All right, OMG. Someone sent in a complaint to the USPS using my name and address. While I appreciate the concern and it is OK, I just wish they had let me know in advance. I received a post card from the USPS yesterday saying they are investigating this. I mailed two packages today. One to north central Georgia up near Lake Lanier and the other to Texas. The difference between parcel post and Priority mail to Ga. was 64 cents. I just can't figure that out because priority is SUPPOSED to get there in 3 days. That seems like so little to pay for the supposed service of 3 day delivery. BTW, you pay for 3 day delivery but it isn't guaranteed.

I agree with the above. Plus the fact that too much personal information gets divulged or can be mined by joining facebook. I'd rather limit my online participation to forums like GW and other, less inclusive, less wide open sites. I've been a member here for a long time....going on a couple of decades......and I have seen the same ebb and flow of visitor traffic through the seasons as we are now witnessing. January, February, March are always as slow as molasses but it will pick up when the gardening season comes into to full force in the next 6-8 weeks. And I have to say that the comments about excessive ads and pop-ups surprises me. I don't experience hardly any at all and just use Explorer with the standard firewalls. Didn't realize this was much of a problem anymore regardless of the Internet server one used...... I have to be honest when I say I read more than post. Most of the topics don't hold a great deal of interest for me and I tend only to respond to questions that get neglected or overlooked or when erroneous info is provided. Since conifers are not my area of concentrated expertise, I let others respond first - there is an amazing knowledge base here :-) But I still remain pretty active in some other forums. I also live in an area where the Internet is not widely available so I am not online at home. And since my work life is pretty seasonal and therefore computer access the same, I tend not to post much in winter anyway.

Lynn, I'm curious about how you cooked your kale if you've done it yet. I've never cooked greens in a "Southern" style, although I'm sure I would love them done that way. In fact, until very recently, my only experience with kale has been in Italian wedding soup, cooked by my DIL or her family during the last eight years (since their wedding). But after learning that kale is one of the most healthy foods for you I decided to cook it myself as a veggie. I have used curly (Lacinato) kale and the more flat variety. Each time I have cooked the kale fairly quickly, or not at all in the case of the kale salad that has become so popular. I've cut out the ribs when they were large, and with the smaller leaved kale from our Asian supermarket I've left the ribs in, and then cut the leaves in about 1 inch wide strips and sauteed in olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper and a little lemon for just about 10 minutes. It is tender and fully cooked. More recently I have cooked it with similar seasonings, except for adding a little sherry vinegar after cooking, in the pressure cooker based on a Lorna Sass recipe. A large bunch of kale was cooked in just three minutes under pressure. It came out tender but still a little firm. We enjoyed that too. You can find the videos showing her cooking kale by Googling Lorna Sass kale, I couldn't find the actual recipe online - just the videos and while I have another book she wrote on pressure cooking, I don't have the one that includes that recipe. I've also made the Tuscan kale salad where the shredded leaves, no ribs, are combined with olive oil, allowed to mellow a bit with the oil and then lemon and salt and pepper added. I thought it was good, but not necessarily meriting the rave reviews I have read about this preparation. One thing though, that salad holds up perfectly for days in the fridge - a real plus when you just need something to take out of the fridge and put on a plate. I think I will try to find a variation on that salad that I would find a little more interesting. So the bottom line is you can cook kale long and slow, or fast by sauteing or in a PC or not at all in a salad - it's all really healthy for you! So please tell us what you did. Lee

Actually, I do have more than enough pairs for one to be available for each day of the week ... I think there may even be enough to have an unholy/unholey one for each day of the week. I was getting into a rather undesirable situation, as I like to keep a few pair on hand that don't need extra help to stay where they're supposed to, for times when I'm dressing in a hurry, and there were getting to be too few of them. Perhaps you're right - that I should have bought more, as they were a buck 99 each, if I recall correctly. By the way ... why is it that comparable clothing, and personal care services and products for women are so much more expensive? The lace in one of my shoes has been broken for a time and the current length is so short that it makes it rather tough to get it tied. They had dozens of shoelaces of every colour and length and of various styles, but most were two to a pack, and there were no 24", for 3/4 eyelet shoes, and I was able to find only one pair of the 27" ones, which the lady let me take out for 50 cents (99 cents for the two-pack) - plus tax, of course. So I should be able to function comfortably for a while. ole joyful