De-lurking here to say it's not just you! We had a strange spring with wild weather swings (up to 40F from daytime to night), and I have to say...this is the crappiest rose season I've had in 8 years. Very abundant number of buds--probably the most ever--but the quality of the individual flowers just stinks. Like the worst thrips damage ever, but each and every rose has it. Some roses had stunted/balled/withered buds, others had blackened petal edges, still others didn't bother with blooms. My Queen Elizabeths, easily the most prolific roses in my garden, haven't bloomed yet. There are some old, established bushes that hardly went beyond their pruned size and only spewed a few deformed buds. Thrips are normally a problem on my light colored roses, but this blight is affecting every color. The later developing buds are better--if on the small side. It's the roses that developed first (late April to early May, which is quite late for us) that were the worst. Surprisingly, the roses that seemed to shrug it off best were some of my David Austins--Jude, the Dark Lady, and a few others. But some of the DA's (Abraham Darby) and other shrub roses and climbers (like Sombreuil) were just horrific. My mom came over and said "you know, if you just look at the roses from the house, they're not so bad." Sigh. And we had such a lovely, rainy winter (for us) that I was sure the rose flush was going to be awesome. And the numbers were truly impressive--hundreds of buds on some of my small (3 ft) bushes, which is the best I've seen. But again, the actual quality of the buds was the worst I've ever seen. Some tried and true winners from my garden were hard pruned just because I couldn't bear to look at their browned/blackened/crinkly/balled horrible little blooms. These included: memorial Day, Queen Elizabeth, Sheer Bliss, Peace (sob), Marilyn Monroe, Daybreaker, New Zealand, Just Joey, blue Nile, Evelyn, Abe Darby, Charles Darwin, Autumn Sunset, Golden Something(normally gorgeous downturned sunny yellow blooms, but this time they didn't even open!),Chicago Peace, Tamora, Pink Peace, Mirandy, Mary Rose, Secret (double sob), McCartney Rose, Tiffany....I could go on, but I'm feeling kind of nauseous. To put it in different terms: I have over 160 rose bushes with few repeats, and this year I have only brought six cut blooms into the house. SIX. But who can really blame the poor roses? Last week we hit 100 degrees on Monday, and on Thursday the high was 54 with rain (snow in Flagstaff, poor buggers). What is a plant to do in these conditions? Apparently, they sulk. Now it's getting to be blistering hot again, with humidity in the single digits. Spider Mite season. I won't likely see a good bloom until September, and then the deer and javelinas will be moving in for their Autumn feast. I'm thinking of getting into daffodils. At least the lilies, Shasta daisies, coreopsis, and cannas are doing well. And the glads look like they might actually open this year (last year they were all duds). I'm off to sulk myself. Heather

Salvia Divinorum is one of the more intense hallucinogenic drugs out there. Many people liken it to a quicker and less spiritual version of DMT. It can be found in either the very potent "extract" form or in dried leaves. It is smoked and leads the user into a 3-7minute (on average) trip. In the lower grade trips you may see closed eye visuals and have some physical effects. Contrary to what was written above, I've never had much trouble moving around, or running, while on weaker trips. In more intense trips, the user can experience ego death, or a total loss of self, where the world is stripped away. This can be terrifying or amazingly freeing. Strong trips usually contain open eye visuals as well, although sometimes all reality can be lost track of. Why it is still legal is beyond me, aside from the fact that it didn't get publicity until recently. Once it is illegal it will most likely die out as it is more expensive and less rewarding than conventional hallucinogens such as mushrooms or lsd. In two days it will be illegal in Illinois. I believe Michigan has yet to pass legislation though. For more information involving the chemistry, dosage, laws, and other info about salvia, see my link. P.S. You can't get high off of smoking banana peels or peanut skins. There are no psychoactive chemicals in either of them. Here is a link that might be useful: Erowid - Salvia

My Family has severe drop-itis, but I have it too. Also, I have more hobbies than they do and like many women, more of the stuff in the home is seen as "mine." Also, I am more likely to make a mess but EVENTUALLY pick it up ( I get organizing and cleaning spurts) , rather than create the archeological piles my other family members accumulate. Very frequently I want to rant at DH or DD about their mess. But, if I look around, I see, my laundry is not put away, I have a pile of mag's here, some gardening stuff there... I have made up my mind to work through all of my own clutter, habits, zones--whatever--meanwhile picking up others' stuff as much as I wish, or not, and just not say ANYTHING until I think I am in control of my own habits and stuff. I mean, I want to be able to look at a room and honestly see nothing there that I caused, did, bought, dropped, causing a problem. Because I know that that is what is bothering me the most--my own habits that I would like to change. In my family, there's not a big fuzzy feeling of "let's get organized together." And I don't feel comfortable spilling the blame out of frustration with my own problems. I also am taking a hard look at all my "homemaker" jobs and streamlining them ruthlessly--simpler groceries, meals, hobbies--so I don't blame someone else for my "complicated" life. I am lucky that my family also, to their credit, does not sit around expecting Betty Crocker or Martha Stewart. Instead, I'm the one who likes to cut and arrange flowers, or change the throw pillows, or cook, and then I find, maybe I took on too much for all of what else we've got going on, and no one to blame but me. This doesn't mean that DD or DH would not have their own chores or responsibilities or that I can't say to DD, please pick up your stuff from the den, we're trying to tidy up today. It just means I've decided not to aim any "we're such a mess!" at them at this point, because I don't feel I'm a good example myself, yet. For me, I need that feeling of personal control to have credibility to ask someone else to try to do more to help.

This reminds me of the thread not so long ago with the analogy of the children's story, "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie". This was our $30K faucet-- Our kitchen reno actually started with a basement bathroom--7 years ago! When we moved in, there was just a toilet, and we wanted to make it an actual bathroom with walls and such, since it is a bit off-putting to use a potty just sitting out in the open. LOL. So the adventure begins when we have to dig out all the old pipes and replace them all the way to the street, as our pipes are crumbling and only held together with the tree roots that have invaded. I start to get the idea that a simple stand-up pre-fabbed shower unit was not going to cut it, and I really was lusting after those large, deep soaking tubs. I convinced DH that as long as we were putting in a new bathroom, let's make it a magnificent dream bathroom (or as dreamy as you can get in a basement-LOL). Well, since we have the walls and ceilings exposed, this would probably be a good time to add a bath up-up stairs, and then the boys could have their bedrooms up there. Perfect! Well maybe since we have finished the upstairs bath, perhaps the main bath could use some updating. That looks fabulous, but did you notice how loud it is when someone is upstairs? I think that we should have our master bedroom up there, and the kids can stay down here, but let's move them into the former master and make their room an office. Yes, let's! Ewww, did you notice how positively grungy the living room seems since all the other rooms look so fresh and bright? It really does. You know, now that the living room has a facelift, this might be a good time to take the wall down between the kitchen and dining room. It only makes sense. Well, now that the wall is down, and we will have to replace the flooring, we might as well make some changes to the kitchen... Someday, we will finish that "dream" basement bathroom and come full circle on our home project, but you know if you give a mouse a cookie....