Good Morning, Thought I'd better get in here while I actually have the thread loaded and time to read it, before that opportunity escapes... Martie, so glad you checked in and are feeling good. Thought about you often yesterday. Listen to your own advice and take it easy. Eden, knew you would be great at your seminar! Congrats! Mary will be too. V, congrats on your unexpected bonus! I'm very happy for you! So, are you headed to Monaco as well as to see Kathy in Napa, CA for vaca this year? I'm with Martie, a greenhouse would be my first purchase (after the required hot water heater). Deanne, the detail on your birdies and the beaver moon shot are astounding! Very cool what talent and technology can accomplish. Kids loving all the pics. I'd have been extremely peeved at the license bureau too. Talk about wasting your time. Drema, you and Skip were hilarious in your cavepeople get-ups! Thanks for sharing that! Search atriplex hortensis rubra on Ebay and see if this is the plant you mean. One of my fav annuals, though it IS weedy, seeds about like perilla, but easy to hoe out extras. If you don't find it search completed listings, everything is ending tonight. Email me your snail mail addy & I'll send you some seed if this is the one you mean. Re Ebay, seems superior to Amazon for prices and shipping speed on the Invisible Garden book. I had it one week from ordering. Was a bit surprised at the lack of open response when I shared some great sources for bulbs. But want to thank the 5 lurkers who emailed me privately, and hope you got some great deals through those sellers and others. I was so pleased with my finds, especially the variegated Silverstreams, that I wanted to share with everyone, despite the time it took to upload photos. I had hoped others would chime in with sources they were happy with, but I guess it's late in the season. I was glad to hear some of the lurkers were still looking for bulbs, though I understand their reluctance to post in "idyll-land". Re hairy bathroom floors, I am thrilled with the Swivelsweeper I got a couple of weeks ago. It is rechargeable, weighs only 2 pounds, goes in any direction, gets the corners easily, and is fantastic at picking up hair! I have only two rooms with carpet, and sweeping the hardwood/laminate/vinyl in the rest of the house was a pain. My vac was too heavy to lug around and didn't pick up on floors that great anyway. (Plus Im leery of it attacking, lol!) This thing is perfect for bare floors, getting crumbs, hair, dead wasps, wood ashes, etc, easily. It works well on carpets too for quick pick-ups, though doesn't go as deep as my regular vac. I bought it for $39.00 and free shipping on Ebay, but the seller isn't registered any more. But there are other sellers with it, or check out swivelsweeper.com. My only caveats are that I used it before it was fully charged the first time so the battery has a memory for that and needs charging faster. I couldnt wait to try it! It really picks up the hair, but then it needs to be removed from the rotating brushes. They provide a little tool for this. And it needs emptying every few minutes in my house, but with 3 kids and 2 cats that's to be expected. Otherwise, I love it! (No, not affiliate in any way--again, just sharing information on a product I like.) Michelle, I really enjoyed your photo tour! Thank you for posting that. I love photo bucket with dial-up, as the thumbnails load easily and I can open one I want to see large in another window and let it load while Im looking at the others. Cant do that here, though its always worth the wait. Kenzie is a lucky young lady to have a grandma making her a private spot to garden in! Youll make lots of garden mentor memories for her as well. Where is Babs? It is not like her to miss Halloween. And Eileen? Honey? Norma? Saucy? Marian, we miss you! Brenda is probably busy, but I thought Janie was going to check in here? And Julie, would be nice to see a rara avis as well as Deannes birds. Yeona? Hope life is settling down with your DS. Barb? You havent checked in forever! Jerri, I saw Jerri on the book thread too! Wonder if Cynthia and Da even lurk any more. There are more MIA who are due to say helloand did I see GLDNO pop in here briefly? Why dont you join us! Hi Monique! T, I want (some would say need) that mirror! LOL! Sorry about your bad day, and hope you had good dark chocolate and/or merlot to recover. Your new beds are looking wonderful! Are you interested in growing from seed? I could send you someself-sowing annuals help fill in large spaces until the perennials and shrubs reach their proper size. Chelone, so where did you find your fruit? Looking forward to pics of the finished swags. Thinking of two different friends named Bruce today Been a crazy couple of weeks. Had blast with my family here the weekend before last. Great time, great meal, lots of fun. DS played piano and sang for us. DB had too much wine and attempted the same. Lots of blackmail material on the memory card I videotaped there, lol. Cousins had a blast playing together for two days. Worked on and sent in a sample flyer in MSPublisher for the marketing aspect of the job I interviewed for. Havent heard back yet, but he said end of the month so am still hopeful. Have found one job since (today) worth applying for and will fire off the resume soon. Been battling the bees/wasps and am pretty tired of it! We found the huge nest, under the roof of the sunroom where it joins the floor of the second level. DH has used 3 cans of that foam stuff you can spray from 6 feet away, and it is killing lots, but since the actual nest is under shingles, hasnt killed them all. We are getting 10-20 inside the house per day, through cracks in the floorboards as near as we can figure. I woke to one on my pillow yesterday, and nearly stepped on one when I got out of bed today. Didnt think Id ever be wishing for a killing frost to strike, but I am! But first, have to finish putting the shrinkwrap on all the older windows and the patio door off the family room, and weatherstripping the doors. Even with the fireplace as a secondary heat source, this is a lot of house to heat, and is old and drafty. I did the sunroom windows first. We are going to see if its feasible to keep it at 55F with the door to the house partially open. I hope so, as I have a bunch of houseplants in there, and with all the other windows soon to be shrinkwrapped, no windowsills left. Until we get the electric bills under control, fluorescents for houseplants is not an option. Hope to have it figured out by seedstarting time. Well it is a gorgeous, sunny day out there, and 60F already, up from 36F at 8:00am. Im going to plant some bulbs and sow some poppies over top, the Laurens Grape that Eileen gave me at IU3. Creating new invisible gardens is fun! Then its off to the library, grocery store, post office with Ebay packages. Sorry out of time for more comments, but hi to all Ive missed! Best, Taryn

