Wendy and KQ: Here comes the sun, and I say, it's all right. I have some seedlings that haven't budged from the Y stage too! We put in 4 store-bought'n tomatoes too. Two of them got put into those hanging upside down contraptions. We're experimenting with that to see if we can get heirloom tomatoes going that way in the future without V-wilt. We also tried the HOS technique tonight to see what will happen. SQUIRRELS! They keep digging up the cardboard boxes I am using to start gardens in weed patches. Did you know they can live to be 25 years old! The squirrels--not the boxes! The reason I am thinking of getting a small greenhouse--my plants are miniscule, and people are carting boxes full of blooming flowers home from the department stores. It isn't fair. I just have to get an earlier start--say maybe August!

Patti, I'm glad you like your VA hospital. Sorry to hear Harry is having to go back for more work. We see a lot of our patients over and over again, so much so that they become like family. I hope you got your phone call today and don't have to wait longer to hear from them. Lisa Fl, what kind of focus group did you do? Thanks, Lindie, my throat is feeling much better. Poor Lauren came home this afternoon sounding like a man. Her and Sola were in here watching one of the Narnia movies, and she sneezed a dozen times in a row. She thought the Zicam would be gross so she's suffering. Marilyn Sue, I love tomato soup, especially tomato bisque. If we're out eating and they have it on the menu, I will sometimes get it. I did last Friday when Alex and I went out. He wanted Seafood so we went to the Rigatta. Their tomato bisque was horrible, though...all I could taste was pepper. Nanny98, too cold for me. I'm glad we had a mild Winter. It's still been cold, just not as cold as usual and very little snow here in KY. I did not clean my house. I feel like a bum. All I did was laundry, dishes and sat on my butt at this computer all day playing Mahjong.

We had dinner with friends out of town. Joanie was going to throw away the turkey carcass and the dark meat, bones, etc. I begged her to please freeze it and remind me to take it home when we left yesterday. She did! I am making the stock right now and will de-fat it tomorrow and have turkey/vegetable soup and homemade bread tomorrow night. I just cannot imagine throwing out the turkey carcass. (But I love to cook.)

Sometimes I feel like my own family is a micro-experiment where I get to see first hand how much genetics vs environment might play into things. As an example, when each of my 4 children were born, once we came home from the hospital, I had a one month "quarantine" for lack of a better way to put it. The baby did not leave the house except for necessary doctors visits and we did not have visitors. This was intentionally done for two reasons. One was to protect my newborns extremely fragile immune system and the other was to allow ourselves as a family unit to adjust to this new reality. I've also never sent my kids to a daycare or nanny so they have all had basically the same (non)exposure to other children in their preschool years. My 1st and 3rd both have the same blood type, look remarkably similar in face shape as well as general body composition (between 5 and 8 percent on height/weight charts) and both have had to have tubes in their ears and generally get sick more frequently. My 2nd and 4th both have the same blood type, look remarkably similar in face shape as well as general body composition (between 50 and 75 percent on height/weight charts) and both get sick less often and when they do get sick, they bounce back faster than the other two. All 4 have been raised in the same environment, had the same limited exposure to others as a young child, been taught the importance of hand washing and general hygiene AND gone to the same pediatrician so they have had the same medical care. When my 2nd was 2 years old, she was severely burned. The burn doctors suggested, as part of her treatment, that she begin taking a daily multi vitamin. She and DD1 both began getting a multivitamin every night for a year. I saw no difference in getting sick before or after we were taking multivitamins daily. In my personal opinion, genetics definitely play a role, and a far greater one than taking or not taking a vitamin might have. The rest comes down to proper hand washing.