OK, you've all inspired me. Now I have to go get some seed! :) I did buy 6 plants this morning of mixed varieties but there's room for several more. I'm of the opinion that you can never have too many 'maters! Every year I cover the paths in my food garden with a layer of cardboard and mulch to keep the weeds out. I spent the morning taking the top 3 inches of last year's almost broken-down mulch and the gorgeous soil below it, and filling a couple of my beds to the brim --- including the tomato bed. Maybe some volunteers will be able to sprout through all that. Thanks for the inspiration! I really enjoy having varieties other than the same ol', same ol', and seed allows me to do that where store-bought plants don't. Deb

I have yin/yang feelings about this post. First, you never get 100% germination with any seed, and as seed are natural things it's not uncommon to have any particular lot be duds. It happens, it's not what anyone wants, certainly not the seed provider, but it happens. When it happens you send an email or call or write a letter (how old fashioned but it still works) and you work it out. The customer is always right and the provider replaces the seed. No biggee. Next, there's nothing wrong with airing your views, that's a first amendment right, however that doesn't mean that there can be no reaction to that. People may like it, and people may want to chew your head off for it.And at some forums, you can speak what you want but TOS may get you and your post removed. I can certainly understand frustration and venting. At my home, when we're unhappy with a service provided to us we deal with it. If there's no satisfaction then there's Angie's List, BBB, and even small claims court, and there are many, many other venues to rate a vendor or service provider. Google maps reminds me of flying in a plane over neighborhoods, looking out the window and seeing roofs and pools, driveways and roads and farmland or cities and suburbs, barns or sheds, etc etc. Google Satellite doesn't have xray eyes and it can't see under a roof or in closets or drawers. Google Street-view gives you a drive-by view similar to when you're in your car rolling down the road. And as to property values or taxes, as was mentioned above, you only need google an address and you can get that info in about three seconds, twelve if you're on dial-up. I know that's so because we did some Q&A before a refi to check values in the neighborhood. Realtors can provide you with a lot of info and all of it is available freely and offered without log-in or contract. I brought all that up because similarly, I too grow a good amount of my own tomato bulk stock. And it grows on the property here. There's a registered business here, it's all about seeds. I would not be offended if someone looked up on google the address or checked google maps and took a look. This is not an invasion of my privacy. If you come over to my house and peek in my windows, open the car and rummage through the glove box, or enter the gated property without my permission that is something different. Personally, I would be POed if someone trashed WinterSown and didn't give me the opportunity to speak my views. So, in good faith, someone go get Marianna and tell her she has an opportunity here to discuss her policy on customer satisfaction. KCKook, if she's unaware of the complaint she can't address it, go get her, let her know, give her this opportunity to publicly make things right.

Donna - nope, I haven't yet, and our courtesy hold on our Minas will end in a few days. What to do, what to do... Karlarock - Can you tell me if your stone is oiled in the photos? I really need something that will say, "Hello, I'm a black stone, and only at strange angles and bright sunlight can you see my hidden greens." ;o) Mustbnuts (I love your username, BTW!) - we'll have white beaded inset cabs on the perimeter with *some* variety of soapstone, and carrara marble on the island. Whether the island will be stained or some other paint color (green, perhaps?) is still up for debate. Further complicating things is that I have two very different carrara slabs from which to choose - one very calm one which I have seen in person, and one very veiny one I've only seen in photos. I'm leaning toward the veiny one, but I couldn't have a very veiny Minas in the same kitchen. We got photos of some new Minas slabs this morning which have even fewer white veins than the very quiet ones we have on hold, but it still appears to have a lot of the little white "spots," and I'm not sure I want that. In all of the finished Minas kitchen pictures I've seen, the stone appears solid black with white veins, without all the splotchies. Am I wrong about this? Do you Minas owners have those little spots, and they just aren't apparent in the photos?

This is a board certified, 'highly regarded' MD. He's in practice with his wife, also board certified. I don't know if their 'nurse' is a licensed nurse practitioner, but...she's HIS nurse and when she calls in a prescription she's giving HIS licence, evidently authorized BY HIM. If she didn't note the Metrogel on DH's chart, is that the patient's fault? If the MD didn't *read* the chart, is that the patient's fault? Exactly who, if not the MD, 'prescribed' the Metrogel? This is *sloppy*! If you call this office you can NEVER speak with or receive a call back from either MD. You have to first tell a receiptionist the whole problem, then -- if she feels like it -- she will pass you along to the nurse so you can tell it all over again. My late MIL, an RN and hospital administrator, always said that dermatology is the ideal practice: Your patients don't die (do to anything you do) and they don't get well; you have them *forever*. Well, not this patient in this case. We think the practice is so large -- and so lucrative -- that it is an assembly line. There's a nine month wait for another appointment should you need to cancel a semi-annual checkup -- even calling a month in advance to re-schedule. Jodi -- Thanks for the Kukui Nut Oil tip. I'm ready to try anything, once DH gets over this nasty reaction. I've seen that stuff all over when we are on Maui. Does your DH have to keep using it, or did the condition clear up and stay clear? My DH is also very fair-skinned, with light blue eyes. His birthmom was Irish and birthfather Northern Italian. Years ago a dermatologist who was seeing him for precancerous stuff said he had the palest shade of skin. (He has to see a dermatologist regularly for screening. Too many years on the tennis team in HS and earlier days outdoors at a summer camp on a lake.) Ordinarily I would have some blistering remark to relate to you: DH's reply to the MD. He'd spent time in the waiting room calming himself, reminding himself that getting angry wouldn't help him. He couldn't think of a reaonable reply to that stupid question -- only to say the doctor's office prescribed it; here's the (useless and worse) tube of Metrogel; now what?