I hope everyone in that path is okay,Karen glad you are okay, it seems as if those storms just showed up,not really a lot of warning,but this weather is so strange it feels more like late March than early Feb.It has been in the 70's here for the last few days,really scary weather.I sure hope everyone checks in,they know we are all a bunch of mother hens,and of coarse,daddy roosters. Bonnie

Suebot - don't think i'm going to tell you anything that somebody else hasn't said, but since i've had too much experience with deer & rabbits, i figured i'd concur with the remedies that worked for me. i used to live/learned to garden on nantucket and martha's vineyard, where the deer are at least as unreasonably tame and probably more abundant than they are in ct. i've heard stories of people standing 10 ft away from them yelling at them while they chomp on their hydrangea flower buds. one woman i was talking to claimed she saw the deer attacking her dalmation!! anyway, my first thought about your original message was are you sure all damage is due to deer and not rabbits? - when they stand on their hind legs, they can eat quite high - on a couple of my client's properties on the islands, i had more problems with bunnies than deer, especially with my daylilies & echinacea. so, i also found success with the deer away spray products; i can't remember which one i used, but i believe it had garlic & mint in it and i actually liked the way it smelled. the directions said to spray every couple of weeks (??), but i found that i had to spray every couple of days or so & definitely after a rain. it was pretty time consuming. unfortunately, my other success was fencing in the gardens. i just tried to be decorative about it - i used nice cedar posts with caps, bird netting @ 4' high (you can't really see it, so the garden still looks nice), i hung rope along the top of the netting (for a nautical look...). I did throw netting on top of the gardens in the spring until things grew too tall, but i have to admit, the deer hopped in a couple of times (- that would've been a mess i kind of would have liked to see). i now live in maine and have a large cutting garden in my back yard, a good distance from my house and i use the bird netting as the fencing (simply because it was the only fencing i could find that would be high enough in one piece) and it works (doesn't handle snow load, though). i see deer in the back and they walk right around the garden. chipmunks are now my problem. unfortunately, my true feeling is that if the deer want to get to something, they will. sorry to be so lengthy, good luck. just out of curiosity, do you have phlox and is it being eaten - that always gets destroyed the worst for me. -mara

I read that it is legal to download as long as I am not selling it, playing the song at any place where you would normally pay someone to play a song- such as a wedding, big party... It is confusing... Nope - your not getting legal downloads. If a song has a copyright (and nearly all do) you cannot download, even for personal use. Tally- I DID buy Limewire- $35 for a year. You paid $35 for the LimeWire Pro SOFTWARE - that does not make any music downloads legal - it is confusing - but you actually got ripped off if you think you are safe from prosecution by downloading from them. Their own site states that - although you really have to search for it. When you sign up with LimeWire - one of the things you agree too (if you actually read EVERYTHING - is that you will not download copyright material. This is from Limewire: "LimeWire Users The program distributed by Lime Wire, "LimeWire BASIC and LimeWire PRO", is legal software, but like many legal things, it is possible to use it in illegal ways. Specifically, it is illegal for you to use LimeWire to share, distribute or download (all of which we call sharing) copyrighted files without permission, or to share unlawful pornographic materials. In addition, it may be unlawful to share certain other files that are protected, proprietary, personal or confidential or contain protected, proprietary, personal or confidential information. The LimeWire program is distributed and licensed for use only in an authorized and lawful manner and not to share files which the copyright owner has not permitted to be shared. Your use of LimeWire BASIC or purchase of LimeWire PRO does not constitute a license in or to share unauthorized or unlawful materials. Your download and use of the LimeWire software from www.limewire.com is per a license granted you by LimeWire. To view the license in its entirety, click here. Your license to use the LimeWire program is expressly conditioned upon your agreement to not knowingly use the LimeWire program to share files that are protected by copyright from sharing over P2P networks. Use of the LimeWire program constitutes your acceptance of and agreement with all of the terms of the license. " LimeWire is a Peer-to-Peer sharing service. If you recorded your own original song - and wanted to share it with others, so that they could download it - that is legal. Downloading of copywritten material - not legal. I also bought a couple iTunes, but now can't download them to the mp3- even the computer tech can't- so maybe iTunes isn't the place to buy songs from?? iTunes works with iPods - Apples to Apples if you have a different type of MP3 player - you need to use somewhere else for your downloads. WalMart.com has lots, and there are many other legal sites. If you choose to use an illegal d/l site - that is your choice, but you should be correctly informed going into it. Don't fool yourself into thinking LimeWire, KaZaa or others like that are legal. Read EVERYTHING when you are getting music from a site. It is a $$ fine when you get caught - several thousand dollars.

I'm finding lighting to be quite a challenge. It's actually one of the lower allowances in my project, but we have 14' ceilings in the kitchen. To light that space, I am worried it will either look like swiss cheese (and I really don't want to do recessed!) or a pendant farm. Or I'll end up with some gigantic fixtures that are $$$ and reflect in the darn TV that is across from the sink (where I really will need light). We had a very modern styled kitchen in our Garden District house with maple shaker cabs and polished black granite (done in 1995 by previous owner) and I will admit that with the 14' ceiling there the recessed lights were adequate - but there was also a complete wall (counter to ceiling) of windows overlooking the cocktail pool. I have some natural light in the new house, but not that much. I am definitely finding lighting the most challenging aspect of our project. Everything else, no problem. Whipped through the tile and plumbing fixtures, appliances, flooring, wall and trim colors...but lights. I hate working in shadows so I'm really stressed about making my selections. I'm going to need more light, too, since I'm sure I'm not doing my eyes any favors staring into a computer monitor looking at lights all day.