Aka - 'Jimsonweed'. During the Revolutionary War, the starving militia at Jamestown ate Datura leaves out of desperation. They became very ill and tripped out big time for days! It was called Jamestown weed...and over time the name became Jimsonweed. Datura likes to grow in hot, dry places and prefers sandy soil. They like access to water, but need good drainage. I guess that is why they grow wild along sandy river banks and valleys and down in arroyos. Some catalog and nursery companies erroneously sell it as 'Angel Trumpet' flower, especially the purple and white one. Thus the confusion to some people. However, it should be noted that Brugmansia is commonly called 'Angel Trumpets, while Datura is known as 'Devil's Trumpet' - maybe because all parts of it contains an alkaloid poison. Perhaps they are aptly called Devil's Trumpet since they grow best in hot, forbidden places! :) Growing up in So. California, Jimsonweed grew wild throughout the sandy valley of the Santa Margarita River. My family used to camp down there near the river in the summertime and at night the air was swimmingly filled with the sweetly intoxicating fragrance of their blooms. They were hell on bare feet though. When the moon was full, those 'Moonflowers' glowed like lanterns, which came in very handy when you needed to go potty at night and had to watch out for Diamondback rattlers! You do not want to moon a rattlesnake!. I grew the white variety for several years. Still have seeds. I have photos of them somewhere. I was just as jubilant the first time they bloomed. I took gobs of photos. I have seeds for the purple and white variety too. I got them in a trade. They were labeled as 'Angel's Trumpets'. Just never get around to sowing them. (bad girl, BAD! ) Every year I tell myself that I am going to grow them and then always forget to do it in the spring rush to get my veggies going. You have all inspired me to dig them out and do it! Lord knows it is hot enough right now that they will love it. Thanks for the post, Tom. ~Annie

Thank you to everyone who posted ~ My DS came over and the first thing he said was, "Nice hair, Mom. You look pretty hip". Gotta' love it! Lisa ~ I still have the funky glasses LOL, so you'd probably recognize me ;o) I agree about wearing current and up-to-date glasses. I find that if your glasses are "marmy", it makes you look matronly. That's the first thing I changed and updated a few years ago and I haven't looked back.

I'm wondering if he just used a very unfortunate choice of words to express the idea that it takes him time to do an estimate and that's a loss if you're a casual inquirer. Is the same as the "qualifying" process idea, but any craftsman, designer or similar person just has to have some kind of sequence of involvement that they can rely on that saves them time but still attracts new customers. I don't know how this works, of course, since the problem is, with many such efforts, you can't come up with an accurate estimate unless you know most of what you're being asked to do, so if it takes you 30 min, even, to figure that out, and you do that several times daily, and the return is low, you're broke. If someone is well-established in a fairly high end business, he might well charge a fee just to talk and see your wish list and give an estimate, and then that cost will be applied if you buy. For cabinetry, I would wonder if the person could have any kind of brochure or book of work with some example prices, even if price range was kinda broad and there were multiple disclaimers about "prices subject to change". I mean, you might be trying to figure out whether a custom built-in hutch costs $3k or $30 k, or whatever. My point is just that, it would be more straightforward to be told it'll cost me to sit down with the guy and get an estimate, since that is just the business of how he values his time, and that would not be offensive, as I can then make my decision about whether I value it the same amount, and includes the sensible idea that people agree on fees before doing any level of business, compared to the "if you have to ask" approach.

Hi Thanks for all of your posts. Thought I would give you an update and ask for your thoughts once more. Just a quick note. I do have a career (sort of) I work from home as a medical transcriptionist. So it is not like I do not have a job I just do not want to do it for much longer. See, I did it initially so that I could stay home with my DD and still make money while DH was in school. Now he has graduated and is working. Okay so here goes. I came clean with my dh as I mentioned and he is TOTALLy behind me bless his heart! I think what we have decided to do is go ahead and try to get pregnant. I will continue doing what I am doing now (work at home and stay at home with DD) until this summer. Hopefully by then I will be PG. I am planning on starting at the local university going part time. My daughter is already in preschool three hours a day, five days a week so she is no problem plus she never wants to leave with me anyway. The problem has been that I do want to get started on more education before the next one is 3. So I am going to go part time taking night classes, online classes, and maybe a day class if my dh can get those days off. That way I am going back to school (big goal) and we can have a baby (another big goal). The hope is that I can attend school, on a very part time basis to start with, and attend when my DH can be home with the FDB (future dear baby). There is a chance I may have to take a day class once or twice a week and my DH thinks that he will be able to ask for those days off for the semester. After the baby is older probably around a year. I will bump up to full time (about 12 hours worth of credits) and the baby would go to the university childcare center (which I hear good things about) my daughter would also move to their preschool and prek program. I think this is the best of both worlds for us. Though the baby will go to daycare it will not be until he/she is around 1 and not from 8 to 5 but more like 20 hours a week. Here is my question. At what age do you personally feel we are to old to go for serious higher education? I have this need to be highly educated (not sure why just personal goal) and to be able to make enough that I could support myself and my kids were it to happen. My DH is awesome and we have a great life, but there is always this nagging in me that says "you depend on your husband to take care of you." As I said this is not because my husband is a jerk or EVER says anything about it, but I just want to know that I can do it on my own. My point? Well, in order to make the kind of money I would like to, to get the higher education I want, and to have a job I would enjoy I am looking at around 7 years of education. I already attended six years of college (screwed around A LOT) and I am almost 30. My dh is totally behind me and even said he would get a second job so I can focus on school and family. We also realize this would mean everyone would need to help me out around the house. I would lose a lot of free time and my life would be very different. I just wonder is it too late for me to start something like this. I hope not, but there is fear inside of me that says it may be. What do you think? Sorry so long and not SF related, but I only post here and value your thoughts. Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!