I live in Belmont and am interested in trading plants. You can come check my garden or we can plan a local exchange. Keep me posted.

I am glad y'all survived. Part of Kansas has or has had a PDS (Particularly Dangerous Situation) Tornado Warning or Warnings already today and one comment on Dr. M's blog at wunderground mentioned that NE OK better be watching because their area is right for storm development like what is occurring in Kansas. I have no idea if the person making that comment knows what he or she is talking about though. I bet you got oodles of rain. My rainfall total practically never is the same as my mesonet station's, but often is close to our NWS Co-op Oberserver's totals because he's just a couple of miles NW of us. The heat is one reason I didn't cover up very much yet. With sunlight, which is rare so far today but still likely to make its way through the clouds now and then, I was afraid anything under buckets or sheet plastic would heat up. Around 3 o'clock I might start covering up stuff. I need to go outside and gather up lawn furniture and squeeze it into the garage or potting shed. Y'all don't need any sunlight there. It will just heat up the atmosphere and increase instability. Make that sunshine go away! You know how it works. If I cover up stuff, no hail will fall. If I don't cover up stuff, we'll be slammed by hail. So, apparently covering up plants prevents hail and I'd better do it. I hate covering up and uncovering stuff and have mostly avoided it this year. I guess there's days you just have to do it. I always tell Tim if he'd just build me a Bio-Dome type covering over my garden, I could ignore the weather and not have to cover up plants. I guess I'll never talk him into it. I didn't sleep much last night either. No storms were near me, but I was worried about where the storms were, and also about today. I expect less sleep tonight. If I could sleep in the tornado shelter, I'd do it, but I know from experience that I cannot close my eyes and sleep in there because I am sure that a snake or a black widow or a mouse will find me, even though I have thoroughly searched the shelter and none of those are even present in it. I guess I have too many creepy memories of our next-door-neighbor's old storm shelter left over from when I was a kid. It was dark and I think he must have left the door open all the time because it always had creepy crawly things in it.

I bought a Toto Eco Flush CST784EF for our master bathroom and it is terrible. You need to have a toilet brush scrubber by you each time you use the bathroom because there is not enough water or pressure to clean the toilet. And, it was $600. The biggest waste of money I ever spent. Go with American Standard. We bought one of those for our powder room and it is amazing for 2/3 rds of the cost.

Asheville is a smaller airport, or if you want to consider Boone/Blowing Rock area. I would really recommend you fly into Charlotte (many nonstrop flights from NYC area) and drive the approximate 2 hours to each since you will need a car anyways. Neither is a difficult drive at all, especially since you are looking at summer vs Chistmas. The Grove Park Inn in Asheville is fabulous, but it is pricier. The whole Biltmore complex is can't miss, even for kids. They do have a hotel/resort on the grounds.