IÂve been in listening mode as well (can you hear me listening..?) Woohoo  Deanne, you do everything with flair! I bet Doug was scared to death  and you gave yourself a shiner? how terrible  adding insult to injury w/ the flu  I do hope you take it easy and rest  youÂve got a lot of entertaining to do soon w/ your Idyll guests! I do love that butterfly  and leave it to Marie to know what kind, etc., it was. Your party sounds like a wonderful way to break up the winter doldrums  Im planning to go to the Phila. Flower Show in early March  so thatÂs what Im using as a "break-out" of winter event. V- glad to hear youÂre feeling better and cannot be held responsible except via Âweb to have passed that flu along to Deanne  I hear you about the coughing though  I had severe flu about 20 years ago and coughed and popped a pelvic artery  landed in the hospital (it was a close call). . . .for Xmas because of it (they didnt know what was wrong til they operated). So I must confess I am extremely paranoid about hard coughing of any sort now & have been ever since that happened  weird things do happen. I confess on the health front I continue to be totally puzzled by all the conflicting reports  low fat, high protein, no protein, high fat  whatÂs a person to believe any more? I think your attitude is probably the correct one, Marie  celebrate with food  after all if we donÂt have fun with it, whatÂs the point? Honey, I meant to tell you that I truly love the red also (I in fact love all bright & deep colors) and am amazed that you pulled that all together because of wrong furniture fabric! One would Never know  youÂre an artiste. Mary, I imagine youÂre starting to count the days til the big trip  it sounds glorious  you and your entire family will have a blast  a trip to paradise, how neat is that? I imagine the children will remember it forever  and it will be a nice memory to make for Annie to put next to the loss of her dear friend  a good memory to overtake the bad one in this year. Michelle, - I ordered the Cl. Laura also  it looks gorgeous doesnÂt it? For some reason I ordered mostly Type IIs this year  Im probably crazy to do so  but my others have been doing so well that I am getting bolder I guess. Of course, if this is a failure and they all croak this summer or get horrible wilt, IÂll be going back to sticking w/ the IIIs I guess  but I wont know until IÂve tried. I ordered a total of 6 clematis this year (altho my list was much longer, but I tried to restrain myself & limit to a budget $$). I know thereÂs other stuff to comment on but I better get to work. Im hearing that 4-letter word in our forecast this weakened (S***)  ugh  of course, Im planning to drive to Phila. to check on the parents  it never fails  IÂll probably wimp out if it really says itÂs gonna happen  I donÂt know how you do so much intrepid driving, Martie, with your...

"People coming from Russia at that time did not often want it to be thought they might be communists" maifleur, I've read dozens of books on 20th century US and European history and this narrative you keep repeating differs from what I've read. The US didn't immediately warm up to the new Soviet Union for geopolitical reasons as much as anything. When Lenin took power in 1917, he withdrew the country from active conflict. That allowed Germany to concentrate its forces on the Western front (where the allies and ultimately the US were fighting). On the other hand, anti-German sentiment was quite strong some time earlier because of the war (started in 1914, renaming of Kitchener was in 1916 just as one of many examples). The Soviet regime was new and in the early years, few Americans knew much about it. The Germans were severely punished by the Treaty of Versailles and not forgiven by the western powers anytime before WW2 started. If you had a choice in the teens to 40s of being known as having German or Russian ancestors, most would have chosen Russian. It would be wrong to not mention that Germany (West Germany through the fall of the wall) was the bulwark of the West during the Cold War and has served as the anchor point and foundation of European recovery, peace and prosperity for the last 60+ years. And continues to function as that foundation.

Oh my gosh, I did not realize that Renee had not received my card. I will be resending asap. I have been struggling to keep up on everything going on in both the swaps I joined. I apologize. I have never had a card or package get lost like that in the many years I have been doing swaps. I have contacted Renee. Melinda, I’m so sorry to hear about your sister and bil. That’s a double whammy. I’ll be praying for them. Thank you for doing this hosting with so much on your mind. Margo

Hi Jeanne! I am so glad to hear from you and hope for better days/tomorrows. Thank you for your cute card, I think you made it? Ruth ~ I majored in business after being undecided for freshman year then thought teaching was something I wanted to do but realize it wasn't my cup of tea, then finally had to decide so chose Business Administration. Then I had to choose which option and marketing was the only one out of all of them that sounded appealing even though I am awfully afraid of speaking infront of people. Go Figure right, hahaha. But all in all, it all worked out in the end, I worked in Human Resources and it forced me to manage all type of people/workloads. I am just glad I am done with all of it now. Also, I think its so hard to decide on what to major to go to when in High School let alone going to college to find out what you really want to do for the rest of your life.