Good Morning, Everyone.  Even though we are expecting spotty showers with possible thundershowers for the rest of the week, I am feeling pretty good.  One of my little sugar snap pea plants has actually put out a bud.  Am I anticipating?  Oh, yeah!!!

Is this another (maybe) sign of the times?  The Washington Post has an article on a new web site that will help the consumer haggle with those merchants listed with the site on the price of the goods offered.  I know the economy is bad when I see an uptick in the stories about bartering in the mainstream media.  This simply adds a 21st century twist to the phenomenon.

I got a kick out of this blog from Texifornia.  Have trouble getting plants to survive in your containers.  Try putting in plastic plants.  The artificial foliage protects the seedlings until they are large enough to make it on their own at which you can take the plastic out.  It makes sense.  I am doing the same with my plastic canopies and milk jug cloches.

Foreign Policy In Focus has a new entry that is interesting: "Capitalist Pigs."  I have said often that globalization has downsides that we never hear about as our media and politicians generally ignore them.  Put this beside the story that "60 Minutes" featured about the aftermath of the 'partnership' between American oil companies and one of the government owned South American oil companies in the Amazon and see the similarities. We got a large part of the oil, the government of that country got the money, and the people living in the area were left with the toxic waste.  That triad is also repeated in Nigeria with more violent results.  But we seldom hear about this aspect of globalization.