G.M., I always share recipes. It's not like it's going to hurt me if someone else makes the same thing. It is a recipe I found on the internet, but then I had to change it up just a little bit. It gives roast a bit of a different flavor, and we just love it. Here's it is: one 6-lb. roast 4 T. butter or margarine 2 medium onions, chopped 16 oz. sour cream 32 oz. chicken stock or chicken broth 3 T. dill weed 1 and 1/2 t. seasoned salt 1 t. red pepper flakes Pour the chicken stock, sour cream, dill weed, seasoned salt and red pepper flakes into a crock pot, and stir together. Cover the crock pot and turn it on. Let the broth ingredients begin heating up. Melt the butter or margarine in a dutch oven on top of the stove and then brown the roast on all sides. While it is browning, chop up the onions. Remove the roast from the dutch oven and place it in the crockpot. Saute' the onions in the dutch oven until they are lightly browned. Pour the onions/butter mixture into the crockpot and stir well. Set the crockpot on low if you want to cook the roast all day, or on high if you want to cook it for a half-day. Cook, serve, enjoy. The longer it cooks, the more the liquid cooks down and thickens. Sometimes, if I only cook it for 6 hours, the liquid is a little runnier....more like au just when I want it a little thicker like gravy. So, to remedy that, I pour about 80 percent of the liquid into a saucepan and simmer it on the stove for a while to evaporate more moisture. Then I pour it back into the crockpot and stir everything together again. (Usually, while I am doing that I am preparing the side dishes.) If I cook it all day on low, the moisture usually has cooked out and the broth is thickened up the way we like it. A roast this size makes the four of us a couple of big meals, and there is usually some meat left for sandwiches. I like to make open-faced sandwiches like the open-faced roast beef sandwiches at Cracker Barrel. Just chop up some of the leftover roast beef and heat it and the sauce. Serve over thick slices of sourdough bread. Yummy! And the tomato plants.....well, the ones I have more or less match what I thought I was raising. I have to finish the comparison tomorrow, as I got distracted by a movie DH was watching and sort of stopped in the middle. There are a few tomato plants that weren't on the original list, which isn't unusual. Often, after starting my seeds in late January, I come across a variety that sounds delicious and decide to start "a few more tomatoes". LOL And, of course, sometimes a few seeds don't sprout, or sprout and die, or sprout and get eaten by the deer or rabbits when I leave the flats sitting outside at night. (sign) Tomorrow, I'll let you know how much the list changed. I know I did add Ramapo F-1, which is back on the commercial market for the first time in quite a while. I ordered seeds from the New Jersey Agriculture Extension Service at Rutgers University (in January, I think) and they didn't arrive until March 10. I started them right away, and they are now about 3" tall and have 2 to 4 true leaves, so they'll have to grow a little before they go into the ground. Still, with the very warm weather we're having, I think they'll reach planting size pretty quickly. Sometimes I think back to how easy it used to be before I started raising my own from seed, and think that life was so much simpler then. (smile) But, I do love the huge variety of colors and flavors, so I don't really mind. I want to plant a lot Monday, so I'm free to run down to Ft. Worth the rest of the week to see Mom in the hospital, especially if they start the tests Monday. I think the oncologist is going to try to diagnose the probable cancer without extracting bone marrow (due to her age and lower bone density), so it may take a few extra days to get a definite idea of what is going on. We also have the annual Fire Dept. awards dinner Saturday, and have to do some running around one day this week to pick up plaques and other awards and stuff and get ready for that. I hope for a rain-free Monday so I can plant, plant, plant, since the weather seems good in the extended forecast, and it may be the only day I have "free" this week. (At least the recent rainfall has kept down the number of grass fires, so I'm not having to drop everything and go!) Dawn

