I am so sorry first of all about this very unfortunate happening. I need to say that some people can only focus on their own greed and desires rather than take time to think about who their actions affect. I just hate to see anyone or anything suffering because I know how undeserving of misfortune most people are. But, rest assured that these immoral, lowlife, inconsiderate b*stards WILL be judged as will anyone who has a breath in their lungs. I have to say that the idea of putting chips to track plants or id plants does not work the same as dogs because with dogs, they are taken to the pound or humane society to be ID'd first. Plants just taken by a theif would not be brought somewhere to be ID'd so unless you could have a police officer escort you into a suspects domecile and use the laser to ID the plant(s), how likely is that? I think a good idea in order to prevent some theivery would be to organize a neighborhood watch and that way all neighbors are keeping eyes out as well as you so if one neighbor is lying, you would still know. Second of all, please notify EBAY of the orchids you even SUSPECT of being HOT or lifted plants and they will at least keep an eye on the transaction but also notify them and tell them YOUR side of the story- tell them you had orchids stolen and be very specific so that if any items match, ebay can properly monitor and notify you of possible recovery, and do the same with craigslist because if you report the user who is selling those plants and as SHADY as they sound, EBAY should monitor that seller and double check their resources or at the very least hold them up because you can report a seller on ebay and have them reviewed by paypal and/or ebay. keep in mind i am not the brightest person here, but you should check the seller again just to be sure- what if you could recover a plant or 2 or maybe even 8 or 9 out of the 20 or so you lost? I think it is worth it to do all you can in your community and the online community. Also, one last thing you can do is talk to others in your community- see if anyone else has had the same misfortune or if maybe they saw something. you can be your own Nancy Drew and possibly prevent others in your community from having the same misofrtune befall them. Another thing I would do is tell people you filed a police report and the police have done an investigation. Tell them the police have limited their investigation to a few select people and maybe you can make it seem like the pressure is on to catch a theif- check for fishy or shady behavior and maybe scope out anyone you suspect. I think you have one person in mind who is responsible and until you can prove it, the cops will not help. posession is 9/10ths of the law. Maybe you can find out something helpful in any case to prove yourself right or wrong.

I brought back truffle oil, garden seeds, olive oil and wine. Italian seed packets are huge. Also, they add nothing to the weight and bulk of your luggage. The olive oil and wine were from a vineyard/olive grove tour. Four bottles were packaged for travel. Bologna is the main objective for my next trip to Italy. From what I've learned, it has the food I would most enjoy in all of Italy. That should be quite wonderful, since all the food I ate on my trip to the region around Florence was wonderful. For a month after that trip, I tried to duplicate those dishes on a daily basis. I did quite well for a while but now the memory needs refreshing. I need another trip. Mementos to bring home would be a low priority for me. The live experience is what's important -- the meals, the wine, the sights, the creature comforts which are abundant and essential to Italian life. They can't be packaged. The glass and pottery are beautiful though. I would probably shop for one of those serving bowls. Also, Italian shoes are the finest. Have a great trip. Jim

I just posted this on someone else's thread but I wanted to say THANK YOU for helping me find my voice! And making progress! The granite guy came today and fixed the crack. You can't tell at all standing over it. I can see it when the sunlight is reflecting off of it, but also bc I was specifically looking for it. Anyone else would just see it as graining. Granite guy said it happened probably when the cabinet guy was hacking at the trim he had to remove bc it wasn't right. This I can live with. The cabinet guy showed up yesterday. The magnet he brought to fix door wasn't the right one. I started to show him which cabs had nails still sticking out and he said he'd check all of them. Then he said ok I'm done. I opened a cab and said the nails aren't finished, I thought you were going to finish them. He says,"Oh I didnt realize that you wanted me to do that." Really?Really? I guess he thought the splintered wood was fine? So then he says ok I'm done. I'm going to run to HD and get the magnet and be right back. Then I went to check his work. He missed cutting nails in 2 cab and didn't finish 3 others. Well...An 1 1/2 later he calls and says he got the battery but needed to go home and he'd come back tomorrow. I told him he missed more nails etc. And... he didn't come. But I do consider it a small victory he came at all. And lastly, I called the glass guy and said it was really driving me crazy everytime I look at it. He said he was going to call daltile to see if there was anything he could do, but if not, they would have to do it over bc it was their mistake. Yea! So I'll let everyone know how things turn out. I really don't expect to hear from cab guy. But, it's not the last he'll hear from me!

SS had his physical yesterday. I had ds9 with me and didn't want to discuss with the dr while both boys could hear. So I didn't really get to discuss this with her. I plan to call the nurse and talk to her about it soon. SS seems to be doing ok right now though. Yesterday I took them all to get baseball equipment. I don't know why but ss asked me how much support his mom is behind. I told him it didn't matter. He then told me that "well, she gripes about you guys all the time and says it's all your fault that the paperwork got screwed up and she shouldn't have to pay you at all and what she does pay you is way too much and you don't use it for me at all" , so you may as well say what you want, she does." This makes me so mad!! The court order is screwed up but that's not our fault and in fact, I'm the one who found the error and pointed it out to her to fix. I will NEVER help her out again. This is what I get for being nice and honest. And I know.... you all know that the $56 per week she pays isn't really enough to raise this child. LOL!! It's kinda funny though you know..... we paid her $58 and it wasn't near enough to pay for him when she had him and of course every dime went to him. But now that it's turned around we are horrible awful people who are taking her to the bank. It's also very hypocritical that during the custody battle she countered it with trying to get her support raised. What do we do though? She's obviously filling his little brain with all kinds of stuff. Last night she called him and we could hear her. She told him he is to have his phone charged and on ALL the time and he is to call her EVERYDAY! She only talked to him once in the last month before this all happened. Then before she hung up.... he was barely talking.... she told him to just call her in the morning. I don't trust her. Yes, he is absolutely able to speak to his mother... whenever, but she's not stable right now and she's not healthy for him with what she's filling his head with. Yesterday he had a bout with low blood sugar so I got him a snack. He said the "hot" flashes happen when he cries too like the other night and that didn't have anything to do with low blood sugar. I said no, you were just upset, and I just reiterated that I told him the truth (This was about his ex-step dad NEVER saying he wanted to kill him like bm told him) SS very calmly looked up to me and said "I know, I trust you" he's been hugging me very tight everyday. I've been staying calm with him and just loving him back. I feel so horrible for him. He knows his mom is a liar but he still has to be her son. There isn't anything around that and I don't know how to get the proof needed to get supervised visits. Also, I needed to go into their room last night and noticed ss still didn't put his phone on the charger. He moved it but didn't plug it in. It's almost like he did it on purpose. He was asleep so I didn't mention anything.