Dee, I like your idea of putting all the small tools in a five gallon bucket and bringing it with you. I think I am going to try my version of that with a two wheeler and a small beach umbrella. I like bringing shade with me and having a two wheeler to move something if I need it. I also have a way of using the 5 gallon bucket as a work surface while sitting on a riding seat. I had fun putting the whole thing together too. Had lots of places to put things like my water bottle, etc. I did that two summers ago and I forget what happened that I didn't last year. I could move into one of those sheds tomorrow too Dee. Might make a nice get away, right in the backyard. Bring out a cooler and a comfortable chair, a few gardening magazines...make a day of it. :-) Linda, the umbrella is a nice idea when you have to use a space that is too sunny and it helps when it rains to keep things dry if you haven't got any cover. I also made a decision to try using the garage for one season and clear out an area that would be the same size as a small shed and see how it works before I commit to having a shed. sooey, you sound pretty organized to me! pm2

buyorsell888 It is hard to say if the hardware will work for sure with vista. One way to check would be to go to the manufacturer's site for each piece that you have and see if they have drivers for vista. Most things like the hub and speakers work with everything. I do have an option that may work out even better. Have you ever heard of Ubuntu? It is a flavor of Linux that is very powerful and easy to use. It is free and will run rather nice on that hardware that you mentioned. I have set up a dozen people on it and all but one stayed on it. She only left it because her motherboard went bad and bought a new computer. A mac. I included a link to either download and burn a copy or to ask them to send you a free cd. If it is your original hard drive, you may want to go buy another one because that might be at the root of your problem, or it could just be spyware or virus problems. I tried Ubuntu after beta testing vista and have to say that I am happy that I decided not to switch to vista. My camera that wouldn't work with windows unless I downloaded the garbage software works with Linux flawlessly. It is also a good bit faster as well. It comes with a fully compatible word office suite as well. Let me know if you have any more questions. What is there to lose except a little time? If you don't like it, then you can spend the money and buy a new machine. I have to admit that it isn't for everyone. Some people have a need to spend money on things to think that it is a worthy solution. Either way, you have an option if you choose to take a look at it. Good luck with your choice Here is a link that might be useful: alternative solution

I think offering support and inviting their children over to play (and take to the movies, museums, etc.) are ways of DOING things. You could also simply invite the family over for dinner so the kids can play and you could socialize. Recently, a close friend of mine was told she would be laid off after the holidays. We work in somewhat the same field, so I asked for her resume. I ended up not submitting her resume at my office (hiring freeze). Instead, after asking her permission, I redid her resume. In this case, it was a very close friend, otherwise I would not have presumed to do what I did. (Good news she got two job offers within 2 weeks and turned down several interviews - this woman had incredible experience but she didn't market herself well) When I was job-searching, my friends also shopped my resume. We weren't necessarily in the exact same field, but it didn't hurt to pass around my resume to see if anything happened. In the end, I mainly got moral support and a wonderful feeling that people care about me and that went a long way.

Misty, There are a lot of variables when calculating how much water for a plant. If you water deeply and less often the roots tend to be deeper down in the soil and do not dry out as much. You can train plants to do this by watering less often but more deeply. If you have roses drooping, keep letting them droop for a bit longer before you water and their roots will adjust. Travelling around the grape growing areas of South Australia and parts of NSW one can see healthy roses blooming at the ends of the rows. They are only watered when it rains or when they have to irrigate. They enjoy the same conditions as the grapes which can be pretty dry at times and yet they thrive. If we molly-coddle our plants too much they get all soft and spoiled (just like humans).