I think I promised my husband I would try not to use this phrase anymore, but... "I used to work at an animal welfare organization." And I learned A LOT from the trainers there. Here's my thoughts on this issue: 1. Management. Try to eliminate the situations in which bad behavior can occur until you can address the behavior with training. For example, in my house the kids only eat at the table, whether it's meals or snacks. It minimizes the possibility of stolen food. As someone else suggested, crating when guests arrive. As someone noted above, these bad behaviors are self-reinforcing (yum, food! It's fun to jump!) so each time they do it and succeed, it encourages them to do it again. Prevention is key until you can address the issue with training! 2. Obedience training. Fit it in. I know it's hard, but it will be time well spent and you will reap dividends in an improved bond with your dog and better behavior. Find a trainer that uses POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT. Rewarding good behaviors through treats, praise, pets, etc and extinguishing the bad by preventing them from occurring and a combination of ignoring/not rewarding them when they occur. We often reward bad behaviors without realizing it. Putting your hands on a jumping dog to hold him down may seem like petting to the jumper, and he likes petting! Becoming aware of how you may be unconsciously rewarding bad behavior is a huge help. 3. Exercise. A tired dog is a good dog. 4. I (and the wonderful, gifted trainers I've worked with) do not like leash pops/choke collars/prong collars. I've used them. My dear old dog wore a prong collar for years until I started at the humane org and learned about positive reinforcement training and gentle leader head halters. Sure, you can keep your dog from doing things using pain and fear, but is that really the best method? Would you do it with kids? Think about the amazing things they can get a killer whale to do at Sea World. All positive reinforcement. They don't make choke collars that big! 5. Karen Pryor's "Don't Shoot the Dog." Great book. 6. This may be hard to fit in as well, but practice. Schedule brief visits from a friend or two, where they know the objective is to work on jumping. Plan in advance what to -- turn your back, feed treats/pet and praise when all four paws hit the floor. 10 minutes twice a week. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Works well if you have dog-owner friends who need volunteer helpers as well. :-) I don't want to sound preachy. I am certainly not a perfect dog owner. I do not have as much time for training as I should. I do not have as much patience as I should. I do resort to punishment (though not physical). The association of pet dog trainers website linked below is a good place to find a trainer. Sorry this is so long... hope something in it is of help! Here is a link that might be useful: Assoc of Pet Dog Trainers website

well, I work w/ graphic designers, and it's very true--their tools have changed quite a bit. Classwork will really, really help. You know what also might help? Being able to sit at the elbow of someone doing a similar task w/ the software you're learning to use. Take the class first, but while you're taking it, start scouting out a publication, or advertising agency, or something--tap into those friends!--that uses the same publication you will. Contact a designer there, not necessarily the top cheese in the dept., and call. Explain yourself, and ask if you can come spend a little time watching them work. I've learned so much by seeing them do something quick, and then saying, "how'd you do that?" They then explain the tool to me, and bingo, I've got it. Seeing it happen in real life is such a big plus in terms of learning. Bcs I don't even know enough to realize the "tool" is in the program. I'd just figure out what the long way was, and do that. Then, once you're going, see if you can get them to come watch you design something. They may find efficiencies you could use. Also, one other thought: Efficiency is going to be really important. Maybe more so than creativity. So, try to spend some energy creating templates you can then simply tweak or use outright, without further fussing around. Another thing I've found: the PRINCIPLES are the same. We ship files electronically to our separator. We still send the "mechanical" (except now it's an electronic document, the QuarkXPress file)--it is the real, live, perfect thing that they will actually use. And, bcs an electronic file *can* be change and is therefore more vulnerable, the "mechanical" is now two parts--the one they use (the file) and the one they check it against. That second part used to be a printout. Now, it's a PDF. But the PRINCIPLE is the same as when it was paper. It just has another name. And often digital pictures are sent to the separator instead of actual artwork for them to photograph themselves (and sometimes actual film is sent by the advertiser, here), the principle is the same. Time consuming steps shaved off, that's all. So, as you learn the system for transmitting to the printer, or a program like Quark, with all the tools inside it (dragging, dropping, drawing, step-and-repeat, etc., try to compare with previous systems and methods--because the parallel is there. The same things are being accomplished. Also focus on the GOAL of each of these steps and not their names; it will help you understand them. And, you'll be able to mark them up even if you can't remember the term. (Remember the old days? You could write "KO type" on the tissue overlaying the mechanical; or you could have written "type should be white"--and the people reading it would know what you meant even if you didn't use the "KO" jargon) More random thoughts. Is it that you're intimidated by learning something new? Or is it that, because you are older and a better planner (and not idealistic and unrealistic, which we are when we're younger), that you have a clearer grasp of how complex this could be, and how inefficient you will be at first? That doesn't mean you should quit--just that you should STOP deciding this is an age-induced character defect, and start thinking of it as a "signal system" that's telling you something. It's telling you where the difficulties will lie which hopefully will help you tackle them. What software will you be using for your page design? I'm curious. (oh, and...if your printer can handle more than one software, you guys should use the one that your friends use, so you can use them as coaches)

Sue VA, that must have been the most rewarding experience of your life. Your response gave me the biggest goosebumps. I was thinking about it and I would love to teach at a center for underpriveleged folks how to get a job. Teach them to bring their own pen (I have watched SO many people fill out job aps and have to ask for a pen or pencil), to dress in a suit whether they were going for the president of McDonalds or a fry cook at McDonalds, and how to shake hands and look people in the eye. Giving people pride in themselves is where I want to take the people I teach. In high school I was involved in a program called Eco-Act and we went in small groups weekly to grade schools and taught 4-5th graders ecology. It was really great, I met a lot of the kids later in life and they told me they still remember a lot of the activities and many are very active composters. It is cool to know you made a difference in someone's life.