Mango K - fascinating and simple article you attached - the machine of frigid winters - extra snow in Siberia from global warming's excess polar ice melt - who knew!!??? Abayomi - I'm already amazed at how mangos are surviving such frigid Florida temps even as we speak, so you might be right. Perhaps they are evolving with the cold, but that generally is a slow process and these cold streaks seem to happening a bit too much and fast for plant evolution, me thinks, at this point. Actually, I'm living on the razor's edge (I think) of being able to grow Mangos, papayas, apples, pears, peaches, macadamias, almonds, blueberris etc. due to just enough chill hours bred in to those hybridized "low chill" fruit varieties to produce and not quite enough cold to kill the mangos and papayas, etc. If enough winter lows stay between 32 and 45, as they have been the last 10 years or so that I've lived here (other than a single overnight stretch of 26 degrees back in Feb. 2007 that did some damage and maybe a dozen hits or so of right around 32)I benefit from getting enough chill hours for some fruits, and mere dormancy or slow growth for the semi-tropicals.... THe Mac Tree hasn't produced yet (only 3 years old) but everything else has.... interesting, eh? mangobiscuit

1. What are you wearing? ~ light blue jean capris, sandals, white sleeveless tee, pale yellow zip-up sweatshirt-type jacket. 2. What have you eaten today? ~ a breakfast burrito, fresh fruit, yogurt, black coffee 3. Do you like Daylight Savings Time? ~ no strong feelings one way or the other 4. Do you have plans for this weekend? ~ paint powder room; plant wild flower seeds out on property; work in garden a bit 5. If you had to eat at a fast food restaurant for every meal for a week, what restaurant would you choose? ~ maybe Taco Cabana, as I love Mexican /New Mexican foods 6. Where do you spend most of your extra/fun money? ~ during the Fall & Winter: art and decorative things for my home; Spring & Summer: flowers and things for my gardens 7. Which flavor of ice-cream do you prefer? ~ DH makes a to-die-for fresh strawberry ice-cream, but only a couple times a year. The rest of the time, my fav is a good Rocky Road 8. Do you like your handwriting? ~ Yes, I inherited my mother's handwriting and have always gotten compliments on it. Unfortunately, my DD did not get that gene. 9. Can you water or snow ski? Are you good at it? ~ Yes, both . . . and yes What is the longest car trip you've ever taken? ~ one year when the kids were 13 & 3 years old, we bought a VHS player for our SUV and took a summer road trip from our home in New Mexico, through Phoenix to Morro Bay and finally Carmel-By-The-Sea. After a few days we headed up the coast highway to San Francisco. A few days later, on to a rented cabin on the eastern shore of Lake Tahoe. Next, on to Las Vegas (no shows; no gambling; DS & DH wanted to experience some alien adventure ride there) , Next, down through Arizona's Painted Desert and back home to New Mexico. The VHS player was both a blessing and a curse, as my kids were both more interested in the movies than in the gorgeous scenery, but DH & I loved that trip. Lynn

