I volunteered at The Huntington throughout the 80s and 90s propagating roses, working the plant sales and organizing, staffing, planning and working the Old Rose Symposiums and Rose Festivals. What is being complained about as "high ticket prices" are the lowest they have been in a very long time. The Symposiums cost in the hundreds to attend. The GROTW events had become rather expensive, more than the $50 minimum entry this year, until Clair deliberately worked it to reduce and maintain lower prices to permit more people to comfortably attend. Pulling something like this off is an outright b#@%ch. Someone is going to get bent out of shape for something. Guaranteed. I know. Been on both sides of that splintery fence many times. There are fixed costs which must be covered or the institution will not permit you to host the event again. Each of the honored guests have to flown in, driven around, fed and hoteled while there. Some require honorariums to come. Not all, but some do. There are security costs which are associated with the event, not to mention the loss of revenue from other events requiring the facilities this one occupies at this time. The price of the tickets far from covered the cost of hosting the event. A one day ticket wasn't offered because the heavier, more "meaty" talks were Sunday. How intelligent is it to potentially cut your revenue in half by making it possible to only pay for one day? Two days worth were offered to allow people to arrive in town, get settled and find their ways around as well as to sight see while there. Many of us took the opportunity to catch up with friends whom we don't frequently see and to check out old favorites on the grounds. I know of many, some local and many more from out of the area, who paid full price and were only able to attend the one day. You don't get a movie or play ticket for half price because you're only interested in half of the performance. You don't pay half of the restaurant price because you only want the desert. The admission price was posted for two days. Nothing was mentioned about one day pricing, so no expectations should be made they will exist. Saturday was the less formal day. It was also a fuller day for those of us who were there because we could wander around, see what we wanted to see, the people we wanted to talk to and go where we wanted to go. I wouldn't have enjoyed myself nearly as much had I only gone one day, though I DO understand not being able to attend both. Many times over the past twenty-five years, I've had to miss days of Symposiums, Festivals, etc. there because of work or prior commitments. But, I learned a long time ago, make the decision that if it's going to cost you full price for only a part of it, if it isn't worth it to you, don't go. If it is, enjoy. But, I never waste the gas and time getting there and then decide not to attend. If I'm going to make presumptions, they'll be that it will cost me full for part, and not that I won't stay unless they give me a break. That is YOUR choice and YOUR decision. No one wasted your time nor gas but you.

I actually have mixed feelings about Chicken. I am so glad I added them because for the last couple of years, I have not purchased any eggs, and my near friends and family also. Those fresh eggs are really delicious....really ! Also the chicken manure has dramatically changed the way a lot of my plants were growing (I have seen some significant growth. I usually lay straws or grass clipping in their run and weekly pull them and put it in a compost pile and very happy with it so far. I used to spend a lot of money on compost, topsoil etc, but don't plan to do that anymore. By the way, I haven't seen a lot of common insect that usually invest my vegetable gardens (or garden as a whole). I think they are very effective at it. I am a strong believer of all organic, so pretty much everything chemical free. Having said that, there are drawbacks! yes, some folks talked about their neighbor's chicken coming and running a havoc in their garden bed ... that is true. You have to really protect your garden (especially when they are young) and also they will go after those young tomatoes!!! They pretty much dug up all my Lilly!! They made a huge mess with the pine straw bed I had worked so hard to put out ... Oh, did I mention they will come to my driveway and deck area and do their bizzness :)) But oh how they were so cute when they were baby chicks and also it is just so darn peaceful when you are walking around and those chickens are browsing all around you. I don't think I will give up on them, I will figure out how to adopt to them :)

Schrems was surprised to discover, among the 1,222 pages of data covering three years of Facebook activity, not only deleted wall posts and messages, some with sensitive personal information, but e-mail addresses he'd deleted and names he'd removed from his friends list. Well of course it's still there. It off the page but still archived. that goes for almost anything and everything you post on the net. It's not a Facebook issue. It's part of the new age we live in. You can burn a letter or paper doc. You can't burn content off the internet. You can clean your own house but once it's out thee it is out there. I hope he has what it takes to be a better lawyer. He's not a very savvy IT guy. LOL

The downside is for those who sell through the consignment shops. Someone I know has been considering that as a business and told me the commission is 50%. When things are already expected to sell dirt cheap, I can't see paying someone else to do it, losing another 50% on the item.