Here it is Tuesday and NO ONE has started the Over The Fence chat thread!

You guys still out there or are you too absorbed with what Countryside is or isn't doing?

It's been hot as heck around here and still no rain - our 30% chance for the day blew away and that was the best chance we've had in over a month.

Finally put in our first flower bed. Had to use a doggone mattock to bust up the ground it was so hard. It's a diamond shape with a feijoa (pineapple guava) at the north point and a pomegranate at the south point and ten daylillies in the shape of a cross in between them. Two of the lillies have opened flower buds since I put them out last Saturday so I reckon they must not be too stressed.

We've eaten a dozen eggplant out of the garden but those grape tomatoes are taking forever to ripen. Have two bellpepper about to come out. Should get our first yellow squash along about Thursday I think. Getting a million pumpkin blossoms but just not getting much pollination.

Been taking the baby to swim a lot. We've got a small county park with a small, but nice clear spring run moving through it and a nice picnic area alongside that we can get in for the princely sum of thirty five cents apiece. Works out pretty nice to work in the morning until it gets sticky hot then go swimming and come back and work more in the evenings until dark.

The wife starts her new job next week and starts her new semester of classes tonight so it looks like we're going to have to do adjusting over the next week. Tonight I'll be taking the baby to the playground so she can burn some energy off.

........Alan.

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2002

Answers

I keep forgeting how very far ahead you are Alan. Eating from the garden........yummy.......we have asparagus. Oh, I guess you could count the green onions. My strawberries have blossoms on them, and the blueberries are starting to bloom. I need to fertilize them.

We mowed and mowed and mowed and weed wacked today. It is the first sunny day we have had in it seems like forever. Tomorrow I go to the mill and pick up my new chicks. We ordered Buffs this year, 12 pullets, 12 of those big meat birds and 6 guineas. It's been a couple of years since we had chicks. I am going to start ordering a dozen each year, with each year a different kind, so I will know how old they are by the breed. I have put bands on them, different colors for different years, but they end up losing them and I am lost as to who is the oldest.

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2002

Hi, my goodness! It's Tuesday already!

Our weather soured on us again. Raining and cold. It will take days to dry the sheep out enough to shear... I accidentally left the basil starts outdoors yesterday and came home last night to 45* temps. Oops. I brought the little darlin's back into the house and poured some lukewarm water into the soil to warm 'em back up (I hope). Then I added warm water around their "feet". I recall that they tend to go into shock in cool weather when young.

This weird weather is making me nuts! I can't really get anything done outdoors for very long. Makes me want to head over to E. Washington sooner than retirement. I sure hope Mr. S. gets his school thing over soon and gets a job pronto! The recession has just clobbered us here in the Pac. N.W., what with the dot coms and Boeing. The forecast is for more jobs in late 2003. Hope the medical field wants a smart, capable 50 y.o. guy to start an entry level job (Mr. S.!)in about 5 weeks, so I can stop fretting...

Anyway, time to go cook dinner (pork chops, spuds, and broccoli...now how imaginative can you get?)

Alan, your weather sounds divine! I'll be right down (have some relatives in FL too!).

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2002

I think we've using Marcia's "Anyone out there?" thread in lieu of this one, but thanks for noticing and starting a new one, Alan!

Been very cool here, no chance of planting anything out yet. I'm making plans though . . . .

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2002

Sheepish, this hot weather was nice for about the first two days. Now it's a pain in the behind! Fortunately, our typical summer humidity hasn't shown up with it so we're staying at about 40-50% relative humidity instead of the 60-80% that we normally get. J.R. and I have been pretty neck and neck temperature wise for the last week or so and we're both about parched!

Sure makes it hard to here folks talking about "oh, it's another cold rain again today."

Sitting here feeling logy from eating too much barbecue tonight. Wife had class so it was just the baby and I. We spent an hour and a half at the playground after work running energy out of her then decided to eat in town. I *know* I shouldn't eat so much but I do it anyways. Now I'm sitting here too full to be comfortable laying down.

I'll burn some of it off tomorrow when I dig planting holes for the olive tree and cattley guavas. Got to decide where I'm going to put the blackberries. I bought them before deciding on exactly where they were going to go.

........Alan.

