If you are within 15-20 miles of me I would be happy to come over and take a look. Only payment necessary would be a cold bottle of beer. :) You have aroused my curiosity. Check out if there are any garden clubs or master gardeners in your area and get hold of them. Or check with your local mom & pop garden nursery - maybe the owner would be willing to stop by in return for reimbursement for fuel and time. You would be helping to support a local small business owner, which is always a good thing. If you post your whereabouts here, just post some nearest towns or something, do not get specific. Specifics can be done via private correspondence. Good luck, -Tom

Well - after 1 1/2 hours of playing around with this, I feel like a complete dummie. I have resolved myself to having nearly 3000 contacts to import to my Gmail contact list. But I can't get anywhere. I have my AOl address book imported into Yahoo. When I try to import into GMAIL (doesn't matter if I use the older or newer version), it asks where to import from - and I can't find the .csv files. I have no idea where they'd be. Whe I select browse, it takes me to my documents - and it's not there. If I try to browse someplace else, I can't find it. It also occurred to me that it may not be in .csv form yet - but when I try to export from one Yahoo account (to say, thunderbird or another yahoo account) - it suggests I can export as csv file - I click on ("Yahoo! CSV: export) - and then it brings up a screen that says: you have chosen to open yahoo_ab.csv file from http://address.yahoo.com. What should firefox do with this file? My choices are "save file" or "open with: browse". If I click "save file" - I don't think anything is happening. And I wouldn't know what to select if I used open with .... Going back to GMAIL import, I have tried entering various names that I've seen in Yahoo mail. Including "yahoo_ab.csv" - but again, nothing happens. I had a similar problem trying to import into thunderbird - I simply don't seem to be able to locate the files to do it. I'd rather go directliy from yahoo to gmail (without going through thunderbird - bc. from what I was reading, thunderbird does not maintain my address groups - and that is important to me. In fact, if I could only import my groups - that is most critical part). I'm sorry I can't be more articulate about where I'm getting hung up. I have truly never felt so in the dark dealing with computer things (even as untechy as I am, I've had a little more grasp than this). Thanks. Lynn.

Llama: You obviously have no real idea of canine behavior when they are alone, as you admittedly say you never let your dog from your side. I sense some "that's not the way we did it back when I was young, see...?" Crate=Den (So long as it's done properly and ALWAYS with a positive reinforcer). Where do wolves, coyotes, etc sleep and spend 80% of their day? THEIR DEN! It's a natural thing for them. For most breeds, the outdoors would be a great place to live if we all had no jobs and 20 acres of protected land. That's just not the case, and for that matter, most breeds are so domesticated that outside is NOT the optimal place for them 24 hrs a day. That said, the crate for 8-10 hours everyday isn't optimal either. Furthermore--and to the point of your post--I'd be willing to bet that all those people who can leave their pups out in the yard or a rural setting give the dog a den of some sort: a dog house, a pad under the porch, a nook in the barn, a nice shady spot under a lawn chair...well, I think you get my drift. However, a crate used as a CAGE to house an animal 100% of the time IS cruelty. Crating is MOST CERTAINLY NOT! Let's be sure and make these lines of demarcation perfectly clear: CAGED isn't the same as CRATED (even if the same housing structure is used) as we all know the unsettled nature of a caged animal vs the demeanor of a crated one. The crating method gives ANYONE who cannot watch their dog 100% of the time the ability to set the pup up to WIN at the tough things in their lives, i.e. potty training, not being destructive, feeling safe and secure and thus well-adjusted, etc, etc, ad nauseum. Go to any dog sporting event: Show, Agility, Frisbee, Obedience, Flyball, etc and look at how the best of the best dog owners and handlers house their dogs...wait for it...IN CRATES!!!!!!! Dogs sleep 15-18 hours a day depending on breed, age, etc; thus, one could argue that you forcing your dog by your side every minute of every day isn't allowing the dog the true rest it needs. I'd bet he wishes he had a crate to get away for a moment's peace sometimes...Let's not even mention the safety issues (for both pet and owner) of not crating the dog while traveling. All this isn't so much to attack you (but it was fun considering your lack of knowledge/misinformation on the subject) as to say that with tens of thousands of dogs euthanized in shelters every day, working families have no right to adopt a pet and save its life while enriching their own? Are YOU mad? Where is the good in that dog's life once he hits the autoclave? I submit to you that Fido would pick the crate 100% of the time rather than death, even if it was 8-10 hours a day...but if your master's not retired, then too bad puppy dog. Llama says to hell with you. After 20+ years as a cop, I'm one year from a well deserved retirement myself and I've been lucky enough to have 4 wonderfully unique, well adjusted and socially adept canine companions over these last few decades and each was crated with excellent results and loved their den until the end. All while I worked full time. My current little buddy, Marco, a 3 month old Chocolate Lab is responding well to crate/potty training, too. He gets 40 minutes of walking/offleash play before i go to work, a 10 minute walk by a friend and another 30 minute walk on my lunch break, then at least an hour on the trails or dog park in the evening, not to mention all his potty breaks. As he is a pup and demands my FULL attention, when I can't give it or need a break, in he goes with his Kong and he relaxes. The crate is simply another tool in the arsenal for developing an awesome and well behaved friend for life. All that being said, if you can watch your puppy 100% of the time all day everyday, then there's no need for a crate...otherwise, have fun and I look forward to hearing what all the uncrated pup has destroyed/eaten/soiled... Jay

I took a look around the internet and didn't find much but I did find a couple of different apps for the Ipad. The one that seemed like it would be the most helpful is Sun Scout by Benjohn Barnes for $9.99. I am just reading the description of the app because I don't need to download it but you might want to check it out. I searched the terms Sun Position and few different options came up. I know that before we chose a spot to buid our pool we noted the suns position in our yard for a few days in order to pick just the right spot and take down any trees if necessary. Good luck!