Since my husband was in CA all week, he missed both Valentines day and my birthday.....so....Bad person that I was, I went to the Dayton Orchid show today with the intention of buying ONLY Den. victoriae reginae, and Blc. Kodama "chocolate drop".....I ended up spending FAR more than I should have and getting the following: Bletilla striata--the variegated form, purply flower Sedirea japonica Aerangis luteo-alba var. rhodosticta Den kingianum (a healthy one in spike which is radically different from the little one I've been nursing along for years. Pot. Cameron's (it looks for all the world like Magestism...anyone got a better clue? I thought it should be Magnetism....) Sc, crystelle Smith 'BK Orchids' Lc. Mem. Robert Strait 'Blue Hawaii' Slc. Tutankhamen 'Pop' the batch of this really made me go over budget....sigh. and I had all the best of intentions. Notice: I didn't mention F--d, and this is actually ON topic. :) I also met WestOH and Newlyhooked. :)

Posted by teresa_mn "I have one question......were the shrimp dead or alive when you cooked them? " Indeed a very good question. I will go off-topic in my own thread. A lot of confusion regarding seafood dead or alive, when the answer is very clear; It depends. 1. Most seafood is processed dead and is generally considered "fresh". 2. Lobsters, crabs, etc. deteriorate quickly once they die if they are not processed immediately and properly. If you can't tell by looking and examining, don't take a chance. Even there are "Lemon Laws", but if you don't know cars, don't buy used cars. 3. Live lobsters and crabs are what I mostly buy. I take chances once in a while in some stores because I know Chinese seafood stores have a huge turnover in what they sell. Everything is very fresh and I am not too bad in judging freshness. 4. To a great extend live lobsters and crabs are very much just an aesthetic requirement. If people are more acceptable as with frozen lobster tails, frozen king crab legs, frozen stone crab claws, etc. the costs of lobsters and crabs will be drastically lower because the maintenance and transportation of live seafood is extremely expensive. There is also the consideration that agricultural chemicals are used in keeping live lobsters in tanks. 5. Shrimps! It is very bad that the general public now has very low standards. Most of the shrimps, scallops you buy today in stores are chemically treated to look and taste "fresh". I only buy those shrimps which are flash frozen in 5-lb bricks. 6. There is a big big difference in taste and texture between live shrimps and the freshest frozen shrimps. I often go to a Chinese restaurant where they have live shrimps in a tank and order live shrimps. They are so good that the only way they serve them is just plain steaming. No other seasoning in cooking preparations whatsoever. dcarch

On her birthday I was going to make a cake for Jan, basically because I wanted to play around at decorating a cake, but she shot that idea down saying it wasn't on her diet... Well diet be damned, I am gonna make her a valentines cake complete with red roses on it, and if she don't like it, I guess I will have to eat it to,,,,but I am going to make it anyway.

Stephenei: What got me hooked was a section on home made cards in a Feb issue of either MM or CK magazine. And I REALLY got hooked! Card making has replaced (for the time being) scraping. As for ideas, I got some from the aforementioned magazine, some from looking at cards in card shops, and some from my own imagination. ItÂs amazing what creative creatures we can be when doing something we enjoy! One idea for an Easter card came from a quote I found onlineÂÂGive hugs, if you carrot at all! My sonÂs best friend calls me ÂAunt Carront, so I made a little card out of lime green card stock. I made three little carrots out of orange and brown card stock and cut thin strips of dark green card stock for grass. I attached the grass and the carrots to the front of the card with pop dots (for the 3D effect) and outlined the edges of the front of the card with thin strips of orange card stock. I made one large carrot for the inside to hold the latter part of the quote. It turned out to be a cute card and the idea came after seeing the quote. Other ideas come from looking through my materials and Âplaying with them,Âi.e., seeing what goes together. IÂve never scanned anything for use on the computer, but if you like, IÂd be happy to try and scan and post-to-you some of the cards I made to help you get started with ideas. I know what itÂs like to feel like...where do the ideas come from?! And once you get started, believe me, thereÂs no stopping!!!!!!! Also, some others have posted about tea-bag/paper folding which I have tried yet. As Sally said, when your scraping and stamping, the ideas just seem to flow. p.s. there are also books on card making and paper projects. My husband gave me one for a present and one was referenced in the magazine that I have been looking for but have yet to find. Hope this helps. karen