They may be an ivilliage thing but there is obviously some way to stop or prevent them because I don't see them. I have Verizon DSL that has a pop-up blocker but I don't think it's anything fancy. I use the Google Tool Bar and it has more pop-up blocker stuff on it. I also run Ad-Aware and Spybot at least once a week and clean out my temp files every other day or so. No problems. It all only takes a few minutes to do, it's free and its worth it.

Yes. Some days I can not log onto any of the gardehweb websites because of pop-ups that will lock up my internet explorer. I was starting to frequent several of the sites, but it's too frustrating having to restart internet explorer more often than not. It took me five times to get to where I could post this reply!

HI Busylizzy I think that much of the cheap glass is just coated with color. So you have to be careful what you buy. On the other hand there are people here who paint glass so I am wondering if the new cheap stuff is sealed, maybe with spray on urethane, will it keep the color? I'm going to experiment with a red vase that I bought at sa. And a few cute plates that I got at the dollar store. (I'll spray half with urethane and set them out in the winter sun.) I will let you all know. I should have realized the vase wasn't colored through cuz there is a tiny spot where the color has come off. Check your lamp glass carefully. I suspect that it is solid color throughout due to the age. Maybe you could email one of the people selling them on ebay and ask if the glass color fades (is that devious.) Metal to glass. Somewhere on this forum I read to use plumbers goop for metal to glass. I haven't been able to find that thread since, but that's what I've been doing. Except for a part which had too much weight for a small amount of surface contact it has been a very strong bond. But it is more evil smelling that the ge s ii. I think most folks here have been ok with silicone ii so I'm not sure what happened with yours. I am doing a project at work which involves using silicone ii and the directions say if it overflows and drys to clean it up with xylene or tolulene. Both are bad stuff, and I don't know if one could clean up large amounts of ge s ii with xylene, but if I needed to I would try that (after razorblading most of it), since I've got some. Good luck. The lamps sound great! What ever you do, post pics! kathy

Yes, I too am noticing changes in the garden--which I have gardened in since the late 1950s (when I was but a wee laddie), and the preceding remarks explain the probable cause(s) well. Primroses used to thrive for me, in the shade; now I'm discarding the last few, because they just can't take it any more. My specimens of several varieties of triphylla-type Fuchsias, having survived the Fuchsia Mites, are beginning to succumb. Even the daylilies, of which I have long had a nice collection, seem to have lost their characteristic vim. --And so on with many plants I've known for many years which are now unable to cope. Most pertinent to this group is what I've observed about my roses: For decades, there would be a mass bloom of the roses at some point in the Spring, usually around Easter. This stopped happening for me in the early or mid-1990s, even though the culture I gave them was no different from what it had been; now--be the rose bush young, be the rose bush old--they unenthusiastically produce a few flowers, with equally unenthusiastic repeat over the course of the year. This is also likely why I seem to have lost my ability to get cuttings to root in the last ten or fifteen years, though my technique is no different than it was when I used to have excellent luck with them. These are discouraging days in Horticulture! Fortunately, Cacti are also one of my long-time interests, and they seem to be taking all this in stride...