sammy, someone threw a firework rocket into our garden during the New Years eve and it landed into Le Vesuve pot, burning the poor rose a bit. :) And electric shepherd is effective to prevent dogs from pooping in your garden, as once they touch it, they do not come close to it again (as it zapps quite a bit if you touch it). It is not very pretty as a fencing/hedge, as it is just a wire to which current is connected, but it prevents animal trespassing. melissa, the burn is not too bad, just some spindly twigs, but she is still small and generally on the tender side for here, so I hope for that toughness. My garden is a mess too, especially the parts that did not get weeded in the autumn, so now I have renegade strawberries and what not else all over the place and don't know where to start even. My baby plants look good though, still hard to say if I had any success with grafting tree peonies, but fingers crossed. :) Spring is a nice thought though, hopefully it will be an early and warmer one this year. :)

Thank you ALL, SO much! When my in-person friends call or come to the hospital, they always ask, "And how are YOU?", to which I answer, in tears, "Fine, til YOU showed up!" LOL, of course. I'm having the same reaction reading your messages, heartfelt and humble tears. The generosity of forum and in-person friends is amazing. I treasure you all. That generosity DOESN'T apply to beurocrats! I have a GREAT RozanneRozannadanna story, or maybe it's Emily Latella. Probably more her than Rozanne! We might have cell phone insurance, but if so, it's buried under 2' of bills husband keeps saying he's working on. As if! So, I wanted to find the phone # of the store where we got the phone, thinking they could help me directly. I went online to find that phone #. Listed is a number for that area code. Turns out it's one of those automated voice things. FINALLY got through to a human (sweet young girl, this isn't her fault), and discover that my husband never signed me up as an authorized user of the phone and phone service we've both had for YEARS! SO!!!!!!!, they can't access our records without his approval. I tell the girl that he's in ICU, and VERY sick. She asks if he could just say his name and the last 4 digits of his social. I tell her "I" can say his name and his last four digits, and besides, not only is he in ICU, he's heavily sedated and CAN'T TALK!!!!!!! I told her my wish for ALL her superiors was for them to have a loved one in the hospital and then have to face beurocracy run rampant. Not her, of course, she's just the unfortunate messenger. She puts me on hold again (all this time I'm on a Land-line Long Distance Call because of the stupid phone # thing), and comes back, and says, "Well, we can try to maybe fix your phone while we're talking." And then I say and realize, "You mean you have to have my phone HERE, while we're talking?" "Yes." "It's in my Daughter's car!" and as Emily Latella would say, "Never Mind!". Well, at least I have an 800 # I can call to try to fix the phone, IF I can get my nerve up! Just talked to the dr, he said my husband is still disoriented and mostly sedated, but his white blood count is down to nearly normal--11,000 instead of a high of nearly 16,000, --and the fluid outside his lungs is not very much, so they're not going to do anything, yet. He said maybe ICU for the rest of today, and maybe a regular room sometime tomorrow. As the white blood cell count gets closer to normal, hopefully his disorientation will go away. It's still taking 5 nurses to calm him down and get him back lying down when he decides he's "leaving"! I did water some yesterday, glad I did. Enjoyed the activity even tho it was cold and I was in shorts, and the plants needed it! The rain may come later today or tomorrow, but they needed it then. Thanks again, all "y'all". I appreciate you enormously. And Ray, I should've sicced my Great Dane on that cell company--wish I could've! Susi.

sounds like your countertops were made to fit right up tight to the old range. always leave a little wiggle room even if you never expect to replace it, since you should at least once every couple years pull out the range and clean behind/under it. chalk this one up to a lesson learned. we plan on switching to gas ourselves, but are waiting until we totally redo the kitchen just so some of these gotcha's don't happen! BTW, you do realize that unless your unit has a standing pilot light you won't be able to use it when power is off! the 120v outlet runs the clock and the electronic ignition. if the unit has flame sensors and such, you cannot even light them with a match! i would look into a decent portable generator if this is the case.

Nice list, thanks for the laughs. My personal favorite is "The seam you meant to rip out is invariably the other one. " Can't wait to read part 2. Am going to share this w/ my Mom, who sewed for many years. She gave me my sewing machine as a High School graduation gift. I'm sure she'll enjoy the List! TFS!