Hi Lisa, It has rained here at least four separate times since noon yesterday, and we have a grand total of 3/10ths of an inch of rain! Any rain is better than none at all.....but I was hoping for more than that! I hope you manage to get a few more boxes unpacked.....or you could hide the boxes somewhere and tell your dad and his spouse you are testing a new 'minimalist style' of decorating to see how you like it. :-) As far as couch shopping goes....I like furniture shopping myself, but it can be torture if you aren't finding what you want. I last bought a new sofa in 2004, so we should be OK in that area for a while yet. And, yet another sign of autumn.....the 'magical' appearance of pumpkins, gourds, Indian corn, etc. at your local Wal-Mart! Also, the Wal-Mart in Gainesville, Tx, has had one row of Christmas merchandise on display for two weeks now. Yesterday I noticed that the Lowe's in Denton (Texas) has their boxed amaryllis and paperwhite bulbs in the store AND they were setting up artificial Christmas trees in the 'greenhouse' portion of the store. So, if Christmas merchandise is in the stores now, it must really and truly be autumn! Being a normal American, I am only just now decorating the yard with bales of hay, cornstalks, pumpkins, gourds, scarecrows, potted chrysanthemums, etc., so I am not even thinking about Christmas stuff yet. It drives me crazy that the retail world pushes holiday stuff so far in advance of the actual holiday. Dawn

I think you need to forget the yellow, except for small bits of accent color, and use red in the LR to make it congruent with the open dining room. Is the brown sofa a given? If you could slipcover that with the red and white pattern from the DR it would brighten up your room tremendously. Then do the Martha Washington chairs in a red and blue stripe. I would lose the yellow lamp as it looks confusing in your pictures. The more I look at the pictures, the more it looks like the brown sofa is a heavy weight in the room that can't be "lifted" with cheery throw pillows that have no relation whatsoever to the sofa. I would also either use four of the prints, stacked two and two, or get something much bigger. I am not a big fan of large mirrors in living rooms, especially when one has the light and windows you have--- I'd much rather have something to actually look at, instead of in. Would also replace the rug. The size is fine, but the beige does seem lifeless compared to the beautiful blue you have on the walls. A nice blue and red oriental rug would be perfect. Curtains would not be a must, but whatever you do I'd use the same treatment at the dining room window. IMO you need to treat the two areas essentially as one big room, style and color wise.

Of course, if you don't like it, it has to be a right wing conspiracy. Lol From the link I left above ~ American Council on Science and Health: "Additionally, the evidence regarding the effect of DDT on eggshell thinning among wild birds is contradictory at best. The environmentalist literature claims that the birds threatened directly by the insecticide were laying eggs with thin shells. These shells, say the environmentalists, would eventually become so fragile that the eggs would break, causing a decline in bird populations, particularly among raptors (birds of prey). In 1968 two researchers, Drs. Joseph J. Hickey and Daniel W. Anderson, reported that high concentrations of DDT were found in the eggs of wild raptor populations. The two concluded that increased eggshell fragility in peregrine falcons, bald eagles, and ospreys was due to DDT exposure.9 Dr. Joel Bitman and associates at the U.S. Department of Agriculture likewise determined that Japanese quail fed DDT produced eggs with thinner shells and lower calcium content.10 In actuality, however, declines in bird populations either had occurred before DDT was present or had occurred years after DDT’s use. A comparison of the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Counts between 1941 (pre-DDT) and 1960 (after DDT’s use had waned) reveals that at least 26 different kinds of birds became more numerous during those decades, the period of greatest DDT usage. The Audubon counts document an overall increase in birds seen per observer from 1941 to 1960, and statistical analyses of the Audubon data confirm the perceived increases. For example, only 197 bald eagles were documented in 194111; the number had increased to 891 in 1960.12 At Hawk Mountain, Pennsylvania, teams of ornithologists made daily counts of migrating raptors for over 40 years. The counts��"published annually by the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary Association��"reveal great increases in most kinds of hawks during the DDT years. The osprey counts increased as follows: in 1946, 191; in 1956, 288; in 1967, 457; and in 1972, 630.13 In 1942 Dr. Joseph Hickey��"who in 1968 would blame DDT for bird population decline��"reported that 70 per-cent of the eastern osprey population had been killed by pole traps around fish hatcheries.14 That same year, before DDT came into use, Hickey noted a decline in the population of peregrine falcons.15 Other observers also documented that the great peregrine decline in the eastern United States occurred long before any DDT was present in the environment.16,17 In Canada peregrines were observed to be “reproducing normally” in the 1960s even though their tissues contained 30 times more DDT than did the tissues of the midwestern peregrines allegedly being extirpated by the chemical.18 And in Great Britain, in 1969, a three-year government study noted that the decline of peregrine falcons in Britain had ended in 1966 even though DDT levels were as abundant as ever. The British study concluded that “There is no close correlation between the decline in population of predatory birds, particularly the peregrine falcon and the sparrow hawk, and the use of DDT.”19 In addition, later research refuted the original studies that had pointed to DDT as a cause for eggshell thinning. After reassessing their findings using more modern methodology, Drs. Hickey and Anderson admitted that the egg extracts they had studied contained little or no DDT and said they were now pursuing PCBs, chemicals used as capacitor insulators, as the culprit.20 When carefully reviewed, Dr. Bitman’s study revealed that the quail in the study were fed a diet with a calcium content of only 0.56 percent (a normal quail diet consists of 2.7 percent calcium). Calcium deficiency is a known cause of thin eggshells.21��"23 After much criticism, Bitman repeated the test, this time with sufficient calcium levels. The birds produced eggs without thinned shells.24 After many years of carefully controlled feeding experiments, Dr. M. L. Scott and associates of the Department of Poultry Science at Cornell University “found no tremors, no mortality, no thinning of eggshells and no interference with reproduction caused by levels of DDT which were as high as those reported to be present in most of the wild birds where ‘catastrophic’ decreases in shell quality and reproduction have been claimed.”23 In fact, thinning eggshells can have many causes, including season of the year, nutrition (in particular insufficient calcium, phosphorus, vitamin D, and manganese), temperature rise, type of soil, and breeding conditions (e.g., sunlight and crowding)." Al

