But mostly, I want seed from this plant. It is so tenacious about living, that I want some copies next year. I'm worried that it's too late in the year, but I'm going to try and grow this one out far enough to get some seed. **** with those blossoms and you being in Atlanta it shouldn't be a problem to get mature fruits. But I do hope you get some single blossoms b'c with so called megablooms you can get fusing of the fruits and then there's a greater chance of getting crossed seeds b;c of the possibility of different blossoms in that one megabloom being independently X pollinated and then the several fruits becoming one. And I noticed you weren't bagging blossoms but perhaps this plant is far enough away from others to help ensure no X pollinations. OTOH seed for Big Rainbow is readily available at many places. ( smile) Carolyn

Morning ladies : ) As I reread my post from last night, I see so many shorthand phrasings and mistakes...please forgive my exhausted, birthday-cake-addled typing/speech : ) Then I had a migraine last night and I'm still recovering, so I may not be entirely polished and coherent yet, but there's so much to respond to...because MAN, this is an incredible thread. There are still things from before my last reply that I wanted to address, including first off a bit about why sub teaching is out of the question...our school district has gone through a huge layoff/budget reduction process this past summer, extremely traumatic and publicized. We've now got class sizes about twice the size of those that the Chicago teachers were posting as being unworkably high. Things are really bad here. In fact the largest part of my summer, which I had planned to devote to learning Spanish and finishing the house, suddenly went to helping to develop a parent/teacher alliance dedicated to dealing with the budget situation in a more intelligent, less damaging manner. Literally hundreds of teachers were laid off (and they didn't have to be--long story). So there are lots of teachers wandering around trying to find anything they can... judith, I agree with you -- the organization of this thing is extremely weird. What's happening is that the for-profit online institution (not a U. of Phoenix kind of thing--an outgrowth of a well-established 'real' university) that the 'observer' is attending is in another state, so they have had to arrange observations for the practica of students who don't have teaching posts at the moment. She doesn't have a teaching post, so the school called our organization and asked if she could 'use' our classes, with no coordination of pedagogy, no recognition of onsite supervision necessary, no nothing... My background as it relates to observations/internships: I've not only created pre-service training for adult literacy teachers, and supervised *well-thought-through* internships with plenty of communication going both ways, I've also been trained and have trained current literacy professionals in educational ethnographic observation, which this person is *not* doing. (my supervisor now doesn't even know what ethnography is) IOW, I know enough to know that everything is wrong with this lazily-constructed excuse for an observation class. running, that must have been a really striking course of events for you all. Very frustrating to order more food than turns out to be needed, I imagine! I do think it would (have been) totally fair for my supervisor to share some of the payment with me in recognition for *any possible* extra bother it might be, and that that's what I definitely would have done in her place. On a different level, wrt starting a program of my own, I'm sure that other teachers will recognize this phenomenon: the *students* have been much more generous in their recognition of my work than my millionaire supervisor has. I'm talking *amazingly delicious* labor-intensive food made and given to me for our family, large and frequent offerings of frozen home-raised, grass-fed beef, a Visa gift card, handmade craft gifts, even clothing that people have bought in styles of their country of origin...I am embarrassed to accept them because it's more than some of the families can comfortably afford--but I try to be gracious and recognize the emotions and appreciation behind them. These are folks who sometimes can't come to class because they ran out of gas and they can't afford either busfare, or to refill the tank, until the next payday. So if I do start my own literacy program, I would never be able to charge a cash fee to the learners, because I don't think that they value something less if it's free -- folks who have to scrape by, overworking in order just to have enough money to survive, recognize that we all need to help each other as much as possible, and just because something isn't tied to money doesn't mean it's worthless. And in ref. to your basic point, that I should just tell the supervisor that the 'observation' needs to stop: that's *exactly* what I decided to do this morning, rather than offer to help facilitate it, etc...I just woke up with the thought that 'this is not my issue and I don't want to expend any more energy on it -- it just has to stop because it's negatively affecting the class." I didn't say all of that in my e-mail, but rather pretty much exactly what you said, nothing more, and not with any personal or negative tone at all. We'll see what happens, but it's definitely proceeding from a solid, love-based foundation of what's best for the class, so I stand by it. And stinky, you know you never need to worry about hijacking! Like golddust, I think that threads really begin to live when they veer off into new directions and take on new energy, so feel free! It's so interesting to see how different people price their garage/estate sales -- some folks have an "I just want to get rid of it and avoid 10 trips to Goodwill" attitude, and others want to wring every last possible cent from their stuff, even if it means they sell much less. I'm a person who doesn't like to haggle too much, so if something is priced insanely highly, I'm not going to bother to counteroffer, because of the negative energy..not worth it to me, even if the sellers say "make me an offer". eh. It's all psychology, isn't it! *Now* for my day-after-birthday indulgence, since yesterday was so crazy: a trip to Benjamin Moore for some paint samples (Covington Blue is looking like an early leader) for my file cabinets, and a nice long swim session at our lovely neighborhood pool : ) Swim off all that stress...which reminds me, oakley, that was an incredibly powerful story you shared about the effects of job stress on you. I'm glad it didn't have any worse outcome. We have to remember what's most important, even if some forces would like us to forget... I've said it before, but you all are completely amazing.

The OP asked about 'everyday', or 'common' foods, so I was really surprised by many of the answers here. A lot of them would definitely NOT be considered 'everyday' around here. So it's pretty apparent that environment, upbringing, and ethnic background have a pretty big effect on what is considered 'common' foods. I honestly can't think of any 'common, everyday' type food that I haven't made. Nor can I think of many dishes that I really like that I haven't at least tried to make. How successful I was at it is a whole 'nother story. (Big grin) Rusty

How long will the RE boom last in California? Isn't it down a bit already? My advice: Take the money and run. Invest it. Rent in Omaha until you're sure about the work and the location. One thing at a time. This is actually three things: New location. New job for DH. New job for you. Put parenting on hold for a year. If you won't/can't bear children, you can ignore the ticking clock for a while. I'm laughing my head off about 'bugs' in the Midwest. What? I'll show you bugs! Go to Hawaii. Go anywhere there's no hard freeze. (Not that climate isn't changing everywhere. Chicago had a single snowfall Jan. - Mar. Miami is flooding while the rest of Florida burns; ETC!) Rent first is good advice for anyone who can afford it when relocating. Senior friends moved to Arizona, where they liked the weather, but not the 'black helicopter' vibe. Years ago one of DH's friends moved to Atlanta, where they discovered they were unacceptable Damn Yankees. We visited friends from suburban Chicago at their gorgeous home in Atherton, California; they moved 'home' after two years, not wanting that atmosphere for their young boys. My uncle and his bride lived Kauai as newlyweds; moved to the mainland to expose their boys to life beyond 'Surf's Up'. Right now there seems more polarization than ever, with Red State/Blue State. (We need a return visit from Dr. Seuss!)