Ohhh sorry I missed this. We had a fabulous and honestly magical time. He was at his cutest flaming red curly hair with his black tux (with tails) and he insisted on bringing puppy (a sad floppy animal that appears to have been run over by several cars in it's four year life span). He ran into his gorgeous girl friend, who is his age but towers over him. Adorable little thing from China with silky hair you just want to play with :). She just moved to Seattle so he's been missing her. So ms tall, dark and gorgeous and mr short tiny and handsome went in hand in hand. They were mesmerized by the place. He kept saying it was magic :). He sat on the edge of his seat (great seats are always worthwhile!) and must have told me he loved it 40 times until he realized puppy was gone at which time he started sobbing! So during the cannon scene we were searching in the bathroom and restaurant...I was thinking of calling the hotel to see if they could run to ikea and get another one, drag that back to the hotel hanging on the bumper, in the rain, then throw it in a dryer and leave it in our room......but he asked to go back to the show. At the end of the show we went to lost and found and there was a sweet little girl waiting to return it to the little red head. She had another puppy in her arms that apparently went every where with her and she insisted on waiting for us so the puppy could be returned to his rightful owner. :). Moral of the stories....we will be taking him in a tux every year.....it was a joy to see this wonderful event through our sons eyes. And I picked up two extra puppies today at ikea which I will run over tomorrow while he is in school, then wash and set aside in case we ever have an emergency puppy need again! (and I got a noce new sewing room too lol) but that's another story! Thanks to all for the advice and encouragement. We will be buying season tickets I think. It was so much fun!

Theresa~I am a Pfaff fan; I own 3 Pfaff's :~). I do not own the 3 or 4, but I considered each in 2008. They were brand new to the market at that time. The 4 was simply out of my price range. I compared the 3 and the Quilt Expressions 2048 - reduced floor model to make room for the new model. The 2048 had more stitch options than the 3. The price of the 2048 won. I lusted for the extra room and light on the 3 for a long time!!!! My purchase was not a planned purchase. My 40 year old Pfaff broke down-completely my fault-timing issue I caused - but parts were getting harder to find......so when I dropped it off to be serviced, I walked out with a new machine - yikes! That new machine made me find the time to learn to quilt with modern products. Had I been an avid quilter, I may have made another choice - but perhaps not. You need to answer a few more questions on how you want to use the machine - what you want to sew....and if you will benefit from all the wonderful features. For me, upgrading to an Electronic machine was stepping into a new world, and my 2048 is pretty basic compared to the fancy machines! Both of these machines are going to sew beautifully, so that's no help! It is the features. when I get a chance, I'll compare them, if you want. I love spending other peoples' money - hahahaha....I am excited for you ~ and a bit jealous. I think the 4 had a module problem for a while....did you read anything about that?

For real whaas-that could be an option. So, when we did the big machine planting, and as I've said, things got a little out of hand, 4 guys pounding out a 14 hr. day planting trees , the spacing got wonky for a while. The DNR forestry guys said the trees will still grow just fine, and I've verified that for example, in our trips to that site, we pass through the small town I grew up in. And right there in that town are some Norway spruce that have grown well, and which are roughly perhaps 8 feet apart from each other, and are likely about 60 to 70 feet tall now-no problems seen in growth. I will still thin some day because I want the remaining trees to grow to their greatest extent possible. But back to those larch: So in a couple spots, the guy riding the planting machine (one of my sons) didn't always see they were getting real close to the lane that runs down through the center of that field. So we do in fact have a couple plants that will need to be dug out of the way of that lane. You're surely welcome to come on up and grab a couple whaas. We've got plenty! Another situation up at that land is that a neighbor-good guy, we hit it off well-has a mamma box elder tree in his yard, the tree is situated to the NW of our planting, and therefore.....forever.....box elder seeds will be raining down on my planting. Now the species we've planted there are all big, bold, strong growers-white pine, Norway spruce, red pine, larch, etc. No way does box elder compete successfully with these big guys. But they can sure make a mess in the meantime. I haven't done all this work to have a field full of box elders! I may offer to this fellow too that if he would be willing to cut down that @#$%^& female box elder, I would be happy to give him a couple good trees. We'll see how it goes, but for real whaas, hit me up in the spring. I'm sure we can get you a larch or two. One thing my son and I had to do up there this fall was to do a cut/treat on box elder saplings. As a shade-tolerant maple, box elders are coming up right in amongst our good trees. So we go in with folding pruning saws, loppers and spray bottles of Triclopyr and blue dye. We killed em all!

Al, firstly, why do you assume that my intentions were to hurt you? That is not very charitable; I assumed your tone was light and kept to that. - 'I would confiscate her (oxalis) plants' - I only mentioned your mother because she was part of the discussion, which my father certainly wasn't. I did genuinely feel for your mother, though; it appears she only had her plant for five months out of the usual twelve in which one can enjoy Oxalis regnellii aka triangularis. I have personal experience of growing this plant, longer than yours, for obvious reasons, since you only allow them a few months of active life annually. It is not necessary to give this oxalis a resting period, and it will often actively resist this if you try. If it appears to get tired, more likely from not being watered correctly or otherwise cherished (they do like the odd feed or renewed soil), it can be magically revived by trimming the foliage back, repotting and replacing where it grew happily before. People have enjoyed this plant almost continuously for years on end, and according to their own testimonies they often have them much longer than other houseplants. Now there are oxalises with bulbs or other storage organs which do appreciate a resting period (I think particularly those originating in South Africa), but as one of the most beautiful house plants available, Oxalis regnellii does not. So you can send your O. regnelliis to bed early like a naughty child, and I will allow mine to flaunt their glory for many hours longer; this very tolerant plant will put up with both treatments, but I think I know which it prefers :)