Everyone, you're welcome!! Glad you like the selection! Happy you are all happy with your cuttings. Good luck with all of them this winter. Many had a good start to rooting. Aboout the break-in- Our alarm was not on in our office! Duh!! Mostly the robbery just made everyone paranoid. My husband is still locking all our doors at home- a first for us, living out in the country with six noisy dogs to scare off strangers. Not too much lost but always brings a feeling of violation. This is a first for us in 12 years there and we are not in a good neighborhood, so we have been fortunate. BTW, the alarm is always on now when we leave! We have not caught the bums but that is probably what they are, bums, excuse me, not being PC here, homeless people, in the area. Thanks for all your support and concern. Well, I just dug a bunch of my brugs, with the help of my grandson, Nathan. I'm leaving Adeline to bloom, since I only had two so far, and she had 12 buds on her- getting some color today. I dug up Lucero- he is scalped!! I will post a photo later. Back to work! Brenda

The rock crystal sugar is generally mentioned in more old-fashioned recipes. European recipes normally do go by weight (with the exception of some British recipes). Whatever sugar you use, I wouldn't use turbinado, demerara, etc. because they would give the jam a slight molasses/caramel aftertaste. Unless, of course, that's what you're aiming for. Somewhere on this forum there should be a Peach Jam with Rum recipe I posted. Those sugars could work for that. The more difficult-to-convert European recipes call for jam sugar or pectin sugar, which is not available at all in this country. It's sold in "strengths" with varying pectin concentrations and is a granulated sugar-pectin mixture. Carol

I have an odd relationship with games-- every once in a blue moon I'll play a game obsessively for a 1-3 days and then I wouldn't play a thing for a year or two. I really dislike the ones that feel juvenile-- but thanks to this thread, I am now playing Pepper Panic. I tried CC.. didnt love it.. moved on to Pepper Panic and well.. "my name is Funky and I am a pepper addict!" I'll soon give it up though-- I am going to bed later, letting laundry sit longer, cooking more simple meals. I hate when I let a game affect my life!

I am very sorry for your loss, T. It is possible that you are a victim (meaning that your loneliness was not earned, but befallen on you due to people letting you down, and unfortunate circumstances), in which case, there is so much good advice in this thread. Have you read it all? Have you taken any of the advice? You wrote all about what has happened TO you, but nothing about your part in it, and maybe you're not ready to address that. I feel compassion for you, I really do. You wrote this: My wife could never grasp what I was going through, and now life has hammered me, everything was gone and my marriage of 35 years was going too. I'll never get over the family dying... You are clearly suffering from depression and loneliness. Have you reached out for help? How is that every single family member including your wife has estranged you? Have you seen someone for help, both medical (psychiatrist) and also a grief counselor? What are you doing to get on with life? As someone who tried really hard to live with a family member deep into depression and victimization, I can tell you that the worst part was when that person refused to access any of a myriad of opportunities for help. That person lashed out at others, and the depression (and alcoholism, fyi) that contributed to the emotional imbalance, drove all of his loved ones away. All of them. Including me. What I'm saying is this: you are down, but you are not out. There is help available. You have been given much advice...just read this thread. You have the capability to turn this around, and I really hope you do. Get yourself right, get some help. There's plenty of help out there. And maybe, down the road, your remaining extended family may wish to re-establish contact with you. If not, you will make many friends and meet people similarly wading through grief and life, and you can succeed in living a postive and productive, friend-filled life. I hope you do.