Hi all, My first plant was an African violet. My grandmother was at fault. It was 1979 and I was about 23 years old and in college. I decided I would like to have a house plant and went over to her place to get some pothos cuttings. She grew wonderful looking pothos like nobody I've ever seen since. Anyway she was really thrilled that I was interested in having of houseplant and cut me several good lengths of pothos stems. When we were done with that she took me over to the window and showed me an African violet. She told me that I could take one of those leaves, put it in a glass of water, and that it would grow new plants from the base of the stem. I thought to myself, "no way", but I took a couple of those leaves home, stuck them in a glass of water as she instructed and indeed after couple months little plantlets started to grow from the bottom of the stems. I then planted them in African violet soil and had two plants. I soon took more leaves and started even more African violets. I thought it was such a coup how I was able to produce these "free" plants. Although by the time I bought the pots and soil those plants were not free. lol I then started propagating other plants. I even grew a lemon tree from a lemon seed I had harvested when making lemonade one time. My surprise was that the thing had thorns. Even though I liked my plants I can say that I was really in love with them. That would come later. I graduated from college and married a girl who was in ROTC and went into the army six months later. She was immediately sent to different schools and we traveled around the country to three different places in less than a year. Keeping plants going under those conditions was not very good and I lost a lot of plants, but not my African violets. I wound up in Washington, DC and worked for what was pretty much a white collar "sweat shop". It wasn't uncommon for me to work 60 to 70 hours a week. I needed somewhat of a diversion occasionally though and I found that diversion to be houseplants. I was very lucky to share a corner office with a couple of other people. The sunlight was incredible, and the windows were tinted so that the sun was not too harsh. I bought several starter plants and had them around my desk. To make a long story short I had a spider plant that was just magnificent and I had a Swedish Ivy that was to die for. The Swedish Ivy hung from a 9 foot ceiling and was basically a pillar all the way to the floor. I could not get my arms around the circumference of the plant. Anyway that's when my love of plants really blossomed. I continued to purchase and propagate African violets and had several to give away. My wife, who would eventually become my ex wife, and I moved to Denver. I then became acquainted with other gesneriad cousins of African violets. I went to African violet and gesneriad shows annually and met several people who grew these plants. I love all of my plants but my first love is African violets and their gesneriad cousins. Larry

I just want to caution you to tread carefully when interfering with teen love. Studies have been done on this topic, and it is NOT true that loves from your 20s are stronger or more important than young/teen loves. In fact, the opposite is true. Young, teen loves often form the strongest bonds of any love relationship in your life. Scientists believe that there is a hormonal "imprint" that these early loves have on one another's brains very similar to the "imprint" that babies and mothers experience. When these loves are disrupted because of parental interference/disapproval, it can have devastating lifelong effects on the couples' ability to form lasting and fulfilling love relationships in their adult years because they are haunted by unfinished business. Don't diss young love. It IS the real thing. I'm attaching a link to the website of Dr. Nancy Kalish, who has done a lot of research on young love, and the effects of reunions between teen lovers in adulthood. Although my children are both very young, I believe very strongly that you must allow your children enough freedom to form these attachments and see them through to their own natural course. Some WILL end up happily married right out of high school. Some will break up because they're not getting along. But the most important thing we can do as parents is talk to our children about the importance of love, what real love looks like, and make sure they are safe. Make sure your children know their values, are prepared and know what they need to and want to do when it comes to s*x, and encourage them to bring their girlfriends and boyfriends home so that you can keep an eye on the situation without making them feel like star-crossed lovers. I'm not looking forward to this period in my children's lives because it makes me nervous, but I do hope they find and know real romantic love. Good luck! Here is a link that might be useful: Dr. Nancy Kalish

post this in the kitchen forum, you'll get a lot more responses there

Hi my idea is to start a topic with all of your opinions and ideas ( from real life cases ) what can be done for for our HVAC unit system failure before to call HVAC professional And few of my my helpful tips are : Weak airflow coming out from the vents. Check your filter! If your filter is clogged airflow in the system might be very weak. Your air conditioner, heat pump or furnace is using filter to remove dust and airborne particles from the house. When it is worth to call professional? Many small heating and cooling system issues lead to more serious and more expensive ones from any of the HVAC companies in your area. Without on going maintenance you may need to replace your HVAC unit much earlier than normal. WHAT ARE YOURS?