She's already home from the hospital! Thanks for the good wishes and thoughts and prayers. I am fine- kidney functioning well, have 2 doctor appointments in May, I spent the today (Saturday) working in my flower garden and cleaning house. Also made a nice ham dinner in my slow cooker.

edb2n- Please tell your wife that 1. I can relate and 2. It ABSOLUTELY wasn't her fault. I was 38 weeks pregnant with number 3, the day after my husbands birthday. I made stew for dinner, ladled the bowls and then pushed them far back onto the counter so they could cool. I was about 12 feet away, folding laundry when I saw my 2 year old try to grab the bowl. I told her no, and...to this day, 3 years later, I still see it in my head in slow motion. Me, moving towards her to stop her, her grabbing the edge of her bowl and this boiling hot stew dumping all over her. I rushed to pull her clothes off and her skin came with it. My husband, who arrived home just as it happened, put her in the car with nothing but a diaper and a cold towel over the burn and rushed her to the ER where they promptly put her on a medivac helicopter to the specialized burn center 2 hours away. We raced there and when we walked in, the first thing I saw was my little angel, all doped up on morphine, sitting with a nurse singing itsy bitsy spider. Took a long time before I could hear her sing that song without tearing up. I spent a long time beating myself up about it, should have, could have, etc but bottom line is, looking back, there was nothing I could have done differently. In a morbid sort of way, I am glad I watched it happen. If it had happened when I was out of the room, I would have constantly questioned if I could have stopped it had I been there. Since I was right there, I KNOW there was nothing I could have done differently. It was an accident, plain and simple. The only thing I would have done differently, which I do now with all 4 of my kids is, you do NOT cross this line when mommy is cooking. Of course that has changed as they have gotten older but in general, it is the rule in our house. Children just aren't allowed in the kitchen unless it is one child under close supervision doing something like cookies. Your wife is going to need your support. She probably feels a lot more guilty than she is letting on and is likely playing through the situation in her head over and over. Remind her, over and over, that she wasn't negligent and it was just an accident. As far as playing piano, I'm sure your boy will come through fine. My daughter was burned mostly on her chest and I remember, in the days and weeks that followed, telling my husband that if she had to have reconstructive surgery once she hit puberty because the scar tissue wouldn't stretch, we were paying for it, no questions asked. I didn't want it to be something that would negatively impact her as an adult. Thankfully, after a year of constant vigilance, care and regular checkups with the burn center, no one can even tell she was ever burned unless they see her after she has been out in the sun all day and they know where her burns were. She still remembers the event but not the pain. She talks about riding in the plane (it was a helicopter) with the 2 nice men and how her lips hurt (she fell and busted her lip trying to get away from the burn) In a few years, this will be a distant memory for all of you, though your son may very well recall some details like my daughter has. Thankfully she has never mentioned remembering the pain and hopefully, your son won't either.

I scan Craigslist for garage sales daily. Some are great. Some are not. Craigs allows the person to list almost all the items they are selling and you can get a "feel" for a sale before driving all the way to get to it. I have found that if they list a lot of baby clothes and toys they are not going to have a lot of furniture and housewares or any 'collectibles'. I never find my size in clothing at a garage sale. I have great luck finding clothing at Goodwill though.

The plant I worked on today is F retusa, a VERY close relative of F microcarpa, your plant. They like the same cultural conditions, share the same growth habits, and would be difficult to tell apart if not for your gensing fig's unique (to the genus) root structure. It might have been sold as a bonsai or a pre-bonsai at some point, but the owner had no knowledge of how to tend to it, so just allowed it to grow - hard to say. The tree I worked was a leftover from a workshop our club had. It was a tree no one wanted. I've had it about 10 years and have altered it significantly through chops (cutting most of the trunk off, then training a branch upward as a new leader). It was only last year that I decided to train it as 2 trees. Eventually, the larger tree on the right will hover over the smaller tree in a mother/daughter arrangement. I'll repot it next summer into it's first bonsai pot where I can start refining it. Like yours, it's a strong (genetically vigorous) tree, which is why I removed a lot of leaves and cut the remaining leaves in half to slow it down. Limiting its ability to make food by reducing foliage volume limits internode length (the distance between leaves) and leaf size, both of which are desirable for bonsai. Good luck with your repotting and the recovery. Let me know if there is anything you think I can help with. I've spent time in Montana, the Bridger Range, Gravelly Range, Big Timber, and the Shields River Bottom, and loved every minute of it. What a beautiful State. One of my clearest memories was being on the ground while bow hunting elk, and ending up within 5 ft of a 42" plus Shiras bull moose in full rut who was raking the fresh blowdown I was using for cover. That was a scary moment, but still a fond memory of time spent in the mountains & foothills of your lovely state, which also has a way of making you feel humble while traversing its mountainous parts. Sorry to have wandered so far from the OT. Al