Thanks everybody! Harold, I wish I could get out and just get my winter deadheading done. Don't have time. I only have Sundays off, and the rest of the week, there's not enough daylight to get any time in outside. Can't wait til the days get longer again... Christina, I can't believe there are so many roses till trying to bloom even beyond these guys. It's amazing. And that MCCARTNEY ROSE.... ooooh what a delish scent it has!! Masha, if I could, I would start a nursery. As it is, I can't. But I keep hoping one of these days I can get some cuttings of some of the rarer roses to Cliff so he can propagate them. We'll see... Iris gal, I really thought I had lost CC. She sat dormant for about 8yrs. The bed she's in is total crap as far as the soil goes. LOL.. actually "crap" would help!! Rosemeadow, I don't believe Lois has any scent. But then, I could be wrong. I rarely check. Especially her. She's like 8ft tall (and not even a climber!) Judy, I'm with you... I can't wait for spring. I hate winter. Ya know my camellias don't bloom til Jan-March. In fact, they didn't do much last season... Lesley, I love THE MCCARTNEY ROSE too. It's one of the smelliest roses I have. And usually always blooming too.

hehe how funny! now he will start expecting it!! Last Christmas I sorta made the same mistake. At a party at my SIL's I was standing next to relatives and friends at a breakfast bar. We were talking about hair, lots or not, if I recall correctly. I had met a college football player earlier that evening who shaved his head and to make a long story short, I ended up doing a nuggie on his bald head as he sat at the bar. I shocked myself but we were all at least laughing. Needless to say I still found myself embarrassed upon meeting him again at a graduation this month. He said he was going to join the New York Jets (as a defensive lineman I think). OMG, that's one big guy to be handing out nuggies too. I'm getting a chuckle out of it at least. Life can be so funny.

Thank you for the kind words, Yes, I know in the grand scheme of things this is not that big a deal. But, I have been without a kitchen for nearly seven months now- the novelty of cooking in the basement, and doing dishes by hand has worn off. Going to the party, I couldn't find the box where I packed the platters, so I used a basket I vacuumed wood shavings off of and ruined a facecloth wiping clean, then magically found a Christmas placemat to line the basket (I wasn't going to put food directly in there!), even though I pulled out tons of boxes looking for where I've packed away the cloth napkins. I can't even move much into the kitchen cupboards I do have, another long story- besides the delay in the granite countertop, several cupboards were not delivered with the original order, so part of what 'Allen' is doing is custom making the new cupboards, which means we can't install the second pantry and the other upper until those are here. (you know how the cupboards have to be installed in order...) Not that I could use the pantry anyways, as none of the pullout shelves, innards for one of the lazy susans, two banks of drawers, are not here, and I don't know how many doors don't close properly... And, as we are doing a total house reno DIY, we can't begin to demo the Master Bedroom until all the kitchen/dining room stuff comes out of the sewing room_ then the MB stuff will go in there while we work on that room. And, DD and DS are coming home for Christmas, so we can't move into their rooms temporarily... so looks like we'll be camping on an air mattress in our MB over Christmas (assuming we even have the kitchen stuff moved in...) It's not JUST the innumerable delays with the kitchen, but those delays are holding us back from so many other jobs. And you know, the holidays, are a recipe for stress anyways... Oh well, good thing I had to go out, cuz I might have really worked up a rage. And Lily, yes, part of me wanted to know what the explanation was this time, but I guess it doesn't really matter- they're not going to be here regardless... The reason for all the other delays, I really don't have the time to list them all- bottom line _ it's a new company, they are dealing with new suppliers (to them), they've had personnel problems_ our original lady was fired_ I'm now dealing with the manager and he is basically doing all the work himself on our kitchen. He is fabricating the granite himself (and part of me just cringes at the thought), and custom making all the cabinets, shelves and drawers that we still need. And, he still needs to run his business, and do all his other tasks. Anyhow, I'm so disappointed, if I could rest assured that all the delays just mean everything is going to be perfect, I think I could handle that, but that pit in my stomach is telling me that there could be serious problems with things- maybe I'm worrying needlessly, but I don't know...my spidey sense is tingling...

After wearing a modified mullet (short on top, down to my behind in back) for a lot of years, my daughter convinced me to get a new style. I loved what the designer did, but the $60 price tag is more than I can justify every six weeks. So I armed myself with a photo of my new cut and six weeks later took it to a less expensive salon. In addition to showing her the photo I took care to explain it as well. She assured me she understood exactly what I was talking about, then proceeded to give me an entirely different style. Tears? You bet! But still, I went back to her again and again, telling her each time how to make it more closely resemble my previous style, and eventually it was very close. I thought we had come to an understanding and then the next time she cut my hair it was a whack job again! I've had the flowbee for many years and used it to cut my husband's and grandchildren's hair, so I began to use it on myself, too. It did alright, but not the style I wanted. It has been more than 2 months since my last haircut and I just didn't know which way to go. In a moment of desperation I drove down to the little shop that my 81 year old mother goes to. I asked for the owner (she cuts Mom's hair and is in her late 60's). I had printed out my photo to show her, but in my haste, had forgotten to bring it with me. I proceeded to explain my style and she said she knew exactly what I meant. I knew I was going to drive home in tears, but I just couldn't get up and leave. And guess what? When she was done I WAS nearly in tears! I couldn't believe my eyes. It was exactly the style I verbalized to her. Bless you, little old Lina!