I use the hot water method, and find it very easy but perhaps that's because I use an electric teakettle (used a regular old-fashioned teakettle before I got the electric one). The spout makes it very easy to pour the water amd control exactly where it goes. The electric part makes it that much easier, because I just keep refilling the kettle and pushing the start lever. I also don't have all that far to go, and only one wide step down to the patio. I can imagine if one were hauling big stockpots of hot water down stairs, it would be a royal pain in the neck! Try a teakettle (it doesn't take much water per "crack" in my experience). I just wish it wouldn't kill the moss, too, because I actually like having that between the stones -- but I can't deal with the weeds that keep cropping up in the moss!

After having driven 1100 miles in the states of Nevada, Arizona and Utah, and having had many discussions about the price of gas, here are our conclusions: gas prices (US dollars per US gallon)have ranged from $2.89 (Utah) to $3.09 (Arizona) and I guess we'll find out what the costs are in Nevada when we refill this rental vehicle tomorrow before returning it. The Americans have a flat tax on every gallon -- the federal is constant but the state tax varies. In Vancouver we are paying about $3.70 US per US gallon. Our government scoops a lot of money from us at the pump. It's a percentage so when the price of gas rises so does their tax grab. The exchange rate is w-a-y better now for the Cdn dollar for those of us travelling to the US, so I bet there will be a few more Canucks going south for shopping. As for our trip, it has been a fun, learning experience. Our tour guide at Canyon de Chelly was a Navajo who grew up in the canyon, his dad still farms there. He had a great sense of humour and didn't mind all my questions. We were comparing Navajo band experiences and politics with the native groups of my province, along with the Canyon history. We later visited Monument Valley where all those John Wayne western films were made, the Navajo Monument (more hiking) and walked barefoot through the Coral Pink Sand dunes. We crossed the Colorado river, followed an old wagon train trail, and hiked up a canyon viewpoint at Zion Canyon in Utah. I must have 250 pictures of rocks and rock formations. This may not be a good thing.... ;-) Anyway, it's been a fantastic trip. Everyone we met has been friendly and at this time of year there were few cars on the roads we travelled. Great part of the country! PS Our rental vehicle (full-sized) Chevy Impala has been getting over 30 miles per gallon. Not bad. Eased the pain at the pump. PSS I suppose I should mention something about books. I read Tracy Chevalier's The Lady and the Unicorn last night and now it's back to Aztec which has more meaning after this trip. Those Spanish conquistadors were destructive meddlers. Adios from Utah!

Ginny, we had a discussion about frocks somewhere around RP not long ago. I got the impression no US female has worn one for many years but the word is still around over here although it has come to be used as in a 'party frock' event or maybe a summery picnic-by-the-river/watching a game of polo with an eligible Royal. At the other extreme 'frocks' are worn by the transvestite community. The artist Grayson Perry collected his Turner Prize wearing a natty little number . . . a path down which I shall no further tread. Re plus-fours my father wore them as a young man about town/golf course, years before he married. We still have the long socks/stockings that he wore with them. They were kept for Christmas Eve and left at the end of our beds for 'Father Christmas' (as we in the UK call Santa Claus). They were inherited by our children, pity Dad didn't have three legs. Still holding up well since c1930 . . . could the same be said of modern materials?

Eureka! At last I'm able to get back on line and I notice that I can go between RP, Circle Theater etc without having to re log-in. Thank you to Dido, who I bombarded with emails and to everyone who suggested 'ways in'. Martin, for a couple of days your blue 'this' brought up strange ads of a medical nature via Garden Web, but now the trouble seems to have cleared. Rosefolly, I did write to the powers-that-be on 'Contact Us' but they never responded. Nor did any notices about anything being wrong appear on the screen. Is it a coincidence that most of the people experiencing trouble were from Europe?