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2002

OLIVE TREE!!!! You can grow olives???????? Now I am really jealous. My son lives in Fort Myers........seems so crowded in Florida when I visit, but the gardening potential sounds totally awesome. Can you grow avacado? Pineapple?? Didn't I read that you planted some apple trees??

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2002

Well I'm still in a lousy funk! While walking in a rather remote part of my property I came across a serious irrigation system that looked about ready for about 50 pot plants! My ALMOST new neighbors were very busy even before they had the papers signed. The police weren't too interested because no plants were in the ground so I just ripped it all up. Sigh. I guess I should have just planted fruit trees but I didn't think about it at the time. I guess I should count my blessings that they got busted before they got the property but it still hurts. I'm looking at buying a gun and also hardening up this old heart some!!.....Kirk

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2002

I found a pot plot in my woods and took the deputy next door down to harvest them and he left the farmers a note with his number to call if they had any questions :>)

-- Anonymous, May 15, 2002

Ya know Jay how is it that the crooks and the COPS are so damn stupid!!!! Why don't you and I go into the bad guy business and make a lot of money! Ha!......Kirk

-- Anonymous, May 15, 2002

Reminds me of a story... many years ago my brother had a friend who decided to grow pot in his garden. His young son decided to weed the garden for Daddy. 'Nough said.:o) There are butt heads in every walk of life, Kirk. Just hold your nose to avoid the stink and keep you handsome head high and you will be just fine. It was rather jerky of them to land it on your property. meat birds arrived at the Co-Op yesterday. I thought I could get the broody duck to accept the 3 ducklings as her own since she's been setting eggs forever but when I tried last night she just hissed and bit at me and the duckling. So he's back with the others in the brooder with the meat chicken chicks. Major wind and rain yesterday. Yuck! Better get my butt in gear and feed the kids and the animals.

-- Anonymous, May 15, 2002

Well, the olives are an experiment. We get the requisite number of cold hours and don't drop too low in the winter and have enough heat in the summer but the very little I've been able to find about olive growing in Florida says they don't like our high humidity and die of fungal diseases. Never thought much more about it than that until I want to this nursery up to Crawfordville where they have Manzanillo olives and the fellow there swears their tree is ten years old and has been bearing fruit for years. Their microclimate and mine are vey similar so I thought I'd take a $15.00 chance and see if it works. So far so good.

We can grow the most cold hardy avacadoes if they're fairly protected but there's going to be years they get frost bit. Pineapples are doable in the homesetting but not commercially viable outside of the most southern part of the peninsula and not really even there. Citrus is doable, the more cold hardy the better but the citrus belt itself is a bit more than a hundred miles to the south of me along about Winter Haven.

I do have the three varieties of apples (very low chill for apples) that are recommended for Florida. The one that I thought would grow best is clearly ailing for reasons that so far elude me. The others are growing, just not very fast but I think that may be a fertility problem which I'm working on correcting now.

Where I'm at in North Florida is a gray area for the northern fruits (apples, pears, plums, and so on) and the southern fruits (citrus, guavas, avacadoes and so on). Some of each will grow here with the proper variety selection and management but none of them grow as well as they would further into their respective areas. Blueberries, blackberries, scuppernong (muscadine) grapes and figs do well here.

In another year or two I'll know how well they're going to do for me. Vegetable gardens I've got a lot of experience with but perennial fruits are largely new to me.

BTW, I'll pick the first summer squash tonight. May just eat the doggone things standing right there in the garden!

........Alan.

-- Anonymous, May 15, 2002

Sorry Alan, it's unseasonably cool here. And if we have anymore rain, I'm going to scream. The possibility of planting anything is remote for now. We had 30 truck loads of dirt delivered just before the weather turned nasty last fall. It has been sitting around in piles and spread in uneven patches since then waiting to be graded. And we can't schedule the dozer until we have some inkling that the weather is going to stay clear and this dirt has dried out some. The positive side is that I can tell even though it isn't graded that this is going to take care of our soggy condition that we have struggled with since we have lived here. We don't have near as much water lying around as we used to. I can't wait to get this done. Until then we have to go to the park or the nature center to play outside.

