I agree, do dare - it's your place to do whatever you wish, RIGHT!!! Neighbors thought I was a nut case when I punched holes in the tops and bottoms of CD's you get in the mail, put two back to back so the shiny side was on the outside and then strung them together with fishing line (leaving about four/five inches in between each CD) and then hung it from my shed roof. The sunlight hitting it created a kalidescope of colors that would swirl around. My cats loved it also as the colors raced across the ground. It was funny to watch them chase the lights.

I live with these trees. I can honestly say I love them for their shade, but I loathe and dread the "cotton season". I found that it tends to "shield" up once water hits it, forming an outer wet blanket. Once you try to move that wet pile of cotton, you release the dry, fluffy flyaway stuff underneath. So it's hard to manage into the compost to start. Maybe the grass clippings mixed in IS a blessing? Something needs to be ground with it to weigh it down enough to break it apart. I've put it in my compost pile only to regret it for these same waterproofing properties. Funny story, my DH's parents bought "poplar" trees thru a catalog company a long time ago. The trees came and my DH and his Dad planted them. It wasn't until they started blooming this cotton several years later that they questioned whether they were poplar or not. Luck would have it not. DH and I are strategically removing them one at a time. We are replacing with other trees.

I would have run away from that Meatloaf like a Bat Out of Hell.....

Lars, I'd love to see you and Kevin again. As you can see from my post it took a ridiculously long time to drive to Denver and in fact I got off the expressway and drove 15 miles on city streets to SAVE time. It's all in the timing - if you drive between the cities in the middle of the day or after the evening rush, it's not bad at all. Chase, we'd love to meet you and Clive. I think it's great that you are planning another long car trip. And you would love Dlynn. I do think that meeting other CF members is on of the most fun things about the forum - I'd love to meet many more of you. Lisa you are right, that was an oops on my part. For so many years I have thought about how we don't have an Ikea or a TJs, and I was thinking that you have TJs, but no, you have an Ikea in the SLC area. We have an Ikea under construction, scheduled to open about a year from now. I think you need to visit your sister and the CFers here. Lee