I Know... Mum has a Massive Caerulea 'Constance Elliot'(It came from John Vanderplanks Collection) at her house, so when the time comes I'll be using that Pollen... I hope.... *Grin*

After looking up Alvin Ailey, I really appreciate your kind words, dcarch and everyone. Now, on to Daughter-san. Her year has been consumed with the college application process and with finishing high school. Getting into college is not what it was when I was a kid; it is much harder and more stressful today. Kids seem much better prepared, admissions are more competitive, and college costs are an order of magnitude higher. It is easy for kids and their parents to get sucked into the vortex of expectations, ambition and status. We got pulled partway into that mess, but thanks mostly to Daughter-san's level head, we got through it. She will be attending the Clark Honors College at the University of Oregon. It is a smallish liberal arts honors college of 700 students, with their own building, faculty, advisors, and dorm, in the midst of a 30,000 student university. I think she'll have the best of both worlds - a small school with personal attention, and a big school with a diverse student body and endless things to do. She'll be about two hours from home, which seems to me like a nice distance, and will allow her to come home when she wants to, to have her little brother visit, but keep mom and dad mostly out of her hair. The university has a biology program, which is her science interest, and also a full fine arts program (BFA, MFA, design, etc) which is her non-science interest. There is talk of a double major. Finally, Eugene is one of the most livable towns in Oregon, where a bicycle is accepted and adequate transportation. Naturally, I look forward to fitting out her bike for college duty; any excuse to wrench on bicycles is welcome. Because we'll pay in-state tuition, and she's getting some scholarships by reason of being a National Merit Scholar finalist, the cost is manageable and we'll be able to send her to study abroad as much as she'd like. I've suggested that she brush up on her French! Daughter-san had an interesting high school "career" which is how the kids refer to it. She started as a shy, introverted kid who was very much a study nerd. During high school she did a lot of drawing and photography, had a two-month solo exhibition, took most of her friends' senior portraits, and ended up being voted "best photographer" by her class. Her favorite model was her brother, who was even willing to dress in drag and bite .38SPL cartridges for her senior photography project, which was a photographic interpretation of Truman Capote's "Other Voices Other Rooms". (Unfortunately for him, that project is being kept by the photography teacher as an example for future classes.) She did some interesting things, like embroidering photographic prints. She also got involved in Speech & Debate, went to tournaments, became one of the team's officers and placed second in State in her event. In senior year she started doing theatre and made a whole new set of friends among the "drama kids". During the summers she worked as a cook and later assistant supervisor in the Berkeley camp in Yosemite, which involved responsibility, a lot of hard work - cooking 8 hours in a commercial kitchen during 100 degree heat waves - and, I'm told, some vigorous partying on days off. So Daughter-san is leaving high school as a much more outgoing, confident, social person than she entered. Her high school GPA is perhaps not, err, quite as good as it could have been had she remained less social, but it is pretty good, enough to get her into a good range of colleges. By the time she graduated from high school, she was Miss Popularity, with a whirlwind of parties and outings during the last month. She told me that, while fun, being so social was exhausting and she had started to turn down most invitations. Which was a relief to me, since I would like her to be a serious student in college in addition to having fun. She's back at camp cooking for half of this summer - a different Berkeley camp, after the Yosemite camp was burned to the ground last summer. She'll fly back to Oregon for college orientation in the middle of the summer, then will have the last month of summer free to relax and play with her brother before heading off to college. So there we are, all caught up. SWMBO and I are kid-free for a few weeks and even after DS gets back from his trip, life should be less hectic and I might even be able to do some cooking. Not that we've been starving, but the cooking here hasn't been interesting - just utility cooking. Hoping to change that this summer. Here is a link that might be useful: an online portfolio

....Dont get trapped people..... Dotz, You are absolutely right and I really should have warned against attempting this! DON'T TRY IT! I am a professional at doing this and have been at it many years. The ONLY reason they don't use "high pressure" tactics any longer is because that got them in a lot of trouble with the Feds, but they are very smooth talkers and have about a 50% success rate at "hooking" the unsuspecting and unknowing. The truth is what they're trying to "sell" you is usually a 1/52th interest (1 week) in cheap condos for about $15,000-$20,000! What this actually means is they end up selling a condo worth maybe $150,000 for appox. $750,00 to over a million! So many people are trying to get out from under these, you can often pick them up for nothing more than the price of the annual maintenance fees and taxes alone! I always bring proof of this with me, along with extra handouts for my fellow attendees. But why buy one? We stay at timeshare properties all the time, taking advantage of their unused inventory that's been traded through the RCI system, available through skyauction and other internet sites. We usually pay no more than a $195 cleaning fee and $15 processing fee, total of $215 for the entire WEEK! The most we've ever paid was $400, but that was for 1 week in a luxury 2 bedroom oceanfront condo at "The Galleon" in Key West--which is a PREMIUM resort! To get people to waste at least 1 1/2 hours of their vacation time attending their timeshare presentation, they usually offer a fairly decent "incentive", but we NEVER accept their first offer! We hem and haw until the manager comes over to "sweeten the pot" and then we play him for a while, until he's thinks he's got really BIG fish on the hook and gives us his BEST offer. We average about $150 in "freebies" on each one, and get it in WRITING before we agree to attend the presentation. The longest they've ever kept us is about an hour, but usually get rid of us much sooner--before I've scared off too many of their potential "suckers". The law requires they make good on their promise so they hand us our "freebies" on our way out the door, as we go to their complimentary dinners, shows, attractions--all kinds of goodies! This is not recommended for most people, these slimeballs utilize all kinds of sneaky underhanded tactics! Turning the tables on them is also just part of my competitive nature--they're good, but I'm better!

I love the story about the notes with things. I think it's important to let people know, just in case something happens to us, if something has a history beyond what they know. Also if one thinks it has value beyond what one might think. re: the original question, I'm with those who say if they're not taking up space you need, might as well keep them. BUT (BIG BUT) make sure that your kids etc. know that they will not hurt your feelings if they choose to not hold on to them beyond your time. That you were keeping them for the future generations. There can be a lot of guilt associated with getting rid of things that were important to the generations that preceded us. I love that my mom told me constantly 'It's just stuff'. She instilled that if I liked something, keep it. If I didn't, don't. Furniture-wise, I'm down to a table and chairs. I was THIS close to getting rid of them a couple months ago, but decided the chairs need to be recovered and they're still helpful/useful and I still want them around. I started packing up my kitchen today. I have a few stacks of stuff on my dining room table to get rid of one way or another. There are some serving pieces and the like that I haven't kept because I have fond memories of using them, but because I have memories of them always being 'around'. They were always in the upper cabinets. I've decided they don't need to be in my new cabinets. I have a swell ashtray, lighter, and cigarette box that I've kept because I remember them being on the coffee table and I think the design is pretty. I will never, ever use either the ashtray (it's about 10" wide and about 20" long) or the lighter. The box...I may keep. I figure I'll set DH on a quest to see if they're worth something on ebay. If so, I'll take a pic and sell them. If not, I'll Goodwill the ashtray and lighter and keep the box. I'm all about the practicality now. I've taken pictures of lots of things that were hard to part with. I've decided that's better than shelf space.