Hi d_giffin, thank you so much! I like the white peonies very much now. Yes, sometimes mistakes can make it better! :-) George, I want to first of all tell you how much I really appreciate you giving me all the advice! Thank you! You know, I actually realized that I might be overcrowding these paniculatas. However, I did it anyway, thinking that I might be able to severely prune these lovelies every year to keep their size down, and more importantly, I did it for a selfish reason - I know that this is not my forever house, and I probably will only be here for a few more years. I wanted to enjoy these paniculatas and so I just planted them there, realizing that they may not be fully grown before I leave... ouch! I hope that is not too selfish. You know what? The worst thing is that someone or myself will need to chop down the shrub(s). The physocarpus is Summer Wine, which is actually supposed to be only half the size of Diablo and Coppertina. So it is much more compact. The crabapple is supposed to be about 12' tall when fully grown. Yes, it may create some shade, but with crabapple, the foliage is not that dense so it should not be too much of a problem. The neighbors' shrub was always a mystery to me, until recently! They did not even know what it was - they just planted it there several years ago!!! Anyway, it's a lilac... yikes! It might get big. The thing that gets me is that the buds get eaten by the deer every year before they bloom! Sigh... I am going to advice my neighbors to prune it hard every year! LOL Anyway, if I do want to move the Limelight, since it was in a 5 gallon pot before and this is its 3rd season now, how deep and widespread should I expect the roots to be? I want to make sure that I will dig carefully just so that I won't damage the sprinkler system. The trouble is, if I did move it, I am not sure where to put it then... Hey, George, if you remember, I already removed the Pink Diamond from this bed to another corner after your advice last fall!!! :-) Thanks again!

White chocolate can be very temperamental. It will also seize like that if you overheat it. I have found the method that works for me is to put the broken up chocolate into a glass or china bowl, and microwave on 1/3 power for about 3 minutes, then stir. If it is still in chunks, then give it another 30 seconds on 1/3 power. If it is soft but not runny, continue to stir it as residual heat will generally be enough to finish the melting. Hope this works for you.

Thanks all y'all! Does this site still have some kinks in it? I know for sure I responded last night.....strange. It could have been me too. Just bought a new laptop and haven't had much time to play with it and add ad blocker yet. Several post I've opened the text run into the ads on the right. What a pia. Maggie,I had never heard of smoked bologna until we moved south. Thinking it's a Oklahoma/Texas thing as most bbq joints serve it down here. Thanks Annie! Between the dinner/buffet, his favorite band playing for free and donations they raised a good sum of money for his wife and kids. Ci lantro, those Brach's Stars have been hard to find forever it seems. I was glad to find the dark ones but I guess they are becoming a thing of the past. Popcorn in the soup, oh yeah, I/we have done that more than once. Allye is a hoot and she will talk your ear off for sure. Thankfully she is potty trained now too. Not a fan of changing "muddy diapers" here...although I've done it many times over the years even though I don't have kids. LOL! Good to be back friends! David

Eileen, I used to work there. It was the Hotel Meridian, then. The chocolate buffet got started when management noticed that some guest's of the wildly popular Sunday brunch came only for the dessert's. It was held in the Cafe Fleuri. The brunch was not your average brunch! It was fantastic and I loved working it. I made great money! On Mother's day they had 3 seatings and I worked them all. I walked out with 460 bucks that day. And this was in 1980, maybe? 81? The brunch cost only 28 dollars back then. The dessert table was beautiful, lots of chocolate things. But other kind of dessert's, as well. The Floating Island's were very popular. I'm not that big of a chocolate eater but the best chocolate in the hotel was the small, dark chocolate pieces that came with the bill. OMG! To die for! I think the Sunday brunch cost 50 dollars, now. The chocolate buffet is held on Saturday's and it has every kind of chocolate dessert you can think of! At the time they had a fancier restaurant in the hotel called Julienne. The food was exquisite. I used to pick up cocktail shifts, sometimes. Big money. I think the hotel has an outdoor patio now. It's a very pretty hotel. And, IIRC, it used to be a bank? Boston is a great city! Very pretty and very easy to get around. You can walk everywhere. Spring is really nice, late Spring. The Public Gardens are in bloom and Commonwealth Avenue is loaded with Magnolia trees and cherry blossom trees, too. If you come you should definitely go to Lockober's. It's off of Winter St, near downtown crossing and the Boston Common It an old school restaurant taken over by noted chef, Lydia Shire. She kept most of the old menu items, but gave them a few updated tweaks. As recently as the late 70's, women were not allowed in the bar. Lydia Shire got her start at the Bostonian Hotel working with Jasper White. He's had quite a few rest.'s, wrote some cookbooks and his Summer Shack restaurant is very good and loads of fun, too. The new Liberty Hotel has a couple hot spots, right now. There is the bar called The Alibi. It's sits in what used to be the drunk tank. The hotel was once the Charles Street Jail. ;) And the restaurant Clink is hot right now. When the developer wanted to buy the jail he also needed more space. The lone holdout was a local institution, hole in wall, greasy spoon walk up, called Buzzy's Roast Beef. He finally sold it to the developer but it cost him a pretty penny! I spent many a night at the window at Buzzy's. Nobody would eat there unless they had a mighty fine buzz on! One of the restaurant's in the hotel is promising to add a Buzzy's roast beef sandwich! For something different you could check out the Leather District, lots of cool places on South Street (and it's within walking distance of Chinatown) Les Zygomates Bistro is always mobbed. Then there's Sonsie on Newbury Street, still the place to be seen and the outdoor sidewalk patio should be open by now. Heading over to Harvard Square in Cambridge is fun and Upstairs at the Pudding is a lovely place with great food. East Coast Grill has wonderful food and is a really fun place to go. All Star Sandwich in Cambridge would be a good place for you to check out. I know you want to open a sandwich place. Back in Boston, a seat at the oyster bar at the Union Oyster House (the oldest restaurant in America) can't be beat. Grab a beer and a platter of clams or oysters or even a bowl of Clam Chowda. Skip the restaurant, though. Plenty of other's are better. Great spot for people watching. And if you like oysters and other raw bar fare, Neptune Oyster in the North End (like your Little Italy) is grand! You can google all of these places and see the menu's. Plus the drink menu's. I know you have a fondness for specialty martini's ;) More than you asked for, I know. I hope you come and have a wonderful time, Eileen. Silly