I have been stung by peppers so many times you would thing I would learn by now. The worst by far was a few years back I decided to make some Habanero Mango sauce. Of course as usual I cut up the peppers not wearing any gloves, rubbed my eyes, and other unmentionables. This hurt but was mere childs play as to the pain that was to be unleashed later. As my wife doesn't like the smell of my pepper sauce cooking, I decided to fire up the propane burner on the back porch. It was a very hot summer day so to cool down a bit and to help even out the farmers tan I took off my shirt and began the cooking ritual which of course included many adult beverages. The small turkey fryer propane stove sat rather close to the ground so I spent the hour and a half to two hours bent over stirring my yummy concoction. I was tired, hot, and letting my jars cool so I thought it would be a good time to take a nice soothing shower. I turn the water on, get it up to a nice temperature. Step in. I let the hot water cascade over my aching head and back. This is a wonderful end to a hard days work, boy was I wrong. I turned to face the shower head and thought scalding water heated by the power of the sun had been poured over my body. The hot water seemed to activate the now relized chemical burn on my stomach and chest. As I spend the next 20 minutes or so in the now ice cold shower trying to make the burn stop, I relize that leaning over a steamy pot of Habanero peppers for any length of time is not a good idea. You may ask did I learn my lesson this time, fat chance. Bill

Josh, I do have some Japanese Painted Ferns but what is shown is varagated Packasandra. Started with a few plants that take off from stem cuttings in the early spring. Now I have hundreds used as a border. Behind them Hosta Gold Standard and various common ones. Under a seedling Japanese maple tree. There is some mix-mash of wild ferns from our woods. Also a few jack'n the pulpit just for fun. Wait, in the first picture is a Japanese painted fern. You are right my friend.

We have an IB from Sharper Image in DH's office, which is above the garage & not served by our central HVAC. I do notice a big difference up there with that filter. The dog and cat keep him company during the day, too. When we replaced our furnace 2 years ago, we attached a Honeywell electronic air filter, which works great. The only drawback is that it runs only when the fan runs, which is intermittently when your heat or AC is on. Otherwise, I sometimes runs just the fan for awhile. I think the installer said it takes about 24 hours to completely recycle all the air in the house. But PeaBee4 is right, filters don't help unless the windows are closed. It's probably easiest to control your bedroom environment by following her suggestions re mattress, pillows and floor. Two other points - our family doctor initially recommended the air filter for my husband, so we had him write that out in case it would make a difference in our taxes. (It didn't and I don't know that it would have been allowed, anyway.) Also, Sharper Image gives you 50% off a second Ionic Breeze, so if you have a friend who wants one (as I did), you can buy 2 and each save 25%. I didn't buy both at the same time, but went back with my receipt about a week later and they gave me the 50% off.

I'm sorry to hear about your cat, Alaina. I never knew cats had strokes before this happened; but I assume that like human strokes there are different extents of brain damage. Do they know what caused your cat's stroke? In my cat's case it was the parasite that interrupted blood flow to part of the brain causing areas to die. Did your cat have seizures too? The prednisone she takes daily is to reduce brain inflammation. If my regular vet had been open I would have taken her there first. But since they were closed their service sent me to an animal emergency room. I sometimes wonder if this made the outcome different. This emergency clinic has a neurologist on staff and he was the one who took charge of her care. (I didn't know there were animal neurologists either!) Even if I had been able to take her to our regular vet, this would have been beyond him (not the treatment but the equipment needed for the diagnosis). Knowing she was having seizures, and the fact that she had no symptoms before they suddenly appeared, made diagnosis faster; though finding the cause of the stroke took longer. This clinic was really expensive. I put down a $1000 deposit against charges on the first night. I think I was so shocked at what had happened to her and the suddenness of it that I didn't question anything they were doing. The room where they were working on her and the other "patients" was just like a human ICU in miniature. She was originally given a whole battery of meds and shots to kill whatever possible infectious agents were causing this (like bacteria, fungus, parasites), plus something to stop the seizures. My cat looked really bad for maybe the first week she was home. Hardly able to walk or crawl. I would stand there looking at her and wonder if I should just put her to sleep. But she didn't seem to be in pain, and still seemed to enjoy being with us, so I just prayed and waited. I was rather surprised that she was interested in eating especially since she was hardly moving around enough to need the calories. Someone later told me that one of the meds (as a side effect) stimulates the appetite. I'm not sure if it's the prednisone or the phenobarbital that does that. We brought the food to her too: it was too hard to see her struggle towards it. Even when she was looking much better she was not using the litter box. The vet said to retrain her as though she was a kitten. To watch how long after she ate came the pee or the poop (was about 20 minutes); then to place her in the litter box several times a day at about the right time. Also to put the litter box right next to where she was resting (but not next to the food), and use one with very low sides so she could step into it easily. Peeing in the right place came several days before pooping in the box. She has been quite good in the last few days but still had a major accident on the foyer floor today. At her follow-up visit 5 days ago the vet said she was recovering faster than usual, possible because she's "young" (eight) compared to most cats with strokes. But the pattern of damage and kinds of impairments she was having were a textbook case. I hope your cat will continue to improve and will pray for her. I hope these details have been helpful.