Freak-4-p. It is not a G.S. I am good friends with Bud and have a G.S. that he cut off his 55 year old tree (source of the orig. G.S.) for me years ago. The "golden rainbow" I got from Marilyn before she moved from central O.C. to down south. I know Marilyn tends to give plants names but this flower goes from how this looks to fade to a white. It has a faint sweet smell. My G.S. holds its shape and colors and has a beefy stem growth. It could be a seedling because I know Bud was friends with Marilyn and may have given her some seeds. I will ask him. Now that you mention it they do have a few days when they look much the same as the rainbow changes colors. I will get back after I call Bud. Bill Guillotts sunset grown from a cutting from Bud's orig. tree.(so I know=authentic cutting)

I'm kinda glad to hear that I'm not the only one who was disappointed with the garden this past year. This year was my worst year for tomatoes (5 years in my current location). And many tomatoes were splitting on the vine, BEFORE they started to ripen. Ironically, I planted some "Sub-Arctic plenty" tomatoes, and these little buggers produced far more than I ever thought they would. First, they are determinate, so I expected to get a harvest, and then have to pull them and replant that spot. However, they didn't stop producing until just this past week or so. As soon as I thought they were done, they put out a whole new batch of blossoms, and went back to producing again! This happened FOUR times, which, is quite unusual (I believe) for determinate tomatoes! These were my best producing tomatoes this summer, by far! I plan to put them in again next year, just to make sure I get a tomato harvest (colder weather doesn't seem to bother them as much).

Hi! Thank you everyone for your support. It means a lot to me. Of course, this morning I popped right back up to 136... but I'm hoping it's the usual up-swing... down-swing of things. Peggy, I know what you mean about "feeling it" mentally and physically. That's the reason I started my caloric attitude shift (it's not a diet!!) and using this wedding as an incentive/goal date/excuse to actually follow through. Overnight fixes don't work in the long run and I would be a little afraid of how they would get done what they need to get done to make it work in the short run... Yesterday I told myself that I could walk over to our health food store while DD is in her activity. I have two hours to kill three times a week, and I used to just sit and gab to the other parents, but lately I've been getting my butt off the couch and walking for that time. Well, I used the excuse of DD wanting popcorn, and I buy it in bulk there because it's cheaper and much fresher than at the grocery store. I had no idea how far it was miles-wise but figured I'd aim for the store, but check my watch and turn back at the one hour mark. I made it in 45 minutes, got my popcorn, stopped at an antique store that has an awkward parking lot so I never drive there and browsed for a few minutes... then walked back with my eight pounds of popcorn and flour and other bulk things in my backpack. Then after picking DD up at the activity we drove what I walked so I could see how far it was. Can you believe 5 miles round trip!!?? I was tired last night!!! Ended up eating popcorn for dinner and going right to sleep :) Today we're doing at least 2.5 miles. I have a ton of energy. The more I lose, the more I have :) Also, another thing I really noticed this morning was when I got dressed my shirt was a lot looser. I've lost side/back/arm inches. And my suit pants will have to be taken in eventually because they're falling around my hips. A good indicator of inches instead of pounds. I really need to keep remembering that. Good thing I have such big hips, my pants will never fall down...!

LONG but I wanted to tell Jeri all this about my floor in case she is interested in it or her husband is. Jeri, I was so surprised at how much grain Brazilian Cherry has also and there are more boards with more grain I wanted to send in pictures of but I knew that I sent enough pictures before I would bore all of you. I think if you go with a sawn cut engineered or a solid wood plank that is 5" wide (that is what my BR-111 planks are and fit together very tightly IF you have a good installer like my second installer since I floated the floor so 3-M tape was supposed to be used for 1 hour), you will see all the grain. When you walk on the floor, it feels like a solid hardwood floor and you can't tell that it was floated. I floated it for the tiny bit of give and for the extra insulation using the Floor Muffler with the Ultra Seal. I was afraid that gluing it down wood make the floor colder (I have little dogs that walk on the floor so I was thinking of them) and would be a harder surface to walk on. No one can tell so far that has visited that it is engineered with 3M of real wood over plywood. I had wanted Brazilian Cherry for the longest time but kept trying to fall in love with other wood species due to the change in color and fear of it getting too dark. I was amazed that if you leave all furniture off and open all the windows for about 3 weeks that the wood gets richer and darker without being too dark. I have not seen any more darkening up but if there is any, it is subtle since under the TV stand and under the cabinets when moved, there is no color change that I can see. The wood was so brown when I first opened the boxes that I was disappointed and had wished I spent more and went with the Santos Mahogany that I love and still love (Was more money so that is why I went with Brazilian Cherry since the two woods are so similar) but it sat in the family room for awhile until I found a painter and a flooring guy to install it so maybe exposure to oxygen quickens up the darkening process? I also am in an interior townhouse and most of my lights are not overhead but floor lamps if that makes a difference but I do keep all the blinds open in the day time with my big windows in my family room and the floor has not darkened up more and under the TV stand (has wheels) is the same color. The wood in person is very neutral and is brown and orangey brown with a few boards being a reddish-brown. At night with the lights on, it looks more red. It is always beautiful in color and very interesting with the varied grain and goes so well with my cherry desk and credenza and looks nice against the putty cabinets, the Bone White walls, the taupe sofa or any other color that I have near it. There is an amazing abundance of grain with the floor so interesting and not boring which shocked me at first since I had wanted a floor with little grain like I saw in the 3.25" board samples I had here but now I am liking the interesting grain. I chose Brazilian Cherry since it is good with dryness in case I am sleeping and do not have the humidifiers on in the winter time until I wake up. So far no buckling which is good. The wood is very good with dog pee which I know from my experiments from soaking wood in dog pee and now from actual use with my little dog Lexi marking. It cleans up easily and does not turn black. She has been very good since I got the floor and is now marking more outside in the back yard and only once in awhile needing to put her scent on the floor and does not go back to the area that I clean so that is good. I bought the wood from TrueHardwoods.com and no one locally could match their price but I did find two other online stores with similar prices for the 3.25" and the 5" widths. I chose TrueHardwoods.com due to my neighbor having such success. Again, Jeri thanks for the compliments.