Bob, d'you ever get the feeling that MAYBE, just maybe, you've been spending too much time on-line with Stephania?
P.S. Nice score!

I understand Bob, your pics an Stephania's got me looking for spinies as well.

Nearly no chance I can get them here.
But if I see them they're mine!

Sander

Did the spinies arrive yet, Bob? I personally witnessed them going into the box and off to the P.O., although they seemed determined to break out and hurt someone!

Hi Lisa,
Welcome home and back on the GW.
Those 'spinies' are the ones shown above,and they arrived Thursday,after shipping on Tuesday.
And the Story behind them follows:
On Saturday,when the Extravaganza began at 9am,I strolled around with no real intent to bring any home.I brought no luggage except a small carry on type bag for needed items and clothing,so a plant buying spree was not on my mind.
But then I saw those 3 small crypts,and what the heck,I'll get them in the bag some how. (purchase #1)
Then I saw Michael's Encholirium,and my mind blanked out,...had to have it! (purchase #2).
Went to the Seminars,then back to the Sales area,and spotted the silver Dyckia, had brain-freeze,..(purchase #3)
Now,thoroughly caught up in the hunt-buy frenzy,I was a
goner when that Dyckia beateae appeared on Tom Wolfe's table. It was like something out of a movie,too good to be true,my Heart's Desire,waiting for just me ! Not just a D.beateae,but a Double-Headed,one with 4 large offsets,and only $35 !... (purchase #4)
By now,I knew that this was going to be 'MyDay' !
And it was. Then having,gone to my room after the banquet,I was trying to find a way to get these plants in some kind of package for the plane trip home,when my daughter came in, saw what I was trying to do,and said,
"You know,you can only have one carry on bag and one small personal item,how are you going to get those on the plane?"
[In my plant-trance,I had completely forgotten about that.]
Panic!! First thought was Lisa! (she was sitting next to me at our banquet table) She's staying on,maybe she can help somehow. Back down to the banquet room where the Auction was still going on.
Believe in Divine Intervention, because Michael was sitting in my seat,and was talking to Lisa.
Explaining my dilemma, Michael said he'd be glad to ship them for me,and was just a few rooms away from me on our floor,and took the unwieldy spiny collection to his room,and then back to his nursery for shipping.
What a guy !
A couple of the small plants I may have been able to get on the plane,but that 18" Dyckia beateae,along with the others,well,there was just no way that was going to happen.
Michael saved the day,but Lisa being there,and the auction taking so long,all contributed to a happy ending.
So thats my 'Story'
Bob ;^))

I'm glad everything worked out. I'll second that Michael's a great guy. I had only met him once before at his nursery and he remembered me at the show. He took quite a bit of time out from his work to talk when I stopped by last year.

What a great haul Bob... especially that D. beateae
If I was there, I defintely, could not resist (^_^)

Hope you guys had left some for me, as I just gave my friend a long Crypt want list.
He will visit Michael's to drop something (not a plant) to one of GW friend next week.

Stephania, when your friend visits Michael's, ask him to look for seeds of D. beateae. I saw some old seed pods on it that had been there long enough for some of them to start germinating right in the pods. It doesn't look like he plans to do anything with them.

I sure wish I could post some pictures! OT: Has anyone else been having trouble with PhotoBucket, or is it just me? Every time I try to upload a picture the browser crashes and I find myself suddenly looking at my desktop again. I've never had this problem before, could it have anything to do with the new card I put in my camera, or just the sheer volume of photos in my files or in my PB account?

Lisa if you look at account options under dashboard it will tell you if you have exceeded your monthly band width etc. Are you loading straight from the camera card or from your computer? I had trouble using the new bulk loader. It never did work for me

I have highspeed and don't have any bandwidth restrictions that I know of, HDD, and I can't be exceeding my monthly anything anyway since this is October and I haven't used it since September. I downloaded the camera into my photo files, same as always. Emailing them seems to work okay, but I just can't upload them into my PhotoBucket account.

I have had problems before this with the files getting so big they would crash when I'd go in there looking for a photo, but it never affected the browsers on PB or my email. I've got Picasa too, which seems a bit more stable in that respect, but I tried to upload from there and the same thing happens: *CRASH* Is there a way to upload from Picasa to the GW without using PhotoBucket? I am so NOT computer-savvy!

My puter crashes if I try to upload more than 30 photo's at a time...And i dont know why..maybe brom overload?

I can't even do it one at a time!

well email me some pictures and I will post them for now...best temporary solution I can offer since Im can't be there to fix it :)

I am a webdesigner so maybe I can help a little.

If no one else has problems with photobucket, the problem is local. So something going wrong with your internet connection or something going wrong on your computer.

