I loved this. Had a hard time with some of it but lively and lilting just the same. Thanks. josh

Tropic (216) - Breeder: Florida Agr. Expt. Sta., Bradenton. Parentage: 479-6-1 CASTME x 18-D2-D4-8-1. Characteristics: trellis type, vigorous vine, fruit large, attractive, and deep in polar dimension. Resistance: race 1 fusarium and verticillium wilts, gray leaf spot and graywall. Similar: Manalucie and Manapal. Adaptation: southeastern United States. Univ. of Florida Agr. Expt. Sta. Circ. S-198, 1969. Granny Cantrell is about 82 to 85 days. Fusion

Okay, girls, yes I will host the next swap. Give me a day or two to put it together, and I'll see what I can come up with! (I've got the first time hostess jitters!) Thank you for the info, Melissa! I did end up voting for Ron Paul, and the Republican caucus was very different than the Democratic, in that with the Rep. one, we just voted once, and those votes just got tallied along with all the other Rep. ones. On the Dem side it is very confusing and weird, so I'm kind of glad we didn't go to that. Anyway, here is how it went: We got there about 6:15, and there were about 30 chairs set up. Registered as Republicans, and sat down. People just kept coming and coming. We were in the meeting type room of a small fire station. They kept adding chairs, but it became quite evidnet that we were way over the fire code for that room in the fire station. So, the pulled out the fire trucks and amulance, and we all moved into the garage area. We did a head count and there were 174 people there! It was incredible! Each canditate could have 3 people talk about him for no more than 3 minutes each. No one spoke for Rudy Guiliani or John Mc Cain, one guy spoke for Fred Thompson, one guy from Utah who was just here to help with the caucuses spoke for Mitt Romney, 3 people spoke for Mike Huckabee, and 1 person, plus my husband spoke for Ron Paul. I was so proud of my hubby for going up there and saying why he was supporting him! Anyway, then we each got little piece of paper, wrote down who we were voting for, passed them in, and 4 people went in another room to count the votes - 2 to count, and 2 to oversee. While this was going on, they asked for volunteers to join the Rep. county committee, passed around a box for donations, and asked for volunteers to be delegates to the county convention. I had been reading up on this a bit, and thought it might be something I would like to do, but I'm a bit of an introvert, and didn't dare raise my hand. They got all six of their people, and then asked for anyone to be an alternate. I shot up my hand, because I was kicking myself for not offering sooner. So, I am an alternate delegate for our county Rep. convention. Why did I want to? Because I found out that the delegates that go DON'T have to vote for the people that their precinct chose. Anyway, we'll see what happens with that. Then, they came back with the results. It appears that of the 174 votes, Dave and I and the guy behind us, and the other guy that spoke for Ron Paul and ONE other person there voted for Ron! 5 votes! Oh, well! The overwhelming majority of votes in our precinct were for Mike Huckabee - like over 120 of them. And the rest were dispursed among the others, with John McCain and Mitt Romney coming in 2nd and 3rd. I think with 5 votes, Ron Paul came in 4th in our precinct. Then we were done. Pretty easy! Anyway, as you probably have seen or heard already today, Huckabee was the winner throughout the state last night, so that was good. And Ron Paul actaully got 10% of the votes, which of course I would have loved to have it be higher, but was still a pretty good amount. He finished 5th in the state, ahead of Rudy Guiliani, who only had 4% (of course he didn't campaign here anyway, so that's understandable!) Anyway, yes I would be happy to stand behind Mike Huckabee as well, so I am fairly happy with how things turned out. On the Dem. side, Obama came in first, with Edwards 2nd, and Clinton very close behind him in 3rd. Dodd and Biden have dropped out of the race. Poor Bill Richardson finished 4th, with only 2% of the vote, and he looked so sad when he gave his speech afterwards. I wanted to give him a big hug! (Of all their experience, I would say he probably DESERVES it more than most of them up there! In fact in terms of experience, Biden and Dodd probably should have done better too, but the way the Dems. do their caucus makes the results pretty crazy!) We had record turnouts all over the state, and I would say overall, it was a good day for Iowa! Anyway, I promised to tell you all about it, so I did! : ) I am glad to hear that Huckabee really is a genuine and good as he seems, Melissa. You always have to wonder how honest they are being, and I'm glad to hear that you like him!! And Michele, I am still there with you - I would love to see Paul somehow come out of this a winner! I see him as the candidate that frankly cares the most for the well being of his constituants! I like his ideas (for the most part), and think he would really change this country for the better! Anyway, enough on politics from me!!! I promise, no more, unless it's asked for! Hope all of you are having a great day! I am off to put Lily in the tub, as while I was typing she covered herself in marker! She put polka dots all over her belly! Oh, BTW, I'm not proofreading all that, so I'm afraid you'll have to just look past all the mistakes I'm sure I made! : )

awm : thank you for the sweet and supportive wishes. I sure hope your ride goes well. Two of the folks I am with have done that ride and loved it. We are indeed fortunate in the support we get from our families. tina thank you too. I will keep up the updates as it helps to clarify things in my head too :). I am glad you are enjoying it. golddust. we had flashing lights but it was just a miserable set of circumstances....hopefully not to be repeated. Glad you like my TALL tales. Sue yes it never has stormed today but we have had a fine time. We walked several miles to go to a Dollar Store and to stretch our legs. Time for a nap I think. Your trip sounds wonderful. I bet you will always cherish that time as will I this trip. Most likely won't do another as I don't want to leave DH this long again but this one time it is good. More later. c