-- Anonymous, May 15, 2002

Seems like the whole northern section of the country is getting more rain than we deserve! Guess we're paying for the relatively short, mild and snowless winter we had. Alison...we had that wild and windy weather here, also. Amazingly, we didn't lose our power, although some folks out "west" did. Seas were running 10 to 14 ft. above normal!! It's quite breezy here today...although it's not raining and the sun is TRYING to come out!

We've been lucky in the fact that...when it's not raining...the sun is out and the weather is absolutely gorgeous with temps in the 70's. We have most of our cool weather crops in and are now eating fresh spinach and lettuce. Radishes will be ready shortly. I planted the Sugar Ann snap peas this year since I'm really tired of putting up 6 ft. tall pea wire for the other Sugar Snap peas and having them grow waaay taller than the six feet they're SUPPOSED to grow :-)!! The Sugar Anns are up about 6" now and are only SUPPOSED to grow to 4 ft. We'll see!! I divided the plantings up so we wont be inundated with peas all at once. I am planning on putting in the bean, squash and pumpkin seeds this weekend. Most of these are planted in almost pure compost and manure so they stay nice and warm!! Harry's in charge of planting onions, potatoes and corn. He hates messing with smaller seeds...which I don't mind! AND he loves to weed...which I hate!! I'd rather rototill the weeds. Works out pretty good. His onions and potatoes are up several inches. Should have early potatoes this year!!

I have a neighbor down the road that has one of those sunroom/greenhouse additions on her house. She grows tomatoes, peppers and cukes year round!! For pollination, she keeps butterflies in with the plants. She hatches the butterflies herself from a kit. It's kinda neat to go inside the greenhouse in the middle of Jan. and the butterflies are flying around!!

Finally got my clippers out last weekend and trimmed up my buck. The hair on his back and across his shoulders was almost four inches long!! Is this normal for a Nubian?? He was amazingly calm...even when I was trimming off the "fuzzles" from around his ....well, you know..."down there"!! After I was finished, though, he spent ten minutes just checking everything, I guess to make sure I hadn't cut off anything I shouldn't have :-)!! Is it normal for a Nubian to have a dewlap under his chin? He sure does!!

We have a portable sawmill coming here next week to saw up about 1800 ft. of pine logs. We have two more rooms in the house that need the wide pine flooring and the rest of the lumber will be used for shelving in Harry's garage addition. And I need to build myself a new butchering table!! We really miss the sawmill we used to have. It was so convenient to have all the lumber, sawdust and slabs that we wanted just lying around the yard!!

What a bag-'o-wind I am today!! Geesh...guess I'd better shutup and go get some work done. Harry will be coming in soon to check on his "game status". I peek over his shoulder occasionally...trying to learn about chess. But heck, what's the use. I can't even beat him at checkers!!! Now...gin rummy is his downfall :-)!!!

-- Anonymous, May 15, 2002

Marcia.........sounds like your buck has what is called "dairy character" with the loose skin under the chin. Does look a lot like a dewlap though!!! We are having sunshine for the SECOND day in a row. Can't remember when that last happened. Just taking a lunch break and I am outside. Got our new chicks today. Sheesh.........didn't even look at the price when I ordered!!! Didn't realize they had gone up THAT much. $1.60/bird. Guess I will get the incubator out and forget this noise!!!

-- Anonymous, May 15, 2002

Marcia I'm sooooo jealous!! Wish I had a sawmill or even one to rent! Wide pine floors are sure pretty......Kirk

-- Anonymous, May 15, 2002

You must have some beautifully tall pines where you are, Kirk. Do you have portable sawmills there? We have several people in this county that will come right to your front yard to saw your lumber for you.

-- Anonymous, May 15, 2002

Diane, where did you get your chicks this year? The feed store we ordered ours from only charged us 88 cents each for 25, straight run Jumbo Cornish X Rocks and $1.30 each for four female Barred Rocks. I was very happy with that price! They will be coming in on the 22nd and we are going to use a chicken tractor for them this year. Also, do you mind if I ask how much you paid for Guineas? Did you have to order a minimum number of guineas?

Does anyone know if feed stores will order Turkeys for you? I forgot to ask when placing the chick order. We would like to raise just one or two this year. Would especially enjoy it if they were the Broad Breasted Bronze.

Our two little pigs will let me pet them now that they've notice I carry the feed bucket :-).

