So I managed to grab 10 full bags of nice big leaves from my brother-in-laws house this weekend, mostly oak and maple. As soon as I got home I started layering my two rightmost empty bins (Bins 2 and 3) with leaves, then transferred a layer of the (mostly) greens from the leftmost bin (Bin 1) into Bins 2 and 3. I REPEATED the alternating green/brown layering process until I emptied out Bin 1 completely. Good news is that all of the tomato plants that were in the BOTTOM of Bin 1 (under three weeks of lawn clippings) where COMPLETELY broken down. I saw no evidence of them. Here's what Bin 2 and 3 look like now with a fresh layer of leaves on top: I even had leaves left over so I but them in empty trash cans so I can layer them over my next lawn clippings and kitchen scraps this week. Even three cans were not enough...some leaves had to be dumped into Bin 1 (temporarily) as you can see in the photo with the cans. Question is how long leaves can survive in cans before being unusable? I would imagine at least a couple of weeks. The cans are now covered but have been propped for some air circulation.

*heavy sigh* I used to have a nice business doing video work for companies like yours, til a bunch of people in various IT departments etc started saying they could put something together using iMovie/windows movie maker etc. Be prepared for lots of late nights and unpaid overtime. It's harder than you think. At the very least you need a decent, separate microphone, either a radio mike (most versatile) or hand-held. Otherwise you will discover your audience is mostly hearing air conditioning and the phone in the office next door, especially with quietly-spoken people. You will also discover you need lighting. The easiest way to do this is to buy one of those cheap halogen worklights at home depot or walmart, and bounce the light off a back wall or ceiling. DO NOT put it under any sort of fire detector/sprinkler sort of thing. Then you will discover you need a tripod. Still camera tripods don't work very well, because you can't easily pan with them, and they don't tell you if you're level or not. Even if you find a camera for the price you're looking at, I would seriously go back to whoever, and tell them it can't be done for the money. (You will want a second battery by the way) You will also need software for editing, and creating movies so they will run in Powerpoint. Embedding movies into powerpoint is not always as easy as you would think, especially when you are transferring the show to other computers. There IS free or semi-free software for editing etc but it will drive you literally *insane* if you are trying to do anything more than something very basic. People get spoiled by the plethora of quality images they are surrounded with, especially now digital effects look so natural. Don't be fooled, most of that 'simple' stuff has a lot of people behind the scenes working on it. Yes there are spotty teenagers working out of their mom's basement willing to undercut the pros and sometimes turn out quite good stuff, but they are willing to work for pizza. Then when everyone gets used to paying pizza prices, something goes wrong/kid has to do an extra shift at McDonalds/his mom grounds him, and there goes your deadline. Then people bemoan they can't find anyone decent, having killed off all the businesses who used to do it. There are also the legal ramifications. Yes, I know that you HAVE to use "eye of the tiger" at every sales presentation, but you know what? It's ILLEGAL to use material that is still under copyright (and most recorded stuff is, you can't assume otherwise) and if you think that doesn't apply to you, just run it past your legal department, especially if you work for a large company. The copyright police LOVE to go after big companies and they usually walk away with some big dollars. Like I say, don't get suckered into doing hours of unpaid overtime, even if you think this'll be your big break into show business (and you never know, then you'll be bemoaning people ripping off your hard-earned, too.) It's way more work than people think, and if you really don't take any of the steps I've suggested to make things look better (and you can do a lot with a cheap camera if you do it right) people will then complain things don't look or sound right. Then someone in marketing thinks some video should be on the website, and you get roped into that too. Then the big boss sees it, and thinks it's shite. Then your head rolls, on top of all that unpaid overtime. Bitter much? LOL. L

It's late so I'm just going to respond train-of-thought to your questions..... RE your exercises -- that's a lot of the stuff my last PT had me doing -- I think it's general leg strengthening stuff and probably all very good stuff to do, but the exercises the new PT gave me really get the butt and outside of the hips, which is what I need, apparently, to cure the IT band stuff. And it takes so much less time -- if I hustle, I can do everything in 10 minutes. re: pilates being too boring and slow-paced -- the more advanced winsor workouts are much faster-paced with less explaining. See if you can get a hold of the Maximum Burn series - she goes very fast in that one. There's a 20 minute one and a 45 mninute one. I think they're both out of print, but there are usually plenty of used copies on amazon (cheap!) re: your arches -- I think high arches are big contributors to knee pain. I'm sure you already did this, but make sure you have the right shoes -- high arched feet need neutral/cushioned shoes -- any sort of stability or motion control shoe will just screw you up further. I have Nike Zoom Vomero 4's -- they are the cushiest shoes ever but they don't last long -- my last pair needed replacing after less than 200 miles. You may want to see a different podiatrist for a second opinion on your orthotics -- I've seen a few and each one has a different opinion on what kind orthotics to make me. I have a set of old orthotics from my 20s and sometimes I wear them to run, sometimes I don't. I don't think they make much difference actually. (Part of me thinks podiatry is a hocus-pocus kind of field!.) A good book to read is "Running Injury Free" by Joe Ellis. He is a podiatrist but very knowledgable and I found it fascinating how he took people's weird pains and traced them down to all kinds of crazy causes (one woman had hip pain that he traced to a tiny nail that had penetrated the sole of her running shoe and was very mildly poking her as she ran -- she didn't even realize it was there, but it was throwing off her stride to such an extent that it screwed up her ankle, knee and hip. But anyway, he spends a lot of time talking about how people's arches and foot structure can really cause issues all the way up the leg - it's interesting to read. re: how long I foam roll - I usually foam roll for a few minutes. You are supposed to stay on each painful spot for as long as you can and at least 20-30 seconds. I will roll til I hit all my painful spots (some twice) or until my arms get tired from holding me up (I find that you have to be pretty acrobatic to get yourself in some of these positions, LOL!) If you have painful spots, you need to roll. The first time I did it, my right IT band didn't hurt at all -- not one bit -- when I foam rolled it (and of course, my right knee didn't hurt). My left IT band, on the other hand, was excruciatingly painful the whole way up and down my leg. I rolled for maybe 3-4 minutes total (it hurt so bad I had to stop) and the next morning, I felt so much better. When I rolled again (I was doing it twice a day at first, now just once a day), there were far fewer painful spots, and now I find that if I keep up the rolling regularly, I can roll and not find any painful spots at all (and then I'm done in like 20 seconds!). Basically, if you feel any pain when you roll your IT band, you've found a problem and you just need to park there on the roller and let the roller work the knot out. Seriously -- in just days, with proper rolling, you should be feeling far less pain during the rolling itself and of course, less knee pain during all your activities. re: the fluid in your knee -- the fluid in your knee might never go away but it is probably not causing your pain. I have tons of fluid in both knees (docs think it is from the trauma of the accident) but other than making really loud crackling popping noises all the time (seriously, in my first set of PT, people could hear my knees popping from across the room when I was doing those step-ups and stuff - it was gross!), it never hurt. The pain is caused by the muscles around your knee pulling your kneecap all out of whack. Once you release the tension in your IT band and strengthen the other muscles around the knee to hold your kneecap in place, it won't be getting yanked all over the place and your pain should go away or at least become a lot more managable. Good luck!

Great video What a happy moment for the both of them and I am glad the lady is going to spoil him. He sure deserves it!