lol. TM, I think that is an oxymoron in any time-frame!! "Many oxymorons have been popularised in vernacular speech. Unlike literary oxymorons, many of these are not intended to construct a paradox; they are simply puns. Examples include controlled chaos, open secret, organized mess, alone in a crowd, and accidentally on purpose. There are also examples in which terms that are superficially contradictory are juxtaposed in such a way that there is no contradiction. Examples include same difference, jumbo shrimp, pretty ugly, and hot ice (where hot means stolen and ice means diamonds, respectively, in criminal argot)." Or my favourite - military intelligence! Don't ya love language!! Nancy.

Laurie, somehow, I just can't see your DH being thrilled to get daylilies for Christmas, even if you do plant them for him. Maybe a tool or two or hockey tickets instead. :) Although he does seem to be happy with how the yard is turning out (daylilies, irises, etc and all) when I have been to the yard on Westman Gardeners tours. I suggested to my DH that I would give him daylilies for Christmas and he came back with the idea that he would then give me a hunting trip...then we could exchange after Christmas. The only thing he stipulated was that the value of the daylily gift had to be $25 while the hunting package would be $2500. I don't really think that would be fair. I also don't think he has any idea of the cost of daylilies either. Brenda

Thanks for that link - I've looked at it over and over (found it when searching myself) and Maddie copied from it, I believe. I realized I was confused because part way down the list, it switches to items allowed from other countries (not the US) and says milk is prohibited: Dairy products cheese: up to 20 kilograms per person Please note that quantities in excess of $20.00 may be subject to high rates of duty. The CBSA is responsible for determining customs and duties for items coming into Canada. These items are not allowed milk milk products (whey, cream, skim milk, butter oil, and so on) in these forms: dried, frozen, reconstituted, or fresh I didn't notice the heading change so was VERY confused! Now I think I have it straight. I tried to follow the link to inside the link to get specific fruit and vegetable info, but it's impossible to use (at least from my Mac). I'll just not spend $10 on organic cherries and risk having to discard them. I'll put some raisins and dried apples in his pack. I realized I'll want to go to the grocery anyway before we leave so I can get some Sultanas and Ketchup flavored potato chips to bring back for my friends!

Sitting on our house without renting we make about 5% a year right now. Appreciation is closer to 7% but I’m subtracting taxes and maintenance. I expect that to slow to zero for the next 2-3 years then pick back up again. With renting, minus maintenance and taxes (income and property) I’d say conservatively we’d make an additional 2%-3%. so the opportunity cost is certainly there compared to dumping it all in the market. which I know less than zero about. But which might return more. The new house will not appreciare much if at all for a few reasons: age means maintenance cycle is beginning, it’s dated already, and there’s plenty of new housing going up in an adjacent suburb which depresses prices nearby of “almost new” housing. otoh the view is unsurpassed in the nearby suburbs and stuff is still selling briskly in this fairly premium neighbourhood. So I have a bit of nervousness about jumping out of the city, tying myself to an asset that won’t appreciate like my city house, and then being priced out if I hate suburb life and want to get back into the city. the house is still available because they haven’t put it back on the market this year, but they’ve been trying to sell it for a few year now.