Horatio

*splat* Yup... I think it just arrived. It is all over the window.

Lily of the Valley... one of my favourites!!! When I look at Germany and France, I always wondered what the yellow fields were... canola. Fantastic! One of the guys always said the yellow was mustard plants. Now I know for sure! Thank you!!! I also did not know what wild garlic looked like. Very nice of you to post the pictures!!! Love the view from your window! Rained oceans yesterday... and some more today. The plants are happy, the worms are miserable. I have rescued a whole bunch of earthworms and relocated them to a dryer area where it would not flood. Will post some photgraphs of my lilies after the rain stops.

This is a piece you will need to put in a special place for when you publish your book of shorts. It is that good! *hands Topazia The Meteor Shower award*

I think you should definitely plan on joining them! You are THAT good!!!

I certainly hope so. This is one story that I really liked!

*still waiting on my piece of Red Velvet cake to arrive*

She did a spectacular job on decorating the cake! I think it is incredibly beautiful!

Wondeful!!! Is this homemade cake? It sure does taste delicious!!! Thank you!

Exactly!!!!! I think the post by Hoops, will go down in HampsterDance history as one of the greatest!!!

Always nice to have good memories.

Outstanding!!! Where is my piece of cake?

The photo from your window would be excellent! Do you eat dandelion leaves in Germany? Your project sounds really fantastic! Switching sides from the student to the teacher sounds like quite a challenge, but at least you know that you are finally moving up the ladder towards success. Congratulations on the new plants and having assistants to help with the experiments. I am certain that we will be reading about your success sooner than you think! At work, we have pilots who become instructors. I wish they would be as serious as you are when it comes to preparing. There was one instructor who walked into our class, seventeen minutes late and the first words out of his mouth were "wow, I have not looked at this in over six months". Needless to say, the rest of the class was a disaster. The statistics on bicycling are fantastic. I wish there would be more bicycling infrastructure here in the U.S.. One of the problems is the urban sprawl. Things are just way too spread out. Hopefully I will be able to move to Germany and bring my bicycle. Visiting a friend at the hospital now, so I will have to run. Talk to you soon!

HOOPS!!!! You are allowed to post a picture of yourself now. I am so happy to see you have stopped in on - Kat's - birthday!!!!!!!

Thank you so much!

Dear - Kat - , Wishing you a most happy, HAPPY, HAPPY birthday today! May all your birthday wishes come true! HAPPY HAMMIE BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY HAMMIE BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY HAMMIE BIRTHDAY DEAR - KAT - , HAPPY HAMMIE BIRTHDAY TO YOU !!!!! Now, make a wish, blow out all the candles and let's get this party started!!! Have a great birthday! Horatio

OH MY GOODNESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HOOPS !!!!!!! We have missed you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *CYBER HUG*

Would you please post a picture of Puck?

R.I.P. PUCK

Lots and lots of rain yesterday. But today... what a beautiful day!!! The plants probably got more rain than they wanted in one day, but everything is really green because of all the rain! Time for a bike ride!!!

Ohhhhhhhh, how beautiful you look!!!! I love the purple! The wedding cake is fantastic!!! Did you create the design? You and your mother have a wonderful picture. The black and white is a very nice touch! Your ring is simply gorgeous! What a great couple you two make. A handsome guy with a beautiful lady! Oh my!!! I am so excited for the two of you! All the best for a wonderful marriage! CONGRATULATIONS !!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Actually, antibiotics don't kill viruses, only bacteria. The reason why it sometimes still makes sense to take antibiotics during a viral infection is to kill opportunistic bacteria. Those are too weak to spread and cause disease symptoms under normal conditions, but when the immune system is weakened by for example a virus, they take their opportunity, too. BTW, it is not so easy to destroy viruses in a living organism, without harming the organism. I'm saying to destroy, because you can't kill viruses. In fact, they are not living. They don't have any metabolism. They are more like a little machine which injects its own "construction plan" (DNA or RNA) into a host cell, and then manipulates the host cell to do nothing but produce copies of the virus. The results are thousands of new viruses, and a dead host cell. Nice aphid photos. Did you know that those don't lay eggs? They are livebearing. I had no idea!!!! How nice to have someone so knowledgeable posting!!!!! It was purely accidental that I caught the bugs and I was thrilled to see the mother and baby. Thank you for telling me that information! How interesting!!!!! It does not take too much to get me excited. I also was unaware that antibiotics did not kill viruses. Thank you, thank you, thank you for keeping us informed! I love learning! What great information!!! You have totally made my day!

