Mehitabel - The good side of things is that I've realized what a ridiculous waste of money so many things are. Starbucks? No way! 4 tall lattes = a new orchid. I'd rather take the orchid, thanks. Q - you clearly are much more well behaved than I am. You should try the sedirea though - no need for a tank, and if it can survive in the cold, dry, sun-less canadian winter, I'm sure it'll do fine for you. MrB - Hopefully I don't come across as being presumptuous for getting these kinda hard to grow plants - honestly, I do realize how much I need to learn! :) Actually, some of the things I ordered were not listed on the oakhill website; I e-mailed Greg and he sent me a list of things. That was pretty cool of him to do. Still searching for that distincta/splendida though Carol - those ghosts are really cute but weird...there are several of them mounted on one stick...seems like they were recently mounted. I've popped them into the tank and will be keeping a close eye on them. If they do well in the next few weeks I'll post an update. Let me know if you're interested in trying one or two :) Kev - you terrible enabler. Yes, I definitely did eye the dends. That's for my next order :-) And speeding across the great lakes on a boat? Puh-leeeze...that's soo crude - I'm much more of a jumping-from-a-plane-with-parachute-orchids-in-tow-in-the-dead-of-night kinda guy. PS - my habenaria woke up! what should I do with it? WC - You've seen right through my pathetic delusions! Yes...sob...you're right...curse the internet, Jay's orchid species website, and this forum and you bunch of lovely evil enablers :D

Oh JNM this sounds very hard :-( I can understand why you can't move past it, for now anyway. When you give so much to a person, and they poo all over it, it comes to a point where you've just had enough. It's not that you don't want to reach out/try again/make the effort/put the energy in/etc etc; it's just that you can't anymore. Right? I really understand that and there's nothing wrong with it, don't feel guilty or bad about it! The apology that your SD should give you is a big deal to me; when you do something wrong and you know it, you should apologise. No need to tiptoe around SD and let it slide, why would she have a different set of rules apply to her? Because there's bigger fish to fry? Because of BM? No way. SD knows she's wrong, she'll need to make it right. A heartfelt apology is a good start, and essential if you ask me. My SD15 cannot apologise either, she has never apologised for anything, ever. Over the past year she's done the wrong thing by us several times; loving it when we run around for her, and running back to BM's whenever she doesn't get her way. I haven't posted much about it, because what is there to say about it..really. As long as BM encourages this behavior (this is our situation) SD will not see the need to change. She can run away from problems, go there if something doesn't suit overhere, no need to own up, apologise, nothing. When she comes back she pretends all is good again, just because time has passed. And by the way; we should be thankful for her visit.. One of the biggest reasons that FDH and BM got divorced is because they were never able to work anything out. Any problem they had remained unresolved, so stuff piled up which created bigger problems. BM is not capable of looking at her own behavior, the part she might own in a problem, nothing is ever her fault and an apology is something she only wishes to receive, not give. (This has a lot to do with mental disorder). It was her way or the highway, and that is just not realistic. SD15 seems to adopt the same attitude, maybe because of BM's example, maybe because of situation (2 homes to play out against eachother). Not to say it's all because of BM though, because SD knows very well that BM's behavior is completely unacceptable, selfish and self-destructive. We have also had plenty meaningful conversations just like you guys. SD's understanding of the dynamics even impressed us, but she still continues to behave this way. Therefore we know that she 'owns' it, blaming BM is not going to fly, just like it doesn't with your SD. I'm also at a point where I find it hard to keep going. I want to stay engaged and make the effort, try and talk with SD's, be there for them, guide them, poor energy into all of it, and I too cannot seem to give it at the moment. I've given this a lot of thought because I don't want to give the skids the wrong message. There's a big difference between a bit of disengaging and 'turning your back on them' and I don't want them to misunderstand what's happening here. It's not that I don't care anymore, it's that I don't agree with what they are doing. I cannot change it, I cannot force SD15 to apologise or to behave different, but I can choose my own response to that. So I've decided I do what I normally do (as in tasks around the house) but I keep to myself and I'm not running around anymore. It's simple; I don't owe them anything. If they make an effort to treat us better, I'll go above and beyond for them as well. If not, then I will perform my daily tasks as normal, but nothing more. I don't walk around angry, I just do my own thing and I'm not getting very involved in things they do. They come, they go, that's it. I used to put up with a lot more when they were younger; they were manipulated by BM, they did not understand, I had to try and be the bigger person and suck it up for their sake. But not anymore; now they are old enough, they need to own their own choices and they need to realise that a relationship goes both ways. If they don't invest, then I'm not going to be in it anymore either. I wonder if your SD will be back, I can see where you're coming from when you say you don't think so. How are your boys doing now that SD is out of the house? You gave the impression that they aren't affected by it too much, not in a negative way anyway?

