Maryanne, I've had a huge trash bag of all of my recycling in the pickup for several days. I can imagine forgetting and approaching the border with that stuff! Tomorrow I'm pretty sure the recycle yard will be open.

Kat, I understand about the phone. I'm not totally in love with the one I'm using, but it is better than the other ones I didn't love either. :) My next door neighbor's son has her on his family plan, and she had quite an elderly Sprint phone when her purse was stolen a few weeks ago. She paid $50 and Sprint sent her a replacement - an old phone also, not a new one, but I'm sure her son is more than ready for an upgrade on her phone that she could have gotten for free. She didn't want to bother him, but I told her that when she's down in Austin (where he lives with his family) for the holidays, they should make a trip to the Sprint store and get her the upgrade that she's due. And that she could have saved her $50. Now she knows!

I'm looking at these phones for a couple of reasons. For a minimum cost (just the phone itself) I can take my number away from the folks who charge me $25 - $30 to keep it in play every month when I don't use it much. Rather than race through the house to find that phone if it rings, I can use a docking station that works with cordless phones I already have around the house. If the power goes out now, my phone doesn't work (I'd have to buy an expensive battery phone from the cable company), but if I have a cell phone for the house, it's like having the old AT&T line that stays alive even if the power is out.

The master class was nice, and while I was down at the library I picked up several recorded books.

Here's my yard work before and after: If you look at this photo divided in thirds, the area on the right side of the photo where the right and middle thirds meet is more or less where I was working. I took the iris out of that bed, and you can see how full the top of that tree is, drooping way down and filling the area. Here is after, where the outer limbs have been removed and the drooping ones have been pruned. And the iris are no longer in that bed. It's covered with mulch waiting for a few plants. I want plants and trees but I don't want burglars or prowlers hiding out, so I'm making it easier to see through the trees and shrubs.

SRS