I have several streaked hosta seedlings which overwintered in the ground from last year, but got nipped by a rabbit. One h.'Blue Lightning' seedling is promising and just now develops a scape which I want to use with pollen from large blues. Last winter I started in November to grow streaked hosta seedlings from seeds provided by Mr.Hosta of Land of the Giants. Here are those seedlings of h."Blue Lightning', 'Topo Gigio', 'Fickle Blue Genes' and 'Dorothy Benedict'. They are bigger than last year's already. I got last year a freebie 'Powder Keg' from LOTG but that hosta did not survive. I bought this year h.'Justice' at a Hosta Library auction. How do I like them? I do not know yet. The seedlings which will survive my culls will probably have some stabilized divisions, but it will be interesting. I am interested to create a streaked large blue one. Bernd This post was edited by berndnyz5 on Tue, Jul 2, 13 at 19:32

THE YEAR IS 2013 MONTH JUNE I am posting from a mount high with my Valkyrie horns and piercing Wagnerian Opera singing voice strong enough to break a crystal goblet. -- trumpets blaring singing highest praises to the best vacuum cleaner I have used in my entire life! I am 52 and housecleaned for years in my youth before I became a forensic psychologist. I cleaned households of wealthy cocaine dealers in Marin County, California in the late 70s early mid eighties and the houses of Rock stars thereby becoming acquainted with all of the best, most expensive, well established vacuums in the entire world. Naturally those days fell away as I was able to escape the depraved world of my criminal drug dealer rock and roll roadie father I was born to, to attend UC berkeley and Post Graduate School to enter forensic psychology as PhD assessing dangerousness for highly violent psychopath inmates in the California criminal Justice System. Though very busy and engaged in this high paying, dangerous work cut out for the select few, I always cleaned my various domiciles myself, availing myself of fine vacuums on a high salary. It was not until 2002 that I came across the vacuum cleaner of my dreams! This vacuum has been with me for 11 yrs. requiring nary a single repair and works as well as the day I so luckily bought it for pennies from a young gentlemen who bought it brand new but was suddenly forced to leave the country in 24 hrs. to catch a flight to Germany to work at his dream job of a lifetime, at Adidas Headquarters! The vacuum!? A Miele 246 Naturelle cannister vacuum cleaner. This vacuum is wonderful! It will suck up anything on anything! I dont even change the attachments, I just take off their standard floor rug head, and use the tube for corners and all else. This is because the power suck is so strong there's no need to jack up the PSI with attachments that narrow the square inch factor for smaller harder areas. In fact this vacuum is so strong I almost sucked up my parrot! It's not a large parrot like a Macaw, its barrel chested and stocky but only the height of a Robin. My poor parrot ran in front of the field zone of my vacuum path and got sucked right into the entrance hole of the hose! Horrible, The sqwauking and screaming that entailed!!! Because he was larger than the circumference, and a strong, athletic little tough bird, he wasnt dragged up the tube, but he was momentarily pinned at the ingress. I flipped off the power in 2 seconds, releasing him, befuddled and recouping while he rustled his feathers and scampered like a bowlegged pigeon toed football running back across the floor to safety. He was not the worse for wear and hence forth he was caged during vacuum times. Nevertheless my parrot's frightening experience speaks volumes to the vacuum power this cannister has and still does!! This Miele is lightweight on wheels and easily maneuvered. It has not required a single repair. I just change the couple filters when needed and keep it in a warm dry storage. It never blows dust or stinks like so many vacuums do after awhile. It handles wood, tile, low carpet, ciellings and corners equally beautifully and it is pleasantly quiet for a vacuum cleaner - really helpful when I feel compelled to push the limit of shared wall apt. living by vacuuming compulsively some visually irritatting debris off the floor at an off hour. I havnt received a single complaint even for a 20 minute vacuum session at 2am in the morning right below my upstairs neighbors bedroom!! This leads to my last point. Which is I love this vacuum cleaner so much after all these years, and this will sound a little perverse maybe - but I actually look forward to almost any time I get to use it! The ease of use and the immense gratification of such dramatic clean up results while feeling the power of this little muscely whirring German mini- tank of a machine is just so satisfying, at times, I can scarcely stand it :-) :-)!! This German engineering and quality reminds me of a very high end little racing power coupe BMW. As Ive had those too. No machine engineering rivals those pesky Germans! Why do you think they almost ruled the world?! Kiss your Kirby, Hoover, Oreck, Dyson... blah, blah....goodbye forever and invest in one of these cannisters from Miele and you will never have to buy another vacuum cleaner your entire life!! I personally have the Naturelle 246. I believe its pricing is highly competitive and its the best of my life as a discerning, intelligent and highly experienced house cleaner as most women are anyways.

Looking back I see you indeed were also looking for a cordless. A little more research, and the fact I use Ryobi 18VDC hand tools led me to the Ryobi 18VDC hand vacuum. I may try it as it uses the same battery and charger I already have for hand tools, and that is an 18V Lithium Ion battery. I believe this battery is superior but I have owned such a battery only since Christmas (present) - i can say the battery has been sitting in a very cold garage since Christmas and it still has a good charge - I needed to us a hand drill yesterday and used that battery - it was full of "pep:". I don't yet have the vac and so can't say how well it works, but a good battery is a good starting point.

My husband makes the best french fries. He cuts the russet potatoes in rounds....doesn't peel them. Then he cuts them in sticks, so they are about the size and thickness of my little finger. He has a pot of oil, and he dumps them all in at once...which tends to cool the oil a bit, but when the oil reheats and they finish frying, it is like they have been fried twice, which is the real way to make french fries. You fry them, drain them, and then fry them again. They are lightly crunchy on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside. I used to always cut my french fries length ways, but after seeing how he does it, I changed to his way. His still taste better than mine. I am another one who loves an electric skillet. I don't think I have ever fried potatoes in one, but I like frying chicken it better than I do using cast iron. And I have over 100 pieces of cast iron cookware. Or, did have. I have given a lot of it away.