Following up, a few months later... Things seem to be back to normal in the garden (thanks again for all of the advice and support). Nothing dead, and even a few new creatures -- a toad (must've come over from a man-made garden pond nearby) and a bunny (an unpleasant surprise -- living in an urban area, this is our first rabbit ever, in four years!). Birds are plentiful, and we're seeing a few goldfinches come by as the coneflowers dry up. I spent the summer enjoying the garden mostly from the inside... next spring will bring a clean slate and I can stop feeling funny about being out there (and about being here). Interesting, though: Like Hyta, I had not one Japanese beetle. Not a one. And I didn't spray anything besides all-season oil for aphids. Saw this in the newspaper today about more dangers from imidicloprid, this time about lingering dangers to honeybees: "Unfortunately, we are learning that Merit has some ugly side effects, namely causing what has been called colony collapse disorder, where thousands of honeybee colonies are disappearing for no obvious reason. Now we know that any plant that is treated with Merit and has blossoms that attract bees, those bees will receive a non-lethal shot of Merit. But it will cause them to lose their ability to find their way back to the hive. It also weakens the bee's immune system so the bee usually dies of some fungus or virus. ... "We yardeners can't deal with the bee problem in agriculture, but we definitely can take a look at how we are using Merit in our own yard. Some of the most effective and popular systemic insecticides for rose bushes have Merit as the main ingredient. Honeybees will always work over rose blossoms and so are exposed to a little bit of Merit -- enough to affect them badly." Provided the link for those of you who want to read more. (P.S. Maryl, I made sure to spray my clothes each time; thanks for the tip. And Joanne, now you must forgive me. I never have any e-mails about responses to a post. Still, please accept *my* apology for not responding sooner to say it's no big deal at all. :) )

Maggie, There are several companies that make the murder mystery parties. I like Murders by Vincent, BePuzzeled, or a la carte. They seem to be the easiest to use. They come with complete instructions on what and when to do things. The last one I did was called Chinese Takeout(I got it on ebay) and I did just like it said. I got chinese takeout. I sent a menu from the local chinese restaraunt and everyone told me what they wanted. I got lunch portions because they are large enough for dinner. I prepared the appetizers except for the egg rolls they were included in lunch. For desert I served bananas and strawberries with strawberry gel on top and brownies just like at our local chinese buffet. Once I decided what game I wanted to play I looked over the suspects and assigned charactures from there. When you send out the invitations you let each person know who they are and the invitations have a brief descritption of each character and what they would dress like, along with a story line giving city, year that kind of stuff. Your guests do not HAVE to dress in character but it does make it more fun. My husband was the chef, so we borrowed a chefs jacket and I was the long lost daughter of the woman who was murdered. My character was very excentric and didnt like things that matched...how easy was that. When the guests arrived as appitizers are being served with coctails everyone is given a script ( almost like a little brouchure). It tells you more about your character and tells you how to play the game. Normally in part 1 that is done over appetizers and it will tell you what to disclose and what not to tell, it will also guide you to ask questions of other people there. If everyone is new and has never played this before it does not hurt to ask if everyone has told everything they need to before you go to the next part ( or Act) and course throughout dinner. I normally try to do appitizer, dinner, dessert & coffee. Just remember that if you do one of these, that if everyone you invited does not show up ...you cant play unless they are a non suspect. The game we are doing on newyears eve I have one guest that is very very shy and wants to come but is not real sure how much they will participate so I am making him a non suspect that way he will participate as much as he wants. The best part of these parties is the party favors......I love that part. I found some small wedding photo albums at the $ store and bubbles, and with elvis being there I also had to get the new reese cups that have peanut butter and banana and a picture of Elvis on the front...I hope I didnt go on to long and I hope this was not too confusing...its been a long day and if I didnt answer all you questions let me know. Oh one thing I forgot you can buy these games at target they are about 25.00 but if you "WIN" (that makes me crazy) one ebay they are usually pretty reasonable. Donna

It has been a long time since I've posted here but I have been reading. Sometimes I have so much to say there isn't time and sometimes I have nothing! In the last week I finished three very enjoyable books and wanted to give them a mention. The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair by Joel Dicker is about 650 pages long and I finished it in less than a week because I couldn't put it down. It is a thriller about a writer who develops writer's block after having written a very successful book. He visits his college professor, Harry Quebert, also a writer who had one very successful book. The story jumps around in time and would have been impossible in audio book format. This book has the most mixed reviews on Amazon that I have ever seen, about evenly mixed between those who loved it and those who hated it. I loved it. The Big Tiny by Dee Williams is about a woman who discovers she has a heart problem in her early 40s and decides to simplify her life by leaving her home that she had done so much work on and building instead a tiny house that measures 84 square feet and is on wheels. She built the house herself and has lived in it for 10 years, I believe. While I could never live in a house nearly that small, it does make me think about having so much stuff (especially books) and why can't I live without a lot of this stuff. Fantastic book! The third book is another wonderful thriller, Suspicion by Joseph Finder. I like all of his books and saved this one for a few weeks because there will be a long wait for another book by him. It has a few gruesome spots but I was able to skim through them without too much problem. This one makes you wonder who you can trust.

So, my head is just surfacing after a few weeks being submerged in work. My reading has dropped off (baah), but I think once things are on a more even keel, I'll be back close to normal levels. I'm still reading that Sandberg management book which has some valid points in it and a nice mix of new info and reminders. As proof of an outside-the-office life, I have finished an NF by Julia Alvarez which details modern day Quinceanearas, a Latina/o celebration of the 15th birthday. (It's most typically for girls, but the celebration is being spread among boys as well in some areas.) It's a fascinating read as Alvarez looks at this tradition through the eyes of herself, one who grew up having one herself (I think) and one who is a feminist. Plus - learned a new term related to the Latino/a culture: <i>Marianisimo</I> (compared w <i>machismo</I>). Most, I would think, are fairly cognizant of the <i>machismo</I> tradition in Latino/a culture, but (as I learned) there is also the <i>Marianisimo</I> which is where women are assumed to have the characteristics associated with Mary (re: Catholic belief) -- virginal, pure, sacrificial etc. Living in Texas, we have almost a majority of Latino/a people (as opposed to Caucasian) and so our cities tend to be quite heavily influenced depending on your area. In my city, we are probably close to one-third Latino (I should check this), and we have a steady population of migrant workers from Latin America. It's going to be interesting to see how this demographic trend affects future voting patterns and the Good Old Boy network.