>  RH> > I've only got one of those.
> 
>  RH> I only have one at the moment, but they do turn up; there's 
just no
>  RH> reason for me to grab them.
> 
> I'm hanging on to mine--memories of Christmas/Christmas markets in
> Germany for me. IIRC, the one I have came from a neighborhood 
(district)
> market in Berlin, probably in 1990 or 1991.
> 
Good reasons to hang onto them.  For me they're just mugs but make 
great cocoa mugs for kids.  


>  RH> > We've given away some from time to time, wouldn't have the 
storage
>  RH> space if we'd kept all we'd acquired.
> 
>  RH> Me either. Some get chipped, broken, dishwasher-crazed, etc 
too.
>  RH> Waechtersbach is a prime candidate for the last one, and 
they're
>  RH> brutal in a microwave too. They get broiling hot including the
> 
> Thanks for the warning--I've got a couple of the red Christmas ones 
I
> picked up at their factory outlet when we were in Germany.
> 
I like the colors, but especially the ones they made in Spain are a 
problem.

>  RH> handle, and one white-glazed one tends to boil liquids faster 
than
>  RH> any other mug I own.
> 
> Probably safer to boil water in a tea kettle to use with those 
mugs.
> 
Probably so.  
 
>  RH> season has been over for a while now; we've already had frost
>  once.
> 
> We were down to 41 (maybe a bit lower) Saturday morning, going to 
have
> more cold nights later this week but probably no frost yet. Hope 
not for
> a while, we've got 2 pots of mums decorating our front steps.
> 
The mums don't care too much.  
 

>  small area of dirt that had no sort of "enhancement".
> 
>  RH> We used to have a garden in the back yard, but a lot of things
>  RH> wouldn't grow back there. Too much shade, a problem Arizona 
generally
>  RH> doesn't have.
> 
> Parts of AZ do have shade--if you know where to look. (G)
> 
Under the house maybe.  Cacti don't "do" shade too well.