Here's a couple of care free plants for your (this) area: BETTY WARREN WOODS OLYMPIC SHOWCASE BITTERSWEET HOLIDAY WILDFIRE TANGO WISEST OF WIZARDS SPACECOAST HOT TOPIC HUNTERS TORCH EVENING ENCHANTMENT The AHS National Convention will be in Houston this year. You should attend, or at least plan to tour the Gardens after the show. Most of the Sales Gardens will have open gardens. Should be a great time to see lots of daylilies blooming. Ed

Wow, there is a lot of good information here. Glad I posted with my problem, now I have something new to try out. Thanks owbist. ravencajun, thanks for the compliment but I only had the first half of it figured out and cboy came to the rescue and helped me with the last half of it. I can't take all the credit. "Smiles" Then zep516 came in catching the fact that System Restore wasn't working right and gave me great information on how to correct that. This was the first time that I've had problems with my desktop, but I have changed the backround on it before and I remembered that and I thought why not check it out and see if I could get it to change and that is when I discovered that the backround had been changed and all I had to do was to put it back like I had it, but then I didn't know how to get the icons back and that's when cboy posted the solution for me. If that ever happens to me again I will know exactly what to do. Thanks owbist for telling me how to move the icons down to the taskbar. I will try that on Wednesday, I will have more time to try it out then. thirdfrt!!!

I'm sorry, I didn't realize this was a discussion about organic vs. non-organic foods. Well, it is and it isn't. :-) I'm using "organic" as an oversimplified term to mean "locally-produced foods which are grown sustainably and processed minimally". I'm aware that there are many producers who do most of that and who have not undertaken organic certification. They're OK in my book. The beef I have (pardon the pun) is with people who think they're driving the cost of their food way down by buying pork that is injected with up to 15% of its weight with water, salt, and preservatives; buying eggs from hens kept in cages so small they can't move and fed a diet that no chicken would ever select for itself; farmers who use synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, and insecticides to combat monocultural farming; and all of the corporate agricultural subsidies -- paying farmers to not grow crops; subsidizing the cost of transportation by keeping gas cheap and taking the cost of fighting wars off the books; and charging all of us road taxes to repair the damage done by trucking produce halfway across the country and the environmental damage done by runoff from manure pools and insecticides and by top-soil erosion. There are costs associated with all of that, but conventional farmers typically don't pay them. We all do. I do not strictly purchase organic, whole grain type foods. I purchase the best I can with my monthly food budget and go from there. I understand that if you live with such high standards, you probably can't prepare lunches for $1-2 each. What I don't understand is this: where are you able to eat lunch out for $4 and eat purely organic? I couldn't go anywhere in my town and spend $4 and eat to your standards. It just isn't possible. I don't always eat organic. If I'm invited to a friend's birthday party, I won't refuse to attend because they don't buy organic. It is, however, a strong preference of mine (and it's what I feed my guests). It is cheaper to bring organic from home. Beans and rice or some soups and stews can be relatively inexpensive organic meals. I would be hard-pressed to eat out organically for $4, though my food co-op comes close with a mix-and-match hot-food bar for $6. My point (apparently not made very well) is that many people on the Internet claim to make a meal that costs only a couple of bucks. Well, if that's done by purchasing heavily-processed non-sustainably-produced food that is grown, gathered, and sold by people half a country (or half a world) away who don't make a living wage, then someone else (actually, everyone else) is picking up the associated costs. I don't consider a slice or two of "baloney" on Wunder Bread and a banana a balanced, healthful meal, even if they don't come much cheaper than that. It's ironic that the most-heavily-processed food available in the U.S. is often the very cheapest. The "boutique" aspect of organic food aside (I won't deny it exists), organic food costs what food should cost. I don't look upon it as "such high standards" so much as I consider it the standard. If you were to add in the costs of trucking food halfway across the country, providing working wages and basic health and educational coverage to the people growing and harvesting the crops, and the costs of epidemic high blood pressure and diabetes brought on by the heavily-processed American diet and lifestyle, people wouldn't be saying, "I can make a full meal for $1 or $2." It really costs us more than that.

I think your husband needs to stop telling his sister things that get back to your MIL. Your business is private and nothing you say or do should be told to your MIL because she obviously takes that information and figures out ways to use it against you. Also, it would be very enlightening for your husband to hear both sides of a story in a way that he cannot refute. Have him listen in on a conversation with his mother but don't let her know he's listening. Then when she calls him to complain about "how you mistreated her again", he'll see that she is exaggerating everything. Men are fixers. I'm not the least bit surprised that your DH wants you and his mom to get along and that he thinks 2 weeks is enough. Men don't typically hold grudges or over-think things like women tend to do and I think he thinks it's been long enough. (I had a problem like this for years with my late MIL and the day DH figured it all out was an amazing day for all of us. lol She went off on him and opened his eyes forever. BUT, in 2 weeks, he was over it and things went back to almost normal. She was his mom and he wasn't going to cut her out of his life forever, even though she deserved it. She also never apologized or admitted fault, but he knew.) So my feeble advise- never talk to MIL again without a witness in the room, or if it's a phone call, have someone else on the other line, listening. Have a little voice recorder in your pocket if your words are constantly twisted around by her, until your husband sees the light. And avoid her as much as possible if the 2 of you are unable to come to an agreement. Let DH take the kids to visit her, but be careful because she may try to use your kids against you and she will bad-mouth you to them in ways that are subtle but effective. Good luck. I don't envy you at all. My MIL is gone now and my life is a lot less stressful. When she was alive, I was so thankful that I didn't have children for her to corrupt, like she did her other grandkids. Because we had no kids, I was able to remove myself from her drama and lies.