I have a friend that has a treasure chest of honkers. They are beautiful, she has rings, bracelets, a Rolex watch, a diamond watch, you name it she can probably find it in her jewelry box. There are some of us who can wear diamonds with great style like we were born to it and others like myself that if I had a large diamond on, i'd probably get arrested. I have one friend who has a ROCK, it is around 7 1/2 carat solitare. Knowing her husband, it was an investment of sorts. She was afraid to wear it until her daughter said "mom go ahead and wear it, the way you dress no one would ever think it was real anyway." I do have a solitare, it's one carat, Neil bought it for me for my 30th anniversary. He said he wanted me to have a larger diamond but he was afraid i'd shoot him for wasting money. When we got married he couldn't afford an engagement ring and had always felt bad because he said he had wanted everyone to know that I was spoken for. It didn't bother me but it did him so now I have a ring. My wedding ring and his are alike, the only thing I asked was that it be a wide band, it is. I will always treasure my wedding ring. When I look at it I am reminded that at least once in my life I got something right.

kcclark, Thanks for the suggestion about keeping leaves in the fridge. Actually, I have a huge selection of milkweed within 10 steps of my back or front door. I can get fresh leaves from outside nearly as quickly as I could from the fridge. I raised around 50 cats last year at multiple different ages. All the ones I have now are within a few days of one another, so it should be even simpler. In fact, they might be just about ready to eclose for the first week or so of school. I can send them to school with my kids. Martha

Linda - hugs for you! It sounds really frustrating. If you've read any of my posts, you'll know that I can relate to your disappointment and frustration. Things that I am learning: #1 - Don't beat yourself up thinking that if you had gone with the more expensive kitchen company, everything would have been better. I went with an expensive company and I still have a kettle of problems. Don't second guess. #2 - Don't be afraid to be assertive. I felt pushed around several times in this process. It is hard for me to push back, but I am. I have to. You have to. #3 - Take lots of pictures and try to reduce things to writing to help document your concerns. Does the cabinet man have e-mail? He must. Send him e-mails to help create a paper trail and make him more accountable. If he is the person responsible for or doing the cabinet painting, then he must be able to put a top finish coat of the correct color on all of the cabinets to make them match. The top coat of color is the most important from what I have been learning from finish carpenters. It should all be one lot of the same color, not bought piecemeal a gallon at a time at the local paint store. Is he diluting the paint to make it stretch farther? Is he using the same number of coats on each "batch" of cabinets? How many coats? Ask! Is he using conversion varnish or regular paint? Is he applying a clear coat protectant? If the cabinet man is out of his league on the soft closures, perhaps you can get him to agree to have someone else retrofit the drawers with better closures. Closures, even the Blum hardware advertised by Wood-Mode and Brookhaven, are really not expensive. Do you know the brand he is trying to install? There are actually forums on line where people talk about drawer closures and stuff. During the course of my kitchen project, I've had to go to "hinge talk" more than once. You might need to seek out advice here or on a hinge forum to help him figure out the solution. Not what you bargained for, but we gotta do what we gotta do. The GC just adds fuel to the fire. All these guys push us to use their friends or people they have worked with in the past. Who needs the "Told you so" attitude. He needs to shut up and help you solve problems instead of being a problem. Tell him that.

didn't want to flag it....I wanted you all to see it! I wouldn't be surprised if it was NOT a sting operation. I took a job that was vacated by a person who was abusing Rx drugs--big time. AND she was pregnant. When she was out on maternity leave it was discovered about her embezzlement of funds to pay for the habit. I worked there 5 years before we moved, and until the day I left I was still receiving phone calls trying to solicit drugs to her, and when I would say she no longer worked there, they would ask if I needed anything! Early on there were threatening calls because she wasn't paying! And it turned out she hadn't quit even after she was exposed in front of her husband years earlier. I would lure in the callers to reveal information about when she placed her last order. She continued to use the office phone number and the address of our location as her address...... oh, got a little off course there.....anyway, I would not be surprised if suppliers were working this way. I mean would a sting operation put this ad in Antiques, vs Personal connections or something like that? who knows--it's a dark world.