Hi Alex, "I didn't know that about State Fair being triploid." State Fair is tetraploid. If you cross a tetraploid with a diploid, you get a triploid. Triploids are sterile. A good example of triploids is bananas. All of the bananas in the store are triploids and in effect seedless. Those tiny brown dots would have been seed embryos if one parent had not been a tetraploid while the other was diploid. Banana breeders breed a lot of different diploid bananas and a lot of different tetraploid bananas, and their bananas have fertile seeds. So they grow bananas from seeds in order to get new varieties of bananas. They produce many amazing forms of bananas that never get grown commercially for one reason or another. Many years ago a banana company (I think it was Dole) ran a full page magazine add showing an assortment of their experimental bananas. One of them was round like a grapefruit. But I digress. "I now have Kaspersky for my security system. He promises to keep me safe - eh, comrade?" Let us know how Kapersky works. I have never tried that one. "And the good news... I have gathered some nice plump seeds from Alpha - yay! So, all is going well." Are you going to dry them for planting next Spring? I have a few green seeds that are nearly ready to pull, but I will be putting mine in a pre-germ Ziploc. I hope to have a second generation growing by Christmas. "... Bummer. I do still have the RAW files, I think, saved elsewhere, ..." I know you are not a fan of the user interface, but DxO Optics Pro 10 is now available for a free 30-day fully functional trial, and it could convert those raw files to a form that your Photoshop Elements 12 could process. Incidentally, DxO Optic's user interface has "improved" (changed) a little, and you might hate it less. It does allow you to create your own Presets, which makes it easy to repeat a previous choice of settings. DxO Optic's Prime option for Denoising is computation intensive, but very possibly the best available. Topaz's DeNoise plug-in is nearly as capable. I have both, but primarily use DxO's Prime Denoising, because it is spooky good. (Topaz's DeNoise is also spooky good.) "Other pics I can pick up from here and Photobucket. But it's going to take time." But the pics here and in Photobucket don't have nearly as much detail as your original Raw files. Incidentally, do you have a Nikon program called ViewNX 2? It can show you thumbnail pictures of NEF (RAW) files and you can double-click those thumbnails to get a full screen view of your RAW file. More later. More indoor gardening to do. ZM (not associated with any product or vendor mentioned or linked)

Thanks everyone! Parma...it's never too late to learn! Go get yourself a machine and sign up for a class. You might want to check with a sewing shop about a used machine. Sometimes you can pick up some really nice ones for a song (with free beginner classes). Make your MIL something and put a tag on it that says "Handmade by the exceptionally talented Parma". LOL

I wanted to mention to those that haven't yet, please post to the "getting to know me" thread here in the conversation area. This is to help your swap partner "get to know you" a bit better to help with some of your swap choices! It looks like another good turnout of folks participating, I am very pleased that we chose something you ladies were interested in! You should be receiving your names on Thursday, I'll post here after I get them out. I will be leaving today until Wednesday evening, so if you post or email me you might not hear from me until then. I'll have my laptop, but I will also be keeping a very active 4 year old entertained!LOL Thanks again! Lisa

Fran...you're back? How was your trip? Jen, the "pattern" is sort of one I drafted for myself. Mom's turned out a little smaller...mine is bigger. If she wants a larger bag, I will keep the small one for myself and make her a bigger one. They only take a couple of hours to make. I just measure the size I want them to be, square off the bottom, then measure the length of handles from another bag I like. I lined mine, but serged mom's front, heavy interfacing, and lining all together and treated it all as one piece - easier, faster, neater. Sometimes I put a pocket on the inside, these I did not. I liked adding the top "cuff" of another fabric in a coordinating color. Yes, a project finished in one day is gratifying!