So long as your stove works to cook your food, it's a good stove. :) You're probably okay with any cast iron pot that fits with the better part of an inch air space all around. I second the recommendation. Cast iron is a poor conductor, which is good for cooking. It takes awhile to heat up, but it holds temperature well, and tends to even out oven temperatures, making it ideal for less than perfect ovens. The big difference between cheap and expensive cast iron is the quality of the metallurgy. Expensive is lighter/thinner. Both work. There also could be a difference in the quality of the finish. Cheap and plain often can be improved by sanding the inner surface, since they save labor by not doing that and leave the casting texture, but you should know what you're doing before taking power tools to your pots. If it's cheap and enamelled, there might be small marks or flaws in the finish, which don't affect function, but you have to be careful of the colors. The rich, beautiful enamel colors often have heavy metals in them, which is fine on the outside, but you don't want it cooking the food, especially anything acidic. Sometimes there's textured black enamel which is supposed to kind of mimic the cast texture, and others there's a smooth cream or beige. Those are all fine. White may not be so make sure what it's colored with. Anything with bright colors on the inside is for decor not cooking or culinary plants. Anything under $100 is a good buy, and under $50 is very good, for enamel. The fancy French stuff goes for several hundreds at full retail. Look for specials and sales on the French stuff online or in stores at Zwilling (Staub) or Le Creuset Outlet. The latter also sometimes has huge discounts on flawed exterior enamel. Re the TMJ, of course go by what your practitioner has instructed about the temperature. Re the exercise, I can describe it here. It's gentle and just basically looses things up, which should help with the pain. Sit up straight but comfortably, body properly aligned, head in a neutral position, neck extended but not stretched, shoulders down but relaxed, jaw relaxed and mouth slightly open in your least stressed position. Look forward with your face relaxed. Lower your eyes (look down without moving your head) and open your mouth, lowering your jaw/chin. Return to neutral. Raise your eyes (look up without moving your head) and close your mouth/raise your jaw. Shift your eyes to look right and move your jaw/chin to the right. Return to neutral. Shift your eyes to the left and move your jaw/chin to the left. Return to neutral. Do several sets of this. Now, raise your eyes and lower your jaw. Return to neutral. Lower your eyes and raise your jaw. Return to neutral. Shift your eyes right and your jaw left. Return to neutral. Shift your eyes left and your jaw right. Return to neutral. Do several sets. Don't pull doing any of these motions; it's not supposed to be a stretch. The point is just to confuse the muscles enough that they loosen up. Again, not seeking to countermand your practitioners, and not knowing how this would apply to your case, but cranio-sacral therapy could potentially help, which is physical manipulation, rather than medical intervention. Good luck with all of it. JC