Phil, I grow Jude The Obscure, Gertrude Jekyll, and other Austins, but the fragrance of Sweet Surrender stands head and shoulders above the Austins, but that may just my nose, the quality of the fragrance, and the fact that they are only a year and a half old. I know there may be many other roses that would qualify for the award, but I can vouch that the fragrance of Crimson Glory, Tiffany, Mister Lincoln, Chrysler Imperial, Papa Meilland, Fragrant Cloud, Angel Face, and Double Delight should, and do, merit the award. I'm not so sure about Granada, Sheila's Perfume, and Sunsprite, which have excellent fragrance, but not the powerful scent of the others I mentioned. Noted below are the Award Winners in the past, from the ARS Website: "The James Alexander Gamble Fragrance Award: The James Alexander Gamble Fragrance Medal is awarded to outstanding new, very fragrant roses. The selection is made by the ARS Prizes and Awards Committee for the rose considered the most fragrant in municipal and private gardens throughout the United States over a five-year period. The rose must be registered and must be rated at least 7.5. It is not mandatory that a rose be selected yearly for this medal. Awards are only to be made when an outstanding new fragrant variety is available. The medal is to be awarded to the hybridizer of the named rose at the Fall Annual Meeting of the American Rose Society. Rose, Hybridizer, Award Year: Crimson Glory, Wilhelm Kordes, 1961 Tiffany, Robert Lindquist, 1962 Chrysler Imperial, Dr. Walter E. Lammerts, 1965 Sutter's Gold, Herbert C. Swim, 1966 Granada, Robert Lindquist, 1968 Fragrant Cloud, Mathias Tantau, 1970 Papa Meilland, Alain Meilland, 1974 Sunsprite, Wilhelm Kordes, 1979 Double Delight, Herbert C. Swim & Arnold W. Ellis, 1986 Fragrant Hour. Sam McGredy IV, 1997 Angel Face, Herbert C. Swim and Oliver Weeks, 2001 Secret, Daniel Tracey, 2002 Mister Lincoln, Herbert C. Swim and Oliver Weeks, 2003 Sheila's Perfume, John Sheridan, 2005 Fragrant Plum, Jack E. Christensen, 2007 Sweet Chariot, Ralph S. Moore, 2008" If you then go to the ARS 2009 Handbook for Selecting Roses, and look up the above roses, there are three that fall below 7.5: Crimson Glory, 7.4, Fragrant Hour, 7.4, and Sutter's Gold, 6.9. Thus, the 7.5 rating appears not to be a consistent parameter for the award, which, after all, is awarded for fragrance and not for other attributes of rose culture. As it is, the category of 7.3 to 7.7 qualifies a rose as "A good rose" I would hate to think that Crimson Glory would not be able to receive the award today because of a rating of 7.4. I do think the rules ought to be changed to accommodate those roses that have outstanding fragrance but are limited by an arbitrary rating system. What is the reasoning for the 7.5 standard? Was this a condition of the award imposed by James Alexander Gamble when he endowed this award?

Luvs, I had so much fun planning this table. I think I had more fun writing Alexander and Charlotte's story though. LOL! After finishing, I thought of so many more things I wish I had written...isn't that usually how it goes though?? Jeannespines, I feel blessed to have a such wonderful family that tolerates my little obsessions. They just laugh and say "Mom's playing with the dishes again". Punk, not tired of doing the tables...just tired of having to put up stuff when I take it off the table. LOL! Seriously, this many tables hasn't, up until now, been normal for me simply because I didn't have the time and energy. However I am now officially one of the many unemployed people in this country, not by choice though, so I have time to play around with table settings. Although if I want to keep feeding my little dish habit, I'm going to soon need to find a job. Jane, sometimes I wish we could go back to more glamorous days when ladies wore gloves and hats and sparkling jewelry. When I see old photos of ladies dressed like this, they always look so elegant to me. Well, maybe I wouldn't want to do it every day, but once in a while would be fun! Judith, I do adore black and silver together and my daughters had a ball with this one! They helped me pick out the jewelry to use. Although my middle daughter did ask me if I had lost my marbles making up a story to go along with the table. LOL! Mary Ruth, thank you so much! I think we all need a little fantasy now and then. It helps to balance out everything else. Writersblock, thank you for the kind words! I really enjoyed this setting and hated to take it down. Kathleen, I've had problems posting too! Hope this is soon fixed. As for the tiara, it's been with me a long time and is really looking a little sad now. When I was a little girl, I loved the movie Cinderella with Lesley Ann Warren. I just knew one day I was going to be a princess like she was. Yeah, right...LOL! Occasionally my mother would go to the jewelry store and they had the most beautiful tiaras in there. I wanted one so bad and then one day my mother surprised me with this one! It's been alot of years since then and I was really young, but I can still remember how I felt when she put it on me. For that moment in time, I truly was a princess.

Hi folks, We're doing a dance of relief (actually, we made a Starbucks run of relief too :)) -- acc. to our doc, DD has less than 7% scoliosis, and her hips, shoulder blades, and leaning-forward-lineup (what do you call it -- when the person bends over and you can see if any part of the shoulders or chest rise up higher than the other) all check out within normal ranges! There's definitely a *tiny* amount, but less than 7%, which is what our doc said is the level at which it's formally diagnosable. I'm just a very vigilant mom, I guess. It shouldn't affect her running, and I think we'll try to address it with Pilates, since it's so slight. I will keep an eye on it, though, and if it gets worse I will take her somewhere else for a followup/2nd opinion. I definitely appreciate the advice -- the forum comes through once again!

Laur;a, Just a word of advice from an old guy who has been in half the world... we now know from this thread that you live in Maryland, 3 blocks from the Navy stadium; and you have an adorable daughter whose picture we now have, if someone wanted to look for her. Please be careful how much you put out on this public forum...not everyone in the world is nice. Sorry for the negativism. About the Meyers you are seeing in your local markets... this time of year they are almost certainly from New Zealand, and notably inferior to those produced by California growers or by superior producers like my associates in Guatemala. Next year we will be the biggest single producer of Meyer lemons in the world; and in 2 years Guatemala will be the biggest in the world and the least cost producer.