Mikie...You're a genius! And...beyond that...never let it be said that any of us supposed techie geeks know everything about everything all of the time. :-) I'm living proof...it t'ain't true. Case in point. Recently, I had to have a new modem installed by my cable ISP. The young man that did it was charming and very helpful but I fear he tried to clean up a couple of apps that he thought might be slowing my system. After he left....I checked to make sure everything was running and then shut my system down. 24 hours later...I was tearing my hair out wondering why the loading speed of my system hadn't improved. To the contrary...it had gotten worse. Well...I did all the usual checks...checking wiring/plugs [theirs and mine]...checked apps...defrag...invasive programs, yada...yada...yada...and still couldn't find the problem....UNTIL I happened by here this morning and read this thread. HALLELUJAH !!! As soon as I read your post...I went looking and apparently my young ISP serviceman wasn't aware that Java was a system requirement...and he uninstalled it. Thanks to your incite...I reloaded it and my system is now delightedly skipping along at its original fast pace. THANK YOU...THANK YOU...THANK YOU !!! Anne

I want to thank everyone for your suggestions to speed up my router. I tried moving things around. I have conducted tests with the A/C on.....compared to the A/C off. I unplugged phones....turned off my desktop. I tried everything. I want to not only thank you.....but I want to tell you I seemingly have the problem solved. A forum reader sent me an email....suggesting I unplug the router. He went on to suggest I leave it unplugged for about ten minutes....then plug it back in. I guess that would be called "rebooting the router". I tried his suggestion and everything is running much much faster. Again....I want to thank you all for your efforts to help me. Hopefully, this "rebooting" tactic will help someone else. I really appreciate this forum and the people who suggest things to try. Larry

Here's the issue with firefox, FF - user.js: extensions.BabylonToolbar_i.babTrack - affID=109936&tt=100512_2_ FF - user.js: extensions.BabylonToolbar_i.babExt - FF - user.js: extensions.BabylonToolbar_i.srcExt - ss FF - user.js: extensions.BabylonToolbar_i.id - b8457168000000000000bc7737387210 FF - user.js: extensions.BabylonToolbar_i.hardId - b8457168000000000000bc7737387210 FF - user.js: extensions.BabylonToolbar_i.instlDay - 15473 FF - user.js: extensions.BabylonToolbar_i.vrsn - 1.5.3.17 FF - user.js: extensions.BabylonToolbar_i.vrsni - 1.5.3.17 FF - user.js: extensions.BabylonToolbar_i.vrsnTs - 1.5.3.1715:35:37 FF - user.js: extensions.BabylonToolbar_i.prtnrId - babylon FF - user.js: extensions.BabylonToolbar_i.prdct - BabylonToolbar FF - user.js: extensions.BabylonToolbar_i.aflt - babsst FF - user.js: extensions.BabylonToolbar_i.smplGrp - none FF - user.js: extensions.BabylonToolbar_i.tlbrId - tb9 FF - user.js: extensions.BabylonToolbar_i.instlRef - sst FF - user.js: network.protocol-handler.warn-external.dnupdate - false FF - user.js: browser.sessionstore.resume_from_crash - false We will be getting rid of that, by running the tools above.

Hi Cori Ann - I'm a big proponent of the "mulch and don't wait" school of enriching soil, but I start with decent soil in the first place. It's clay, but loamy clay, so once I can get past the rocks and whatever else was growing instead of roses (like, horrors, a LAWN), I have decent stuff to work with. I do the usual lasagne method over the top of the grass or whatever, since I am wayyyyy too lazy to double dig anything (once at my old house, and never again). When I have a new area I want to turn into a garden, I give myself maybe a day's lead time (but fine if not) to do the following: - lay down cardboard, paper bags and/or newspapers, and cover with organic stuff like leaves, compost, vegetable trimmings, or whatever - usually 3-5" thick at least - Add some cheater topsoil to jumpstart the breakdown process - maybe 1" - top with leaves as top mulch, not necessary to shred if you have something to hold them in place (too much like work) or mulch if you're not cheap like me. A good additional 3" or so of these will break down over the season to enrich the whole bed. - Go ahead and plant where I jolly well want to. Dig a hole through the lasagne layers into the crappy soil, and mix all of the above into the planting hole, chopping vigorously at the vicious little grubs as you find them (good for the soul as well as soil). I always add some extra manure and compost as well as alfalfa when I plant (even in established beds), mixed about 1/3 with the rest regular soil, so this prepares the hole a little extra. - Let the worms do your work for you, to even out the discrepancy between your Cadillac planting hole and Nova rest of the bed. You don't want to create a huge sink if you have super clay soil, where all the water pools in your good hole and rots your rose, so by conditioning the rest of the soil while you plant you get the best of both worlds. Not having to wait, but not really leaving the rest of the bed on its own either. - When some of your roses die (as half of them will in zone 5 for me), plant the new rose in a slightly different spot from the old one to expand the Cadillac-ness of the rest of the bed. - Keep everything mulched with leaves or other organic material indefinitely to keep feeding your soil for a minimum of work, and maximum benefit with minimum wait time. Make those worms WORK for their grub. I've done this dozens of times in soil that you couldn't get a pitchfork into without serious sweat, and ended up mid-season with soil good enough to flip with a hand tool. The copious amounts of organic material mixed in with some real soil does it for me, and I don't fuss with waiting at all. Of course that's my soil and yours may differ. Cynthia