Liberty and Freedom for disease resistance (I don't grow them though). For best taste in a tart apple, I like Ginger Gold for super early (early August) picking, and Pink Lady for super late picking (stores exceptionally well and can be used for cider as well as fresh eating). Both are good tart apples highly rated on taste (Ginger starts off tart and then gets milder the longer you leave it on the tree). Honeycrisp is a sweet apple. It has won many taste tastes and people love it, but if you love tart like I do, it might not be for you. I tried it for the first time last year and didn't think it was that great, but maybe it was the timing. I'm growing this one and my tree is fruiting this year for the first time, so I look forward to trying my own. Ginger gold on 111 (a good rootstock choice as the trees won't fall over) produces massively big apples. I just took pictures TODAY of a Ginger Gold tree on 111 rootstock that I started bagging yesterday: Here is a link that might be useful: Apple Bagging

Paint and new pulls/knobs will do wonders, and you'll feel like you're accomplishing something! I also recommend a major spring cleaning of your cabinets and drawers -- organize the pantry, throw out all the wedding presents you still have but will never use and anything else that you don't use, set up a cabinet for all the baby bottles/stuff if you don't have one already. Get all the baby stuff sterilized and ready to go. As for the painting, if you paint, make sure you get the low VOC paints -- Dunn Edwards carries a special paint designed to have the lowest VOCs possible -- and then paint OUTSIDE, with doors and windows open and fans/air filters going. OR, better yet, get that DH working. During my first pregnancy, I was determined that the hall bath had to be redone before the baby. Poor DH had to remove a giant mirror, relocate lighting (new lighting), patch the wall, build an open shelf unit to replace the ugly medicine cabinet, refinish the vanity, replace the sink, faucet and countertop, baseboards, remove a glass tub/shower enclosure, new shower head, and paint (oh, and I picked out a harlequin stencil for the paint!). Being the good sport that he is, he got it all done and it was beautiful. BTW -- don't expect that just because your 2 yo is an easy child as an ONLY child s/he'll stay that way when there's another one there taking away your attention. That's a whole different ball of wax. Good luck!

I now think I'm going to mix koko loko with poseidon, but may use love song instead since its available as a standard and a pair of 36" lavender standards on either side of the entrance to my yard would look amazing. Ight even us all 3... Plan is to have the roses in groups of 3 on the corners of the deck and encircling it will be a 3 foot wide bed lined with lavender, with tulips, peonies, and various alliums inside the parallel lavender hedges. Still undergoing changes in my head daily though!

I haven't made any effort to keep up with anyone from high school. I don't do Facebook, but my older brother does and his circle of friends in high school overlapped with mine. A couple of years ago he told me that, Matt, my best friend though many years of elementary school and high school had abruptly passed away. I also recall that he told me of another mutual friend from high school who had announced that he was diagnosed with colon cancer, I don't recall hearing any more about him. A third person lived two houses up the street from us from even before we started school, and during the trip to Cincinnati when my father was ill, my brother arranged for us to meet up with that person who coincidentally lived in the very house we used to live in. We visited briefly with her and her mother (who still lived in the same house, two houses away), and her brother. It was interesting to see our old house, and I was surprised how little it had changed. After that I made no effort to maintain any contact with her, but did hear an odd story through my sister about the brother passing away, and our friend having trouble notifying her mother about the death because her mother had filed some sort of restraining order against her.