-- Anonymous, May 15, 2002

I got my chicks from Ridgeway at the Litchfield Grain Mill. I ordered buff pullets and the cornish heavy meat birds and 6 guineas. The guineas didn't come in........the hatch failed they said. I will not use Ridgeway again. The substituted R.I. red pullets last order for the black sex-links that I ordered. I thought in the past they were very competitive........foolish me, not asking the price in advance. I asked about the guinea price cause I had never ordered them before. I think it would have been $2.00 a piece, but I sure can't swear by that. There was no minimum order. I used to order turkeys through the mill also. Didn't even notice if they offered them this year. Last year they had no bronze to sell.

-- Anonymous, May 15, 2002

Marcia: Yea I have pine, fir, cedar and madrone with a few oak. I don't know of anyone with a sawmill around here. Not sure why other than you can't get your structures permitted with wood cut yourself. Also people would scream if they saw you cutting a lot of wood on your property. California is tough that way. I'd like one so when a tree dies I could use the wood to build with. I don't bother with permits but most people do cause they want to get on the power grid....Kirk

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2002

Mostly this is a Dr. rant but I do have a question also.

Our youngest son needs to have six baby teeth pulled due to his permanent teeth coming in behind the others. The oral surgeon feels it is best to do this as an outpatient under anesthesia, due to the length of time it will take, and we agree. The hospital requires a pre-op physical so off we went to have this done. We very seldom use a medical Dr. but after moving here did have our records "parked" with one in case of an emergency or a need like having this pre-op physical.

We also wanted this Dr. to write a note to the medical review board of our insurance company explaining the need for this, with the hope that they might pay for part of it. Our oral surgeon felt he should write one too. When I explained this to the Dr. he acted as if he wasn't sure what to write. While talking I mentioned to him the fact that this is a common occurance for children with Down Syndrome. He looked a bit strange, asked me if the oral surgeon had said this to me. I told him no but it is a fact. The he said "Oh, you've done some research on this?" I don't know how long I sat there with my mouth hanging open before I finally said "yes". I was trying to give a polite response and that was all I could come up with. What I was thinking was "what research?" (even though, yes, I have done a lot), and "no, we just adopted him hoping for the best and planned on leaving everything else up to the Doctors" or something like this. Or... maybe even saying "Duh, Duh, Duh"!!

Almost any information you see anywhere concerning children with Down Syndrome will list their dental problems as being quite common. He's a Dr. and he's never seen this before?!

Now, for the question. We received a copy of the letter he wrote to the insurance company. In it he mentions that Stephen is 14 and that "we adopted him when he was six months old". What relevance does that have to the reason for the letter? Also, during the physical he asked me the ages of our other children and wrote it on the folder containing Stephen's records. Why? Needless to say he won't be our family Dr. any longer.

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2002

Well, apparently the rain is getting to everyone in E. Central Illinois; work has been a circus lately! Borderlines out the whazoo, schizophrenics, more borderlines, bi-polars, borderlines, your average overwhelmed type depressed person and did I mention borderlines? I didn't have to call a code speed (out of control person; please send several large people to wacko ward, real fast!) but it was close. I'm gonna owe the security staff a LOT of donuts after this week, that's for sure! Census was high and we are still understaffed, so they were sending "helpers" from other floors - who were afraid to leave the nurse's station. Patients throwing themselves on the floor in howling fits, patients screaming because they couldn't have a make out session with another patient in the day room, patients burning off a six day meth jag (and there ain't that much ativan in the world).....Aughhhhh!!

But, I'm fine now.

Really.

To go along with the crazies at work; Jessie has a major case of Senior-itis - a condition which causes kids who are normally just a minor pain in the butt to be able to push all of their parent's buttons, simultaneously. My mantra - "I can do anything for just 9 more days...I can do anything for just 8 more days...I can do anything...How many more damn days til she graduates, again!?" Hubs has been hiding in the basement or his shop; and spending a lot of time running off stress on his treadmill - it seems to bother him even more than it does me! She's alternating between wanting her Dad and I to do everything for her; and shoving us away. I know it's a part of the independence process; but I'm telling you right now that I really, really miss the terrible twos!! At least I was still bigger than her then!

On the plus side...

