The price you pay is immaterial, IMHO. A reputable, quality florist is whom you should choose in that they can pack a lot of punch for $50-$75 bucks, especially if you can provide an idea of preferences, colors, etc. so they can render their talent to the display! I recently bought a large table arrangement, and 2 smaller arrangements for either side of the hearth for a memorial service, and also had a corsage made for the widow. I went to the florist in person, with the tablecloth which would drape the memorial book table where the large arrangement was to be placed. I'm so glad I did. The florist chose perfect flowers and greenery to complement the tablecloth, used similar yet different materials for the hearth pieces, and made a lovely corsage that included a lovely ribbon in the primary color. Quite frankly, the result was artistic, stunning, and looked like it was worth a lot more than was paid. I paid less than $150.00 for the lot! If possible, can you go in person to a reputable florist and just see what, in fact, $50 to $125 will buy? Can you let them know color or floral preferences and just ask them what they can do within that range? You might be surprised! I think phoned in orders can often result in older flowers, or not enough care put into the arrangement.

Happy Mothers Day! My husband worked so my sisrer wife (in law) came over (hers worked too). We had such a nice day. The kids had sparkling pink lemonade and SIL and I had Rubinos. I saw Rachel Rays husband John make them. It is Prosecco, Lillet, and raspberry purée. The Lillet is very interesting. I made a flatbread appetizer using Naan bread and it was awesome. SIL brought Lobster Bake in a bucket which had 2 lobsters 1 1/4, mussels, clams, potatoes, and corn. You just add water and steam and you keep the bucket. It was $20 pp which I think is very good and worth it! We let them play first with our friend Shirley first... SIL and DN made cupcakes. My daughter had a secret...this ice cream cake in the freezer from Carvel. I also made a tray of baked ziti for the kids. It was a great day!

Hi Glenda, When I used to tell daughter's Female Canine to "sit" she didn't seem to pay a lot of attention. ______________________ Chemocurl, Well done. I didn't know the purchase price. I calculate, though, that one share grew to 144 ... which would make the 100 shares grow to 14,400. ... for better than $969,000. If the guy had started with 104 shares, which would have grown to 14,976 ... at Tuesday's closing price of $66.94 (somewhat lower than when you calculated earlier that day) ... today's value would have been $1,002,493.40. At your quote, it would have been $1,008,034.50 ... $5,541.10 more (a reasonably decent month's pay). Plus ... the dividend rate grew, over the years, more or less in tandem with the share price. Iva Mae, When you go to the "Stock quotes" on Yahoo->Finance, put in "RY.TO", for Royal Bank. If on Yahoo Canada, if you put in "RY" the ".TO" will be added on its own. Try "ENB" for Enbridge, "BCE" for BCE, "GWO" for Great-West Life, "TCK-B" for Teck Cominco, "TA" for TransAlta Utilities, "TD" for TD Canada Trust. There's a place where they offer "Symbol lookup" and if you write the company name in there, it'll tell you the symbol. If you ask for "Bar" chArts, instead of a line joining the daily closing prices over a period, it will give a bar linking the highest and lowest prices at which transactions took place that day, with a little line to the left showing the opening price that day, and one to the right showing the closing price. If, when you have a page where the price information of a given stock is showing, you look over to the left, near the top, there's a place where you can click on "Historical prices" and it will allow you to check the daily, weekly, monthly, etc. price levels of that stock over a given period. As a matter of fact, the price list for JNJ goes back to Jan 2, 1970. And, believe it or not, I didn't know that when I set up the project in the first place. The criteria that I used was to start a couple of years before the first split that appeared on the database that I was using. And not far from the 40-year period that I've heard to be the period during which they increased dividend rate every year. I must confess that I thought it more relevant to put this thread over on "Money Saving Tips" or "Household Finance" ... but thought that it would receive greater exposure here. And that a number of the residents here might find it interesting. Good wishes for managing your income and assets with increasing skilfullness. ole joyful

golddust, what a fantastic story. You've had some rough spots in your life, but sounds like you received enough loving support to make them strengthening ones. Thanks for letting us in on your wonderful uncle. I have a theory that it isn't the big gestures that make the best impact on the world, but little kindnesses and quiet expressions of affection done over the years that add up. Your uncle is proof of that.