THE OLD MAN AND WOMAN STRUCK AGAIN! Friday night, they left the garage door open ajar because of below zero temperatures (minus 16 to be exacct) and were worried about our cat Toeby. (The old sweeties really are caring and sensitive at times.) I'll post a picture of Toeby below. (He has 6 toes on each foot.) Well, this led to our pipes freezing and bursting in our furnace/pump room at 3 a.m. In the night, I heard the sound of rushing water, ran out to the garage, and freaked as I tried to turn off the pump in frigid temperatures. The plumbers came later in the day and fixed everything and gave us a $650 bill! Remember, our hot water heater incident earlier in the week cost us $1000! So, the whole time we were writing a check, the old man and woman were laughing! Oh, after the plumbers left, Carol wanted to do a load of laundry. Well, the Old Lady and Man had frozen the drain pipe and water went everywhere in our laundryroom. I had enough! I had them pack their bags and shipped them off on the train with a one way ticket to....! Are they headed your way? Be prepared! I'm exhausted from Winter Break! I need a vacation from my vacation! LOL Bear Hugs! Kirk

What a waste of time! Why in the world do they bother people like this, and real criminals get off scott free! GRrrr.... They should be applauding her for planting vegetables to eat...more people need to be doing this! If they really want her to have a more picture perfect yard, they could have asked her to plant either grass or shrubs or something in the front half of her yard. But really, at least she doesn't have a bunch of weeds growing. One thing, Slimy Okra, about having wildflowers planted in the front yard, is that plenty of those mixes have flowers that are essentially noxious weeds. Not only does that kind of stuff sneak out and get into other peoples yards, but worse, it can get out into the farmers crops, ditches, etc. surrounding the cities, and become a serious problem for them to deal with. I think it is different if they are a carefully selected mix of native plants and non-invasive "wild" flowers. I always wince when I see stuff like baby's breath growing in people's yards. So I'm definitely not for "grow whatever you want", but I do understand where you are coming from...those controlled communities are completely bonkers. Why the heck would we want everyone's yard to look the same?!

Okay, I admit I'm a skeptic...but, I just want to know if I understand the nature of this offer. The seller wants me to drive to her home after I call and book the date. Bring my own tools and containers. Then labor to unearth her plants. Pack them in my containers. Then pay her money for the plants. And, the pricing of the plants has not been determined in advance. What if she wants $20 a clump after the digging is done? If the seller has some really rare specimens this might be worth it. But, why pray tell, would I pay good money for potentially diseased second hand ordinary plants that I could buy fresh from the greenhouse with out all the work? Now if the plants were free...I'd understand the deal. There's a definite lack of "quid pro quo" here. Remember what PT Barnum said was "born every minute". Just my 2¢ Pete in IF

This came in my mail today. This two-letter word in English has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that word is 'UP.' It is listed in the dictionary as an [adv], [prep], [adj], [n] or [v]. It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP? At a meeting, why does a topic comeUP? Why do we speak UP, and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report? We call UP our friends, brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. Welock UP the house and fix UP the old car. At other times this little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is special. And this UP is confusing: A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP. We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night. We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP ! To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look UP the word UP in the dictionary.. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4 of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more. When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP . When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP. When it rains, it soaks UP the earth. When it does not rain for awhile, things dry UP. One could go on & on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now ........my time is UP ! Oh....one more thing: What is the first thing you do in the morning & the last thing you do at night? U P ! Did that one crack you UP? Don't screw UP. Send this on to everyone you look UP in your address book..or not...it's UP to you. Now I'll shut UP Nanny (this is almost as good as cynic's)