Love this thread!!! I keep nodding my head at some of the things (yogurt cups all over the place, full of seeds and tiny ripped-off corners of paper for labels, making another flower bed simply cuz' you don't have room for all the seedlings, etc). You know you have a problem when you read this post and say to yourself "I'm not as bad as some of the people here". Then you realize you are worse and were only trying to delude yourself before. LOL. Classic case of addict denial! I have to say, reading the posts here makes me feel a little less guilty about my seed snatchin' and WHERE I have ended up snatchin' from. :-) You feel so pleased when you convert your own father into a fellow seed snatcher! One day he came up to me with a happy/sneaky look on his face and pulled a seedpod (a simple marigold) out of his pocket that he snagged from a store. Next he gives me a tiny NOID sprig of a shrub that he pulled up from in front of some mall in town ;-D Then one day I give him a tin of herbal drops I no longer want and ask him to save the tin. I didn't even have to tell him what I wanted it for- he said it for me "for seeds!" I think I have found my kinfolk here in all of you. Great post! ;-) CMK

HI Lindy B, Well, something must be funny if I'm up at 2:30 in the morning!!! LOL I think I can sleep now, but maybe I should relay a story if I can paste it here. One story is a forward I got on a garden snake. Now if anyone that would laugh at a garden snake story would have to belong to the Garden Website. Haha. Here goes: If not, then the little green snake swallowed me up! Be sure to read to the END for my snake story! Cheers! Garden Snakes are DANGEROUS! > Author Unknown > > Green garden grass snakes can be dangerous. > > Yes, grass snakes, not rattlesnakes. A couple in > Sweetwater, Texas had a lot of potted plants, and > during a recent cold spell, the wife was bringing a > lot of them indoors to protect them from a possible > freeze. It turned out that a little green garden grass > snake was hidden in one of the plants and when it had > warmed up, it slithered out and the wife saw it go > under the sofa. She let out a very loud scream. > > The husband, who was taking a shower, ran out into the > living room naked to see what the problem was. She > told him there was a snake under the sofa. He got down > on the floor on his hands and knees to look for it. > About that time the family dog came and cold nosed him > on the rear. He thought the snake had bitten him and > he fainted. > > His wife thought he had a heart attack, so she called > an ambulance. The attendants rushed in and loaded him > on the stretcher and started carrying him out. > > About that time the snake came out from under the sofa > and one of the Emergency Medical Technicians saw it > and dropped his end of the stretcher. That's when the > man broke his leg and why he is still in the hospital. > The wife still had the problem of the snake in the > house, so she called on a neighbor man. He volunteered > to capture the snake. He armed himself with a > rolled-up newspaper and began poking under the > couch. Soon he decided it was gone and told the woman, > who sat down on the sofa in relief. > > But in relaxing, her hand dangled in between the > cushion where she felt the snake wriggling around. > She screamed and fainted, the snake rushed back under > the sofa, and the neighbor man, seeing her laying > there passed out tried to use CPR to revive her. The > neighbor's wife, who had just returned from shopping > at the grocery store, saw her husband's mouth on the > woman's mouth and slammed her husband on the back of > the head with a bag of canned goods, knocking him out > and cutting his scalp to a point where it needed > stitches. > > An ambulance was again called when it was determined > that the injury required hospitalization. > > The noise woke the woman from her dead faint and she > saw her neighbor lying on the floor with his wife > bending over him, so she assumed he had been bitten by > the snake. She went to the kitchen, brought back a > small bottle of whiskey, and began pouring it down the > man's throat. By now the police had arrived. They saw > the unconscious man, smelled the whiskey, and assumed > that a drunken fight had occurred. They were about to > arrest them all, when the two women tried to explain > how it all happened over a little green snake. The > ambulance arrived and took away the neighbor and his > sobbing wife. Just then the little snake crawled out > from under the couch. One of the policemen drew his > gun and fired at it. He missed the snake and hit the > leg of the end table that was on > one side of the sofa. The table fell over and the lamp > on it shattered and as the bulb broke, it started a > fire in the drapes. > > The other policeman tried to beat out the flames and > fell through the window into the yard on top of the > family dog, who startled, jumped up and raced out into > the street, where an oncoming car swerved to avoid it > and smashed into the parked police car and set it on > fire. Meanwhile, the burning drapes had spread to the > walls and the entire house was > blazing. Neighbors had called the fire department and > the arriving fire truck had started raising his ladder > when they were halfway down the street. The rising > ladder tore out the overhead wires and pulled out the > electricity and disconnected telephones in a > ten-square city block area. > > Time passed... > > Both men were discharged from the hospital. The house > was re-built. The police acquired a new car, and all > was right with the world. About a year later the > original couple were watching TV and the weatherman > announced a cold snap for that night. The husband > asked his wife if she thought they should bring in > their plants for the night. > (Said this to a BIL)---- I finally have read the snake story. Very funny, but oh so true. Hehe. When I was a little girl, about 3 years old I was play ironing with my mother. I had my little ironing board and she had hers. While playing I saw a snake go by down the hallway. This was in San Jose and we had brown tiled floors. I told my mother and she thought it was the telephone cord lying on the floor. In the 50's usually one phone and a long cord. I said "No." as a little girl could say, my mother must have believed me cuz she put me on a chair or stool and called the police. When asked where I thought it came from, I said, "The bathtub." The bathroom was at the other end of the hall. The room we were in faced the living room and the entrance into the hallway and the bedroom doorway where I was at and the other bedrooms that went down a long hall. Anyway, we figured the snake went down into my mother's bedroom. The policeman did his duty and gathered the snake into a brown paper bag. Away he went to put it somewhere, I assume since I was a little girl. We figured that it must have been a Gopher snake that had traveled from the prune orchard behind our backyard fence and slithered down our sideyard sidewalk and creeped into our tiled kitchen floor and continued its way down to the hallway where I saw it. I don't know why it would be in our house except for finding protection from the summer day or maybe it saw a GOPHER. Hehehe...hahaha...heh,heh,heh... Another thing is that the story earlier isn't too way off as I bring in my water plants too, and I have been known to be surprised by these little green snakes wrapped around the water lilies. They quickly wriggle out of the waterlily pot and slither up the waterfalls and out of the pond to avoid contact with my attempt to trim the water lily leaves. Heh,heh. Karalyn PS--They never do get into the house, Knock on Wood. hehe

