Margaret is correct. This is scarey, bad stuff. The possiblities of how you can get this are mind boggleing. I have an unofficial 'fix' here... I will copy ALL the info, and where it was obtained into this post. There's no official patch from Microsoft. There is an unofficial patch, which has been very carefully examined by the SANS team, and they say the patch is safe. They also say it is reversible \-\- that is, you can run the unauthorized patch now to temporarily protect your system, and it won't change anything that can't be changed back later. The SANS people are well\-respected security pros, to the best of my knowledge. This is what they say \-\- and the bold italics are in their original: This is a bad situation that will only get worse. The very best response that our collective wisdom can create is contained in this advice \- unregister shimgvw.dll and use the unofficial patch. You need to trust us. (for the full SANS warning, see http://isc.sans.org/diary.php?rss&storyid=996 ) The most basic form of protection is to run the following command line on any Windows machine, at a command prompt. This should be done as Administrator, on Windows systems which have admin functionality: regsvr32 /u shimgvw.dll This command disables thumbnail previews of graphics in Internet Explorer. It can be reversed later, if the hurricane passes by. Turning off thumbnail previews in MS email clients and MS Messenger would also be a good idea, if you use them. Don't click to view graphics from unknown or untrusted sources. For more information, see the SANS site above, and the CERT\-USA warning: http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/181038#solution MS also has their own page on this exploit: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/...ory/912840.mspx This being said, I'm off to move my pix, and I wouldn't look at any here, for awhile either. Makes sense to close down your preview pane in your email, too, just incase. I don't know enough about what's going on to know if I just said the stupidest thing in the world, or not. But lots of folks are worried... My friend who posted the above is comparing this Virus Alert to Hurricane Katrina. It might hit and devestate, or it might just sail on by, leaving little damage in its wake, right now we can't know. Another friend inserted the following info. Turn off your Fax Viewer too, from what I read. I sure hope no one is still allowing HTML in their emails. This thing (and I may have some terminology wrong) can come at you in an email as a microscopic 1x1 pixel transparent graphic, that is you can't even see it. So set your email client to accept text only, turn your spam filters up high and watch the news. This has been compared to going nuclear from standard warfare. Good luck everyone.

Rina, no greenhouse, they spend the winter in south facing bay windows after I chase the cats out. The aloes and haworthias this year will be on shelves in front of a window, the new starts will probably spend some time there as well. tj, no stairs just lots of rearranging to get the best fit-and check for pests. Leslie, the echie is dusty rose. For me it colors like olive patent leather flushed with pink. blue ruffles-it's about 8 in.across and perfect.

I ran into the shorter version nettle as a child camping with my family. If memory serves me right, it was mostly annoying. A few years ago we had stopped at a State rest area where there were trails to stretch ones legs, walk a dog, restrooms and coffee. I took a short walk, saw an odd looking barely noticeable flower on a shrub I didn't recognize and reached out to see if had scent. A big mistake. That nettle (4-5' tall and arching) stung like heck, it really hurt. We poured a bottle of water over my hand, then tried 70% alcohol from the first aid kit. Neither helped. I went inside the ladies room and washed with soap and water. This was late morning and it hurt all day until I went to bed that night. No rash or anything really apparent but there was pain, diminished only a little with tylenol. If I see it again, I'll know what it is. I've spent plenty of time in our more local woods and never come across that plant....2 hours away there was quite a bit of it growing under big leaf maple.

Horrific - I wonder if something was accidentally left in the oven? I have a self cleaning wall oven and I had only used it a few times over the years when my oven controls malfunctioned. After that rather expensive repair, I stopped using it on the recommendation of the technician. Now I use this - it works well: FWIW, a coworker lost her home and everything - cars included - in a devastating fire not too long ago, and they believe it was from the battery or charger for their electric golf cart. It happened in the middle of the night and their family of 5 escaped just in the nick of time.