Oh my goodness, Sherry, I'd have been so frustrated with that gal that you're talking about! Yeah, it makes a person wonder sometimes if anything you're saying is getting through to people. It almost makes you want to say, "Knock knock, is anyone home in there?" ;-) Gosh, it does make you think that maybe she shouldn't even be doing the presentations in a way if she doesn't even know what she's doing herself. I kind of wonder what she tells the other people, if she's even telling them the right things. I can tell the guy about certain websites, but like I said before, I kind of doubt if any of these people have Internet access, but I could be wrong. There are a lot of Amish and Mennonite in our area and both of those groups have different groups within them that have different beliefs. For example, Old Order Amish don't believe in having tractors with rubber tires; their tractors have metal wheels. They only ride in horse-drawn buggies. I'm not sure of their beliefs about electricity, but I'm pretty sure they don't have televisions, telephones, maybe hardly any modern conveniences. They for sure wouldn't have Internet access. New Order Amish will ride in cars as long as someone else is driving them; they seem to like to shop at Walmart. :) I don't think this guy is Amish or he probably wouldn't have even been talking to me on the phone. I'd say that he's Mennonite and I'm not familiar with their beliefs, but I know that they are also stricter than people of other religions but not as strict as the Amish, so there's a possibility that he might have Internet access. I don't know about the rest of his family members that are coming in from various areas. That being said, I don't think that they would be Amish if they're flying in on planes. I assume that they aren't having someone drive them here from places like California and Texas. lol I will definitely do what you suggested and hope that he understands. I hate to disappoint the guy, but well, I don't want to be worrying about my cats either. Oh, another "red light" that makes me wonder if he'd do a thorough job of passing along information is the fact that he said he wants to keep it simple. Well, if I'd send all of the information with him that I'd want them to know in order to raise a caterpillar, I don't think that would be simple enough to suit him. I mean really, how can you explain in just a paragraph or two about Monarchs, let alone how to care for them?! I feel like he's asking the impossible. I hate for demands to be put on me, and in a way, I'm feeling that way. It's not the he's mean or rude, but I just get this underlying feeling of pressure or something, like if I don't give him caterpillars, it will ruin the presentation. Ugh! It almost makes me want to not answer the phone anymore, but I couldn't do that to a person, just leave him up in the air. Oh, and he said he was going to tell them all to bring a quart jar along to the retreat so each family would be able to take home a caterpillar with them! I wasn't real thrilled about that because there I did feel like he absolutely expects me to give him caterpillars. I just really thought it might just be me worrying for nothing and I didn't say anything. I think that he already sent out information to everyone about that. I guess that he's going to have a lot of disappointed people. Now that I'm thinking about this even more, why can't he go find some caterpillars somewhere and give those to the people if he's so insistent that they have some instead of wanting me to give him some from our garden here. He surely can recognize milkweed if he has some of his own like he said he has. After hearing your story of what you have gone through with that person and having most of your caterpillars that you gave her die, that convinces me more than anything else not to give him any. No matter how disappointed he will be and no matter how many empty jars are waiting for caterpillars, some people are just going to have to be disappointed because I am not giving away any caterpillars. I guess he could tell that I wasn't too happy about the idea because he said something about buying them from me. I told him no, I don't sell caterpillars. Maybe I'm weird, but I'd feel like some madam pimping out some well, you know. Ha. Honestly, I'd feel like I'm exploiting the caterpillars. I just can't take money for them. He's not getting any anyway and thank you so much to you and the others for making me see for sure that giving him some would be a big mistake. I'd be heartbroken if he'd call me up later on and say something like, "I can't figure out what they did wrong; most of the people called me and said that their caterpillars died." Now, that would upset me and then some! Ha, knowing him, he'd probably ask for more! No way, Jose, none in the first place. Get your own. Ha. If I can't get him to see the light, then that's his problem and not mine. He ought to be glad that I'm taking all the time that I am to look up information for him and I've even started milkweed in cups for the people (not that a small milkweed plant would sustain a caterpillar). Even if they would have enough to feed them, so many other things could go wrong that I don't even want to have to worry about any of that. Thanks again. Cathy

