Carol, So far this morning, we're down to 34 and were forecast to go to 40, which makes me wonder how cold we'll be this weekend on the night forecast to go down to 32. When I see those large, healthy tomato transplants in the stores here in March (and, this year, in February), my home-grown transplants always look so small by comparison. I sort of have a little moment of panic, something like "oh, my plants aren't ready yet!" and then I calm down and get a grip and remind myself they shouldn't be ready yet because it isn't planting time yet. By the time that the proper planting time arrives, my plants will be just the size they should be. It's the same thing when they have squash plants the size of my hand (which, for early March, isn't actually good since the ground is too cold for those plants) and my 'plants' are still seeds in the packets. I have about 2/3s of the tomato seedlings outside where they sit on the concrete patio and soak up sunlight all day and then go back onto their tables in the garage at night. On the days that they have full sun instead of cloudy skies they seem to make some good growth and have great color. They're not ready to go into the ground yet, though. For one thing, the wind would beat them to death right now. I strategically place them where buildings protect them from wind right now, but once they're in the ground, they are on their own. I do hope we have a nice, steady warming trend the rest of this month so the ground warms up earlier this year than last year, but I expect we still have another couple of cold fronts coming even after this weekend's cold front passes. I'm be happy even if our last cold weather is the Easter freeze as long as there's nothing else really cold after that. El Nino is slowly receding so we still have cooler and wetter than average conditions forecast through at least May, so it doesn't make any sense to me to rush the warm-season plantings along. Dawn

Today's update: BEFORE they planned or ran the Electrical wire in the house, WE planned EVERY three-way switch, switched wall-plates, dimmers, where EVERYTHING would go, and most importantly: Which Circuits To Put On The Generator. With good GW counsel, we planned for a 20kv - a little more than we needed, but better have more than not enough, right? Especially with a small price diff between the 17 & the 20. DH gets out there, and finds they ordered, installed, connected, tested, certified & passed a 17kv. WHY?? Builder " oh. " AND, the items on the generator are TOTALLY RANDOM. If there is ANY overlap between what we planned, and what they did, it is complete coincidence. Front Door: They have fired the painters, and the cleaning crew (painter's wife & friends). Painter went on vacation (I had to look up the definition of what that actually IS, a "vacation") & left his somebody in charge.... and they left without coming to our lot for their work today. Someone on the cleaning crew was having a nervous breakdown, so they didn't show up. Check \- both Teams gone. We'd heard about the 'cleaning crew', and already left bilingual notes all over the house. TIP \- try www.freetranslation.com. They will convert ANYTHING you want into understandable destination language. Every 12 inches on every granite surface we put "Utilice Solo Agua" out of fear that they would screw up the sealer on the stone. Or stand on my Island. Or bleach the colorant out of the colored grout. Or any of the other things I'd already heard from other neighbors. Aside from all this, the Estimator has some great idea for some type of something that will alter the color on the door without having to order a new one. DAVE \- IF YOU ARE READING THIS \- LESS STUFF WILL BE SCREWED UP IF YOU WOULD JUST ORDER A NEW FRONT DOOR WITH SIDE\-LIGHTS. Measure the amount of Time that Whomever will be doing this, per hour, + cost, add deductions, and just figure it out. Be sure to matrix into that whatever you are docking the painter for these issues. SEE? That is called "ROI" calculations. Actually for the PMP, I think it is called something else, but you get the point. I haven't been to the house in almost a week \- I can't take it \- but I have been to the ABC store twice now. \*sigh\* And the packing is being done in an orderly fashion. Now it is 4:45, Gov't closed @ 4, and I haven't heard anything about the CO which needed to be obtained today, so the whomever has time for whatever so we can close in 48 hours. Anyone want to wager?

It's really hard to compare a speed cooker (Advantium or TurboChef) to a combi-steam oven; it depends on what you cook the most & what you would really miss. We use our Gagg steam oven & Advantium every day, but, not the Advantium speed cooker function every day. Leaving out the speed cooker means that any good microwave would work. However, we have enjoyed incredible chicken breasts & pork tenderloin from the Advantium. The Gagg combi-steam is not about speed, it is about quality of cooking. We cook 99% of our vegetables in it. It does a great job of pre-cooking baby back ribs for the grill, steaming rice, baking small items, and reheating food, including plates of food. However, you can duplicate a steam oven by using foil packets in an oven or on a grill, steamer baskets over water on a cooktop, or reheating in a microwave--we used to do all of this. If forced to only have either the Advantium or the Gagg steam oven, I think our family would choose the steam oven. However, a family that cooks a lot of frozen foods or quick meals would more likely prefer the Advantium.

I also have a whole sheet of paper full of notes. I feel like a stalker as well because this person posts in places besides from cooking. Some of the conversations were interesting but iZ think I would have given myself away if I posted. LOL I have way to many local things to choose from. Being a tourist destination and quaint to boot Vermont has a lot. I really need more info to narrow things down. I figure my partner has until the weekend to answer any questions I may have by posting. What is the likelihood they will stumble upon the info I need? Otherwise I will just guess. btw, in the interest of Market Research I treated myself to a cup Lake Champlain chocolate Aztec Hot Coco. Yum, but not really spicy. -Robin