yes, I've been through this....I only want to eat food A on day 1. On 2 day, present food A again, and nope, wouldn't eat this stuff to save my life. Day 3, Could I have some of that delicious food A again ? Day 4, Slave, fetcheth me a can of tuna, don't bother trying to feed me that slop A again, for it isn't fit for my mice to eat! You know...maybe they're like us and get tired of the same thing? The cat I was thinking about also had another idiosyncrasy, if the dried food wasn't straight out of the bag (ie had sat on her platter for more than 20 seconds), it wasn't fit to eat. Solution: return any uneaten food to bag, to be served next time as acceptable, once food is demanded. Further idiosyncrasy: if you haven't given me that food within 30 seconds, I WILL run from the kitchen and not touch it, no matter what! In fact, Her Highness was so PO'd, that she had to immediately go outside...every time you failed to move fast enough to suit her. My mother ended up feeding her small snacks of boiled chicken (cheapest legs she could find, prepared in quantity and frozen), and sacks of Alpo cat food (the ONLY dry cat food she'd eat). They're ALL princesses (and princes I guess). This post was edited by dbarron on Fri, Aug 22, 14 at 19:46

If you like white chocolate don't buy the chips. You need to buy a good quality white chocolate. This recipe makes a very rich, smooth and creamy fudge. Not sugary unless it is over cooked. White Chocolate and Toasted Walnut Fudge 1 cup white sugar 1 cup brown sugar 1 cup cream 1/2 cup of butter Pinch of salt 1/4 cup of white Corn Syrup 6 to 8 ounces Callebaut White Chocolate Walnuts 2 teaspoons vanilla Add the two sugars, butter, cream, corn syrup and salt into a sauce Pan. Place over medium heat. Stir while bringing to a boil. Lower the Heat and continue to stir slowly while the mixture cooks. After about 7 minutes, test by pouring a small amount into some cold water. You want it to form a soft ball. (about 235�F to 238�F on a candy thermometer) When it reaches soft ball stage, remove from the heat, and let rest for about 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, add the vanilla and the white chocolate and stir until the white chocolate melts. You will notice the the fudge starts to thicken almost immediately. Stir another minute or two or until the fudge starts to lose its shine. Quickly add the walnuts and pour into a buttered dish. This Maple Walnut fudge also has a very smooth creamy texture. Home Cookin Chapter: Recipes From Thibeault's Table Maple Cream Fudge ================= 1 cup white sugar 1 cup brown sugar 1 cup cream 1/3 cup of butter 1/4 cup of maple syrup Pinch of salt Vanilla . Add the two sugars, butter and cream maple syrup and salt into a sauce pan. Place over medium heat. Stir while bringing to a boil. Lower the heat and continue to stir slowly while the mixture cooks. After about 7 minutes, test by pouring a small amount into some cold water. You want it to form a soft ball. You might need to cook it for another minute or two. Remove from the heat, add a couple of teaspoons of vanilla and start stirring. It takes about 14 or 15 minutes for the fudge to cool and thicken. Pour into buttered dish. Option: Replace the cream and cup of white sugar with one can of Sweetened Condensed Milk and increase the maple syrup to 1 cup. To make Carmels instead of fudge, 1 1/2 cups brown sugar 1/2 cup white 1/2 cup white corn syrup 1 cup butter 1 cup cream pinch of salt vanilla Cook to almost hard ball stage. Let cool slightly, stir and then pour into butter pan or mini muffin tins. Here is a link that might be useful: Homemade Fudge

What's great thread and thanks toTheFoxesPad for the delightful my written story that started it. I am a decision delayer and my recently acquired husband, with whom I do not yet live, is a pre-hoarder. That is, he has pretty good taste but becomes extremely attached to anything he takes in, and he doesn't see why he should stop acquiring things just because he doesn't need more. So if he likes it, he'll get it, but nothing ever goes out. We live about 10 blocks apart and thought we could wait until we retire in about 5 years to live together, because he is extremely allergic to my cats - meds don't help. But now we don't want to wait and are going to fix up his large garage for me and the cats to move into. Only he doesn't want to think about these decisions, and I can't make them. Getting a decorating buddy (design buddy in this case) is an idea I came up with too so glad to see someone else has it! I write a blog with a couple other librarians and just this week I started a series on books about organizing. One of my favorites is The Organizing Sourcebook by KatbyWaddill, partly because she says there's no perfectly organized, just good enough for how you live right now. I think that should be true of decorating, for many of us, too. I have read posts where people are obsessing about exactly the right shade of granite for the counter - but we are such a rest less culture,she's going to be freaking out over the right species of wood for butcher block in5 years. Can it really matter that much? Bronwynsmom, I am completely with you.

Thanks for the baking soda tip, lido. One tip I can add for handling painted-over slotted screws is to sort of tap the screwdriver in from one side. Hold the driver tip at a slight downward angle on an outside edge of (where you think) the slot starts, then tap it inward (on the side of the tip) to simultaneously plow into the slot and scrape out the paint. If you get the right angle and tap just right, the tip will end up at the bottom of the slot. On real bad ones, I'll "plow" in twice, once from each side, and then of course push like crazy and keep your fingers crossed.