Wow. What a read! I got into Dahlia three years ago. A good friend gifted me with a single cactus - pink that I have yet to identify. It's a strong plant with lovely blooms that also make great cuts. Because of how I grow my flowers, this dahlia in particular will yield an incredibly quantity of useful tubers for the next year. Of course, I share what I can and my friends fall in love with growing dahlias because of their success in growing this particular cultivar. Sorry, my intro went on for days. Given that I reside in SE Portland, I have come to rely upon Swan Island [Canby, OR] and Old House Dahlias [SE Portland]. This years crop came entirely from Old House Dahlia. I am very pleased by the quality and performance. However, several cultivars have been slow in growing, notably Lindy, Tanjoh, and Fascination. The blooming is delayed, too. Aside from the pink, my planting of Shea's Rainbow has been the showstopper of the season. Relying on the Aer. Dahlia Society's classification index, Shea's Rainbow is BB/IC/V [meaning, Small flowered [4-6"]/Incursive Cactus/Variegated coloring. Checkers [M/FD/BI] comes in a close second. Although, I have discovered this cv. to be less stable in terms of bloom bi-coloration reverting possibly to one the parent colors?

I've looked at several but not found one I liked.

Creek Side, The working part of your solar gain (or no solar gain) windows is the LowE coating. There are two primary types of coatings available - hard coat and soft coat; and there are three categories within the two types - high solar heat gain, moderate solar heat gain, and low solar heat gain. Hard coats are primarily florine enhanced tin oxide that is applied while the glass is still hot in the float furnace using a process called Chemical Vapor Deposition or CVD. Hard coats, also know as pyrolytic LowE, were the first coatings available and are generally thought of as High Solar Heat Gain (HSHG) although there are low solar gain versions available - often using tinted glass as part of the application. Soft coats are applied to the glass in vacuum chambers using a process known as Magnetron Sputter Vacuum Deposition or MSVD, which really doesn't mean much to anyone outside of the coating world, but it is kinda fun to say. Soft or sputter coats are applied as multiple layers of metals and metallic oxides. A typical soft coat might consist of 7 to 11 layers of different metals, but not all of the different layers actually affect the penetration of heat thru the coating. Most soft coats use silver as the operative ingredient, but other metals can be used such as titanium or even stainless steel. The layers in a soft coat are very thin - the layers are measured in angstroms or "how many atoms thick". A single layer in a soft coat might be no more than 50 atoms in thickness. Soft coats are generally considered to be Low Solar Heat Gain (LSHG) by most folks because they do perform very well in that capacity when compared to hard coats, but there are moderate and high solar heat gain soft coats available as well depending on the number of layers of silver (I am going to use "silver" when talking about soft coats simply because the vast majority of soft coats used are silver-based). A single silver coating would be a HSHG, a dual-silver coating would be a MSHG, and a triple silver coating would be a LSHG. All LowE coatings work by blocking radiant energy, primarily in the Infrared or IR spectrum, but the differences between coatings pertaining to high versus low solar gain results from what portion of the IR spectrum is blocked. First, all light carries heat. If you have a window, you are going to get heat passing thru it no matter what you do because even visible light contributes to a good bit of radiant energy gain or loss thru a window. What a LowE coating primarily does is limit the amount of heat as IR (and to a lesser extent visible) energy that passes thru the glass. Why it works is based on the fact that the infrared energy spectrum is divided into near, mid and far, and when dealing with LowE performance we are talking primarily about the near infrared and the far infrared. In simplest terms, near infrared is direct solar gain while far infrared is heat that isn't direct solar gain. When the sun shines on you and you are feeling its heat directly, you are experiencing near infrared IR. When you feel heat radiating off a stone wall that was warmed by the sun, you are experiencing far infrared. All LowE coatings work by blocking far infrared. The heat that a home's heating system puts out in winter is far infrared. All LowE coatings will block a significant portion of that spectrum resulting in keeping far infrared heat inside in winter and outside in summer. But, while coatings block far infrared, they don't all affect near infrared the same way. A HSHG coating allows near infrared (direct solar energy) to pass thru the coating while a LSHG coating blocks energy in the near infrared spectrum. Obviously a moderate gain coating is somewhere in the middle. Many folks, especially in Canada, generally consider that hard coats are superior to soft coats for high solar heat gain applications because they simply passed more solar energy than do any of the soft coats. However, there are softcoat high solar heat gain coatings that are as good or better than the best hard coats in high solar heat gain applications. Typically the lower the SHGC the better the U-value of an IG with coated glass. LSHG coatings outperform HSHG coatings in U-value performance. But in a well designed solar-home the advantage of solar heat gain could offset the slight loss of insulating value in the windows. In a high solar gain application, you want to ensure that the coating is on IG surface 3 - typically, most coatings are applied to IG surface 2, so be sure to specify a high solar gain coating on surface 3 - no matter what the window you buy. I would also suggest (and this may be already in your plans), that you avoid placing high solar gain units on any side of your home other than direct south. Adding high heat gain windows on the east or (especially) west side is very likely to offset any advantage that you gain by having south-facing high heat gain windows.

I'll post the link to ExRx below. GREAT place for checking out strength training workouts (there's a little movie of the exercise being performed on each page). Also a caveat to ordering from infomercials or QVC - you get what you pay for...if you're looking for a home treadmill/elliptical/etc., I'd suggest going to Sears, SportMart, or Play it Again Sports and **try before you buy**. Yeah, I know, QVC has the 30-day money back guarantee but think of what a hassle it'll be to keep the packaging, repackage, and ship back a large item. Not to mention that YOU have to pay the return shipping out of pocket! My top two suggestions for home exercise equipment: For strength training: Check out PowerBlocks. They are so neat - it's a set of adjustable dumbbells that takes up very little room and you can adjust from 5 pounds up to 100+ (depending on what model you buy). If you have wrist problems these are also a good choice ergonomically. PowerBlocks are being carried by a lot of exercise equipment dealers (FitnessWize is one in my area) or you can check 'em out on www.powerblocks.com. Trust me that you CAN INDEED get a full strength training workout with just dumbbells and an adjustable bench! Cardio top choice: If you have a decent bike (road or mountain) look into buying a WIND TRAINER. Most professional cyclists rely on wind trainers to keep up during the wet/rainy/snowy seasons when they can't ride outdoors. These can REALLY give you a workout! Best of all, they are very compact once you remove your bike - fits nicely into a closet. They come in a wide range of prices - just keep in mind that the less expensive ones are going to be a lot noisier than the pricier models. Any well-stocked bike shop should carry at least one model for you to try out. Check eBay for great prices! Hope that helps! Here is a link that might be useful: ExRx.net - strength training exercises galore!