Stitz, you have mentioned orchids in conversations again. Do people say?"Don't mind him, he's from Baltimore". The great orchid growers all have one thing in common. They spend hours and hours every day talking to their orchids. I'm not a great orchid grower but i do spend hours talking to them every day. Switch that love to the sun or the moon or major planets and you have astronomers in ancient times watching and wondering. In another thread, there is a discussion about breeding dogs. You feed the dogs name into a computer or some such and it says that it will be an OK parent. My prediction in the brave new world is that boy will find girl and before love finds a way, they will have to have their genome checked by a computer. How Romantic!. Have to ask my son about Methane seeping from the sea floor and if this is a terrrible thing. I imagine Methane is seeping up all over the place from coal seams and oil fields? The word seeping doesn't apply to the Methane produced by cows and sheep and i believe the figure for Australia is that 11% of the carbon emissions comes from agriculture. Must ask about what happen to Methane once it is in the atmosphere. Does it just stay there or does something break it down. There is a problem with a lot of those "Science" shows on TV. Many of them are light on Science and heavy with padding. Watched the Doomsday thing and wonder about people who get religion in a strong way. They are so certain about everything. Perhaps that is better than being a fuzzy thinker like me.

I have 2 more thingscompliments of the squirrels! Guess theyre good for somethingmaybe! I was gonna pull these out and just throw them away, but........... The first one I pulled out came with the acorn still attached to it, so I dug up the second one and theyre both now in pots! I have 2 oak trees! I assume theyre Gamble Oaks (Quercus gambelii), just because thats the most commonly found oak in this area, but I really dont have any way at all to be sure! If they are Gamble Oaks, they could wind up being anything from a single trunked smallish tree to a multi trunk bush kind of thing that looks more like scrub oak! There are two of them planted in one of the display gardens at Paulinos (they sell them), and one looks like a tree and the one right next to it is more "bushy!" Since I dont even know for sure what they are, theres no way to tell what theyre gonna look likebut they do have oak leaves!!! They will also spread somewhat, underground, I believe, and when they produce acorns, they will reseed fairly easily! So if somebody wants to take a chance on what they are and give them a try, Ill bring them along. I recommend them for somebody with a bigger yard, rather than just a tiny residential yard. Theyre still attached to the acorn and have very few roots. I would recommend growing them in the pots for a month or two so you can control the water better than if they were in the ground, and Id recommend you use a wet/dry cycle. Theyre completely saturated now, let them dry almost completely, then resaturate, let dry, resaturate........ Assuming they are Gamble Oaks they like it dry, and letting them dry almost all the way before watering again should help them form roots. Anybody interested? Skybird

I never sew clear up to the edge, but stop several stitches before the seam allowance...then, do a quilters knot and draw my thread in the batting, toward the body of the quilt, away from the edge, back up through the top in 1/2" or so, and clip it there.

I have hesitated to post here because I have been mid-remodel longer than most of you have been alive...(ok maybe a two year remodel isn't that long...) anyhoo, I finally feel, that since we're six weeks or so away from completition, may be I can post in the mid-remodel groups thread :oP Tile guy finished the shower and floor (this is an entire house remodel, from bottom to top, adding a bathroom and moving many walls and soffits). So my master actually looks somewhat like a bathroom and my evil plans are actually coming to fruition (I used crocodile tile and I both worried about it and loved it...now everyone loves it) :oP The deck of the soaking tub can't be finished until we get the circle cut in the tiles (since the last tile guy lost part of the circle we had cut earlier). There's on guy in the state who cuts these circles...it's a pain! So that room can't have cabinets or anything until the deck is finished since they butt up against the tub (which is 36" high). So tile guy is heading down to the family bathroom, which after THREE tubs that leaked, is finally plumbed with a new jacuzzi tub (I will never try to save money with american standard AGAIN!) I should have just dropped a couple grand in the first place instead of giving it to the plumbers. That room will likely be finished this week :) The powder room floor is done and the toilet set, but still waiting for parts to actually work. (The old plumbers didn't know how to install so they cut the expensive pipes down to shorter pipes and installed the "high tank" very low on the wall). But it's the only room that's actually plastered, so it looks to be "done" almost. I will finish the move out this week on Friday, but between then and today I will get the first couple of coats of venetian plaster on the hood wall in the kitchen (a bear to reach if I don't do it now...since there's less than 12" in the gap...once trimmed out...my butt won't fit) :oP Next week our finish carpenter is ours full time, so while I'm gone, he'll be laying down the layout, repairing the floor and finally setting cabinets! When I get back I might feel like I have a kitchen. ANd hopefully I will have new granite and marble by then. (The previous slabs I purchased in full were sold so I have to start over). All in all...we feel so good about seeing work actually happen. We can see that we'll actually get to live in our home again someday! Hopefully for a few months before we have to move out to a bigger home when we have child number two :oP But we'll cross that bridge later I guess!