Sammy, I'm taking it ez on the gardening although I have planted a few roses. I finally got my first gallica, Belle sans Flatterie. I planted a couple of climbers, well five anyway. I can't figure out what kind of look the front yard needs. If I had my way I'd plop what I wanted where I wanted with the idea of creating a thicket that pleased me. Carla, I left out the part about sitting on the couch eating pie when I suddenly realized there was sour cream in the fridge. It was all over then. Hopeless. Morz and Diane: regarding the Mayan--it has cinnamon and fudge swirls in it. I'm a chocoholic and it takes a lot to impress me. I took one bite and knew it was special. Patrick, it's been a long time since I fried a chicken; it sounds like it was over the top. There's nothing like a flour gravy when it's done right; it's so simple and so easy to mess up but so good when it's right. I usually stick to frying pork chops and I haven't even done that in eons. MichaelAT

RHIZO 1 Reasoning, there is the 'posse' which only seems to be a pest aphid, and not the beneficial insects. I didn't state that the person should release preditary insects BEFORE spraying an insecticide, but instead, place preditary insects out a week or more AFTER the spray. Aphids do respond well to pyrethrins, which is quite safe for edible plants, as is neem. The wasps mentioned are usually sent out on a postage stamp sized piece of stiff cardboard that looks like it has gray sand paper on one side. That's the wasp eggs. I have not had much luck with them, or green lacewings either. I do have early pollinators, orchard mason bees (only for very early apple blossoms), and when the cukes start showing up, a whole honey bee hive colony seems to flock to the cuke flowers every year. Had another preditor, the infamous praying mantis. They would sit at the tops of the basil plants where the flowers would emerge and wait for a honey bee to come by. A second later that pantis has his fast meal, and waits for more. I take the mantis off the basil, and the next day its back to its favorte basil spot chomping on another bee. Nope, mo mantis here anymore, even if they eat a lot! Simply hosing down the plants will remove all the aphids but just allow the aphids more clean places to chew more. Your logic is flawed, and organic gardening is something not everyone knows a lot about, unless they have been able to control an insect pests, diseases, and unknown causes to losing plants. Years ago, I tried putting out japanese beetle traps and barely would have a year go bay that the foliage on everything looked like swiss cheese. My poor raspberry leaves were nearly all chewed off as were the horsradish leaves. I tried natural sprays too, with no luck. After a 10 year battle that I was simply losing, I put down milky spore around the outer perimeters of my garden, watered in beneficial nematodes for both grubs and fungus gnats (cost me a FORTUNE!), and tried neraly every kind of pest deterrent there is, including some battery operated LEDs that light up at night and are supposed to attact moths that lay looper eggs. They caught one single beetle on a whole summer, out goes that trap! I also had a lot of striped cucumber beetles and there, I use scent lures and sticky traps nearby the cuke vines. The traps get loaded within a month and always need replecement. Same with coddling moths on my apples, and there I use scent lures and red spheres. I spend more on control of insects and disease than I do on what my produce iw worth, and I would NEVER use garden hose and spray water on my herbs, tomatoes, peppers, cukes, or any other plants. The plant only see rain water on their foliage and my soaker hoses at ground level. I even have a fig tree that does well in its 85lb pot, but is just too heavy to deal with, so in the ground it goes this fall, once the leaves drop off. You seem fixated on the words 'broad spectrum', when in fact an insect pest isn't a single entity, but is part of a BROAD SPECTRUM of insects and many are TRUE pests! A pollinator doesn't have to be a honey bee, there are a many other tiny wasps and bees that love tiny flowers like the ones on dill plants. If I were to spray my fruit trees with something like Imidan, that would kill all bees and most any other beneficials, whereas the beneficials are barely harmed, if at all by diatomatious earth and a pyrethrin. ollinators dont chew on leaves that have insect sprays applied to them.

I've eaten dim sum in NYC, Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and San Francisco. I was thrilled when a good dim sum restaurant opened in the neighborhood in Denver that has a high proportion of Asian residents, Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, and Laotian. Our Japanese residents are mostly in the downtown area with Korean citizens living in both areas and in one of the suburbs, there are some very good restaurants in all these areas along with some very good Indian restaurants but good dim sum was lacking for many years until a small family restaurant in the Denver Asian area, there are long waits on the weekend days, Then about two years ago the same family opened a second restaurant, much fancier than the original, about twenty minutes from our home. The dim sum is just as delicious with a greater selection, on carts or to special order from a list, and the restaurant is very beautiful with large round carved dark wood tables as well as smaller rectangular ones, a very large live fish tank you can select from and beautiful etched glass panels dividing the space. I'm sure a lot weddings and special events are held there. A large raised area at the end can hold three round tables for 10 guests each. Not only is the food really good, the atmosphere lovely, but the family has also managed to maintain the same friendly and good service that is at there original location. No tea ggs though, maybe they are not a dim sum dish. But they are still on my to try list. Thanks for telling me about the congee, John, and it's fine that you are not an eggplant fan - I have recipes, just always looking for new ideas. Lee

LindaC, Dont get me wrong, I am not making a scientific statistical statement here that Chinese ladies dont drink. I am only saying that in the many times I have traveled throughout China, many times to Hong Kong, Macau, Toronto, at least 20 times to Vancouver, many years of eating here in NYCs Chinatown, Flushings Chinatown, and Brooklyns Chinatown, I just dont remember ever having seen a Chinese lady consuming alcohol. I am certainly not disputing your having observed the opposite situation. It is just very interesting that my observations are quite different. gina_w, I am also surprised that this alcohol topic is dragging out a little longer than I expected. I do find it an interesting topic of learning because it so different than our Western culture and as part of eating habits. This is really the first time I look up the information to confirm what I have heard all along, for my own benefit and not for the sake of argument, about alcohol sensitivity. I dont believe that I have said "all Asian" anywhere. I am not making any "assertions" other than my own may be biased observations. I am sorry that my one-time referencing Wiki seemed to offend you. Sometime people get offended if you dont cite references. I do understand you have substantial "credential" in these topics, which makes it even more curious to me, for example, your observation that the Chinese and Japanese have similar social drinking practices is very different than mine. The Chinese and the Japanese working and socializing habits are nowhere near in my experience. I ride the train here in NY Westchester back and forth regularly. The train is also known as "Train to Tokyo " because so many Japanese work late into the night. You will not see too many Chinese work that way. I have been invited a few times to Japanese nighttime "entertainment" with the guys, and I know what you mean by their drinking habits. But as Anne1992 said, " As usual, we are all kind of right" We all have different friends and travel in different circles and we all have different life experiences. No more dead horse beating. dcarch