We've not enjoyed the show on tv so much in ages, made me think once again how great it'd be to have more entertaining and little less competition, to bring best of Idols and have some extra fun for everyone. No matter, all are winners, except me and especially my daughter, will be listening to Katherine and my younger daughter to Chris (her forever Idol). I think Taylor got the votes for being a friendly country guy -if the show was about congeniality he'd get my votes, he had fun and made us join in the fun, appearing more self-confident- a few years older helps, even if he was at times comical with his dances-we can all use more fun. It reminded us of the times when the "She Bangs" guy was picked as the winner on line, lol. We're fine with the fact Katherine took the 2nd place- it's almost or as grand as the top. Her voice will sing for itself. Wish we didn't have to wait so long for more Idol, GB

Hello- The best part of the New England Grows! trade show (not a flower show) was meeting Cady - first time I have ever met a cyber friend in person, too - what a delight! Next best were the lectures - a couple of which might be of interest to posters here. In terms of the "room" thread Tony has going ("Come into the garden, Maude" thread), P. Allen Smith of cable TV fame took the concept of the garden room to the limit. IMO he was obnoxious and commercial. Advised having your clients bring in paint chips and fabric swatches to match flower colors to the other decorative elements of the outdoor rooms and also to match to any indoor rooms looking out on the garden - all needs to match and look well together. . . the garden designer as exterior designer, based on the interior designer model. He sells books to keep all of your swatches, paint chips, and plant labels in order. A shameless promoter of his shows, books, and other paraphinalia. He heavily promoted his "recipe cards" for creating the "perfect containers." A paint-by -number approach to gardening which makes "the public", as he kept saying, seem really stupid. Enough of P. Allen. Lucinda Brockway, the garden historian and restoration expert mentioned at the beginning of this thread, gave an excellent presentation on the practical aspects of garden restoration. She is known for her authentic museum-quality restorations of historical properties like Strawberry Bank in NH and Fort Ticonderoga in NY. For this presentation, she showed many slides of work she has done in the restoration of historical homes. In this work her efforts were not to create historically correct garden landscapes down to the last detail, but rather to meld the old with the new into livable landscape gardens for her clients. Although she herself did not use these terms, I felt she was in effect saying she sometimes uses authentic plants in a new gardening style(such as colonial plants in island beds in the lawn) and sometimes uses new plants in an authentic gardening style("Proven Winner" annuals in Victorian carpet beds). She showed slides of a Colonial home with a modern swimming pool in the back yard and Colonial-style plantings; also a Colonial reproduction housing development for the elderly with complimentary plantings done in the style of the times. The gist of the presentation was to understand that a garden will have a lot of lives and that your work in it is probably not its last. In other words, don't take yourself so seriously when trying to be historically correct in reproducing gardens from the past in homes being lived in; remember they are not historic, museum properties with paid staff to keep them up. She had a good handout plus a flyer for a new book she has co-authored on the restoration of several Newburyport, MA gardens. I have extras if anyone would like them. E-mail me and I will send them off. Lots more, but no more time to post . . . Ginger

Thank you so much Margo and Shirley for the cards :) I didn't sign up for this swap as I was too busy and didn't really pay attention to what was goin on around this time period and rarely even got on the computer...but it was a nice surprise to receive the cards :))thanks so much Shirley for the card with the magnet...the magnet went straight to my fridge!! ..thanks Margo for the card with the winnie pooh stickers (I'm a kid at heart and love Disney) and the echinacea paradoxa seeds! ...ladies you made my day when i got these in the mail and knew ya'll were thinking about me even tho I haven't been too active and talkative here...thanks so much for your friendship I so love this group!, Dianne

annalchyu, those juices that ran out are on the surface of the meat too. I have no concerns about bacteria and toxins in reusing the marinade as long as it is boiled. I'm not always in the mood to make a sauce so sometimes I throw it out but sometimes I boil it into a sauce. Even botulism toxin (which I wouldn't expect in the marinade) is broken down by boiling, for most of the other bacteria of concern it is the bacteria not toxins that are the concern. If that wasn't the case, eating the meat would be a problem too. Also, it depends what I've put in it. For example if it is a citrus juice based marinade, the sauce may taste better with a fresh squeeze of citrus in it instead of boiled to death citrus juice so I'd probably toss the marinade and start fresh for taste, not health reasons. fenworth, I usually deal with the BBQ utensil issue by leaving the business end of the utensil in the BBQ so it gets heated along with the meat.