I have used this poem when dealing with the death of animals - especially with the children. My DH was also somehow better after I printed this out with the picture of his Belle in the corner... It is such a nice thought - that our animals will meet us and go Over the rainbow bridge with us when it is our turn... Have you read the Rainbow Bridge on 9-11? I just found it - be ready for the tears... Welcome at the Rainbow Bridge 9/11/01 by Alexander Theodore, Bouvier, Fourth Year Resident On the morning of September 11, 2001, there was an unprecedented amount of activity at the Rainbow Bridge. Decisions had to be made. They had to be made quickly. And, they were. An issue, not often addressed here, is the fact that many residents really have no loved one for whom to wait. Think of the pups who lived and died in hideous puppy mills. No one on earth loved or protected them. What about the many who spent unhappy lives tied in backyards? And, the ones who were abused, Who are they to wait for? We don't talk about that much up here. We share our loved ones as they arrive, happy to do so. But we all know there is nothing like having your very own person who thinks you are the most special pup in the Heavens. Last Tuesday morning a request rang out for pups not waiting for specific persons to volunteer for special assignment.. An eager, curious crowd surged excitedly forward, each pup wondering what the assignment would be. They were told by a solemn voice that unexpectedly, all at once, over 4,000 loving people had left Earth long before they were ready. All the pups, as all pups do, felt the humans' pain deep in their own hearts. Without hearing more, there was a clamoring among them - "May I have one to comfort?" "I'll take two, I have a big heart." "I have been saving kisses forever." One after another they came forward begging for assignment. One cozy-looking fluffy pup hesitantly asked, "Are there any children coming? I would be very comforting for a child 'cause I'm soft and squishy and I always wanted to be hugged." A group of Dalmatians came forward asking to meet the Firemen and be their friends. The larger working breeds offered to greet the Police Officers and make them feel at home. ! Little dogs volunteered to do what they do best, cuddle and kiss. Dogs who on Earth had never had a kind word or a pat on the head, stepped forward and said, "I will love any human who needs love." Then all the dogs, wherever on Earth they originally came from, rushed to the Rainbow Bridge and stood waiting, overflowing with love to share - each tail wagging an American Flag.

Home equity line of credit. Basically, you are putting a second mortgage on your existing home in order to buy the new one. Obviously, you need to have quite a bit of equity in the existing house to use this strategy, which is why many people in this situations get bridge loans instead. We've done it and it worked out fine. It all boils down to whether you can comfortably make all the loan payments involved. If it's really a financial stretch or if you're the type who can't help fretting about the future, then you're probably best off not doing it because you'll drive yourself crazy worrying when/if your existing house will sell.

The base of this style of lamp has to be very heavy to keep the lamp from tipping over. Even with a heavy base, these are subject to tipping. The wider the spread of the feet, the better resistance to tipping. The spread of the feet of your lamp is not very much, so use care in placing the lamp for use. Often, the original shade gets broken so replacements are common. Feel really lucky if you have an original shade. For good design, the base should be very heavy with the rest of the lamp made with light weight parts. Another weak spot is the electrical lamp socket. This type of socket pulls apart with ease and the entire weight of the shade is hanging on the socket. This socket is held together by a few small detents mating with the lanced ring of holes. The socket is put togeher by snapping the two halves together; It is taken apart by pressing the bottom part inward to release the detents. It is easily bent near the cutout that clears the switch stem. I can not be sure, but you may have the original socket. The old sockets were larger in diameter than modern ones. I have a similar style lamp and needed to replace the inner insulation liner and switch. That's when i discovered the difference in sizes. I wished to preserve its antique nature, but could not readily find the proper electrical repair parts. The new parts were smaller in diameter and the entire assembly fit inside the old shell. I installed new parts, but kept the old pieces so that if I ever found original, serviceable, parts, I could return the lamp to its original shape. About the base. My lamp has a heavy cast ion base. However, the corrosion on the base of your lamp has a blue-green color (possibly copper sulfate) indicating that the base may be a copper alloy, maybe brass or bronze. Check it with a magnet. An iron or steel base will be strongly magnetic; a brass or bronze base is not magnetic. The material may affect you choice of cleaning materials and methods. If the base is bronze, try to retain its patina and clean off only loose dirt and grunge. The corrosion color may not accurately predict the base material because there is the possibility that something got spilled on it like battery acid.