ROTFLMAO! I didn't know there was a thread going on about this. It's about time somebody mentioned this! I LOL daily when I peruse the CL's ads. Where are these people coming from? People, proof your ads before you hit that "submit" button. I really LOL when they list an appliance for sale that is so filthy and then they say "would really look nice when cleaned up". Well, duh, clean it up before you take the picture and heck, you might actually "sale" it! I'm glad somebody posted this thread, I've been thinking the very same thing for months. LOL Now I think I'll go have a looky at Craig's list and see if I can find me sum of them thar anteek chester draws.

We moved in two days ago Kim :) It's taken this long to get the internet working (and it only works on the back side of the house LOL) More work to do I guess. Thank you :) We do love the house and grounds, although the sheer size is intimidating as you think about cleaning it LOL More so as we've moved in somewhat. Probably more so after we have 20 overnight guests next weekend. It was the oldest B&B in the pacific northwest, (35 years) prior it was an apartment building and prior to that a hospital, and then the original owners had it until their deaths. (early 20's) We are lucky that the folks who did the big restoration in the 60's and 70's didn't follow current fashion (painting all of the wood for instance) and they were sensative to the home. In addition, when the bathrooms were added in the last 20 years (another owner who was also sensative to the house) it was done incredibly well, taking a few feet of space from each room, but integrating them well (some B&B's cheap out and put the tubs and sinks in the rooms). They will be easy to upgrade to more victorian features (is that an upgrade backgrade?) There are three buildings on site. One is considered the carriage house (but really is the base of a 3 1/2 story water tower we will eventually rebuild). The other is the original gardners cottage. They take up one lot and the gardens take up the other. Talk about intimidating...too much garden LOL And on top of too much garden...I have 400 house plants (maybe not that but five or six per room). The poor things are doomed in my care. I'm thinking of a sidewalk give away very very soon to save their lives! Poor dears...even my husband feels sorry for them. I tried to convince my mother that they are guest gifts and that guests (her) must take one each time they visit but she hasn't gone for it yet (I sometimes think if she were senile my life would be much easier...) Today we turn the old office off the kitchen (our future family dining room after we remodel the kitchen, but that's a few years off) into a play room for DS. I hope this grand old home likes thomas the train LOL Oh here's a funny....we get about a dozen visits a day asking if we have a vacancy! It was funny but is getting annoying LOL They want tours and won't always take "private home" for an answer LMAO. "Oh dear...no rooms? Well can we just see it?" No go knock on the neighbors house and ask for a tour heh heh Oh let's see...nope not a B&B (I'm not nice enough since DS was born and keeps me up all night) :) And how many bathrooms? Sigh...12 Do you think the B&B potential guests might think that the tour includes a once in a lifetime opportunity to clean a victorian bathroom? I might let them in....