Evening all, Well apparently my ISP has been having some problems....i havent been able to get on for days. busy signal. they are experiencing techinal problems....unknown fix date. however, when i told them im cutting service today, i can get in. who knows when next though. Shirley, OH i will keep your Dad in prayers. i hope they find whats wrong soon try and keep his spirits up. Susan, why do i need Ceasar Milon at all? ive got you. :) Big smiles. thankyou for all the info, esp the biting. i had assumed that was teething lol but even that hasnt been too bad. for info- she is a good kitty, has all shots, not spayed but has appt next fri. and given all your info i am really lucky actually. the biggest problem is kneading (sp?), her obsession to do so, and why oh why must this be done at 3 am??? its a ritual with her, started a few weeks ago. ok i could act about dog interaction too but will save. Annie and Anita...oh my word.12...32.....and i have such troubles with one. Annie, would love pics when you get again. i got my camera as a santa gift. ask for one with not too many buttons. wish mine didn't have so many. i spent weeks figuring out closeups and now cant take any others. :). and Anita...maybe the barn is why we get so many dumps. hadnt though of that, not that i can get rid of it. they usually dont get this far alive though :(. Canna, your Ziggy is beautiful. OK onto daylilies..... Marea, aw how i would have LOVED to hear petit on growing better daylilies. bet is was inspirational. :). as it is...we have an interesting speaker Nov 12th....Gil Stelter. Oddly enough, his "specialty" is crossing new hybrids with hemerocallis fulva "the ditch lilly". ive heard hes getting great things and cant wait to see for myself. Sharon. spiny Sea Urchin here came out like the pic you see. what i didnt like was the constant color break in the sepals. that was the best pic i could take. but mort morss and a couple of other here were worse. thrips, lack of water, new here, who knows? take it for what its worth (all have not been here long), but the winner for garden beauty in this class was Spacecoast Sharptooth. spines and a beauty to knock you over. (pic prev posted) if you want one thats been here longer, heres a surprise... Crown of Creation. Registered double, it never does here (im not the only one in this area) awesome every time. Bambi, the good news is that if ive bought it, the price will plummet! mark my word:). i usually buy at least a few years out though...with a few hybridizing exceptions, expect at least 20% per year. more earlier. Anita, getting is even better than need lol. im on a limit this year and trying to stay there though. 2o is what i can fit at leat with the current spots open. Shirley, at least thus far, spiny su has made small fans here. it is small here too, but keep your fingers crossed. One more pic. a couple of people asked earlier if crosses came out the same, or how different they can be. the pic is of two of the same....Bill Munson x Lace Cookies. the one on the left is a huge flower (8"?) but ugly version of mommy, the one on the right i really liked, looks likes daddy quite a bit, but i thought it had some edge potential. of the 3 others, 2 non-descript yellows, and one even uglier version of Bill Munson. This outcome is typical imho. but occasionally, you can get one that looks nothing like neither parent as well. Cindy Gloria & Paul, what beautiful families! G, you do not look a thing like i pictured....are you a movie star too?

Annie.... Ashley was just asking a logical question wasn't she LOL! But it's so true that tourists....often strong German men.....underestimate the strength of the undertow on the open Atlantic and there are drownings here, of either swimmers or people being swept off rocks when they get closer than they should. I just came back from a little walk down to a lookout point near our house and as it's late in the day, I caught an evening cloud over the volcano, as well as a look over the edge to one of the downtown beaches. Here's the volcano,and here it is 6 minutes later, taken from another vantage point. The clouds have totally changed formation. (Click will enlarge.) Here's the view looking downtown to one of the beaches and the developed pool area with nightclub in the centre of the artificial lake, all together called The Lido, then a closeup of same. (Click will enlarge.) In the second photo you can see that the waves are still very large here as the islands are all on 'orange alert' which is one step below red alert or extreme danger from the seas. And in a calmer note, I decided to make better use of the lovely little two-tiered Moroccan cake plate I bought at Laura Ashley, since we buy cake one piece as a time, so I put it into the little tree outside my computer room window where the birds congregate every day. I filled it with dry cat food and set my camera up on my desk. Only had to wait a few minutes before they noticed that their food was now up in the tree! I hope to get some wild bird feed for the smaller birds and wild canaries as they also abound here. They came to check out the cat food but the biggies chased them away. The kibbles are too big anyway for small birds. (Click will enlarge.) SharonCb

Co-irker! Love it haha. I have had a rough go with coworkers this past year-- mostly because for the past 15 yr, I've worked with two great bunches of people. All capable, responsible, interesting and smart. Now I am managing a merger of two companies and am having to deal with incompetence, politics and drama. This is not my strong suit.. in fact, my strong suit is rising above and not tolerating or succumbing to these poisons. We're working through it but boy is it draining. I just wish that people would pause and look at themselves and their behavior. Some will lose their jobs--and not because there isnt a place for them. It's because there isnt a place for their bad mojo. AND don't even get me started on the third-party vendors. I am up early to get the results of a test upload of a db from a tech center in preparation for a move next weekend. It should have taken less than an hour.. at midnight they sent an update saying that it would be another 70 hr. Really?! No one stopped to question it. No one said, "hmm something must be wrong here". What has happened to basic problem solving skills? Arggg. Sue, glad to hear DD is able to compete.. and really hope you aren't coming down with the same. Can't imagine anything worse when you are traveling. Crossing fingers and toes!

I, too, am wondering how long these cans of lights are going to last. We just bought a home built in 1873, but rehabbed recently. I can't help but think it a bit odd to look up at a chandelier in the DR and notice these additional light cans all over the ceiling. Same with the kitchen/family room and LR. Funny looking things and don't seem to provide all that much light for the sheer number of them. On the other hand I was really tickled to find the "cloud" style flourescent fixtures for the basement. I don't think I'd use them on the main floors, but they diffuse the light really well and I don't have to see these cans all over the ceiling. (A heck of a lot more cost effective, too). Actually I don't much like trendiness since it usually brings with it poor imitations of something that probably once spoke of quality (amateurish faux finishes, fancy moldings made of plastic, plastic fences, etc.) Guess I'm sort of a purist at heart.