What a beautiful picture Julia. Hope you have a great holiday season, too.Mine is off to a bad start already. One of my daughters sent me to the eye Doctor to have my eyes checked and fitted for new glasses for Christmas, I have been wearing these I have for at least 10 yrs, and have got to where I cant read the paper with them, so she was going to get me some new ones for Christmas. Well, the eye doctor wouldn't prescribe new glasses. Said I have Cataracts on both eyes,and right one being the worse,and wanted to schedule me to go have them removed right away, I told him not so fast dr,I never rush into anything without thinking it over awhile. He asked me 3 times if I have had a stroke and 3 times I told him no I have not..I guess because I was walking with a cane. don't know, but he sure was fixed on the stroke idea.he has sure scared me to death with this surgery idea. and especially when he says they don't put you to sleep for it,as it only takes about 15 minutes.My daughter was in there listening to him and said later he acts mighty queer to her, like he might be on some thing. I have no idea, but, I want to ask questions about any surgery on my eyes before anything is done.he did tell me I could go blind if its not done,and that scares me even more,as all I think about now is spring and seeing my daylily blooms again and being on the forum to see every one elses, too. Have a very merry Christmas Julia and a happy new year. Jean

These responses indicate that so far we believe the man is not living up to his potential to be the best partner he can be. Well, now isn't that special!!! Only 10%? I say: The women want their men to think of themselves first for a change. Yup, that's it.

May I make a suggestion for those clearing out basements? Put the teens/20somethings to work on craigslisting/ebaying stuff for you! Think of how much easier it all would be with secretarial assistance! They can: Set you up with an account Take pictures of everything Track down the details for listing (measure items, do an online search for missing manuals, etc.) Haul stuff to wherever you need it to wait for craigslisters (your car/front porch/the curb). You could give them a cut of the proceeds as incentive. Seriously--our basement is a mess and I am not looking forward to future clearouts. It would be so much easier if I had help for the details. You can also put yourself on a charity's regular pickup list. Or several charities' pickup lists--imagine if you had regular pickup of unwanted items twice a month--with a receipt for income tax purposes! If you want to ebay it, how about finding a reseller in your area?

Minflick, my condolences. I can believe it's very hard, but it sounds like you're pulling through. Good luck! I have unconventional ideas about Bermuda grass. Here's how it works with me. We have patches of it here and there in the garden, which I admit is a fairly wild-looking place. Like debbym we have summers that are too hot to garden in, at least for me, and so the Bermuda grass grows all summer long before I get around to attacking it when fall arrives. Well, we don't water in summer once a plant has been in the ground a year. Our heavy clay soil and high annual rainfall allow this, though we have dry summers. I also permit all kinds of annual grass and little wild herbaceous plants to grow in the beds: veronica, vetch, annual euphorbia, etc., and I mulch the beds lightly with old hay, pruning clippings, cut grass, and so on. Between the drought, the plant competition, and the mulch (which also lightens the top layer of soil so that the Bermuda grass can't root quite so firmly) the Bermuda grass can't get so far ahead in summer that I can't push it back again in fall. I can't eliminate it, but I can keep it under control, and mostly out of the beds. The downside of gardening this way is that the roses go into semidormancy in summer. That doesn't bother me, since we have a long growing season and when it's that hot I don't want to be out in the garden anyway. And summer offers other beauties. Shade also discourages Bermuda grass. My starting point in thinking about it was that in nature Bermuda grass doesn't grow EVERYWHERE, in some places it gets outcompeted. So it has to be possible to establish conditions in which it doesn't thrive.