Mmmmm...Margaritas sound good! I have always said where there's a will there's a way, I think you are on track to make something very cool for your pool! I have amazed myself at the things I can do when I set my mind to it (many times encouraged by someone telling me it can't be done) My first concrete adventure: In second grade, I decided our secret fort in the woods needed a swimming pool, so we stock piled soda cans filled with water in the fort, we dug a fairly big hole with play shovels, and I convinced my babysitter that I had to bring a bag of concrete mix to school for a project, she helped me set it against the side of the building and I almost got away with the plan, but I was caught dragging the bag across the playground at recess and I guess the powers that be didn't really think a pool in the woods was a good idea! Thanks for the cuttings offer, but I am still struggling to get anything to grow roots from cuttings, despite studying up on it and trying every which method. I haven't given up totally, right now I am still nursing one last rose cutting, a couple of vitec (sp?) and 6 lavender cuttings, but I am not very optimistic given how many before them have bit the dust. As you may be able to tell in my "citrus in tufa" pic on the container site, I broke down and bought myself a bougainvillea in a hanging basket. Cant wait to see what you create for your card table! Nik

Credit cards in responsible hands can be a very good tool to assist in managing money. But like any tool in the hands of fools it can be dangerous. About every 3-5 months I essentially get a free tank of gas from responsible use of a credit card. Or I can have a grocery trip, or go out to eat, probably 5 times. It's income on money I need to spend anyway so it's a benefit. It's not something where I have to buy something I can't use. The problem for so many that have their cards run up to such crazy amounts is they could never get a low interest loan because they're so irresponsible with their money! And if they don't pay off their cards, who thinks they'll pay off the loans? So they go to the loan sharks, aka credit card companies. They watch TV and hear how they need all this stuff and it's "only a few dollars a month" on the credit card. And geez, they shouldn't have to turn off unused lights or use CFLs to cut expenses should they? Oh, no. Put on a sweater in the winter and turn the stat down a few degrees or close off unused areas? Nope. Shouldn't have to do that. Quit driving for the sake of driving? No, that's not right. And then the smokers. I'm sick of the excuses. Everyone I know who has quit smoking agrees that you'll quit smoking one way: When you decide you *want* to quit. Period. No other time so don't make excuses. The ones who don't *want* to quit need to have an excuse. "Addicted" is a popular one. Oh yeah, it's always someone or something else's fault isn't it? I didn't get myself into the credit card bind, it's the credit card's fault. I didn't light the cigarette, it's the tobacco company's fault. I didn't get fat, it's the fast food joint's fault. Or the soft drink companies. I broke my wedding vows but it's my spouse's fault. Poor little me. Boo-hoo-hoo. The world is out to get me. Never heard of personal responsibility? But why should they? They were raised to lie, cheat, steal and blame someone else since they were "traumatized" as a child. Didn't have enough video games, cell phones and their own new car at 15. Cry me a river... Now I certainly support anyone who decides to quit smoking, lose weight, change diet habits, improve their financial situation, etc. As long as they take responsibility, blame the right party and start the journey. When you do that, it's much easier to accomplish your goal than expecting everyone else to do it for you, or tell you how bad you have it, or whatever. You get my support but I won't coddle you. You have to do it yourself. You'll have an occasional shoulder if needed, advice if wanted too. I won't lecture people who choose to spend their money on cigarettes, or fudge, or inflated interest, when it's their choosing. Hey, I laugh at them but I won't lecture the people who flush a fifty annually at the "cost club" stores to have the "privilege" of walking into the place and spend more for less. I think there are wiser choices but it's a personal choice. Just don't come crying to me about how "tough" you have it when you can't handle your money. I don't have much sympathy for them. And no respect for the ones who have used bankruptcy to supplement their income. Instead of keeping up with the Jones' lifestyle, try living below your means a bit. You'll likely be amazed at your ability to pay your own way. Most people choose to live paycheck to paycheck. Your choice and my right privilege to laugh at it. And this is the time of year I start shaking my head at the number of people whose "savings account" is the tax refund. And they spend it before they receive it and how many times does it turn out to be less than they expected?

I am definitely going to miss "Friends"!! Don't worry if you missed it on Thursday, the finale will be available on DVD Tuesday... weird! Anyway, I too am hopeful about the Joey show... usually spin-offs don't work, but Frasier did really well after Cheers, so it is possible! :) Anyway, Penny I hope that your shower was lovely and I'm sorry that you missed the end of Friends... we got lucky and decided to tell the TiVo to record an extra 5 minutes... good thing since we just barely got all of it that way! By the way, I'm pretty disappointed that Phoebe didn't marry Joey, but I guess they couldn't do that and have him have a spin-off! Oh, well... at least when she married Mike they didn't make it SEVEN Friends... -DuckyHead :)

As a little boy, my DH lived in China, and one day, while in his grandmother's care, they visited a 'soothsayer.' She was a woman from their rural village, who was supposedly gifted with visions of the future. She told DH's grandmother that DH would move far from China, and travel across a great ocean, before he was an adult. He would marry a 'ghost lady,' (that is what they called a Caucasian female) and have 3 children. She said he would have a boy, then a girl, then a boy. DH's grandmother was also told that DH's 2 sons would look like 'ghost fellows' but his daughter would look just like her great grandmother. This all seemed very far fetched, as no one in DH's family, having always lived in their remote village in China, had ever crossed a 'great ocean' before, and DH said he'd never even seen a Caucasian before, (until after he left China.) Well, 6 years later, DH and another family member escaped from Communist China, to Macau. Then 7 years later, he ended up moving here at age 16, to attend a boarding school, so he could learn English, and then get his college education here. So in fact, he did move far from China, by crossing a great ocean, before he was an adult. We met in our 20's and married. We had 3 kids, boy, girl, boy. Sure enough, I gave birth to sons who somehow exclusively inherited my (Irish) looks. Only our daughter looks Asian, but she doesn't resemble DH. She is however, the spitting image of DH's grandmother. It makes the skeptic in me concede, that perhaps some people actually are clairvoyant.