I have also heard that plants need more red light in order to bloom, and I consider this absolute bunk. My plants do great with a constant light 'temperature' (spectrum) of 6200-6500K, blooming and everything. And if you think about it, when is the sun ever that red? It won't be until it becomes a red giant, and that is eons from now, if the earth lasts long enough for us to experience that. So anyways, just try to get as close to natural sunlight as you can, and you're good to go. 10000K is really meant for aquatic plants, because blue light penetrates water the best. And even then, it's mostly only used for marine tanks, because it does make things look very blue, which most people would consider to be undesirable, unless you like that 'otherworldly' look, or have corals that you want to see fluorescing. You can use the regular cheap shoplights for plant growth. I used to start seedlings under them for a few years (when I lived with my parents and could use their basement!). They aren't as good though, and have to be a few inches from the leaves of the plants. So I think they're better used for starting seedlings than for an aesthetic terrarium set-up, where you can't have all the plants 2" from lights at all times. T5s are much better than T8s (the standard fluo's), so get those if you do go with normal fluos, and get VHOs if you can. They are almost as good as compacts. As for a higher electricity bill, not really. Fluo's use hardly any electricity compared to incandescents, and think of how many people leave lamps on (with incandescent bulbs in them) all day long. A metal halide would make a very noticable difference in your bill though. And I would know, since my husband has a 400W MH on his reef tank. =)

Many creative people indeed, and the rest of us to admire their creativity. That does look like a very comfortable chair, Lars, and like barnmom, I'm imagining how silk/mohair would feel. And, back to food, is that triangle standing up on the side of the bowl the crunchy rice? Annie

Here are the updates from Thursday and Friday: Thursday Morning Update December 28 Journal entry by Mikki Spagnoli — 12/28/2017 It appears that her high fever is nuero related and they have ruled out infection through blood and urine cultures. I'm not sure if I feel better or worse about that. She is still scheduled for surgery at 12:00 today. Please pray for her and all involved around that time. I also want to say that after spending 14 nights in Memorials PICU I can testify that this floors medical staff is unbelievably amazing. While I'm eager for Ella to head to the next part of her journey I feel forever blessed by these individuals. They have treated Ella and our entire family as if we were their family. The care has been nothing short of top notch and we are blessed to have such a medical option in our area. FRIDAY MORNING Update December 29 Good morning. We are still planning our departure at 10:00. This leg of our journey is coming to an end and I have so many mixed emotions. As I stated before Memorial Hospital has provided excellent care and treated us like family. The comfort that I have felt is scary to leave. Also, the location to our home has allowed family and friends to visit us daily. This has allowed us a sense of normalcy, even for just a moment, when there is none. The distance is a scary thing for me. I am grateful that we are headed to Mary Free Bed, as it is top notch in care for those with traumatic brain injury. Having said all of that, "we go with God". Our great provider and physician. Love and thankfulness to you allJournal entry by Mikki Spagnoli — 8 hours ago Friday Morning Update December 29

Thanks so much to all who took the time to read and comment on my post, and for the great warmth and kindness of your responses. I must say I was nervous about posting; while realising many of us are going through very challenging times with our and our loved ones' health, speaking about this always feels quite excruciatingly personal, like revealing an ugly scar in public... but I was determined to do something for awareness day this year, having failed for several years in succession to contribute. I'll try to respond to every comment, in order: KS: You're welcome, and I do hope the info will be helpful to your friend. S/he should definitely watch the movie! Re symptoms: ME/CFS has an enormous list of around 40-50 symptoms, involving every body system - someone once said ME seems to include just about everything you could possibly experience with any illness, or words to that effect. We each have our own selection of them, to varying degrees of severity, which, once we're sure we've got the hang of dealing with them, morphs into something else! Or so it seems... If s/he hasn't already, your friend may like to google the (most comprehensive) Canadian Consensus Diagnostic Criteria for ME/CFS and the (most up to date, I think) International Consensus Criteria, which between them have a full list of symptoms, and explain which ones are currently thought to be essential and which are optional for an ME/CFS diagnosis. A full set of blood tests, etc must be done too, to exclude all the other known medical and psychiatric conditions that could be causing that individual's symptoms. There are also some excellent websites/forums to visit for more support and info, such as Phoenix Rising and Health Rising. Please pass on to her/him my thoughts and best wishes. Fig Insanity: You're welcome too, and thank you for your kind remarks. I'm so sorry to hear of the frustrating time your sister went through for so long, just trying to get someone to even believe her. Unfortunately she was by no means alone in her experiences. The continuing level of ignorance and prejudice amongst doctors against this disease is actually really frightening, an actual, genuinely Kafkaesque situation, which is especially difficult to deal with when one is getting increasingly physically frail and cognitively wooly, and no-one will believe your story or take you seriously: thus the urgency of need for education and awareness, and MUCH more quality bio-medical research to help dispel persistent, popular myths of 'female hysteria' and other such bizarre, often misogynistic, non-evidence based psychiatric theories. (MS was similarly regarded, until the invention of the CAT scan (IIRC), which instantly showed the physical cause of the symptoms.) Some stunningly bad science in the UK, published in The Lancet in 2011, purporting to prove the psychiatric theory (heavily subsidised and enthusiastically pushed by the Government and big Insurance companies) set us back a few years, but has fortunately now been thoroughly debunked. However many doctors are not up to date with this, and still resort to offering 'encouraging' therapy aimed at dispelling our 'false illness beliefs', prescribing antidepressants, and forcing very frail sufferers to follow increasing exercise regimes, which have been shown time and time again to be at best ineffective and at worst, to have dramatically deleterious effects, rendering previously unwell but still mobile people bed-bound for years, and occasionally even killing us. Many of us eventually give up on the medical profession altogether. Unable to find or access knowledgeable physicians, we're forced to take care of ourselves as best we can, at home, sometimes for decades/the rest of our lives. Not uncommonly abandoned by disbelieving family, and friends with whom we're no longer able to keep up socially; invisible to the wider public; we use Dr Google and the worldwide online patient community, along with whatever inner resilience we can muster as our resources. In many cases, this is actually a far safer option than undergoing misguided treatment from doctors and hospitals. And this is not a rare disease; unseen millions of us are just coping, behind closed doors, with little or no medical care or basic social support. What this can mean in practice is too painful and embarrassing to go into. SunCoastFlowers: You're welcome, and thank you for committing to watch the movie! Do post a review (good, bad or neutral) should you have the time and inclination. Do you by any chance have a link to the series you mentioned, and the episode about making the garden for the little girl with ME/CFS? I did try googling it but didn't have any luck. Well, I've waffled on again for far too long and am going to have to take a break. Carol (PMR), my apologies, I seem to have jumped past you in order. Will come back and respond to you next, then Ingrid, Jin, Melissa and Sheila. And maybe, be a bit briefer... (unlikely). ;-)