The garden is looking pretty good, except for my dill. I don't know why I can't grow dill. Other people grow dill. Beautiful, aromatic, four foot tall dill. Other people gripe because dill seeds itself all over their gardens. Not me, mine just dies a slow, agonizing death - Pop, (you know; the guy who washed his hands of the whole garden thing a year or so ago - yep, that's the one) he's out there in the garden saying "Jeez, pull that poor plant up; put it out of it's misery!" 'Course, this is also the same man that made me go plant all the spindly, rangy survivors of the tomato vs cold frame lid disaster - because they deserved a chance to live; and is now griping at me because there is water standing all around them. Hello Pop...we've had 8" of rain in the last week or so; water is standing everywhere, not just around the blasted tomatoes!! And to top it all off; the blasted strawberries are starting to turn color and ripen. I'm still not over last year's strawberry deluge, apparently!! Anybody want any strawberries? Aw, c'mon; take the strawberries, please!! I figure two weeks until they start in, in earnest. Sigh.

I'm on vacation next week - after I get off Monday morning, I don't have to go back in until Sunday night; then have three more days off after that! I hope to be able to get some spring cleaning done, as a gardening friend from the St. Louis area will be coming up for a short visit, the end of May. Our plan is to leisurely view gardens during the day, and sit on the porch and drink strawberry daiquiries while watching the hummer-birds dance in the evenings. Means I've got to get all those darn plants off the porch, somehow, and get it in shape TO sit on! And once you can walk across the porch and not be attacked by rampant garden hoses and vicious petunias; then we need to get the glider in decent enough shape to be sat upon by company - I finally gave in and bought new cushions for it last night on the way to work; so hubs and I will be doing a little buff and fluff work on it before I go into work on Saturday. 'Course, since she's a gardening friend; that means that I have to get the garden in to shape too - weed, weed, weed!! Pop and I finally got all the hanging planters hung up, except the two that go behind the front hummingbird feeders. While they were sitting on the porch rail, Boo- boo (the cat) decided that he had a buring desire to know what was inside the planter, and so dug one of the fuschias out of one of them. Cat is now on my list - and not my "A" list either!

I'm hoping that the rain holds off tomorrow, as I need to plant another small bed of salad stuff. The new part of the garden is a quagmire of clay mud - don't know when I'm ever going to get back in there, so I may have to give up and plant my beans in the main garden after all. It's all my fault - Pop and I had all the beds set, then I got this idea that I wanted to put a pond in the garden; so we had to move 6 of the 16 beds out; and then move the other 10 around a bit. I'm wondering if it will ever dry out enough for neighbor Mike to get his backhoe in to dig the hole! Not that I've managed to order my liner, or choose a pump, or decided whether I want a waterfall (the sound of trickeling water is supposed to be soothing, but just makes me need to pee!) or a frog that spits water. Pop and Hubs really love the frog idea. Not. Pop muttered something about a mosquito breeding pit when I first broached the idea; but I told him the fish would take care of that. Neighbor Mike is really getting in to the idea; he's going to help with mine; and build one for his wife too; wonder if he's got a business idea hatching?! Pop and Hubs aren't even complaining much - it's starting to scare me!! I've been going down to the creek and hauling up a rock or two now and again to put around it - gonna need to make a lot more trips to the creek!! After pricing those nice flat rocks at the landscape place; I decided that round rocks look mighty fine!

Well, I'd better head for the sack - tried to sleep today but it just didn't work out! You folks take care,

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2002

She's alternating between wanting her Dad and I to do everything for her; and shoving us away. I know it's a part of the independence process; but I'm telling you right now that I really, really miss the terrible twos!! At least I was still bigger than her then!

Just bear with her and it will pass soon enough.

Been a couple of decades now but I still remember graduation as one of the most fearful times of my life since it meant that most everything I'd ever known was coming to an end and had not a clue as to what the Hell I was going to do. Pretty crazy making.

Depending on who you listen to we have between a 40-70% chance of "scattered showers" today so I'm praying we'll get some of it. Even my drought resistant bahia grass is curling up on me and I'd love to not have to water so much.

Looks like I'll get our second mess of squash tonight or Saturday morning and the field peas (Southern peas to you Yankees) are on the verge of blossoming.

After we got home from work last night I chopped away at the poison ivy growing rampant over the big live oak that I want to put the tire and bench swings on. Looks like I even managed to not get any on me this time. Ought to know by Saturday what I missed.

