I consider them to be more the consistency of sweet potatoes, Highalt, with a flavor thats closer to sweet potatoes than white potatoes. Sometimes the flavor is described as a cross between a sweet potato and a turnip, but I cant testify to that because its been so long since Ive had a turnip that I dont actually know what they taste like anymore. I just really like the sweetness of them. Ive mostly only ever had them along with the carrots and tomatoes and potatoes with a pot roast, and I really like them baked that way too, but now that Im growing them and have them a little more often, and since I dont make pot roast that often, I was looking for some way to cook them except steaming or boiling. Back around the same time as Alices post other people were recommending baking themalong with other veggies, and thats what I was gonna do if the "butter steaming" didnt work well, but cooking them on top of the stove is nice since I cook so little at a time, and it really isnt worth heating up the whole oven just to cook a couple parsnips. If you decide to grow a few, they really dont take up much space. With mine, if the leaves start flopping around too much I just pull off some of the biggest leaves. I do that with the carrots and beets too. Do try some of your carrots that way when you can get to them. Im sure youll love them. Since I dont have an actual skillet with a tight fitting lid, I just do them in a heavy saucepanand its working really well. Id try some beets that way too, but then Id have to peel them raw firstand get my hands all red! Ill stick to doing them in the pressure cooker and "slipping" the skins off under running water! MUCH neater! I dont do hash browns but I do make potato pancakes sometimes (German here!)with apple sauceand thats the whole meal! Love em! Havent had THEM for a long time either, so maybe Ill need to put them on my list right under the Anasazi baked beans! Every time I read one of your posts I picture you up in your little "crows nest"without the crows, of course. Bedtime, Skybird

AM: While I love the Subaru, I never wanted it in the first place! Prior to the Subaru, we had hubby's Eclipse and my minivan. Two years ago in December, he had had enough of chaining the van up to go up Mount Hood twice weekly (he and the boys are avid skiiers). So, he researched and decided he wanted the Subaru. However, you'll note that somewhere along the way I managed to lose MY minivan while he managed to keep his Eclipse AND get the Subaru. I'm still not sure how that worked out. I really do love driving it around town, but I really miss the space and extra seating of the minivan, particularly when we're making our regular treks up and down I-5. Mandie

happytobehome - sorry, out of town for a few days and missed this. When I visited Alberene, no one mentioned sealing the stone with anything and I did talk about oiling......hhhmmm, am a bit confused. I am looking to get Old Dominion from them as I am looking for a "quiet", dark stone. The surface finishes that I felt, I really liked how silky they felt, and to my knowledge were not sealed with anything. They have a deposit and my GC and I are heading up there this week to look at slabs -- I will be sure and ask about finishing process! This is a bit bothersome as no one mentioned this type of "sealing" to me and I had them wet several samples so I could see what the different "flavors" would look like oiled. I will definitely be asking about this. I also don't know what "ten-x" is, wonder if anyone else here might? Wish I had pictures, we are still weeks away from any type of finished anything......

From the bits and pieces I have read, the evidence for the relationship being creepy is really rather weak. There was a rift, and a missing diary page, and some suspicion that he liked the governess too much, as well as some disagreement on policy. Very decent men do exist who enjoy the company of children in an appropriate way. It may indeed have been what some suspect, but it is also very likely that it was not. It makes me quite sad to think that men (and sometimes women) cannot enjoy the company of children without becoming objects of suspicion. My own father, a genuinely good man, loved children, and children loved him in return. He enchanted children with his storytelling and his make-believe nonsense. I think it refreshed him to see the world through the wondering eyes of childhood rather than the jaded eyes of adulthood. We children had a truly magical childhood. I do not know what kind of man Charles Dodgson actually was, and if he harmed Alice Liddell or any other child, he deserves full condemnation. But I cannot help thinking that he may well have been a kindly man who liked to tell stories, and did no harm. Rosefolly