You might be a crazy gardening person: � If you ask your mother to save banana peels for you, to use as fertilizer for potato plants. � If you put tomatoes in your western-exposure suburban parkway. � If you find yourself scolding your non-productive Blue Lake green beans: "No more special love for you! No more trimming the dead leaves, no more organic fungicide/miticide/insecticide! I've had it! Feh!" � If, two weeks later, you find yourself picking 400 beans in one sitting from said bean plants. � If you smile for the whole day because a Master Gardener told you your plot is the best-mulched in the 124-plot community garden. � If you live by yourself, but have 25 tomato plants. � If you know the location of every garden center and nursery in 20 miles, and hit all of them hoping one sells heirloom seed potatoes.

LOL, I did get that compost off my driveway....and 3 1/2 yards of river rock last weekend, and another 3 1/2 yards of soil the week before that. Oh, and next week, I've got 3 yards of double-grind redwood mulch coming. We're landscaping, and I can't WAIT to be done! I've got a glider in my garden that is calling my name. Once we're done with our side yard project, I plan to spend the rest of the summer relaxing! My peppers are doing much better this year than they were last year. I've got lots and lots of flowers on them. But the leaves are a little on the yellow side. I'm not sweating it until this heat we've finally gotten has a chance to sink in. I've learned not to fret too much over the plants until the warm weather is here for good. Up until then, they all look a little grumpy. Hopefully, that's the situation with your peppers and once they realize our newfound temps are here to stay, they'll perk up.

Doug (& Tamao) --- Your extreme thinking is evident once again. It is what I object to in your approach to Japanese gardening and in your editorial policy at the magazine. If you reread my post you'll see that I didn't say you should never criticize the works of dead authors. I said that it is good editorial policy to be specific and tactful when you do it. Your editorial policy has always reflected brilliantly your belief that it's your right to say whatever the heck you want to say about anyone and anything. And it is truly your right to do so. It continues to strike me as odd, however, that you complain so bitterly about the lagging rate of subscriptions to your magazine, when you repeatedly condemn all attempts by everyone to explain how you might make the magazine more moderate (tactful) and palatable to its readers. The policy of manufacturing experts and punishing true experts for failing to subscribe and for voicing views with which you disagree also strikes me as counter-productive to increasing subscriptions. But I guess it's more important to you to have your say than to promote the appreciation of Japanese gardening and to see your magazine succeed. Lee

Hey guys! Thank you SO much for all your concern and support! I'm not getting notifications (again) for some reason, and have been working my tail off. It's extremely, frighteningly slow this month, so I'm taking all the shifts I can. Like everything, this will pick up, but in the meanwhile, I'm one pooped, too-old-for-this woman. (Feels weird to call myself a "woman"!) Anyway, to answer a few questions: Bankruptcy isn't in the picture because I'd lose the condominium & its' $500 a month. $500 a month helps me take care of the bills I do pay. My insurances & some of my primary mortgage. Because I don't pay the ones I cannot even pretend to cover (the ones he'd agreed to pay), I am getting by and this money makes ends meet. One debt at a time; they're not going anywhere. Community (i.e. 50/50) property. Sure. MD, too. But it doesn't divide the debt. I'd end up out on my bummy with my pets, still in debt with no place to live. He walked away leaving me without a choice in the matter. The blood I've out into this place has me possessive. He doesn't want it, instead simply wants to be absolved of 18 years of financial responsibility. berardmr, I didn't know you were close! Very cool. I'm thinking someday when I can actually paint, I'll get all my paint colors together and invite everyone for the weekend. Bring sleeping bags, campers, kids and pets. I have a grill and paint supplies, and yes, potties! Yeah! Adding fuel to the legal fire. I just emailed my lawyer (whom I really like) to tell him that I qualified for a gov't program for the condominium to lower my interest rate from 6.75 to about 3.99. Quicken Loans and my mortgage holder contacted me, then said I can't do it because of the judgment against me for one of the bills STBX is supposed to handle. So the consequences of his behavior are far reaching. I can't even have a checking account because it's frozen. Welcome to the life of prepaid Visas and money orders. I'm feeling a little encouraged, though. Lawyer is constantly amazed at the history and behavior. I just sent him a few links (he's probably reading this now!) rather than trying to relive it all. He feels a "judge will be disgusted with him." Keeping in mind STBX can read all this too, [waving hello with middle finger thoughts] I try to be fair and give him opportunities to consider the right things to do. [was that a pig that flew by my window?] I'm also putting the doors on my MBR Tansu I've been working on for going on 7 years. If I can get pictures, you know I'll post them! Thanks again, all. You're unbelievably wonderful friends to have and I am grateful to have you. C.