If you updated your software that might be the problem. Your security or firewall settings may have changed. Easy fix if you know what you are doing (or know someone who knows).

If you did not change anything on your computer trust it for the moment and try later. Then it could be the 'up' connection at your provider failing temporarily. That should resolve itself in hours.

Maybe the files you are sending are too big. Make one smaller in a photo editing program and try if that works. So if you save (or export) it, it should be smaller file size. If they are the same size as you allways use don't bother.

If you use Windows and internet Explorer install Firefox as an alternate browser. Firefox is more stable so better. If you have a Mac and use Safari it is also a nice upgrade to install Firefox. If there is a problem firefox is more likely to tell you there is a problem instead of just crashing.

Does your photobucket account have a limit you might have exeeded? I don't know photobucket that well.
You said Picasa also doesn't work, chances are it is the firewall or the connection thing.

It might even be your harddisk is nearly full.

If this all is jibberish to you, get someone over there who knows to help.

I know computers good, I work with them every day, and they can drive me crazy too. So don't feel stupid.

Good luck
Sander

Here is a link that might be useful: firefox

LOL sander I could have said all that and I'm sure Lisa is sitting there reading it with a look of bewilderment. PB has a limit but its 1Gb and that was why I said look in the dashboard of her account and see if she is close to the limit

Haha

Not being able to upload to Picase is an important clue.

Quite some info to handle probably, but I'm really eager to see her new pics.

Chill out Lisa we have time...

Sander

Ha! Well, you got that right, HDD. I'm too old to teach new tricks. People are always telling me I should recalibrate my firewall or my pop-up blocker but I have no idea how to do that or what settings would be desireable. I need a rent-a-geek!

Sander, it's not that I can't upload TO Picasa, that's automatic, I just can't upload FROM there to PB. I'll try nuking some of the old photos in there and see if that helps at all. If not, then maybe you'll have to hop on a plane and come over here and show me what to do!

LOL

I think a local rent a geek is cheaper....

Don't give up the fight, computers are allways dumber.

Sander

Hi Lisa,
Another possible solution (and a non-techinical one) is to start a fresh account with photobucket- keep your existing as is. We've done this before - all you need is an alternative email (we used our yahoo email & it works).
Hope you can solve your problem as we all enjoy your photos.

I think my computer has caught some kind of creeping cybercrud! I deleted 5 or 6 pages of photos from my PB account and was able to upload only one pic before it crashed again. Now all I have to do is click on "browse" and it automatically throws me back to the desktop before I even try to open anything. Or it gets stuck with the browser window open and the hourglass icon going, but you can't open or close anything. Somehow I don't think starting a new account will help, but I could be wrong.

My email browser, on the other hand, works fine, but I don't want to email them to anyone to post, I'm too much of a control freak for that. ;-) And besides, I want to FIX IT.

*sigh*
(banging head on desk)

BTW, Bob, my apologies for hijacking your thread!

Go firefox if you can still go on the internet. It sets up automatic without asking stupid questions.

This sounds like internet explorer trouble. You do use Windows right?
No firewall related stuff, then uploading one picture would not have worked.

Sounds like a virtual fungal infection of your harddisks rhizome. Maybe you grow it too hard...

Sander

Lisa, do you have a "Free" photobucket account? It does have limits. I reached them 3 years ago and up graded to the premium account. I think its about $20.00 a year for unlimited use.

The new bulk uploader works for me.

Hi Lisa,
Regrets for all the trouble you are having,and I'm the last person you want to ask for computer help,however,here's a suggestion.
If you had no trouble getting your photos on your computer
(in 'My Pictures'),and you were able to load one to PB,try going to your PB 'my album' ,top right of page,click on
'account options',and see where you stand on capacity.
(like I'm 11% in photos,1% in monthly bandwidth)
If you go to PB home page,at the bottom,click on 'site map',and view all the options regarding loading photos there.
You may have more serious problems,but I always like to start with the easy solutions first,and I hope this turns out to be an easy fix for you.
Bob

Wheee, it's working now! You were right, Sander, a little virtual fungicide and a change of media was all it needed!

Actually, I have NO idea what it needed. I was only using 10% of my album capacity and 0% of my monthly bandwidth, but I nuked some pics anyway, and resized the ones to upload, and eliminated the files-within-files that it doesn't seem to like, and as of last night it had stopped drop-kicking me back to desktop, but still just sat and glared at me, sullenly refusing to upload. I sent it off to bed without supper to contemplate the error of its ways, and this morning it's uploading as if nothing had happened! Go figure...

Anyway, I'll post something later today. It'll probably be a big anticlimax after all this!

The lack of nutrients must have done the trick. As it normaly does.

You, overfertilize? Lisa!

Glad to see you're back in business.
Sander