One thing about a generator, Jackie, is that if you have it, you need to maintain it. That means that, during the months and years when you're not using it, you need to "exercise" it periodically, and do regular mainenance on it. If you get one, it'd likely be smart to talk to the sales people about those issues. We have a generator -- in our motorhome. We do "exercise" it at regular intervals, so we know it will run well when it's needed. If we had any sort of disaster resulting in a long power-outage, we could use the generator to minimally run the refrigerator, and the freezer. It could also be used to power up rechargeable devices. Light inside at night is a different thing. We have several antique oil lamps, but nowadays, we don't have most of them filled. We would use, instead, several of those nifty battery-powered Coleman camping lamps. They're very safe, and very effective. IF the chimney were to remain sound, we could use that for heating. Fortunately for us, we are far enough away from the San Andreas that it shouldn't be really bad for us. That said, we have a couple of very local faultlines, which could possibly be affected by the San Andreas. Jeri

Orchid Corsage is a great bloomer here too! Ornamental Focus is a fav of mine!!Probably in the top 10. Oceans Eleven On To Something Open My Eyes!! This one is in the top 5 for me! Olin Criswell, just yellow, but blooms late OddBall

chandler315, if your are cutting back cold damage, you might be cutting off anything that might be getting ready to bloom. My NDM is not flowering or showing buds yet (just starting to show the start of new growth coming out), same with my PPK, but my Southern Blush is flowering now (Jan 02), my Coconut Creams and Lemon Zest have buds on them, my Mallika and Kent are about ready to flush (and I am expecting buds with it) soon. When I planted the Kent, it pretty much just sat there for about two years and hardly did anything, one small growth flush, no flowers. It seems to have finally started taking off this past summer. DM

Lol, I am really enjoying these responses! I get tired of hearing "we can make it our own" or "put our own stamp on it." That's what we call painting, furnishing and decorating, right? The first time sassy buyers (women, embarrassingly) who say coyly to their husbands, "uh un, mister, I am NOT gonna be cooking in a kitchen with Formica counters" or "how do you expect me to cook in THAT" (points to a stove that isn't stainless) make me cringe. The funny thing is that they obviously don't have those things in their current home or rental, either. And what about the strange couples who look like they'll use the basement to breed snakes, saying "Uh, this would be good for entertaining" when you know damn well they have never had anyone over except---MAYBE---for a meeting of the We Are Weird Club. i do like Flip or Flop though. Or I did, before someone told Christina she had to say I love,you to her daughter and take her shopping. I think HGTV wanted them to be more like that gushingly fake Texas couple, which is a shame. I kind of liked it when Tarek would whip out a listing and one of them would say "how soon can we drop [child] at the sitter and go?" That seemed so much more realistic to me.