Omigosh, I would love to find the latter basket on Easter morning! What a cute kittie! I'm sure your son loved his Pokeman goodies. I wish I'd stayed away from candy, but it's all locked up now :-) Did you notice the toothbrushes in their baskets?

I'm not sure *I* am turning out the way I had hoped! LOL. I only have one in that age group, and he's only 12. But I like him so far. I think I'll keep him. I want a growth chart for the emotional/personality stuff. We have check ups with docs and dentists, eye exams, even before we think something is wrong. Even teachers conferences and standardized tests to tell us they are learning the academics they should be learning, or if intervention is needed. So I think it would be very helpful to have check ups with a counselor of some sort. Not therapy exactly, just a set of questions, a test of sorts, to say yep, they are on the right track. To know that self confidence, responsibility, ambition, compassion... those sorts of qualities... are developing normally. It is so important to how kids turn out, but how do I know for sure it's happening along the way at the rate it should be?? I want that sort of check up. I'd rather their personality be straighened out that their teeth. But it's easier to find out their teeth are crooked. It's hard to be objective about the emotional stuff, so I need a chart. I'm only half joking. If there is a chart, I seriously want it!

Barryv: ha - I didn't mention those cause I haven't had to spend money on them HOWEVER I do have most of that already! ;) I have my grandma's old baker's couche (however there's a hole in it and it's MIGHTY old - the canvas kind...but I'm sentimental about it). Oh and I forgot to mention that another thing I bought recently is one of those metal pans like a couche. I have a peel that my husband brought into the marriage. I have an IR thermometer (didn't I mention that above? Meant to. Actually I almost bought one of those really good Thermapen ones but then I found one for twenty-something that had really good reviews on amazon so I figured I'd be a good girl and got that one. It reads in 6 seconds instead of 2 but oh well). I have 2 big pizza pans (husband again) and one of those pizza screens. Too bad I'm about to go on the Wheat Belly diet - no more wheat for me. Just kidding. Kitchendetective - my theory is that now that I've bought all this stuff, I just HAVE to get serious about it, haha. But mostly, I just love the therapeutic factor - it just feels good to use the kick-ass mixer and then do a light knead and shape, and to watch it rise...then to smell it bake...it's really something (I've come to realize) that sensory people enjoy. Another thing I've come to realize about myself - which I first figured out when I started making homemade cold-processed soap years ago - is that I like to do things that make me feel connected to the past, you know? I feel like a witch, stirring my cauldron when I make soap. ;) Actually witches probably didn't have immersion blenders but still... And I feel connected to women of the past when I knead the dough. Plus I'm a gadget whore so there is that. But bottom line is that in the end, warm, healthy-as-can be bread fresh out of the oven with butter is quite hard to beat. And they make great gifts. :) Marigene - have you used yours a lot? Do you continue to use it and is it holding up well? What else do you use it for besides bread (assuming you use it for bread as most people do)? I used it for meatloaf but what's funny is I actually can't stand traditional, bready meat loaf. I use a recipe that has ground turkey breast, sweet italian sausage, and fresh garlic, onion, mushrooms and spinach. No bread thrown in and it's very meaty. But while I like a medium rare steak, I want this stuff very dense and chewy. So I made meat loaf the other night in the mixer and it worked great (didn't make it too dense regardless, not sure why - maybe cause I mixed it using the roller on low?). I loved how I didn't have to stick my hands in that greasy mess! WARNING: um, rant to follow: It's funny to hear you talk so objectively about money and your age in such practical terms. Like you're talking about a thing with an expiration date. I get it, but it's a funny-sad sort of thing. I hate age. I hate death (my friends are starting to die due to illness, which never happened when I was younger). Such a bitter pill to swallow - I totally lack grace and humility about the whole aging thing. It's a bigger loss than I ever would have expected but I guess that's the nature of the beast. We're clueless until we're not. I want to find some peace about it but instead I'm just obsessing about it (can you tell??!). I guess that's common enough in one's 40s - to silently freak out about it. Will it get easier? Ugh - I'm so disappointed in myself that I'm one of "those" people who is so affected and saddened by it - so vain I guess (not beauty-vain necessarily but just unhappy about being seen as "old" and therefor instantly devalued by society - especially here in the U.S). Youthful appearances of course is part of it but really it's more of an identity thing. It's probably made worse by not having a real career in place (stay at home mom). My friends with wonderful careers barely seem to feel the sting. So thank goodness for hobbies!!! :) And love...and family and friendship...and appreciation for so much about life and nature that has nothing necessarily to do with the material and physical aspects of one's aging but rather what one sees when one looks outside oneself or within, if that makes sense. Holy cow - sorry for the MAJOR rant and for going so far off topic! Hahaha.

Bart, about lilacs and peonies and winter chill. I suspect you could grow them, though you should look around and see what people have in their gardens in your area. We've had a couple of winters in late years where the temperatures hardly fell below freezing; there was one year when my Salvia guarantica never froze back and got up to fourteen feet the following summer, and the Teas starting blooming in March. But, even that year, the tulips and cherries, the peonies and lilacs, the once blooming old roses all flowered. There are different kinds of lilacs, but the classic ones everybody knows are bred from Syringa vulgaris, which is the semi-wild lilac, I'm guessing, that you got suckers from, and with similar needs. Where to buy them from is a question. Early on I bought all the kinds they had from Priola, though their real interest is perennials, not shrubs; then a local nursery for some years offered color coded varieties, without the names though they were named kinds, and picked up similar ones from another nursery, also color coded. My impression is that there are a handful of varieties that are fairly common, and others will take more looking, or you really need to go to a specialist, which could be expensive. Pay attention to the rootstock, as I believe some lilacs are grafted on the species and their growth is identical. They can come own root, and I think most of mine started life as suckers. Lilacs are tolerant, but what they really like is amended clay and full sun. Peonies, both tree and herbaceous, like part shade in summer, more sun in winter, at least, this is how I grow them. They like the same kind of soil as roses and tomatoes: a good stout clay well amended with organic matter, the hole well dug. I've had trouble getting them started, too, mainly because I didn't prepare holes adequately in our terrible ground. That's why I was thorough when I thought up the peony walk. Sometimes peonies will hold out in conditions where nothing else will grow, but you can't rely on it. I don't think they like to bake in the sun in shallow light soil. There are Mediterranean peonies, too, herbaceous, and there are a few good ones that are pretty easy to find: the double red whose name I forget, 'Mollis', and P. peregrina, commonly found in the form of two named varieties. I'm writing a bit hastily right now; I have to go. Anyway, if your interested you should look into them, both do really well here, and I think they likely would in your area, too. Krista, think how much spring you have ahead of you! All that pleasure ahead. Wisteria is wonderful. People complain about it, but to me it's beautiful in every season, and it will be in every garden I ever plant where the climate allows.