More cards ! Its been cloudy, rainy, windy and very gloomy here but whats inside my mailbox every evening to greet me is like warm sunshine to the soul ! Thank you to: Amanda/Neohippie for Alyx Little Sun tomato seeds ( gotta look this one up ! Mrs Burns Lemon Basil ... love this one !Emerald Giant Bell pepper ! thank you to RuthZ for Jimmy Nardello pepper ... been wanting to grow this one bad !Parris Island Cos romaine lettuce and Italian Cameo basil ! love it ! thank you to Paula/Paulan70 for Cherry Brandy Rudbeckia ! I just love them and will be wintersowing these ! thank you Jamie/Momsgardens sent Black Beauty zucchini ( one of my top fave squash )Red whirligig zinnia, Vorlon tomato and sweet banana pepper, can't wait till spring ! Thank you also to Jim and Tanya ( jimryder ) who sent lovely packages of Sweet 100 cherry tomato( I grow this one every year ), dark maroon scabiosa, Boothby's blonde, Marketmore and white wonder cucumber,yum ! thank you Mandy / L1oness , she sent me Hahm's Gelbe tomato seeds ! have never grown this one , looking forward to trying a new tomato ! Thank you Margo / Smitties for the Ornamental Kale - very much want to start this from seed ! and Sweet Genovese Basil ! Thank you Diana for the lovely lettuces -Buttercrunch, Bibb, Cherry tomato and dark green Zucchini ! Will have wonderful salads with these !And Thank you to Debby1 for the Smokey fennel and Daylily seeds ! I have had great luck with daylilies the past few years ! Can't wait to statt these ! this has been a wonderful few weeks, finding these wonderful cards and seeds in my mailbox is so much fun and makes the holidays extra special, I am enjoying seeing that the cards and seeds I have sent out are starting to reach their destination ! love it !!! Merry Christmas to you all and especially Santa Kym ! without you we would not have this most wonderful swap ! Iris xoxox

How you feel about winning a particular medal is a relative thing. Going in to a competition expecting to win nothing, you would probably be elated to win Bronze. Going into the same competition expecting to take Gold and ending up with Bronze, that's a completely different feeling. Not that I'm excusing anyone, just that I can completely understand. It's human to feel disappointed when losing a hard fought game. On the other hand, do ya just LOVE Apolo Ohno? He got disqualified in that final round in the 500 meter when he could have won silver. I'm CERTAIN he was disappointed, and he made some remarks regarding the fact that he disagreed with the judges' decision, but he still smiled and said how he had no regrets and felt that he'd had a successful and satisfying time. And speaking of speed skating controversial decisions, the judge who disqualified the Chinese team in the women's relay received threats on his LIFE! How's that for sportsmanship? Ah well, it's over. It was great fun to watch. Congratulations to ALL the winners. Looking forward to the summer games in London in 2012.

I visited 2 pre-fab/modular companies and,yes, a couple of the houses fit my budget and I liked - but, when the add-ons (appliances, digging new foundations, removal of the existing house, new septic system,etc) were added in to the cost - everything would run at least $100,000 more than renovation. The alternative would be adding a trailer/mobile home and having local fire dept burn the house for practice. The builder of this house was the owner of the property and used timber from the land - he had a sawmill, etc. so the wood used in the house is all true 2x6s, 2x8s. etc. One can see rough cuts on the timbers(8x8s) that support the house - locust, chesnut. We are second owners of the house, buying it from the builder's widow. The first floor is about 800sqft-LR,DR/study,2 bedrm,kit, and bath and we will be keeping the same "footprint" Your thoughts are valid and this is why I came here for advice and ideas. Contractor and I have already discussed unforseen possibilities - rotten/insect-eaten wood. The attic shows good wood but who knows what hides behind the wallboard on first floor. Contractor knows that he has $150,000 to "PLAY WITH" and I have another $30,000 available for those unforeseen problems. Architect has worked with contractor for over 6 years (probably on much larger jobs) so that is a plus. What haven't I answered - oh insulation. Contractor told me what he would be insulating - walls, ceilings, pipes (esp waterline from pumphead) and I checked online - seems to be the areas normally insulated.

Karen Hause, have you seen the flowers of this sedum? If so what color are they? We don't have a fully authoritative answer but have some strong leads regarding its identity. We'll write more about this, but the flower color would provide additional clarification. Incidentally, side-by-side comparison makes us more convinced that your blue sedum is S. hispanicum not 'Blue Spruce'. We'll write more about this, too.