Taking the baby down to Wild Waters again Saturday. Love that free pass! Too doggone expensive to go otherwise.

..........Alan.

-- Anonymous, May 17, 2002

Alan, something that has worked well for me when I've been messing around in poison ivy is to immediately douse the area with rubbing alcohol followed by rinsing with water. The skin blisters and itching are caused by an oil secreted by the leaves of the plant. The rubbing alcohol makes the oil soluble so the water can wash it away. You have to do it right away though, if you wait until you start showing symptoms it's too late.

In honor of the opening of "Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones" I have the following song.

I think I'm a Clone Now!!!

There's always 2 of me just a hanging around.

I think I'm a Clone Now,

Cause every Chromosome is a hand-me-down

-- Anonymous, May 17, 2002

Polly and you others who have been drowning in rain, there may be hope ahead! We finally have some lovely weather here in Minnesota; its cool for this time of year, about 60, but SUNNY! And what's better, sunshine is predicted for several days in a row! It's soo gorgeous to see the sun! I surely hope this great stuff comes to visit those of you east of me. And a wee bit more warmth would be perfect, not to complain!

I'm getting ready to take Ali to a Wisconsin friend's house for the weekend; get to take a lovely drive down the Mississipi River, well I mean along the River.

Everyone have a lovely day!

-- Anonymous, May 17, 2002

Bring it on, EM!! I am sooooo tired of squish-squish-squish alla time! Got all my coffee cans with holes poked in the bottoms just waiting for dry weather!

Make sure you use cool water to rinse off with as well, Alan; before you use any kind of soap. Warm water opens the pores and also allows the oil to spread. We have a bar of Burt's Poison Ivy soap that I got for Hubs to wash up with after exposure, and it has seemed to help. I'm not allergic to the stuff, so I get to do most of the removal around here. I'm not much of one for chemicals, but I do pull out the Round-up for things like that; and cat briar too.

I remember all too well the last couple of weeks of high school! I had all my credits at the end of my Jr. year, but Mama didn't want me to miss all the exciting things that she was sure were going to happen to me in my Senior year. Talk about a waste of time!! I just wanted OUT!! NOW!! After Jes had one of her little hissy-fits the other night; I looked upstairs where Pop was sitting - enjoying the whole show, I'm sure - and asked him "Was I that much of a horse's ass when I was her age?" He didn't even do me the favor of thinking about it first; just said "Yup, pretty much!" Love you, Pop; really I do! Ah well; this to shall pass. Should have taken vacation for this past week as well as next week, I guess. Live and learn! Too bad I've only got the one kid to live through or I could use this learned experience. Wait a minute - WHAT AM I SAYING!!

I'm trying to decide whether to plant my beans today or not. We've got a possible frost warning! Hel-lo Jack Frost! Lose your calendar, did you? It's MAY, damnit! Mid-May even! Enough with the cold weather allready! In the 40's when I got up this morning; still hasn't made it to 50 yet. Bleah. Oh well; plenty of cleaning up to do around this place. Did I already say "bleah"? Well, double bleah, then! On the positive side, I started cleaning my pantry last night and found a box of banana muffin mix and I'm pretty sure that I saw some mini chocolate chips...anybody got any spare Fritos? I will live through this week!! Not making any promises about anyone else, tho!

Well, I'd better go - got tons of things that I need to get done today; including visiting an Aunt and Uncle who may be moving. Talk to you all soon,

-- Anonymous, May 17, 2002

I'm not allergic to the stuff, so I get to do most of the removal around here.

You be careful with that stuff Polly. *I* didn't used to react to it either until I turned twenty five and got a nasty surprise one day when I just happened to brush up against some. Took me a while to figure out what it was - thought I had some sort of really nasty skin infection.

The weather is odd this year. Two days ago we had yet another *dry* front come through. That night it was cool enough that I turned off the ceiling fan when we went to bed. Being May and not running the a/c we had all the windows open and only a thin cotton sheet on the bed. Along about 3 a.m. I woke up shivering and we put a blanket on the bed. Got up at dawn and the porch thermometer said 52. Not much to you Yankees I suppose but it had been steady into the nineties before that so it was cold to me! We're getting back into our normal hot, hot, hot now.

..........Alan.

-- Anonymous, May 17, 2002