Christina, Different types of seeds are viable for different periods of time. Properly-dried broccoli and cauliflower seeds are generally highly viable for about 5 years whereas carrot seed is generally only highly viable for about three years. The two main enemies of seed viability when storing seeds are high humidity and high temperature. One way to store them is in freezers. They need to be inside airtight containers. All the major seed banks in the world store their seeds in cold storage units. You also can store seeds in foil pouches, paper packets, zip-lock bags (you can get tiny ones in the bead/craft aisle at wal-Mart), plastic lids with tight containers, etc. If not stored in a freezer, they should be stored in a room or closet where they are exposed to fairly constant temperatures. You don't want to store them in an uninsulated garage, garden shed, attic, etc. where they'll be very hot in summer and very cold in winter. If storing them inside, an interior closet or pantry is often a good storage area. If you have a dry cellar or root cellar, it would be an ideal place for seed storage but make sure the seeds are in airtight and roden-proof containers. You also can place packets of silica in your seed containers to absorb moisture and help protect the seeds from excess humidity. Seeds are not good today but then suddenly bad tomorrow. Instead, the seeds lose their vigor slowly over a period of time If your seeds are dried down to 8% moisture content and then sealed into airtight containers and stored in a freezer, they will maintain their normal or typical viability for ten times as long as seeds not stored long-term in a freezer. I don't keep my seeds in the freezer. I just keep them in paper envelopes placed inside zip-lock bags and stored in a plasic storage crate with a locking lid. Most of the time, the storage crate is in my root cellar with my stored veggies and home-preserved food. If you don't have room in the freezer or don't want to store your seeds there, a refrigerator works too. When removing seeds from a freezer or refrigerator so that you can open the container and use some of them, first remove the container from cold storage and let it sit all day long or overnight so the seeds can completely reach room termperature before you open the airtight seed packet. This lessens the likelihood that moisture will condense on the seeds as they thaw which can cause them to germinate prematurely. I generally try to use seeds before they are six years old or older but sometimes you can get seeds that are 6-10 years old to germinate fairly easily, and real seed pros can often germinate older ones. I don't think I've ever tried to germinate seeds older than 8 or 10 years in age. One thing you need to consider with seed packets is that they have to meet federal germination standards because every seed likely will not germinate. The germination rate is expressed as a percentage and varies from variety to variety. For example, the minimal federal germination rate for commercially-sold carrot seed is 55%, so you're unlikely to get 1500 carrots even if you plant 1500 seeds. The worst germination you can expect from fresh seed packed for the current year's use is, therefore, 55% for carrots, although often you'll find a particular batch of seeds has a much higher germinationrate than that---it is just the 55% is the minimum allowed. For cucumbers, the Federal Germination Standard for seed sold commercially is 80%. When planting, you can use the Fenderal Germination Standard for any given variety as an aid in figuring out how many seeds to plant in order to get X number of plants. You also can choose smaller packets of seed. One retailer who specializes in smaller quantities of seed is Pinetree Garden Seeds (www.superseeds.com) and some other seed companies sell 'mini' or 'sampler' packs that contain smaller quantities of seeds. If you collect and save your own seed from open-pollinated varieties, the most important thing is to make sure it has reached the proper degree of dryness before storing it. Otherwise you may end up with moldy, ruint seed. Dawn

I think some opinions about facelift etc are relative to aging. I know friends and even myself who scorned the idea/vanity of cosmetic/plastice surgery in our younger years. However, as things begin to sag, some of us (not all of us but certainly myself) began to reconsider. Then it becomes a matter of priorities and money. When I see the need of new hardwood floors, driveway, basement remodeling, etc in my future, it's hard to prioritize something that would make me happy (plastic surgery - and why is it called plastic?) vs something that might improve the value of my home as I near retirement. I personally think a facelift/eyelift would be more gratifying than a new driveway! (but obviously didn't think the same about a new kitchen though I did have some regrets). However, I didn't mean to get serious and am glad a couple of folks had a good laugh!

My black lab and border collie mix have taken to checking out what's on the counter lately. Might have something to do with 17+ and 19 year old cats who don't belong to the clean your plate club. They coordinate with the marble and black granite very well, but it makes me chuckle to think how silly (and uncomfortable) they would look if I ever put them up on the counter. The Great Pyreneese? Better be a BIG island! LOL I meant to say earlier that I would not want a movable island. I would have no place to move it to where it wouldn't be a bigger problem. Now, I suppose that you could custom build something that had an island that fit under a counter height table(would still allow some storage but would have to preserve leg room for the table) you might be able to address that issue -- even use it as a table extension at holidays, but one of the things I love about my island now that I moved the cooktop out is having a sink there. I also really want power there. We use the waffle maker and blender mostly st the island. Again, if you really engineered the thing, I suppose you could have a power strip on the side of that island, a cord running down the leg and an outlet inset into your floor to plug it in when it's in place and be covered and smooth when it's not. But all of that seems like a hassle. In my mind, you probably either have room for an island or don't and you will wind up using it one way or the other. You might as well figure it our and make it the best you can in the right configuration rather than trade off. For example, if you don't do an island, you can extend your counters to 30" depth and have more workspace there, but you can't do that if you try to squeeze in an island. My kitchen is less than 14 feet wide -- pretty minimal for a 3 ft wide island (cabinets are 34", so it is 36" overall). Had we made the perimeter cabinets 30" deep, I'd have had 8 feet to trek across from stove to sink and half the work space. No question I'd rather have the island.

So nice to hear that people are mostly satisfied with their new kitchens. With hindsight, we could all do better, but hindsight is what you get after you need it, lol... The real big regret is having a lousy company do our work. Any little design things we would have done differently don't mean anything compared to that. Visually, I really like it. Functionally, (once we are allowed to hook up our stove and the venthood gets repaired), it will work out wonderfully. I have been using it as it is, with a single plug in burner, a non-working vent and with a floor that needs replacing and it is still 1,000 times better than the old space because it holds so much more and I have room to breathe and work in it. I love the appliances that are working and our new sink with room on each side of it. The drawers work great and the pantry pullout is still a thrill. I try to focus on how great it is rather than what still needs doing (who knew our backsplash would be still a long way off at the one year mark, despite having all the tiles for months?). I'd really be happy to be at 100% functional, but am grateful for what we do have. Having an icemaker and dedicated filtered water faucet are really pluses. I use the ice every day in our older son's lunch water bottle to keep his lunch bag cold. Making ice tea is so much faster with the faucet than waiting for the old filter attached to the main faucet. I love our shallower sink because we don't get splashed. It also helps that it is set back an extra inch or so. Reading about others having splashing brings back memories of our old set up. It was a real pet peeve. I think if we had a lot more money in the budget, our kitchen would come out very much like it has (not referring to the unfinished state, but the elements and design). I agonized over most of the choices, although the peninsula light was chosen in haste on a deadline, and am happy with them. Since I can resell the peninsula light and won't spend as much on the next one, I won't feel guilty swapping it out. It is just too much for the spot it is in. I can use lower wattage bulbs, but it is dominating and not in a good way. OT - I wish I had the chandy in the dr on a dimmer. It is also bright, but maybe when the ceiling is done and the shades are on, that will tone it down. The darn gc charged so much for every change that I was not looking to add any more and did not pay enough attention at that point. I was burnt crispy by then. I hope to have a chance to fix it someday soon, but I suspect other items will come first.