I've got quite a few Aralias at home, several of which are the variegated balfour, my favorite as well. They are all relatively small, the largest being my parsley aralia which is about 4 ft tall and very full and beautiful. I have 2 mings, one is about 2.5ft tall. It is also very full. Recently, I found 3 small ''snowflake'' aralias, which are basically variegated parsleys. They are very nice as well. I actually found those at Ingles, a local grocery store in North and South Carolina. That is also where I found 2 of my small balfours. They surprisingly have a nice selection of small exotic tropicals. I keep all of my Aralias in the brightest spots in my house (a large west-facing window and a large south facing window. I keep them indoors year round and water them only when the soil is almost completely dry. I mist them, as well as all of my other tropicals about once a day to keep the humidity up in the house, mainly during the winter when the house is dry. I also have most of them on a tray of moist pebbles. Other than that, I have never had any major complaints out of my Aralias, and they are some of the easiest of my plants, imo. They prefer more neglect than too much attention. I've never overwatered them, as I knew about these plants before I ever bought one. So, luckily (*knock on wood*) I wont ever have to watch my Aralias suffer the devastating consequences of too much water. They really CAN put up with some pretty severe drought. I've waited until the soil is cracking and pulling away from the sides once or twice (even though I know not to) and they didnt flinch a leaf. So, that being said, these plants are pretty tough, except when it comes to keeping them too wet. How do you all care for your aralias? What about pruning? I pruned my large parsley about mid-fall and it is sprouting new shoots all over the place now, even in winter! I know they go semi-dormant, but I dont think it really matters when or where you prune them. They grow back quickly and more beautiful than before! I hope all of you Aralia owners are having fun with these awesome plants. They are really nice to have. Peace and happy indoor gardening! -Chris South Carolina

Great find. I love those and wanted one for almost a year, and did finally find one in GW. I was wondering what to do with mine too, so anxious to hear suggestions. Tho I am sure my cats would love it too, so maybe should bring in from the garage, LOL. I don't want to plant flowers in mine cause flowers hate me and would die before I got back in the house I'm sure. Tho guess I resort to my stand-by, silk ones. Karen

We are getting the whirlpool, I think. It was $229 for Stainless. It has a blue display, whereas our other appliances have green, so I am second thinking. Plus it only gets a good fro microwaving noise. I ran several microwaves at Sears yesterday and it is louder than the others. A plus for it is the handle has stainless on the front of it. Many in that price range have plastic handles colored to look like stainless. I am also considering the GE 1740. I don't care about a sensor. The GE's have the one touch numbers. Personally I like to punch my time in, but some really like that feature. the GE you can also select the volume of the beep, which I really like. Oh and the new 1740 has hidden vents - old model didn't. We have the LG 1613 (or something like that) and I hate it is is really loud when microwaving, the handle/door cracked and the reminder beep drives me crazy.

Fabulous find and beautiful chair! I went to the Goodwill Store with my daughter the other night to look for a tacky Christmas sweater. The only thing I saw that I was remotely interested in was what looked like to be a dime store print with a bad looking frame. The faux mat was printed on the paper with the scene, however, the scene and colors were beautiful! It was a large hunting scene. For $9.99, I debated getting it and having the print reframed. After thinking on it a bit, I decided that would cost too much to reframe, plus I had nowhere to hang it. I passed, but do plan to go back to the store in the future. Small store, though. OK, Since the title of this thread is "Scored an awesome win", I just have to share my win from last week. Hope you don't mind instead of my starting my own thread. Maybe others will chime in with their wins or bargains. I received a call from the Ellen DeGeneres Show last Thursday night. I won Day 5 of her Christmas Giveaways! Four prizes were really nice, and four were some items that we can't or will never use.