insisted that his tomato in pots are lacking in calcium (blossom end-rot) ... He's right, after seeing how mixing gypsum (calcium sulfate) into the soil made 1st-year band-size La Reine went beserk with buds: due to winter-kill, it's only 8 inch. tall, but with 10 buds !! But the plant is stunt & brown leaves, and the blooms are small. I forgot to give it sulfate of potash (it should be twice more potassium than calcium). Yes to mixing gypsum into planting hole, but no more than 10% (I spent hours researching on the right % to mix in). I broke that rule many times, and end up with stunt plants & leaves showing potassium deficiency. Too much calcium drives down potassium. If you have a large garden, soil can vary: some part can be alkaline if watered frequently with high pH tap water. Most tap water are alkaline, I already tested a few with fish-tank litmus paper, even mineral bottled water has pH over 8. Some part of a garden can be acidic (if get rain water only, pH at 5.6). My soil test recommend mixing sulfur into clay. BAD ADVICE !! That was expensive and killed tons of earthworms. I like gypsum better, less caustic & cheaper ($4 for 25 lb. at Menards). Gypsum is great in breaking up compacted clay, provides calcium, plus de-salt soil. I moved 4 roses this spring: The ones that didn't get gypsum in the planting hole were slower to recuperate. The one that got gypsum in the planting hole, was VERY FAST in pumping out buds. See Duchess de Rohan below, 2 weeks after moving, with lots of buds. I moved that one since it was in too much shade, zero blooms. After moving to more sun, it exploded in buds. A note on moving roses. Roses which are grafted on Dr. Huey is less forgiving in moving. Dr. Huey is a long stick, and it's easy to break the tiny roots at the end. I moved knock-outs grafted on Dr. Huey twice before. Both time they lost all their leaves, and took at least 3 months to get back to normal. With own-root, it's so much easier to move: The roots are cluster: wide & shallow, rather than a long & deep stick like Dr. Huey. I moved at least 10 own-roots for the past 4 years: They recuperate quickly, lose zero leaves, IF THE ORIGINAL SOIL IS LOOSE & FLUFFY, then moving is zero stress. If the original soil is compact, digging them up caused many roots to be broken.

I don't think it was the cutting in line that brought the cowboys down. It was that thing at Lucas films. The one brother was in his way, he couldn't step forward to get to the end. If it had been any other team, they would have probably shoved by the one brother. I also can't believe that the cowboys didn't catch on to the turning around to read the clue. After all, there were there for several minutes watchin gth eone brother whining about turning in circles... you think my cowboys would have figured that out earlier. Those women from California, I hope they watched the show and saw how really ugly they are. I wish my cowboys had won! Aren't they cute? lol

I re-post U. of Michigan link on how brewer's yeast help with diabetes: http://www.uofmhealth.org/health-library/hn-2816000 Also another link on how brewer's yeast work to lose weight for reference: http://www.naturecity.com/blog/weight-loss/brewers-yeast-extract-may-help-with-weight-loss/ "At the six week point, the researchers noted that the yeast hydrolysate group already had significant reductions in calorie intake. This reduction was maintained through the end of the study. At the conclusion of the study, the researchers noted an average 5.7 lbs reduction in body weight and a 17.3 cm2 reduction in abdominal circumference in the yeast group, compared to 1.8 lbs and 7 cm2 reductions in the control group. Researchers from Jeonju University in South Korea conducted the study. It was published in the January 2014 issue of Nutrition. Previous studies have found an association between yeast hydrolysates and increased energy, better immunity, and improved gastrointestinal health." **** From Straw: The biggest help with my sleep & losing weight is CUTTING OUT SOY MILK ... I was so sleep-deprived when I used soy milk. I didn't know that soy interferes with the absorption of magnesium (necessary for sleep & help with diabetes). I have 3 older sisters who are diabetic, and they consume soy-milk daily. I already informed them of the inflammatory carrageenan in soy products, plus depletion of magnesium. Carrageenan is in many products, including ice cream, milk-substitutes (almond & soy & coconut), coffee creamer, and cake-mixes. Here's a link of what contains carrageenan: http://www.cornucopia.org/shopping-guide-to-avoiding-organic-foods-with-carrageenan/ Here's a National Institute of Health abstract on the link between carrageenan and diabetes: "This is the first report of the impact of carrageenan on glucose tolerance and indicates that carrageenan impairs glucose tolerance, increases insulin resistance and inhibits insulin signalling in vivo in mouse liver and human HepG2 cells. These effects may result from carrageenan-induced inflammation. The results demonstrate extra-colonic manifestations of ingested carrageenan and suggest that carrageenan in the human diet may contribute to the development of diabetes." http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22011715/

Not surprised. I stopped watching BL after a few seasons because I thought they were doing a grave disservice to the overweight population. I've battled weight my whole life and I knew they were eating less than 1,000 calories. Plus, you can't take a 350-400 lb person and have them running on a treadmill for 45 minutes on the first day. You can't have people exercising 6-8 hours a day. Of course the lbs are going to come back when you return to your normal life because you cannot sustain such low calories and that much exercise if you have a job, kids, etc. I would get so angry when the contestants and especially the coaches, who know better, would get ticked off if the week's weight loss wasn't in the "double digits." So the home viewer also feels like a total failure if they only lose a few lbs. I've read other articles about horrible knee, ankle, foot and hip injuries because of all the exercise....too much too soon for mostly sedentary bodies. Of course a show where the people lose the recommended 1-2 lbs a week with a 30 min walk 3-4 times a week or a low impact water aerobics class is not going to be exciting to watch and won't grab ratings and that's the bottom line for television. I think the show should be taken off the air. Maybe when more about the show is exposed it will be.