Yes, cell phone pix aren't always the best. Do you recall if the leaves were that color of yellow, as in the pic? Could you guess at the size of the leaves or how large the pot was that they were in? Norma, I'm not sure what you mean by "depth perception". If you mean there's no way to tell the size of the plant, that is so for me. I am not thinking of any particular plant...with opposite leaves on stems, spaced out as those are (especially that color). In the background, it looks like thicker woody stems. Was there only one plant in this pot? Memder, does your friend recall this plant ever flowering? If so, details of it (a pic, color, shape, etc.) would be helpful. Also, is this plant grown inside the house or outside? That might have bearing on the leaves spaced out on the stems. Do you recall if the leaves were smooth or fuzzy?

Hear is a picture of mine. It is starting to send out 4 buds, even some in the smaller pups. Jeff, They just love this Texas sun. here it is younger. My variety has a bit fatter leaf than yours. I have seen many variations of the gasteraloe using the Aloe aristata as a parent with plentu deviations.

Some kind of hickory. Where I live I would call it mockernut, Carya tomentosa.

cpartist, thanks for taking the time to do this! Yes, I definitely considered putting it under the window as that's a nice big stretch of space and it would leave the island clean for prep/buffet/homework. Because I have to save some money for potential construction surprises, I'm trying not to add a 2nd sink in the kitchen (strictly for $$ reasons - I love the function of a 2nd sink). The reason I kept it in the island was that the drawer at the far left of the island contains the plates/silverware and the coffee bar contains the cups/glasses (I wanted them there as it's an easy path to the dining room and for someone to set the table or grab a snack without disturbing the cook/prep). And it makes sense for those areas to be adjacent to the dishwasher for easy unloading. I could put dishware/cups storage along the west wall, under the window, but you'd have to go around the island to reach that stuff (which is fine as long as no one is sitting at the island or prepping in that space, but still a longer distance). I also like the pivot factor of being able to access water from the long dry prep area as well as from the cooking area. The Kohler Stages sink is 45" long, so it takes up a good stretch of the island (and allows me to place dirty dishes inside the sink). I'd make sure I got a faucet with a long stretch so I can easily twist from prep or cooking to add water. Besides the DW/dish storage, I kept the sink to the right of the island as I'd often use the long prep wall to make a mess (several people could prep there, where it's out of the way, and we've been known to make several types of cookies at a time so it's good to be able to have space to lay it all out) and then serve the food atop the island's eastern/southern half, where it's an easy path through the French doors to pick up plates and food, or pass plates through to the outside ledge for wet kids who you don't want inside the house. Great ideas! Thanks for making me revisit this and please feel free to poke holes if my logic or flow is faulty.