If you like Phals, you're in luck - there are bunches of fragrant species, primaries, and hybrids. As far as I know - anything with amboinensis, violacea, or bellina in it is likely to be fragrant, plus most (all?) of these are compact or stay smallish for a long time and are summer bloomers. Other Phal species are fragrant, but I don't know how large they get, if space is a consideration. Most all the online vendors have a category for fragrant orchids, including Phals. 1. My Phal Tsu Chiang Balm (An Tai Jade x Stone Dance) stays compact and has branching spikes. Colors are true: 2. Perhaps difficult to find now, but Phal I-Hsin Salmon 'Joy No. 3' (Princess Midas x Kuntrarti Rarashati) also is compact, often sends up 2 spikes twice a year and has a lovely fragrance. Loooove this orchid. Colors are true: 3. Phal equestris 'orange.' Miniature? Mine from Big Leaf hasn't bloomed yet, but spiked on a plant w/ two, 3" mature leaves & a small new leaf: 4. Phal Princess Kaiulani 'Chin Yo' (amboinenses x violacea) - hasn't bloomed yet. Again, blooms on small, young plants & stays compact. Photo from UK Orchid Forum. Just about all the photos I've seen have this riotous coloring: All reportedly compact & fragrant: Aussies Delight 'Zuma Beach' AM/AOS Cordova 'Maria Teresa' AM/AOS Orchid World'Joe' AM/AOS Sogo Firework 'Orchidheights' Summer Venus 'Orchid Konnection' HCC/CCM/AOS Not sure about size: Brother Sweet Sugar 'Montclair' Bulbos. I always ask the vendor if anyone on the planet would find the aroma offensive. If you're interested, I've got a copy of Brooke's list of 31 sweetly-scented Bulbos. Dens. Loads have terrific aromas. Coelogynes. Many are fragrant. Cymbidiums. There are fragrant large, compact, and miniature warmth-tolerant Cyms. SBOE on the Cymbidium Golden Elf 'Sundust,' HCC/AOS: This fragrant golden-yellow alba miniature is so floriferous it first bloomed while still in the flask. I've got to stop Googling around - no more space for any new orchids. Neostylis, a popular intergeneric of Neo and Rhynchostylis. If you Google "Neostylis orchids," you'll get options. It's my understanding all are fragrant. These threads about fragrant orchids in general: http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/orchids/msg0215001819646.html http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/orchids/msg1012360725261.html Numerous options here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/ossc/discuss/72157626922076580/ Well, this was a delightful search. Have fun, and let us know your final choice! WhiteCat8 Here is a link that might be useful: Fragrant Phals & a few others

Okay. You guys are great. Clearly the collective wisdom is not to throw money at the problem - but figure the problem out. Owbist - in my thread on not connecting my husband's vista laptop to our network, I tried quietly, methodically to troubleshoot the issues - to no avail. I found lots of similar frustrations on google - but no solutions that worked - and I think I tried them all - at least to the best of my ability. thanks for those great, easy-to-follow instructions to transfer to an external hard drive. He'll want to do that anyway - even if he keeps this computer. This computer guy is pricey - but where I am in DC they seem to fall in the $125-140/hour range - and they can usually fix a problem. Others that charge $40-75 - that the uninformed think are good - but their know-how is less than what I find here. I tried a few of those locally recommended guys - and they accomplished the simple tasks but also made mistakes I had to hire the more expensive guy to fix. My main complaint with him is that he's wedded to his biases - he hates Vista - so his recommendation is usually to avoid or ditch it. Our struggles with Vista seem to often be how often we're blocked from things or performing simple tasks have all sort of obstacles - for "safety's" sake. Thanks to everyone for pointing out that Windows 7 is just a revamped Vista. I got my first issue of Smart Computing and they were tauting it and described some features I thought I'd love. DA - if W8 is in process, is there any indication of what it will be like? Probably worth waiting for - or at least waiting to hear more about how Windows 7 is panning out. So I'll keep plugging away on my other thread to get him connected. If I don't succeed by Tuesday, the computer guy will come and fix it. I guess we'll stop there. Thanks. Lynn.

Casi, I used Family Tree Maker from Broderbund. It suited my purpose at the time. Not sure that you can simply copy over all your data with a few mouse clicks sadly. However the upside of using the Familysearch program is that they are not going to disappear any time soon so there is little fear of becoming outdated. I never used it but did download a few times - in case I plucked up the courage to start the transfer of all the data. Moving the names and stuff did not seem daunting but adding all the notes as well made it a serious proposition. Much of my data was stored on XL where I could add any variables I needed. My family is from the UK so I sorted the names as I found them in the 1850,1860,1870, 1880 and 1890 census. Plus there were columns for church records and birth, marriage and death columns. I enjoyed it for over 3 years but got side tracked easily trying to understand the way of life back then, plus through family contacts my photo album of the departed grew steadily and I spent a lot of time repairing damaged photos.

I am not super clear myself on what I mean by Upstate New York. In Sept. I am traveling through Burlington Vt to Plattsburgh NY and then up to Montreal, coming back down into the USA at Alexandria Bay, NY. I have not traveled much in New York, so I am trying to figure out the best way to drive back across New York to get back to the Boston area, planning to take 2 days to make it back from Alexandria Bay. Several years ago, I took a road trip across Vermont influenced by the Ruah Donnelly book about specialty nurseries' (carefully researching online to make sure they were still in existence). I briefly considered driving down to Ithaca and coming back from there, but decided that the Finger Lakes area should be a separate trip. I may drive to Lake Saranac and then down through Albany. A chance to stop at either interesting specialty nurseries or even good garden centers might divert my course.