Deb, I just had a thought. Since the height of those roses bothers you, is it possible to dig another row at the back end of the "L"? I can't tell from the pics how much sunlight that area gets and what directions the shadows go, but if there is sufficient sunlight, you could move the taller roses back there and they could be easily seen because of their height. Then for the narrow row along the steps, plant a hedge row of smaller roses--let's say Virgin of Guadelupe. The lighter color would contrast with the brick color of the house, and she has a fuller floribunda look--graceful bush and kinda frilly looking bloom. I've only had mine one season now, but I seem to remember that I picked her because she only gets around 3 ft tall, and she is supposed to be pretty good on disease-resistance. You might even stick in a few annuals around her ankles--maybe some blue lobelia and/or white alysium (sp?). Or a shorter yellow floribunda might look nice against that brick color--you could ask the forum for some more suggestions in that category. Just another thought. I think planning is half the fun sometimes of rose gardening. Kate

"Luck" is very often another word for "opportunity". Sometimes you are able to take advantage of it, and sometimes you aren't. It wasn't hard to make money - we're in our late 50's, double-income no kids Boomers, and own a paid-for home, two cars and little debt. But we've made very specific choices in life, some of which paid off (DH's defined benefit pension and retiree health benefits) and some of which didn't. Our overhead is still high - I cringed the last time I totaled up what we spend monthly on various insurance policies - but as I've often said, I was taught to view insurance as risk mitigation, so it's a necessity in our overall estate planning. We've done a lot better on our investments since I really started paying attention to investing and made an effort to learn about it. But when I look back, we left the portfolio unattended until almost too late in life. Fortunately, I picked up the interest in learning about investing before the dot-com bust. So when the bust happened, I didn't change a thing about the portfolio, because I'd learned that panic moves are what kill your ROI. Sure enough, the portfolio got back to even in 18 months and then took off from there. That taught me the value of dollar-cost averaging, too. stinkygdnr, I don't know what OJ would say about your home, but our home was underwater for almost 10 years. It was pretty painful, but we consoled ourselves that heck, we had to live somewhere no matter what. In the end values went higher, although of course they've dropped again this past year. But in the long run, a home usually gives you some appreciation. Plus you get a lot of incalculable enjoyment from living in a place you can remodel and change to your heart's content. We liked our home, didn't love it, until we finished all the landscaping. Then we fell in love with it, finding it a real joy to just sit in the garden in a recliner, reading a book and drinking homemade lemonade. Like I said on a different discussion forum, very often it's the simplest pleasures in life that are the best!

Kframe, yes we get a refund sometimes more than $2500. We discussed this some time ago and I am pretty sure he adjusted it the maximum (or minimum allowed). I am definitely going to follow up on this. I know you are supposed come as close to breaking even as possible on taxes, so I am not sure what is going on with it. As a followup on the 401K, we decided to go ahead and do the max. Well, the HR gal called my husband and told him that because we was in a highly-paid mgmt position, it was too much and he would probably get money back. We both laughed at the "highly-paid" part, but anyway we had to cut it to about $9000 a year. We didn't realize we would have this same issue as his previous job because this company is much, much larger with many employees above him. I check out Pond's website and found this questions posted. Question: "My husband and I are each contributing 10% of our incomes to our companies 401(k) plans and have some money left over to invest elsewhere. Would it be better to put that money away for our kids college or make extra payments against the mortgage?" Pond's answer: "Probably neither at this stage. Rather, you should add to your retirement savings plans at work if you can get to 15%, great. Then, I think you both should do an IRA. While saving for college and paying down the mortgage are both noble objectives, your most important objective at this stage in your life is putting enough money away for retirement. Moreover, contributing to plans at work and IRAs are simply better financially than college savings and extra mortgage payments. Since there are limits as to how much you can contribute to retirement plans, each year its a use it or lose it proposition. If you forego putting as much money as you can into a plan in a particular year, its a year that can never be made up in the future. But once youre over the hurdle of putting enough money away for your retirement, then you can go on to college savings and prepaying your mortgage. Perhaps you could do a little of both with whatevers left over at the end of the month." I have been putting a bit extra toward my mortgage for almost two years now. Maybe I shouldn't. Next week we will be talking to my in-laws accountant. I think I better print this out and bring it with me.

It's just a matter of getting comfortable with layers so you can seperate things to work on before merging them together again and using the clone too to cover up what you don't want. Here's a link to a tut that might help you with the process. Sue :) Here is a link that might be useful: removing objects