2 much, I feel for your loss. I just put my 14 yr. old Schauzer down about 2 months ago. He had heart trouble and liver Cancer. He had been with us through my hubby's Cancer-and his passing-and my Cancer, too. He fought so hard to stay. I have since gotten a 3 year old female dog (Louisa)from an abused animal shelter. She is so sweet. We work to get rid of her pain and fear every day. Good luck and peace of mind to you. Jlily

Flush joints are not the recommended joint for an exterior application due to the risk for water penetration. Have you considered a grapevine joint? That would give it an older look (at least early American, I'm not sure about "old, antique") and provide better water penetration resistance. I've attached a link to the BIA guidelines. We're using a grapevine mortar joint on our house (it's an historical reproduction) with a brick that is similar to the one shown above, and IMHO, it looks perfect! I love your brick...gorgeous! Here is a link that might be useful: Mortar Joints

Here's the recipe as handed down to me by my mother & grandmother, including their technique of weighting down the stuffed grape leaf rolls with an old plate and some heavy rocks. Yaprakia/Dolmathes (Stuffed Grape Leaves) This classic Greek dish can be served as an appetizer or main dish. Rolling the grape leaves may be time consuming, but it is certainly worth the effort. Delicious! Filling: 1 pound lean ground beef or lamb 1 large onion, finely chopped 2-4 cloves garlic, finely minced 2 tablespoons olive oil 1-cup long grain white rice 1 8-ounce can tomato sauce 1-tablespoon mint 1-tablespoon dill weed 1-tablespoon oregano ½ cup chopped, fresh parsley (optional) 1-teaspoon salt ½ teaspoon pepper 16 ounce jar grape leaves (approximately 50 leaves) Juice of one lemon Beef broth, chicken broth, or vegetable broth ÂRemove rolls of grape leaves from jar and unroll. ÂRinse under cold water and drain well. ÂSet aside badly torn leaves for use later. ÂCut stems off grape leaves. ÂSauté onion and garlic in olive oil until translucent; cool. ÂMix rice, onion and garlic mixture, tomato sauce, mint, dill weed, oregano, parsley (if using), salt and pepper in large bowl; mix well. ÂAdd ground beef or lamb to filling ingredients and mix thoroughly using hands. ÂLay a leaf, vein side up, on a cutting board with stem pointing away from you. ÂPlace tablespoon of filling (depending on size of leaf) on the part of leaf where stem begins (near center). ÂThe filling should form a narrow cylinder; do not over fill or the rolls will burst during cooking. ÂTuck in side edges to secure filling. ÂRoll toward you, forming a small cylinder (like a tiny burrito or eggroll) approximately 2½ inches long and ¾ inches wide. ÂDo not wrap too loosely or the roll will come undone during cooking. Pressure Cooker Method: ÂInsert an adjustable vegetable steamer or the pressure cooker steamer/trivet into pressure cooker pot. Â(Optional) Line bottom of steamer with a single layer of the reserved torn grape leaves. If no leaves are torn, omit this step. ÂPlace rolls seam side down in bottom of pot steamer, tightly together in concentric circles, layer upon layer. ÂYou want a tight fit so that rolls don't unravel when cooking. ÂContinue until all rolls are in pot. ÂAny leftover filling may be stuffed into cabbage leaves or lettuce leaves or made into tiny meatballs and placed on top of rolled grape leaves in pot. Â(Optional: Cover top with another single layer of the reserved torn grape leaves.) ÂCover rolls completely with broth and lemon juice. ÂPlace a heavy plate (I have a special old plate that I use specifically for this purpose) that fits inside the pot over rolls as a weight to keep leaves from unrolling. ÂFor good measure, place a few clean rocks or stones (I have three dolmathes rocks just for this dish) on top of the plate to secure the rolls. ÂCover pot and bring to pressure. ÂCook about 35 minutes. ÂRemove from heat and let pressure come down naturally. ÂWhen pressure has come down, let stand covered for 10-20 minutes before serving. Yaprakia/Dolmathes may be served hot, warm, or cold. If hot or warm, serve with avgolemono sauce prepared from broth or with plain, unflavored yogurt. If cold, serve with plain, unflavored yogurt.

