Tricia - This will be my third boy. I'm not sure I would know what to do with a girl if I had one. LOL! Liam, my four year old, has been my gardening buddy since he was a baby. Now that he is four he likes to know names of all the plants, why worms are good for the soil, etc. It amazes me how much he wants to know. We were able to get his garden planted this morning. It consists of white Cosmos, two varieties of Marigolds, Dusty Miller and a pink flowering succulant - all of which he picked out. I'll take pictures of his garden after it fills in (and provided that devil of a dog we own doesn't dig it up!). Heather

People should have to take an IQ test to get an email account IMO. Sure would cut down the number of emails and emailers if we got rid of people whose IQ didn't exceed their shoe size. A very close friend kept on with the political garbage and I warned him several times and then did the same to him that I did to another, with whom it worked. I started sending the "opposite" types of email to him or I sent a response pointing out the flaws, misinformation, lies, etc. Worked with one, and the other flaked out. He said I was attacking him and we couldn't be friends anymore. We were friends for about 30 years and although I didn't like it, I don't like when people are drawn into cults and brainwashed into believing that kind of garbage. So I let it go. Then I got a contact from him asking if I wanted to throw away 30 years, etc, essentially he was demanding an apology. I thought long and hard but couldn't in good conscience condone that garbage so I simply said I never cut off the relationship, rather he did. If he wants to restore it, nothing has changed with me, it's fine but he has to be the one to open the door since he slammed it shut. Haven't heard from him again. Such is life. People change. And not always for the good. It's truly maddening how gullible people are and what they'll believe. But then again look at shows that are popular. These days people look for ways to be offended. It's a fad that I wish would wear off, but it's just getting worse. The "me-me-me" society we've created has blown up and people expect everyone else to be overly-sensitive to what they want. People don't want the truth anymore. They want what makes them feel superior. And that's sad. So don't feel bad. Stand with your beliefs, morals and ethics. If they won't show you the respect to allow you to have your beliefs without trying to convert you, they're attacking and insulting you. True friends don't do that.

Add me to the It Looks Like Shingles to Me list. Get him to a Dr. asap. just to be on the safe side. They can start him on meds. to minimize the time frame. The pain can be HORRIFIC especially if untreated & can cause lasting pain/nerve damage & potentially serious complications especially if the eyes are involved. Shingles are very common in immune suppressed people. Also, I *think* they might be contaigious to those who've never had chicken pox.

Ho yes, the first couple of nights!! She is from working sheepdog stock from Wales...but the idea of pedigree is laughable. Nonetheless, she is smart. After 9 days, she has got the hang of a dog flap to outside, where she goes to poo (although weeing is still an indoor newspaper number) and we tend to let her romp about the house with a choice of sofas and the end of the bed. Naturally, I tried leaving her downstairs but the heartbreaking whining just seemed wrong for a baby...although I spent several nights on one of the sofas myself. I fear the garden is doomed - it will be almost a month before all her vaccinations allow us to go for walks and by then, watching the gleeful destruction of an agapanthus and a geum yanked out of the beds, I expect a lunar landscape of devastation, especially since she is keen on that sheepdog thing of caching stuff (for later delectation, the muddier, the better). All socks are fair game, including ones stolen from the laundry bin...yep, it is all coming back to me. She knows her name and (more or less) comes when called and it only seems to take a couple of repetitions for stuff to penetrate her little canine brain, so the potential is all there - it is up to us to enable her to utilise it. Forgive the excited waffling, I am knackered and slightly hysterical.