I have cable and they just upgraded to 6mb download and 376 upload. You can test your computer speed on Speakeasy.net I recently switched to Spy Sweeper and Trend Micro Antivirus and just the Firewall that came with XP. I turned off the SID broadcast since I am wireless, so people using a wireless computer near my router can't even see my signal to select it. I also put in our computer IPs so only ours are recognized and allowed in through (or out) of the modem. My email is Outlook. I used to use Norton Antivirus which I liked but Trend Micro works well. I don't like McAfee at all. I don't give out my regular email but other than about 15 people. I use Yahoo mail for everything else. Other freebies are Spybot Search and Destroy and AdAware by Lava Soft. I have a Verizon towwer about a mile as the crow flies but we still don't have it, but my cable modem is much faster so I would not get DSL even it does come now. DLS is cheaper, but it would seem like dial up to me now. Getting rid of dial up is like letting a kid go crazy in a candy shop. I turn my computer off when not using it, every time. I also pull out the electric plug during electrical storms. The battery works for about 3 hours. I no longer use a desktop PC, replaced all of those with laptops and use one router for the computers and we share one wireless printer. No wires is great. Jean - I have satellite TV and you are right - heavy clouds and hard rain and it loses the signal. I would hate to have the computers go out too! I sometimes watch missed episodes of various CBS shows on my computer which is nice to be able to do with faster speeds. I'll tell you I also hate all those little cutsey things some used to send to me, or hitting reply all when they don't even know the folks in your email, or those smiley thingys, or anthing AOL! Earthlink emails perturb me too - with having to tell someone to add to their safe list. Geez - let people pick their own list if they want to do that. Rules are not hard to do. You can set up a worm catcher on your email. Make a 'fake' email address !10001! that sits at the top of your address book, with no @XXX behind it (and you can do a 'z' one at the bottom as well) that does not send to any 'real' email if a email worm gets in. It won't stop the worm, but it won't send to everyone in your email address book either, because the top and bottom email address is not real and you get a window that tells you the email can't go out. CT

Burpee Laurentia (not hybrid) was a major disappointment for me last year. Sowed at the end of January, and they got HUGE inside, but there wasn't any flowers until August! I'm going to try just a couple of hybrid Laurentia Avant Garde, and then if they don't pan out, I'm writing them off! New for sowing indoors: Wahlenbergia Undulata (Rockbell), Ruellia (mexican Petunia), and Calibrachoa, orange. The Calibrachoa actually had a few seedpods, but I hear they are typically sterile, and any seeds should revert back to the original petunia form, but I'm gonna try them anyways. Any exotic growers out there?

Dear Paigect, I am another one of those - former stepchild/stepmother. I didn't like my stepfather for a while, but figured things out when I grew up and we had a great relationship before he died of cancer. My first dad was dead when I got him, so there wasn't any wishing to get back together stuff. What role do you think you could play in putting an end to your son's fantasy of you 2 getting back together? Do you think that you could actually help the situation? Or do you just want your ex to be the one to deal with it? I take it you aren't remarried yourself. If you are truly trying to get your son happy and able to have a relationship with his dad- you could help. If your son acts out and is disrespectful to his stepmother and you condone it and blame it on the fantasy and her - you are giving him a message that he can be disrespectful to adults if he chooses not to like them. Do you see that? I have one stepson who is like that, and I have another one who I adore and he a loves me. The difficult one has done things that would curl your hair - choked his girlfriend, stole his dad's gun and got arrested 3 days out of marine boot camp, run around naked, at 16, holding his penis out in front of 10 year old girls thinking he's funny, wrecked cars- twice in one weekend one time, threatened me, runaway and left horrid notes blaming me numerously, got beat up at school for running his mouth and needed to be taken to the med station a number of times, stole his dad's 300.00 fish finder and lost it, lying, partying and skipping school, bad grades, no job, the list goes on and on. When do you say enough is enough? His hell bent goal was to get his dad to divorce me so he could be in charge. He wanted to run things. He blames me for joining the Marines -claims he wanted to get away from me. Now he hates it and it is all my fault. It will be my fault if he gets hurt too. He isn't responsible for any part of our bad relationship or his choices, is he? I am just supposed to take it, the blame and the horrid behavior. His room is a mess from the last time he was home - including used rubbers and half eaten candy bars stuck to the carpet. Oh by the way, his carpet is ruined, there are holes in the walls and his mattress is all chopped up - the new one I bought for him when we moved into our house together. That is all my fault too. Some kids just aren't nice. I must be doing something right though - his brother loves me like crazy. And now you can call me an evil stepmother like he does. Or you can realize that some of us have come to the end of our ropes and patience. You know what? I honestly hold my husband responsible, along with my stepson, for his behavior. If my husband hadn't made excuses for him, made him accountable for his actions and made him take some responsibility, he wouldn't have turned out as bad as he did. I have 2 of my own kids in the house too. They are not bad kids and respect my husband. My ex is out of the picture. It is like I have 3 kids and he has the one. I don't want to leave my husband, because then I couldn't keep my stepson who loves me. The older one is out of the house in the Marines now and it is a whole different household. There is peace. It isn't the his kids vs mine thing. Sure they all pull stuff. But I can discipline now and no one accuses me of being mean and targeting the step kid and other rubbish. It is fair. And there is respect and love that goes both ways. That is the most important thing. No I couldn't respect my older stepson. His repeated behavior wouldn't facilitate it. Every time it would seem to get better - he would pull something and some how he would turn it around and someone else was to blame. Usually me. Yes I am relieved he is in the marines. No, as a matter of fact, I clearly stated I didn't want him to join. He doesn't have good sense and I am afraid for him. But there is a peace in the house. Except of course for my husband. He blames me that his son is gone. But you know what - he is the one who could have refused to let him join. He is the one who could have talked him out of it. He had the influence and the power. Not me. Master manipulator that kid is, huh. Oh, by the way - the boys mother killed herself 3 years ago. She was a drug addict, convicted of embezzlement too. Her choices caught up with her and that was her answer. Now her son is going down her path. I am scared to death for him. I wish someone could help him, but I clearly can't. Maybe the marines will. And when he grows up, maybe he will figure out I wasn't that bad and we can have some sort of relationship. No I won't hold my breath though - I don't want to die, already had that scare with ovarian cancer. Life is too short to be that miserable. Until you walk in someone elses shoes, be careful how you judge them. Some of us have had waaaayyyyy too much to handle with perfect grace. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. That is the path of a stepmother.

Wasn't that totally amazing?? I live just a few miles from Villanova and my son is a grad. I was such a nervous wreck during the game, I could hardly watch it. What an emotional roller coaster. They got a warm welcome home just awhile ago and now Philadelphia plans a parade for the team on Friday through center city. Go NovaNation!