I have several streaked hosta seedlings which overwintered in the ground from last year, but got nipped by a rabbit. One h.'Blue Lightning' seedling is promising and just now develops a scape which I want to use with pollen from large blues. Last winter I started in November to grow streaked hosta seedlings from seeds provided by Mr.Hosta of Land of the Giants. Here are those seedlings of h."Blue Lightning', 'Topo Gigio', 'Fickle Blue Genes' and 'Dorothy Benedict'. They are bigger than last year's already. I got last year a freebie 'Powder Keg' from LOTG but that hosta did not survive. I bought this year h.'Justice' at a Hosta Library auction. How do I like them? I do not know yet. The seedlings which will survive my culls will probably have some stabilized divisions, but it will be interesting. I am interested to create a streaked large blue one. Bernd This post was edited by berndnyz5 on Tue, Jul 2, 13 at 19:32

Although this is an old thread, bringing it back up to the top made me remember that early last month, I ran across an article (with examples) on amazing website run by a cancer survivor. The cards are what she would have wanted to receive/hear, and hopefully it will help others: I ran across this article in Slate and loved it. I want to find these cards, because they are amazing. And I could have used some of them, too, in the last few years: A Cancer Survivor Designs the Cards She Wishes She’d Received From Friends and Family Slate.com, May 6, 2015 (excerpt) "Los Angeles–based designer Emily McDowell was diagnosed with Stage 3 Hodgkin’s lymphoma at age 24, enduring nine months of chemo and radiation before going into remission. “The most difficult part of my illness wasn’t losing my hair, or being erroneously called ‘sir’ by Starbucks baristas, or sickness from chemo,” McDowell writes on her website. “It was the loneliness and isolation I felt when many of my close friends and family members disappeared because they didn’t know what to say, or said the absolute wrong thing without realizing it.” The 38-year-old designer has been cancer-free ever since. But the emotional impact of the experience lingered, inspiring her to design a newly launched series of Empathy Cards—emotionally direct greeting cards that say the things she wanted to hear when she was ill." Full article & examples of the cards: http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_eye/2015/05/06/empathy_cards_by_emily_mcdowell_are_greeting_cards_designed_for_cancer_patients.html

Interesting topic. I have had a single lady do entire house by herself. She left b/c it made more $en$e for her to work in a team and I was also growing tired of having her for several hours in my house. The parting was on good terms. Have had teams and the upside is there here and gone in no time, but when teams change b/c somebody gets fired, sick, etc., I always notice things out of place or cleaned unlike I specified. New people in teams = retraining and I really don't like having to be on constant watch to ensure consistency. But overall, I think a team is best, as mine has insurance if something is broken or damaged. Nobody does my laundry, makes my bed or cleans fridge or oven. I hired them to dust all, vacuum, polish furniture, clean windows, fans, cabinets and doors every 15 da. Will give them a little extra if I have visitors, in which case they do make that bed, and whatever extra is caused by the visit. Used Home Advisors to get my latest cleaning service. On an unrelated subject, I once recommended my cleaning service to a neighbor that turned out to be a sleaze ball and they didn't pay the lady for 3 months. I was mortified that I hooked her up with the slimeballs, so I doubt I will recommend anybody to avoid this kinda stuff.

Thanks for those articles from me, too. The CDC still says to use bleach to disinfect, which is different than sanitize. They say that to disinfect hard, non-porous surfaces you need 1/3 cup of regular chlorine bleach per gallons of water, although Clorox recommends using 1/2 cup bleach per 1/2 gallon. For small batches, use 4 teaspoons of regular chlorine bleach and 1 quart of water. Dip a cloth into the mixture, wipe the surface, ALLOWING THE SOLUTION TO CONTACT THE SURFACE FOR 5 MINUTES AND AIR DRY. For food contact surfaces, like countertops and high chair trays, rinse with warm water and air dry after disinfecting. Use it sparingly on stainless steel sinks and surfaces. I use bleach regularly, I have all those white bar mops that I wash and bleach, I use them for everything. I also bleach the white socks and cotton gloves I use/wear on the farm, as well as wash cloths and some white towels. A person should NEVER have white towels on a farm, BTW. Anyway, I use enough that it's never outdated, and I leave it in the original opaque container. The biggest mistake people make, though, is to wipe their counters with the solution but not leave it the required 5 minutes before wiping the residue to dry their surfaces. If you don't do it correctly, it doesn't work correctly. Annie