Hi Everybody! That is great, Steph, that you have a doc now who is looking into these kind of things. There has been a great push in the last 5 years to get Vit B12 and Vit D levels up in folks who have it low. If you are not feeling better, you might try the natural sunshine for D. Some studies are suggesting that supplements are not helping some folks. I am probably one who should get out and get more sun, and I rarely leave the house these days! I sprained my knee pretty badly in July and am just getting so that I can walk without my walker outside of the house for short trips. Guess how I did it? Fell in the bathtub and smashed my knee on the side of the tub. Yes, THAT bathtub. The one that was going to be GONE by now, replaced by my roll-in handicapped shower. So I got back into investigating shower components because my Swanstone shower pan is just too narrow at 34" deep. (32" in practice, once you get the walls up and everything in place.) I did find one that is 37.75" deep, so I am optimistic that it will be the best choice. I even called Jim and he has us on his schedule for January-February-ish! I am also having him widen all my doorways to 36" wide. I was just looking at ML's post from 2015 of her kitchen just after the appliances got working. I was looking for the word "penguin" in a post on this forum because I am trying to find the cute little penguin faucet that I found once. Her post popped up in that search. I cannot for the life of me figure out who made it! It has been gnawing on my memory in the back of my mind for months! I know I talked about it here or in "Baths." And I just can't find it. My other project has been redecorating/refurnishing the family room. It started because I have this old Mini-Dachshund, Lizzy. The grass was growing too fast in the spring and was getting higher than she is between weekly cuts. So she did not want to go outside to pee and started peeing on our family room rug. So we rolled up the rug and threw it away. The flooring under it is real Forbo sheet Linoleum that we had installed in 2010 when the kitchen was done. We had the flooring run through to the family room, too. Well, the lino started to speak. It started to argue with me about my furnishings. It seemed to understand that I was not doing any real "decorating" plan in the room, but that it was thrown together from Craigslist and Clearance Centers. It also seemed to be reading what was in my heart. "Give in," it said. "Quit fighting us. The sliding glass door, the lack of windows, the big wall of brown brick with the little fireplace in it. You know what we represent. I can tell because you put me here. If you did not feel Mid Century Modern in your bones, why did you put me in here? So give in to us. That Brown Wall O'Brick is not going anywhere. I know you hate it, but do you really? It is still here, and it has been 12 years now. If you really hated it, there would be no brown brick sucking what little light you have out of the family room." So get rid of the Craigslist over-stuffed brown leather and get me an orange MCM sofa! I want rich walnut! I want color! Those cabinets you put into the kitchen - they are modern. See, so get the furniture up on legs. No more skirts!" A trip to Macy's got us a Terra Cotta orange sofa. I just ordered a tangerine recliner for DH. I have a newish lift chair that is in blah-light brown, but that is just the nature of the beast. We also found an MCM chair at a Retro antique shop and I have ID'd an upholstery shop to do the work. I need to email them the photos to get an idea of how many yards of the light orange fabric to send for. I have found a coffee table (made in Italy) that transforms from a low coffee table into a long dining table, and will be sending for it in Walnut. I have two end tables from used furniture stores in walnut. Lavender Lass, it is good to hear that you did not have to move, after all. None of those houses sounded right for you and your mom, or the horses. It is good to read how everyone is doing. Thanks, Phoggie for starting this thread!

Hi Jason- Congratulations on your new home! The kitchen would be improved by changing the paint color to a less yellow color. (Or is it the lighting?) Please get cool spectrum light bulbs right away. The kitchen would look more modern if you refaced the cupboards. You mentioned shaker which is an option. More modern still is slab front which I like too. If you replace the door fronts in the kitchen, you might want to replace them in the living room as well. You might also think about changing the hardware. Cup handles are definitely not contemporary. As far as your island, blue is a very nice color. Painting over kitchen cabinetry is not easy at all, and when not done properly will peel and bubble. You do need some sort of leg there to support the edge of the island. You can talk to an experienced finish carpenter about substituting another type of leg. If you are going to get a white countertop, what is it about quartz that you like? You may get the same thing in Corian with more advantages. Why not invite a professional, Joseph Corlett, LLC into this thread and he will tell you why Corian is superior to quartz. I like the photos of the kitchen you like, but imagine those kitchens with your floors, how much richer they would look! Your floors are gorgeous, and with white cabinets and countertops and a blue island, dark floors might be just the right look. Tiling is not as easy as you think. However, you don't need as much as you have now, either. You only need a backsplash behind the stove, and if you want a modern or high tech look, you could do stainless steel up to the hood and no tile at all. After all, your hood will probably be stainless, right? What looks great is a mix of metals, and you could do a stainless hood with brass "straps", and brass light fixtures over the island as you have in your photos. I favor the ones with covered bulbs, and with non-transparent glass, because glare gives me a headache, but that's just me. I don't know that I would remove the fireplace altogether. You could just move the TV to the wall perpendicular to it. The other reason to move the TV is that the TV's width is too much for the fireplace. Generally something should be 2/3 to 3/4 the width of what it is above. So a painting or TV should be 2/3 to 3/4 the width of the piece of furniture below it. If you wanted to change the staircase, you could remove the vertical wooden spindles and install multiple thick metal cables with vertical metal bars periodically. However, if you plan to have children, you will need to cover it with acrylic or unbreakable glass panels so their little hands don't get stuck between the metal cables. You could also just do the thick acrylic or glass panels without the horizontal cables except having metal at the top and bottom. I would save this for very last, it is frightfully expensive. I hope you and your wife enjoy your new home in good health!