It has a periwinkle blue cup, HDD, and is a fairly large plant with somewhat narrow light green leaves and relatively little dark blotching. Doesn't match the description in Derek's article (i.e. smaller size, red cup) or any of the FCBS photos (except maybe Golinski's?) at all. I'm not going to run out an change the tags unless I get a reliable ID on it, though. I was told that Harry gave it the thumbs up as Plutonis, but maybe I'll send him a photo the next time it blooms just to double check. I gave up trying to keep all of the concentricas and concentrica-type hybrids straight long ago. There are just too many of them!

I just brought flowers; things were a little different than we planned. We didn't go to his parents house, but to his instead (he lives with his grandmother because she's so old she needs someone to help take care of her) so I didn't bring a hostess gift for his mom. That was fine, they are very casual and laid back people and it would have been awkward had I brought anything more. We arrived together (he drove) and we were the first ones there anyway. They have a lot of animals... his mom brought over one of her many birds and a huge mastiff dog (very sweet, very big), and he has two cats that live there. It was pretty informal, everyone gathered around the grill outside making small talk. I didn't talk much. Maybe I was shy around all the new people. There was a bit of tension because I am the first guy he's ever introduced to the family (he had girlfriends before he came out) and his brother and grandmother didn't know he was gay. The brother does now... he found out Sunday... grandma still doesn't (she's a Jehovah's Witness and he doesn't want her to know, though she'd forget anyway). The best part was listenting to his grandmother... she has dementia and the things that come out of her mouth were very entertaining if not a little sad. He made burgers, hot dogs, italian sausage, and chicken on the grill. He didn't have any cheese for the burgers and didn't have any ketchup (that blew my mind... in my house, it's an emergency if I run out of ketchup... well it's never happend, but it would be... and to not have it with hot dogs and hamburgers, I just couldn't comprehend it). He offered to go to the store for me and get some ketchup (he's not an anti-ketchup snob, he was just out of it). I should have let him go, but then his family would have known what a b*tch I can be and it's too early for all that! The cake and ice cream were the best part, and they both came from Publix. It was a pretty boring and uneventful experience with barely tolerable food... at least nothing bad happened. His mom told him she likes me but that I was very quiet. Next Tuesday, I'm going to have a cookout with my upstairs neighbor. I'm looking forward to much better food than we had Sunday! I'm really enjoying having someone to cook for. Yesterday for lunch, I made BBQ baked chicken quarters, cheddar biscuits and mashed potatoes. Today, I'm doing meatloaf, scalloped potatoes, corn on the cob and maybe steamed peas just to throw a vegetable in. He said his mom wasn't that good of a cook, so I'm glad to give him some nice food and glad he appreciates it. Thanks again for all your advice :o)

I have silk, which is similar to biscuit but a very light grey instead of cream, and I love it. It's only been in for a couple of months so I won't swear that it doesn't stain, but we've left wine glasses and cookie sheets and pans in it overnight and had no problems. Any marks have come off with the rough side of a scrubby sponge. It's my replacement for an old white kohler cast iron, which was, frankly, gross. My new sink makes me smile :)

"To the person who works for the State of California, I hope your [sic] not using the states [sic] time to make personal phone calls, making doctors appointments, talking to a mechanic or just plain chit chatting with your co-workers while your [sic] on the clock." I'm much too busy each day to waste my or the state's time. The state has had a hiring freeze for quite some time -- when we lose employees (whether the employee dies, or leaves the agency), we cannot fill the position. As I've stated previously, I work in Information Technology. Our division has 40% fewer employees than it did 18 months ago. We have just as much work to do as we did before, but fewer people to do it. Therefore, each remaining employee has had to take on additional duties. Additionally, our former Governor signed Executive Orders and had his cronies put through some new laws mandating the statewide consolidation of servers and e-mail services. (You may think this will save the state money, but it won't. It will end up being more expensive because each agency is going to have to pay "big bucks" to the Technology Agency (the State CIO's agency) for them to "administer" everything.) So, the agencies have the looming deadlines to change their individual Active Directory forests to meet the new state standards. I'm entitled to a one-hour lunch each day, but I eat my lunch at my desk while I'm working. And, no, I don't take the time to go get food - I bring my lunch every day. So that's one hour of work for which I don't get paid; and I don't leave work until at least 30 minutes after my workday is over. It's more important to me to get the work done so the end users (the agency's employees) can do what they need to do. (I am a Domain Admin and Active Directory Administrator.) debbie_ab said, "I would feel sorry for you, but my pay before taxes is LESS than the amount of money you lost during that time each month. Minus the taxes and it's way less. And we manage." I never said, or implied, that my husband and I "didn't manage" during the pay reduction. I also didn't say that the $2,500 was net pay. It was gross pay. Even with the pay reduction, our combined gross monthly salaries were more than the gross annual salary for many folks. But people buy things - homes, vehicles, etc. - and arrange vacations, travel, etc., according to what they can afford based on their income. When you have bills due and things planned based upon that income, and then suddenly get hit with a not-insignificant income reduction, it forces you to change your lifestyle.