The colorful blob on top was not a bloom to begin with. Instead, it was a different species of cacti -- one that occasionally produces offspring lacking chlorophyll. Because such mutants lack chlorophyll, they are doomed to die as they cannot produce enough food. However, they can be grafted onto another cactus. This other cactus (referred to as a "stock" plant) is green and produces food for itself and the grafted addition. Eventually, the area of the graft fails and the colorful grafted addition dies and falls off ... or falls off then dies.

Actually the little blobs on the tips of the rods coming out of the 'jelly' look like the sporangia or fruiting body of a slime mold. If it is they're harmless.

I was just thinking last night about a strange thing I saw a few years ago. I woke in the middle of the night, and turned and looked out the window. There is deep woods around me, but through a break it the trees (trees were dark silhouettes) I could see the night sky...and something passed between the trees. It was a dark red blob...reminded me of a lava lamp. It wasn't round...sort of undulating. I have no idea what it was. I tried to think of every possibility...could it have been a plane crashing...but it didn't look like flames. Just like a dark red blob. No air ports around...no houses in that direction for a few miles. Nothing. Very puzzling. But, I also saw one of those huge triangular shaped "UFOs" awhile back....and that's no lie. We were on our way to town....it was dark and saw a bright light in a place that wouldn't normally have any lights....came beyond some tall trees and saw three of them. Followed it for a little ways but it went off across land where there are no roads. Quiet, huge, and very low...like it was floating.

It just depends on the look you're going for. What did your Sweeby test say? If you want it to look most like a working environment, a command center, if you love the technology of your mechanized servants and want to show them off, then even packed together in a small space they'll work fine. I think the combination of finishes sounds lovely and fresh looking. If you want more of an olde worlde look, if you want it all to be clean and bright with the white and the butcher block being what is really seen, or if you just want your sink to be the star in it's zone and feel like the DW is trying to outshine it, start panelling. Dishwashers, especially, can shine out like a gold tooth in the middle of a cabinet run. Unlike with a range or a farm sink, most folks don't want the DW to be a design feature, they just want it to work. Match it up to the cabinetry, not even faux drawers, but at least with a cabinet panel, and it disappears even if it's easy to identify what it is if you look at it. If it's still too much metal, panel the fridge. Those are big blocks and toning them down with panels also lessens their presence, even though they're still big hulks.