An iris farm?!? Now, I'm jealous. It has been muggy here, which is unusual, and the plants seemed the worse for it. I ended up with everything in the kiddy pool. Yes it made the pool muddy. Nope, no kids here, except the grown ones! And my furbabies. ! My puppy LOVES to play in his pool, and dig and chew plants. At least he used to chew plants, he is much better now. So helpful. There was a time when he would go out in the yard, find whatever I had put in the dirt and pull it out. (Like a treasure hunt.) Hopefully next year it will all be a different story. Grey water in the front yard with no grass. and low water eco lawn in the backyard all surrounded by beautiful beds full of the wonderful offerings from GW! I am packed and off to the p.o. Yikes! This shipping is .... more than I expected. Delivery confirmation # 0308 3390 000 1160 4570 Why does digging in the dirt make me so happy? purple clover

There were so many funny stories posted years ago. I'd be laughing until the tears were rolling. Anyone remember Marlin, the lady from Cuba who became a US citizen? Her posts and Dottie's were hysterical.

Seems to me, (on topic about parent pop ins) that you have a reasonable request to make to your parents. Try to explain that your circumstances have changed, that your lifestyle has changed, and that while you do love them and want to see them, you have to ration your time more carefully. Let them know you want to give the your full attention when you can be with them, and scheduled visits allow for that. Having said that, I find that the longer parents are retired, the more they get out of touch with people who don't have the schedule flexibility that they do. Also old folks brain flexibility does (sometimes!) take a hit. I know my dad went ballistic one day because he wanted me to "run down" to the car dealership with him for what he expected to be a 15 min. trip. Problem was, I was on my way to teach a class and no way did I have any time flexibility, no margin for unexpected delays. My dad said the most unreasonable things to me when I just asked him if I could do it the next day. And this was a spur of the moment request on his part. He said I didn't care about him and never did anything to help him and he hoped I was late. Totally ridiculous. (BTW I did run the errand with him the next day, it took and hour, and he never said BOO about all the over the top nasty things he said the day before). But then my dad is having lots of mental issues in his old age. Senility characterized by forgetfulness and inability to do daily tasks is not the only kind of mental problems old folks have (sometimes). There can be all sorts of other processing problems, which creep up on them bit by bit. So it may be a tough go with your folks, you can't always have reasonable discussions with parents, sad to say.

Elizabeth - They sold it as a concealed zipper foot which was what I had wanted at the time. I should have worded the title of the post different. Beaus and Heidesign - The reason I asked plastic or metal was because when I searched my machine model on the sewing parts online places both options came up. Manual says "SA156 Bobbins which are class 15 bobbins" and "approx 7/16". The ones I bought at the place are plastic and have a J on the inside. I've used both plastic and metal with my machine. When my grandma gave it to me there were three plastic ones that I believe were the ones that came with the machine and a metal one that also worked. ETA - I just typed SA156 Bobbins on that site and the same two metal and plastic options came up. Beaus - Would the already wound bobbins work for my machine if it needs to be specific. Do newer machines are more "universal" parts that are interchangeable?