Lol...Don't get me started.. " I hope they are ALL gone..." I probably still have them and don't even know it, not yet anyways...lol. At least for the first time, I see no damage too..lol Mike..:-)

Why not look into one of the honed granites. I would stay away from Absolute Black honed, but there are some other beautiful ones, like Virginia/Jet Mist & Ocean Green, or even Nordic Black which give you the look of soapstone without the concerns of it being chipped or scratched. On a personal note, I have soapstone (Green Mountain Original) and I don't baby it at all, and it's been fine. It doesn't etch and is impervious to staining, and I rarely oil mine but like it both ways. If you shop around and find one of the harder varieties you may find you love it. It's not nearly as hard as granite, but it never has to be sealed either. If you do visit the kitchens forum do a search for some of the honed granites people have used and you may find you fall in love with one of those. I have a friend with marble and it does etch, so if you will have an area in the kitchen that won't be used for much prep work maybe you could consider using it as an accent. I really love the look of tiger maple so that's what I did, I put it on a small hutch as an accent. Linked below is a "too die for" kitchen with Ocean Green honed and the stone yard may not be horribly far from you either, not sure, but I know she loved working with them! Good luck! Kat :) Here is a link that might be useful: Kitchen with honed Ocean Green Granite

Satine, you are going to make it, you can see what to do for now at least and you'll just have to take each event and work it out. By securing all your valuables and making sure your banking is only in your possession you are protecting yourself, even if its, sadly, from your own DD. I would like to say when I read your post, she is innocent but I don't have that feeling. If she was nine years old with the neighborhood klepto, yea, I could see it but she dangled the carrot in front of a BAD kind of guy at the age of twenty. I'd say that was sort of unusual. I don't know maybe you have coins all set out in a bookcase and they are super cool but I'm not thinking that's how this story goes. What was she thinking? I've always told my kids to be kind to everyone but in no way do I encourage them to temp the temped. (guessing you haven't either) Or to jump into danger just because someone else is doing it and it's exciting. Like taking drugs, drinking, all that. Your dd isn't exactly seeing the difference. Empathy is good, although not in this instance. Heaven knows no one is perfect but there are some people who have a hard time learning what is wrong and right or at least people who never seem to learn from their mistakes. She needs a counselor to help her see how much of a wonderful future she has if she can focus on friends that are good for her, to be respectful and honest to others and herself. I sure hope she see's that soon or who knows what kind of life she will have. You don't want to see that, I know but she needs to see that her lousy guy friend is making really bad choices and one day he could/will drag her down with him, even if she feels sorry for him. You will have to dance on that fine line. If you mention to her she should drop him, most likely she will cling on for dear life. If you don't do something to gently help her see the light, she may end up in trouble. Good luck, I hope she does the right thing from now on.

I did mean water stress like not enough. My Aeoniums definitely are not overwatered. I would say once every 10 days. Maybe longer. The soil is wet because I just watered. Well there goes that theory about water stress and meallies. Crenda doesn't it make you bonkers to see that white fluff. All it takes is a couple missed ones or an egg sack. I was starting to get this theory that scale like more humidity and meallies liked more dry heat. I will never forget get those scale that looked like barnacles. It is so strange that I never see scale around here. Not even on Home Depot plants. Knock on wood. Makes me happy to see I'm not in the meallybug boat alone:). I did have an issue with them on my Desert Rose, but it seems I have won that fight:). I mainly see them on Aeoniums, Echeverias, and certain Kalanchoes now that I think about it. I definitely don't think meallies are the worst to have to deal with. Maybe root meallybugs. Ugh that's my worst nightmare, but I think mites would be the worst pest. IMO of course:). You can't see them, you don't notice till your plant looks bad, and I don't even know how to deal with them. Sometimes I do think plants can somewhat fight meallybugs off. My Faucaria had a case of the meallies a year or so ago. Maybe a little more and I did the whole rubbing alcohol q-tip thing twice. They just disappeared. Usually with a plant like that with all the grooves nooks and crannies it would take more than twice to get rid of the pests. Sometimes plants will be right next to each other and one plant will get them and the other won't. I have Cotyledon pendens and Corpuscularia lehmanni in the same 4 inch container. The Cotyledon gets the meallies, but the Corpuscularia doesn't. Tomarrow I will be checking again. Never ends:).