Hoping all continues to go well, Sherry. Grim time for you both. Illness, of any kind, seems like a scary prospect in the US so I am really glad that you are able to access good facilities. Big hugs winging your way. Am faintly astonished by the gardening clothes. I don't have any. I just wear what I am wearing......but then again, probably everything I have looks like candidates for the junk pile so who cares about rips or grubbiness. As for bras - well, I am a 70s girl so grew up in an era of naked chests (for feministas) and have maintained this (ahem) 'look' forever (and amazingly, they are nowhere near my knees). I made extra cash as an artist's model for years, even (well, especially) during pregnancies so am definitely lacking the modesty gene. Growing up poor with many siblings kinda removes any squeamishness you might have around privacy issues. I am not even going to think about annoying earworms (bloody Puff was one of mine too) - too many and they take over my brain - even worse, I am sure my lips are moving too as I am singing away in my head. Haikus are certainly not going to wash for this verbose word lover - almost as bad as the ridiculous Twitter - am usually just warming up after 17 syllables or 140 characters or whatever. Brevity has never been one of my virtues (my family and friends who are regularly bored into submission, would surely agree).

I cannot think how you would injure the plant. Do you have something specific in mind, that is a specific method that "might" injure a plant? Winter protection is applied when the plant goes dormant and is removed in the spring. You can either (a) surround the plant with chicken wire and top with lots of dried leaves or (b) gently press down with a cardboard until the stems have bent down and you can add weight in the form of rocks (top with leaves). If the bending of stems in that last one is what concerns you, the stems recover quite easily in spring and you are supposed to press down gently not hard and suddendly. Some stems may turn white if one waits too long to remove the cardboard but they recover the color with exposure to the sun. Neither of those things would hurt the plant. Check Hayseedman's thread on overwintering by clicking on the link below. Luis Here is a link that might be useful: overwintering Hydrangea macrophylla winter protection

I find this so strange, children that can't get up and get dressed themselves. My oldest daughter has been getting up on her own, getting dressed, eating breakfast, checking the calendar to see if she wants to pack or buy that day, and then making her own lunch since first grade. I do help her pick her clothes out the night before because she'll wear the same couple of outfits all the time if I don't encourage her to mix it up a little, and I check her lunch to make sure it's not just cookies and chips because she has tried to do that a couple of times...but she NEVER remembers to brush her teeth without being told...I think she's doing well enough that I can let that one slide for now. My SD will get up and gets dressed and eats, but if her head wasn't screwed on, she'd leave it behind when she left. We're talking, "Do you got your backpack? Did you put your homework in it? Do you have your gym clothes? Got your lunch?" We'll have her pack everything up the night before and put it right next to the door, but inevitably she always leaves somthing sitting right there by the door when she leaves...but we NEVER have to remind her to brush her teeth or wash her hands. She's seriously into the cleanliness thing when it comes to her body, so that's good. Oh, and I think she probably could pack her own lunch, but DH does it for her because he knows her mom does and that's what she's used to. My 4yo WANTS to do it all herself, even the stuff I don't want her to do, like pour milk into her cereal from a full gallon. She picks out her own clothes and dresses herself, but I have to tell her to go get dressed or she'll stay in jammies all day, but that's okay because I like to do that sometimes too:) She insists she can bathe herself, which she can, but she also thinks she can wash her own hair, which she can if you like to still have a bunch of soap in it when you're done. And she absolutely hates it when I brush her teeth for her, but I just don't think she's physically capable of doing it to my satisfaction yet. They're all different, so you can't treat them the same. Just got to go one step at a time with each one of them.

artemis78, I found your link in my "working" list of threads needing repair, and I submitted it on 2/24. You're right, it's still missing all the photos. :-( Modern California Bungalow Kitchen artemis Oct 2011 Thank you for posting, because I also rechecked the last group of threads I submitted around the same time...and found a few more that are still missing photos and/or text. I've sent a new list to Tamara, to re-send to the tech team folks. I'll keep an eye on the threads I resent today. I appreciate the heads up!