You are brilliant! Very important point... humans usually abuse most things. Take antibiotics... I do not take any. When I broke my ankle, I did not take any pain killers what-so-ever. What I found, the recovery time for my ankle was cut in half. Many people do not pay attention and abuse antibiotics. Exactly as you said, the virus will morph and become resistant to every antibiotic you take. Then when you really need those antibiotics, they do not work. With some of the crops in the USA, the farmers are finding that the weeds are becoming resistant to the weed-killers and are growing taller and stronger. The weed killer, Round-up by Monsanto is creating what they call super-weeds. In 2007, this problem covered about 2.4 millions acres and in 2011 it had increased to about 11 million acres. Genetics can be wonderful. I am really pleased about the plastic alternative. It is late and I want to respond more, so it will have to be tomorrow. For now, I have a few pictures that I took and I really got excited. The pictures are of a mother and baby bug.

Oh my, I am so happy to hear that your sister is okay. A few bruises... those will disappear in no time at all. The vehicle can be replaced. It is so aggravating and such an inconvenience to be without a vehicle, but your sister will soon have another car. Most important, I believe your parents are quite relieved your sister is okay. My plan is to search the internet and see if the televsion show had an internet version. You would really enjoy the show for lay persons. One of the Doctors on the show said exactly the same thing you did... plants are "rooted" and have to defend themselves where they are. They cannot just run away, they have to come up with strategies to survive. The show talked about how plants react to light and a variety of other things. Scents that are given off. There were two universities that were conducting studies and this show was mostly about their research. One reason I am concerned about genetically modified plants is due to the fact that the Monarch butterfly population is disappearing because the corn that was in their migration path, had a food source that they would stop and eat. The genetically modified corn, is resistant to this type of insect. There are millions of monarch butterlies starving to death because the food source in their migration path north from Mexico is gone. Leguan, how do you fix that problem? I know that it helps feed the world to have a better corn crop, but if the monarch butterflies are starved into extinction, then what happens to other plants that depend on this butterfly? Do plants hear? I talk to my plants and play music for them. For some reason, I think they like the vibrations. Plants probably hate the sound of a weed-eater and a chain saw. In the USA there are many studies, and I believe you could get a good job here. I do believe you could find some place that you liked as far as living over here. Plus, the ride from the USA to your home is a lot shorter than from Australia, giving you a couple extra days to visit. Two years will go by fast. If you end up in the USA, you always have a place to stay.

Yesterday there was a show on the television that made me think of you. It was a show about plants and how they "see". It was really incredible to take a look at some of the experiments that were being conducted to understand how vine-type plants will search out a tomato plant for example. The time lapse photography was totally amazing. I am so excited to know you are in a field that will be beneficial to mankind. Your parents must be so proud! When I was in Germany, the one interesting fact was to see so many people riding their bikes for all sort of errands during every type of weather. It did not matter, snow, freezing rain, this was the "commuter" vehicle. I would have had to have snow tyres on my bike, or chains or something else, just to keep from sliding off into a snow drift. When I was in Mainz, I bought the greatest basket for the front of my bike. It has been indestructible. What a stellar invention! Thank you for the great news about your studies and work. I know you are going to be a success! Remember, good things take time! Working with plants is very difficult, so I applaud you for the time and effort. I will be excited to start calling you Dr. Leguan! When your contract expires, what happens then? Do you think and or plan for that far ahead? Riding the Honda through the countryside must be such a nice feeling. One aspect of being on the bike that I like and do not like are the smells. It is great to smell the orange blossoms and different great smelling flowers, but I really do not like the smell of dryer sheets. You are riding through a neighborhood and smell people using those dryer sheets. Yuck! I laugh when you speak of being on the Honda and then getting on your bicycle. I have done that same thing. I just cannot pedal fast enough. How is your family doing? I know you are probably not getting to see them as much. Hope all is okay there.

What a wonderful post!!!!! We were waiting for you to surface and let us know that all was perfect! How about a picture? I would love to see you in your dress!!! Glad to know that married life is fun. If life was perfect, it would probably be boring. A down day makes the up day so much nicer! Please include some wedding pictures!!! Pretty please!!!