Chef, The Tomato Man was Darrell Merrell, a long-time seed saver from Tulsa, Oklahoma, who preached the gospel of growing heirloom plants and was a driving force behind the heirloom tomato movement in Oklahoma for many years. He passed away last year after a battle with cancer. He sold heirloom tomato plants every spring (and some other veggie varieties as well) from the old home place near Jenks where he'd grown up. A couple of years ago, Mr. Merrell's daughter, Lisa, returned home to Oklahoma and joined him in the family business. At that time they changed the business' name to The Tomato Man and Daughter. After Mr. Merrell's death last year, Lisa continued the business but has changed the name to The Tomato Man's Daughter to reflect reality. She continues the tradition of raising and selling heirloom varieties and is, in fact, hard at work on expanding the business. (I think her dad would be so proud of her.) Long before he became known as The Tomato Man, he also saved and shared heirloom varieties of garlic, which led to one of his nicknames "The Tomato Man With Garlic Breath". His mom's rocambole is one that he grew for decades and passed on to others to grow by generously sharing the garlic with them. If you visit the website Carol linked above, you can see the business location and hours. If you are interested in heirlooms, check out the Top Ten list. My favorite Darrell Merrell tomato is Royal Hillbilly. If I wasn't so far from the Tulsa area, I'd buy some of my plants from Lisa every year just out of appreciation for all her dad did to encourage folks to grow heirloom varieties. Since I'm way down south, though, I just raise my own but always recommend Lisa's business to anyone in that part of the state looking for heirloom tomatoes. I don't know if Lisa carries garlic in the fall, but I certainly hope she does. Dawn

I always return the cart. I always clean up the table at fast food restaurants, throw away the trash, and return unopened catsup/ketchup packets to the cashier or "packet bin." In regular restaurants I "stack" my dishes when I'm done so that it's easier for the server to take them away, except in really fancy schmancy places - cuz it would look kinda odd. :-)

Now that's creative! I LOVE how you combined the leaf & the dragonfly. When you remove the leaf, you can do a wash on it & stain the leaf. Maybe tape the dragonfly to spray & seal the stain. I made a couple of stepping stones with leaves & did them that way & they are holding up pretty well. There are pics of the painted leaf imprints near the bottom of the page. Here is a link that might be useful: leaf stones

Hey Ashley, I really like hearing your takes on situations too. You would be one of my top picks to be my stepmom ;) I realize I didnt make that sentence very clear. Many people I have known have either taken breaks from work, quit, took some time off to regroup etc. I've known many people who have used different ways of dealing with stress from divorce and have taken it out on work, mainly because divorce was so popular in my family lol. Also, I've seen just from observation (my field deals with a lot of people and travel, so I think I have a fairly balanced place to observe) where adults take mental "breaks" from work, can't function very well, get fired etc. There is usually something that "gives" when a couple divorces. A messier house, credit card ran up, lose your job. There are natural consequences of divorce on adults, my only point was that there are going to be natural consequences for children. If one or both divorced spouses have a hard time finding their footing after separate, chances are they aren't going to be quite that rock for their children. The chances are high than the child is not going to be able to function as well as before if this is the case. It is only natural that school will be something that could "give" in the childs life. It is one of the only things they can actually control. They can control how little or much effort they put forth and how much room they allow school into their head. If their head is too clouded with what is going on in their personal life, not much room for school. Just like parents and work.