De-lurking here to say it's not just you! We had a strange spring with wild weather swings (up to 40F from daytime to night), and I have to say...this is the crappiest rose season I've had in 8 years. Very abundant number of buds--probably the most ever--but the quality of the individual flowers just stinks. Like the worst thrips damage ever, but each and every rose has it. Some roses had stunted/balled/withered buds, others had blackened petal edges, still others didn't bother with blooms. My Queen Elizabeths, easily the most prolific roses in my garden, haven't bloomed yet. There are some old, established bushes that hardly went beyond their pruned size and only spewed a few deformed buds. Thrips are normally a problem on my light colored roses, but this blight is affecting every color. The later developing buds are better--if on the small side. It's the roses that developed first (late April to early May, which is quite late for us) that were the worst. Surprisingly, the roses that seemed to shrug it off best were some of my David Austins--Jude, the Dark Lady, and a few others. But some of the DA's (Abraham Darby) and other shrub roses and climbers (like Sombreuil) were just horrific. My mom came over and said "you know, if you just look at the roses from the house, they're not so bad." Sigh. And we had such a lovely, rainy winter (for us) that I was sure the rose flush was going to be awesome. And the numbers were truly impressive--hundreds of buds on some of my small (3 ft) bushes, which is the best I've seen. But again, the actual quality of the buds was the worst I've ever seen. Some tried and true winners from my garden were hard pruned just because I couldn't bear to look at their browned/blackened/crinkly/balled horrible little blooms. These included: memorial Day, Queen Elizabeth, Sheer Bliss, Peace (sob), Marilyn Monroe, Daybreaker, New Zealand, Just Joey, blue Nile, Evelyn, Abe Darby, Charles Darwin, Autumn Sunset, Golden Something(normally gorgeous downturned sunny yellow blooms, but this time they didn't even open!),Chicago Peace, Tamora, Pink Peace, Mirandy, Mary Rose, Secret (double sob), McCartney Rose, Tiffany....I could go on, but I'm feeling kind of nauseous. To put it in different terms: I have over 160 rose bushes with few repeats, and this year I have only brought six cut blooms into the house. SIX. But who can really blame the poor roses? Last week we hit 100 degrees on Monday, and on Thursday the high was 54 with rain (snow in Flagstaff, poor buggers). What is a plant to do in these conditions? Apparently, they sulk. Now it's getting to be blistering hot again, with humidity in the single digits. Spider Mite season. I won't likely see a good bloom until September, and then the deer and javelinas will be moving in for their Autumn feast. I'm thinking of getting into daffodils. At least the lilies, Shasta daisies, coreopsis, and cannas are doing well. And the glads look like they might actually open this year (last year they were all duds). I'm off to sulk myself. Heather

Hi extremely patient GW virtual decorators, I took rosewindÂs advice and found a few inspirational bathrooms and/or powder rooms. I love the last two bathrooms the best!! I found them on Rate My Space and what I like about them is their simplicity and clean lines. I included bathrooms with pedestal sinks and/or bead board with the same clean lines. This is my dilemma, aesthetically speaking, should your home be decorated in a cohesive manner? Can I paint and decorate this room as a separate entity of its own or should it blend with the rest of my home? What IÂd like to do is paint it either grayish blue or grayish green so that the molding and baseboards pop. IÂd then paint the mirror frame metallic silver and change the toilet paper dispenser and towel ring to match the mirror. IÂm still not sure what to use to store extra toilet paper. IÂve included pictures of my entry, dining and living room since theyÂre the rooms surrounding this one. The powder room is to the left of the stairs if youÂre facing it from the outside. All this trouble for one teeny tiny room. Thanks

Gwentm - thanks so much! We put several of the pocket doors with glass inserts throughout the house during the remodel/addition, and they were all from Lemieux. We compared doors from several companies and felt that they had the most competitive prices of all we looked at. We're happy with the doors, although not the installation! Our contractor installed them incorrectly, so now we have scratches in about 3 places on every door where they rub sliding into the wall, so will have to be re-installed and repainted - argghhhh! But then I shouldn't be surprised, since the quality of his work took a nosedive toward the end, that is, when he even bothered to show up! :) Good luck - hope you find the door you are looking for! Here is a link that might be useful: Lemieux Doors

Well, I felt like I had a whole group behind me today. My son is going to the University in the city where I bought the jeans. I went up again to help him and his dorm mate get their room together. We were somewhat successful. ANYWAY, I did go to customer service with the jeans and recieved a $10 gift card. They wouldn't give me two, so I left to get another pair of jeans since they fit my dd so well. I found some clothes for both my dd's to wear to school and quickly went to check out since son was waiting for me at school. I was amazed to see the same customer service gal from downstairs waving me over to checkout. She gave me an additional $10 bucks off besides the gift card. The jeans were %40 off, down to $25, minus the $20 for the trip back. $5 jeans! a price I really like!! Bought the boys some dinner and took them all over town looking for a futon. Didn't find one either. They can do it this weekend, Enough city for me. I'm going to read your link on Friday Flamey, I'm about ready to sleep sitting up, I'm so tired.