Jo, So, next to gardening, your other hobby is spending money? Heaven help your bank account if it rains for another week. : ) Lynn, I wish the rain would leave y'all alone for a while! Too much of a good thing is still too much. I hope your soil gets a chance to dry out soon. Paula, I was watching footage of the OKC flooding on The Weather Channel last night. What is is with the weather and central Oklahoma this year? It seems like the weather just won't give central OK a break this year, although at least the temperatures are a bit cooler even as the water floods people right out of their homes. We did get rain FINALLY, but not as much as they got at our Mesonet station in Burneyville. I think Burneyville was showing 1.37" at one point and we'd only had 1/10th of an inch. It was getting depressing. The heavier rain finally arrived late in the day, and now we're up to 2.3" in the last 24 hours. That's pretty much our average July monthly rainfall in one day. Since June was well below average, we'd be happy to have some more rain fall. I think we're about 4" or 5" below average still. I see more approaching rain appoaching us on the radar, so am hoping it gets here and then stalls over us and rains hard for a while. Our soil isn't saturated enough to make flooding a huge issue here, unlike much of the rest of the state. Our dewpoint was 75 yesterday which is incredibly high and causes breathing difficulties for anyone with asthma or other respiratory issues. So, I knew it would rain hard at some point, since the higher your dewpoint, the more rain that generally will fall. Carol, I'm glad the rain finally found y'all. Maybe your county will look better on the Soil Moisture maps now, cause it was looking pretty sad before. Littledog, My own rain gauge almost never agrees with the Mesonet station either, so I use my measurements...or at least I keep a running total in my head...something like "we have received 3" less than the mesonet station so far this year". In 2007, we had a June similar to yours. I don't remember the exact amount, but it was a lot (I think about a foot in June after 6 or 8" in May) and we had flooding issues both on the Texas side and OK side of the river. In fact, that was one of the very few times that the water at Lake Texoma has over-topped the dam, which resulted in a lot of downstream flooding. I think either Wed. or Thurs. was the 3-year anniversary of the day the water first overtopped the dam. Lake Texoma should start rising soon as the heavy rains that tell in SW OK make their way down the river, but it is a very long way from being fall enough to overtop the dam. I know the Red River was flooding in part of the Jefferson County (the county just west of our county) area last night. Swokiedokie, We have the same. I'm hoping for harder rain so the ponds can refill. I know some folks have had too much rain in the last couple of weeks, or even in the last month or two, but this is the mildest July weather we've had in a while. I love the temps, but bet they won't last much longer. It is, after all, July. Dawn

We had the same problem for years. We have a group of seven couples (all close in age). We would take trips together once every year or so but during the year we would take turns hosting a monthly dinner. Of course this always necessitated a hostess gift. All of us are comfortably off and at our age have everything (material) that we want or need. It drove me crazy because I was constantly being gifted with craft type items. I am just not into cutesy things and I had a difficult time coming up with items that I thought the other ladies would enjoy or use. I failingly ended up giving food items or fresh flowers. We all finally came to a consensus that we should stop doing hostess gifts and at Christmas put funds together to donate to a charity. Thank goodness! The pressure every month is off and we can give to those in need. It's a win/win.

Daisychain, I am a huge fan of the "good enough" school. I did that with my wedding dress. After returning over seven mail order dresses, I picked two that were "good enough" and never found the perfect one. I still had a good time at my wedding. And I was happy that neither dress was so expensive that I regret looking at it sitting forevermore in my closet . . . At some point we have to just keep going and check an item off the list. Years ago, I worked for a statewide organization housed at a university and staffed with college students as interns. Our boss was a great one for leaving "draft" on major policy papers and having endless meetings about edits. Finally one student said sarcastically of her, "At some point, it's not going to be draft anymore whether we like it or not . . . " In another vein, I counsel students to keep going when they are ready to jettison their entire careers because they got a "B" in a class . . . I tell them "B" stands for "good!!" Sometimes people who consistently do B work do much better than the ones who get all A's and then crash and burn due to not being able to handle the stress and can't deliver ANYTHING . . . the perfect is the enemy of the good.