No, it wasn't 5 seconds! LOL Not even close! Plus, I had to wait for someone ahead of me and I waited until I nearly collapsed, probably 10-15 min, then got a wheelchair and sat in one for another 5-10 min anyway while she got hers. She even apologized for how long it was taking but I said it wasn't her fault. The machine in the video is like the one I used. The screen gave a progress report on a little line graph similar to installing software or updates on a computer. I watched as it was printing the label, probably 45 sec to a minute, then about the same as it was "applying label", releasing bottle took about a minute, then for it to actually drop the bottle probably took another minute. One prescription was 2 bottles. (Blister packs inside a prescription bottle. I was thinking at first it would be loaded from behind, in a secure area, but from the video, it's not. What a labor intense thing that would be! Can't tell if it automatically rotates stock or not, if not, you'd essentially need to remove all stock, then back-load the new items, counting what you have of old stock to put back, essentially 100 times, all the while it would be open and vulnerable to robbery. I suppose they might just close off the area to semi-secure it but if someone wanted it, it could be easy pickings and not even have the slowdown of a traditional pharmacy. As for security, the pharmacies at other hospitals I've seen are far more secure than this machine, especially considering low-staffing. The little hole with bullet-resistant glass with the shuffle tray and a heavy locked door for access to the people and drugs, plus a heavy locked door to enter the area anyway. Late night you'd get "buzzed" in. Lindsey_CA, not sure if the risk factor you mentioned is employee theft, but this to me is a much higher potential risk of a stocker slipping a bottle or two into a pocket. There may be electronic features of the machine to verify the number of bottles put in and it would have to match what's sent, etc, but there's also a quick substitution of an empty bottle possibility. I'd be much more confident of the security of the traditional pharmacy than the vending machine. The more I think of it, the more I like the idea of it as an option. However, I'm sure many on Medicare would not want to use it for the cost factor. I'm pretty sure it's more expensive than a big name pharmacy. And of course, yes there's those who need it immediately and don't want to make a separate stop, cost be d@mned. And the time factor would be offset by the added time to go to another location. The point about counseling is a good one. Over the past few years and seeing the incompetence, malfeasance and downright malpractice of nursing homes I have become very obsessive about checking for interactions on medications. One of the meds prescribed at the hospital has the following warning from drugs.com, but no warning on the bottle and no accompanying paperwork. "...may reduce (effects) in some patients...combining these medications can increase the risk of a rare but serious condition...which may include symptoms such as confusion, hallucination, seizure, extreme changes in blood pressure, increased heart rate, fever, excessive sweating, shivering or shaking, blurred vision, muscle spasm or stiffness, tremor, incoordination, stomach cramp, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea." Granted to cover backsides they may overemphasize things but then again considering the drug interactions and effects that have found to be serious to deadly, I tend to want as much info as I can get on them. The pharmacy I usually use has a printout attached to each med and if I have not had a drug prescribed before the pharmacist is nearly insistent to point out anything serious. And the cover bottles with warning stickers too.

My times is working just fine. It was my error in not getting the time set just right. the exact hours on the timer are vague. I pushed it up a little bit and it shut off and actually turned on at the right time tonight. So all is good. I do not have to worry about it. It will take care of itself. I really have no plans to get more Christmas stuff. I did pick up some 20 light strands for crafting. I would like to put them into some glass blocks I bought several years ago at a yard sale. I have to drill them first. And then of course do some pretty mosaic on the glass blocks. I love my nativity set and mentally can not get rid of my collection of indent bulbs I have collected since my first husbands grandmother gave me two boxes of them. Not sure I will ever put up a tree again but I am not ready to give up my bulbs.