Den Vic Thanks for the terrific photos. You bring a little of the West Coast to us all. I am just two years, at the home of my present garden. It takes years and years to get things how you would like them to be. (I miss the garden I left behind) But it seems a good year, for both vegetables and flowers in my own garden. Tomatoes, eggplants peppers are growing splendidly. Have been using peppers from the gardens, can't keep up with the beans. Some Earwigs damage, mostly on the Brugmansia leaves. I don't bother about it to much. Seems once the plant gets larger they leave it alone. I do have bloom on some Brugmansia, which is very early for me. Perhaps I am learning more about the plant and what to do to get earlier bloom. Wish I had more Cannas growing, they look so tropical. Dahlias are going to start blooming maybe another two weeks. Lots of Day lilies blooming. I divided them up in spring and thought perhaps I would lose bloom this year, but not so. Strange? I put some squash at the back of my vegetable patch. I don't water them at all really. Different kinds of squash. I can not believe how huge the plants have grown. I keep moving the vines from growing in the garden so as they grow out on the lawn. But, on the lawn, of course I can not cut the grass where the vines are. Will see how that goes. This street where I live, is very much a grass street. Great attention paid to ones grass.

Not that this helps the OP but for people who aren't at the stage of pouring yet, take heed: have your engineer/expert ON SITE DURING THE POUR. The problems with the foundation on the house we bought were already done and covered up before we ever saw the house, a builder's spec model. We found out after closing, and spent the next 5 years in a construction defect case that nearly ruined us. In the end we came out ok but we went thru many hassles and expenses and it took over our lives during that time. We couldn't fully use our house. It was very frustrating. Had someone who was competent and who cared been there when it was built, mistakes couldv'e been prevented. Our builder didn't know or didn't care how to do it right. He just covered up the defects so it all appeared fine. You are at a point where you haven't turned over all your money yet, and you now know about a potential big mistake. You could still have enough leverage to get this corrected even if it means firing him and starting over. PLEASE consider what Susiesnowflake has posted here about her case. Hers was different than mine, but the bottom line is you don't close on a defective house and you don't just hope it will all be ok by ignoring problems. It will not be ok if you close and later find out it's serious. Then, you will have little or no ability to remedy the situation. Believe me, the builders have the upper hand when it comes to holding them accountable. And, they know it. That said, Good luck! Here is a link that might be useful: HADD

Not at the wedding, but at our reception... We had 2 best men, since we were best friends with 2 men (and a maid of honor). Anyway, the first best man, Andy, gives a long heartfelt speach about how Dave (DH) is such a great friend, actually a brother, ... everyone was sobbing. Our other best man, Bill, knew Andy would be all emotional, so he went with the how we met story, which follows (in Bill's voice): Dave was telling me about this really cute cashier he works with, how great she is and all that (that's me!). So I told him to ask her out. Dave says "I did" but in a voice that was not at all happy. So I asked him what did she say? "She said yes" but he sounded really disappointed. I asked him what's wrong then. (pause) "HER MOTHER WON'T LET HER!" Of course at this point, everyone breaks up laughing, even my Mom, even though she was REALLY embarrassed. She wouldn't let me date him when I was 17 and he was 24, so we didn't start seeing each other until I turned 18. Although we were good friends. Turns out, you shouldn't ask a girl out if you go out drinking with her mom on a regular basis... Actually, everyone loves Dave, not just me. I couldn't have found a kinder, more compassionate, funny guy if I never stopped looking.

"I'm just incredulous that the police didn't think getting punched in the nose is not assault simply because the victim avoided a broken nose" YEP. I am actually more pissed about it, the more time that goes by. I don't really know what BM said to the police because they talked to me inside and she was out in the driveway. I know she was claiming I HIT HER first which pisses me off because I didn't hit her AT ALL. I covered my face with my hands and ran! LOL. Even SS saw everything that happened and was screaming/crying at his mom to not hurt me. TRUST ME, as loyal as he is to her, if I had hit her, he would have been yelling at ME. But according the cops--it's a "domestic issue" and they told me it's always he said/she said. It also made me angry because one of the cops (there were, like 6 or 7 of them) said "well, if she is so drunk, why'd you let her in the house?" UGH. I let her in and didn't call the police to avoid a SCENE like the one we had! Granted, in hindsight, I shouldn't have let her in--but she was sobbing at the backdoor and then SS SAW her. :( It all worked out really badly. I did the best I could under the circumstances. That one cop was kind of rude to me, I thought, but the others were all pretty nice. The last one to leave did tell me that I have 6 months to press charges. He didn't really say I should or shouldn't, but just said it was an option but that in domestic situations, it is hard to get anything to stick. I am angry the police were not more helpful to ME. MY house, MY driveway, MY yard--she's DRUNK, and I'm SOBER, taking care of two children. Let's see.....who is in the wrong here?