Robin, thank you for you pleasant and informative reply. Keep plugging away in your ag column. You are right about the value of connecting a producer to a major marketer, assuming you can get good contract terms. Around here we are also promoting local, mostly organic produce with the help of a new commercial venture that buys locally and delivers to subscribers, much like I have been doing from my local production. Welcome to California, the country's salad bar and source of much of the almond, walnut, table grape, etc. not imported from Mexico and elsewhere during the winter, especially. Before NAFTA, California produced 80% of US winter produce. Now a decade later. we produce less than half. And produce prices are going through the roof as I write this. Our trillion dollar ag is expected to mostly go the way of the Model A Ford unless public policy changes. Big agri-business here survives on international sales of specialty items and value-added items. Most of the produce (those "minor crops" we grow) is not sold and consumed as raw purchases but rather are first processed in a variety of ways from cut-and-bag to frozen to processed for junk food. Less than 5% of our ag production is sold fresh. So much of fresh produce is now grown south of the border that most of the freezing and canning operations have left California. So, Robin, when you write: "Do you think the US will ever be able to feed itself any where close to adequately? I have wild dreams of doing away with corn chips and HFCS to better use the space it takes to produce corn." ...I have to point out the historic overproduction of a few crops and diminishing relative demand for fresh and wholesome food that we produce. Moreover, the lack of parity in prices paid to farmers and animal producers means that the US farmer receives a smaller and smaller share of the money spent on food. How many boxes of lettuce must you sell to purchase a decent tractor and tool bar? The "organic movement" threatens the status quo of value-added food processing because organics convince people that real fresh food can be wholesome and tasty and health-supporting without a load of unwanted chemistry. This chemistry is both in the conventional products at farm gates and added later in processing to enhance shelf life, appearance, and taste (fat, corn fructose, salt), AND with much ballyahoo additional nutrients and minerals to "improve" their products alread de-natured and de-neutrified. People are malnourished on our abundant food. I want to make a minor plug for many conventional growers I've known and inspected. Most of the good ones just hate spraying toxics on crops, animals and ground. Most will choose the least toxic to get something under control. Produce standards are so tight, cosmetic standards even more so compared to those applied to organic products. If you need to wholesale your production, you better conform unfortunately. They cannot ignore bug and diseases because a shipment of "infected" produce or fruit can be rejected by wholesale terminals or official inspectors at any point. The whole harvest can be returned or otherwise disposed of at a loss. Japan buys a lot of certified organic grapes from California at premium prices. Let there be ONE black widow spider in a shipping container of California grapes, the container is returned immediately. Growers pay a premium to pickers for finding and delivering black widows. Back then $5 per spider was worth the cost of losing sales. The practice of fumigating fresh produce and fruit is widespread, including imported organic. The Japanese will accept phytosanitary documentation to avoid fumigation or irradiation. Fumigation is done at port of shipping and sometimes en route. Under NAFTA, there is not automatic fumigation, as I recall. All kinds of bad bugs are getting through to plague our ag people. So far I haven't been aerially sprayed with pesticided baits as have hundreds of square miles elsewhere. Got to go collect eggs and set the hens in for the night.

Thank you, Annie! I posted earlier but my response got deleted with the spam! I had no idea rugs could be cut to shape like that! Nosoccermom, I have been thinking about a shag. Would prefer wool but probably would be too thin in my budget if I find one. What should I be careful of when mixing the blue and gray? I also like the stripes. I love the idea of yellow. DD likes yellow/gold, so that would be perfect. Are you seeing it in pillows or in the rug itself? Love that wall decal too!!! Thank you, funky! You have been a big help with my other daughter's room! She is now changing her mind (the other one) and wanting much more of a nature theme. Thinking about a dark wicker or rattan headboard for her now. I agree about the blues being really hard online. Just do not know where to shop in person! DD said her ideal would be gray with black stripes. I am trying to figure out how to tie this in with the blue. We were able to get her a mirrored nightstand tonight with several drawers from CL tonight. She loves it! This post was edited by anele on Thu, Jan 31, 13 at 0:50

So what if you go through the list, and are still having problems? Because our 3 year old cat was so playful, and we thought it would be nice for him to have a buddy, we adopted a 2 year old neutered, declawed male cat from an animal shelter. After their initial adjustment, they seemed to get along well. The new cat was never very affectionate with us (our first cat is), but I don't think that's all that unusual. All was well for a few months, then the new cat started pooping outside the litterbox. My vet said he had colitis, and gave him some prescription food to try, which worked well - I kept him on the prescription food, and he always pooped in the litterbox from then on. A few months later, though, he started occasionally peeing on our beds. Thinking it was another medical issue, I took him to the vet a couple more times. He didn't find any medical issues - said it was most likely behaviorial, and gave us some Feliaway and advice similar to the above article. We had two litterboxes, and both were in the laundry room (upstairs). I could imagine that the location and/or noise might be an issue, or maybe privacy (our bedrooms are all upstairs), so I bought two additional litterboxes - one for the main floor (covered), and one for the basement (uncovered). I scooped all litterboxes daily, changed litter, tried different brands, etc. He continued to pee on the beds, and then later started peeing on our leather furniture, and carpet. I ended up returning him to the animal shelter, but have always felt terrible about it. I know that being a good pet owner means that you are willing to spent a certain amount of time and money when necessary, but after paying for several trips to the vet, Feliaway, replacing mattress pads, carpet pad, sections of subfloor, pillows, and buying gallons and gallons of Nature's Miracle and Urine-Off, I just reached my limit. Thank goodness for our first cat, or my confidence as a cat owner would be completely gone. Still, I don't think I will ever get another cat - I feel horrible that our second cat's behavioral issues were just beyond my capacity. Every time I see an article like this, I read it and think, did I do all I could? One of the most frustrating experiences I have had.

Poor Snidely, living west coast and flying to any island in Hawaii nonstop in only five hours! LOL We have at least a 14 hour travel day from Chicago. It's worth the hassle to have the long leg (nine hours) in first on a 767 -- especially if I can lie nearly flat and be able to sleep on the redeye returns. I'm OK in a coach seat for about three hours before I start sighing. Fran -- There's only 'coach' and 'first' on our flights Chicago-Maui, but the 'first' is more like what's called 'business' on transatlantic flights. I see that our fake return has us on an old MD80 Chicago-Dallas, but on a B321 on the return. That aircraft seems to have three classes, and we will be in 'business' as far as I can tell (pairs of slightly canted seats along the aisle). The 'first' cabin has single seats along the central aisle. Coach is three and three facing forward. Rob -- No, I didn't hear the pitch for flying US Airways, but the very first message asks if I want to hear all about the merger. (Not.) Your boss probably has a gazillion miles, and they want to wipe them off their books. When I select a coach flight online I do get prompted to "Upgrade to First for only..." Then I see I can pay twice the price of coach if I want to buy First. (Not.) We are retired Seniors whose miles come from CC purchases and miles flown once a year Chicago-Maui (8K roundtrip). At our stage in life we aren't buying (charging) a lot of things, but we've managed to keep enough miles in the kitty to use them for upgrades on our annual winter trip. It's only become a struggle to find the upgrades in recent years. (We aren't profitable or important to the airline -- not frequent flyers.) I attribute the problem to there being tons of newly retiring Boomers -- more competition for the upgrades and some willing to buy first outright. Thanks to you all for letting me vent! Remind me that you've already heard it all if I go nuts trying to get our returns set for March 2016 -- when the AA calendar opens.