Greetings again, everyone, Here's an idea worthy of consideration: avoid *all* management fees related directly to your currently envisaged (and future?) investments! Buy some shares of a high quality stock, paying a commission. Buy some shares of other companies, as well, in different industries, for diversification, paying a commission on each - lower if you purchase using a discount broker (but they don't give any advice).(1) If you own mutual funds now, that'll help with your important and legitimate concern for diversification. Hold it/them for 5 years - or 10, 20, 40 years, or for whatever length of time suits you. Even 10 - 20 months might do, now that the market's down - but there's major increased risk, especially if you *will* need the money in that time (but, with good credit, you might be able to defer liquidation by using the share certificates as collateral for a temporary loan till market recovers - how much steel do you have in your backbone?). Having stock share certificates issued costs $35. - 50. each; having mutual funds' units' certificates issued usually is done at no fee. With me, death may intervene ... but, crowding 80, I (who took the course that stockbrokers must take, 25 years ago - and others, later) have 80% of my assets in equity-based investments. Over 80% now, I guess, what with recent drops in the market, including, so far, drops in value of some recent purchases: but that's O.K., I expect them to come back, after while. In fact, I'm thinking of buying some more, likely will continue to do so from time to time during coming months. I live on less than my 3 + 1 pensions, so I don't need to draw on that money currently. Fees paid during the holding period? None! Most high quality companies pay dividends annually, which the company sends to you directly: an exception being Berkshire Hathaway A, Warren Buffett's vehicle, that grew from $12.00+ in '65 to $139,400. today ... which is down $1,705. from yesterday, so it was $141,105. yesterday ... annual compound growth rate of 24.35%.(2) Some financial advisors claim that he's never paid a dividend: they're wrong - he paid 10 cents in '67. In talking to a friend a while ago, he mentioned how I'd suggested to him something like 8 - 10 years ago that we share to purchase a share, when they were about US$22,000. (which would have required about CDN$30,000. then ... I almost went to the bank to borrow $8,000. to do it, but was a smidgeon short on nerve, though I then had no concern about the value of the stock). Also ... the increased value of the Canadian Dollar, since then ... would now pay off the loan (if I were dumb enough to sell the shares just now)! The shrinkage in value of the U.S. Dollar during those few years... would have paid the principal of my loan! Note the usual disclaimer found with all mutual fund and stock-related people: providers, managers, etc. ... "Your experience may vary ..." - 'cause the value of such assets varies a lot. Back to the story: sell the stock(s) now (though I usually don't like to sell several at the same time, either - same as not buy several at once), pay another commission. Management fees paid in between ? Zero. Not a cent ... unless you have a financial advisor and run your portfolio past that person for evaluation, occasionally, then pay evaluation fee directly. Actually, if your advisor is licensed to sell mutual funds, I think that you'll find that if s/he gives advice regarding stocks, s/he may well be breaking the law! In any case, if an advisor can sell one kind of products but not another, what possibility do you think that there may be that you might receive an occasional recommendation from him/her to purchase some of a product that s/he doesn't sell? It's mild and sunny here today - I'm doing a wash to hang on the outside line. Six hours later: Did - fairly comfortable hanging, but (not having slept last night), I overslept, took them down when some chillier, just before dark. Did it comfortably all in one go. Now doing some final drying, spread out in living room - taking some of the desert-like dryness out of a northern-area home in winter. I hope that you all have a fine winter weekend. ole joyful 1. With, say, under $10,000 - $20,000. to invest and not wanting to buy shares in one company each in three or four sections of the market, you can choose to buy some Exchange Traded Funds, each of which will give you a cross-section of each of various sections of the market: construction, real estate, medical, gold, consumer products, oil and gas, lumber, grains, ... even overseas markets, etc. Instead of about 1.5%(US) or 2.5%(CDN) annual management fee (or more) charged by most mutual fund managers, these (more passive) managers mostly charge about 0.4% annual management fee. If you assume long-term average growth rate of the market being 8%, instead of paying $1.00 in $4.00, $5.00 or $6.00 of your earnings in fees ... you'll be paying about $1.00 in $20.00! Some difference! If you figure that the market grows at 10% average ...do your own calculations. Plus - don't forget, you don't get to keep all of the rest of the growth ... the Income Tax people want part of it. Inflation accounts for part of it, as well. If you're paying $1.00 in $5.00 growth to the mutual fund manager, that's 20% of assumed growth ... do you pay more than that percentage to the Income Tax people? Have you ever thought that your mutual fund manager may be charging about the same rate as the income tax people? Hey - remember how I've said that there are two rats that eat your cheese? If you're using regular mutual funds ... looks like there may be three, and your mutual fund guy gets more or less what your income tax friends do ... and if it's capital gain, the income tax people are willing to wait for their bite of the cheese. Mutual fund managers ... and inflation ... get theirs every year! But... ask your mutual fund sales guy whether s/he can sell Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) ... cause only stockbrokers can sell 'em, around here. If your mutual fund salesperson can't sell 'em ... what's the probability that s/he might recommend that you buy them - from somebody else?? 2. Don't have a financial calculator? Use Rule of 72: Divide number of doubles of the asset value into the number of years invested, then divide that figure into 72 to find rate of growth. You get $12.00(+?) doubles to 24, 48, 96, 192, 384, 768, 1,536, 3,072, 6,144, 12,288, 24,576, 49,152, 98,304, 196,608 ... 141,000 is about half way to the 196,608, so there are 13.5 doubles, right? From 1965 to 2008 is 43 years, divided by 13.5 produces 3.185. Divide 72 by 3.185 gives 23.59 - close to the 24.35% that my financial calculator indicated. Didn't know the Rule of 72 before? Remember my oft-repeated phrase, "It's a poor day that one doesn't learn something"? Today's your lucky day! See how much more power your brain has than you thought? Just needs a bit of exercise/sharpening from time to time, like a scythe, to get more/better work done! Take that, all of you essential, but drattedly frustrating at times, computers! o j