HighlanderNorth First you must choose where to store your photos..I suggest either Picasa, which I personally use, or Photo-bucket which seems to be the most popular. I have both but find dealing with Picasa easier. Also in Picasa you can very easily add text to your picture which comes in handy. Both Picasa and Photo bucket are free, just have to download them onto your computer. The thing I like about Picasa is that once I've downloaded my pictures to my Windows Live Photo Gallery, they automatically go to Picasa..you don't have to download them there directly. So, once you have chosen your picture storage website (there are others too) tell us and then some-one of us who uses the same will try to direct you as easily as possible to learn to post pictures. I remember on the Hydrangea forum, I tried to help someone learn to post pictures and I did give a rather lengthy tutorial on the procedure. I hope it wasn't me that confused the heck out of you...;-) Donna

Just saw that Pinterest updated their their terms of use. I haven't studied them but the language in the email is encouraging. They're addressing people's concerns with Pinterest being able to sell content. There was some paranoia from some users about getting sued for copyright infringement by the owners of the original content if Pinterest did that. I always thought that scenario was far fetched (why would Pinterest sell copyrighted material just because one of their users linked to it on their site?) but I can also see why some may have felt that it was a risk. I know others have a beef with Pinterest for other reasons but this one seems to come up a lot lately. I've seen this topic debated in this very forum so thought I'd share the news with this for those who were holding out on using Pinterest for that reason. I've found Pinterest to be very useful in keeping track of ideas for my current kitchen project. There are other tools but I find Pinterest the quickest and easiest way to keep track of ideas in a visual way. This is from the email Pinterest sent out followed by a link below to the new terms "Our original Terms stated that by posting content to Pinterest you grant Pinterest the right for to sell your content. Selling content was never our intention and we removed this from our updated Terms." At least we know they're listening. Here is a link that might be useful: Pinterest terms of use

In 1955, we moved from Long Beach to Fremont; then two years later back to Long Beach; then a year and a half later back to Fremont. Zoris and go-aheads were terms we had to learn when we moved; I know there was a third term in California for the rubber sandals, but I'm not sure now what it was (perhaps thongs). In any case, even if we'd used thongs years earlier in California, it was one of the mysterious terms we encountered when we moved to Connecticut in 1965 (like gross and other words I no longer recall. I always assumed zori was a Japanese word, and after all these years, the Internet says I was right about that. Growing up, a soda was always pop with ice cream in it (LOL). In my childhood, sodas were something on the menu that we never ordered and thus never understood. We did drink root beer with ice cream, but that was always a root beer float. When I went to college, my friends had discussions about regional words and pronunciations (how many different vowels in Mary, merry, and marry?). We also debated the general terms for carbonated beverages. I ended up adopting soda to refer to fizzy drinks, much to the bemusement of my parents and brother -- and later my co-workers in the Chicago area.

Yes we only want a cheap option for a year or so before we upgrade the kitchen. The upgrade will be new countertops and possibly new cabinets. We don't know if we will sell within 5 years. We like this house, the neighborhood and the schools but I've learned to never say never. And to never count on a house being a forever house. As our children get older we might find that our needs change. With that in mind, I don't want to make any changes that will make it harder to sell. Most of the houses that go on the market in this neighborhood have painted or stained builder grade oak cabinets topped with new granite. It's not that I don't want to paint the countertops but that I'd rather not mess with it. Based on what I've read online many people paint/stain their cabinets and have good results. However, it seems that fewer people paint their countertops and that the outcomes are mixed. Painting the cabinets seems much more of a sure thing. Especially given that it's so common in this neighborhood and all of the homes have the same cabinets.