"Without a picture what am I supposed to advise? I don't know what you're looking at." *************** Yorkrose, sorry, probably didn't come across clear enough in my post that the red-banded leaf-hopper is a positive ID for my bug, too. gardenfanatic, yours is the second vote for saltmarsh caterpillar, and I admit that the pics I have seen of their eggs look remarkably like mine, at least to the naked eye. I doubt mine will hatch out, now, since I never "humidified" my jar. Probably just as well, I wasn't too keen on hatching them out, lol!

Great image of a normal phenom. Not eggs. Just something the plant does on its own. Grape vines do the same thing.

These are not the easiest Mamms to grow. I've had 3 cactus drop their roots because I didn't water enough, and plumosa was one. This was during the growing season. I learned my lesson. This sounds crazy, but the one I have now I watered about once a month in the winter. So I needed to keep it warm during the winter. So annoying;).I don't think this one likes to go totally dry during the growing season. As I learned when the one that died deflated like a balloon because of dehydration. It's a fine line you have to walk tho. You need a mix where the water runs right through. You don't want to keep it too wet because that's likely what happened to yours before you bought it. Too wet+too cold= cactus jelly;). These guys can look good for a long time, even if completely dead. The feathers hide the ugly for quite a while;).

meaning, it's not his fault the tiles were glued on the mesh incorrectly. everyone that commented up top said what a horrible job he did installing them because they were crooked. that's why I said, "Hang on". I was letting everyone know that these sheets of mosaics often come crooked. that's what I meant by not his fault. and for the fourth damn time, yes, the installer should have done a few of them by hand. However, should he have taken each and every tile off the sheet and done them one by one??? uh, no. That's the meaning of, "not his fault". Do you actually expect him to do that? Who is in charge of this project? Why didn't they pay attention to how screwed up the tiles were on the sheet? why didn't that person know enough to catch it, advise the homeowner or give instructions to the installer to do what needed to be done?? You're faulting the wrong person. OP hired a company to do the entire kitchen. they are using one of their 'tile guys' on staff. Sometimes you luck out and get someone who's good. Most times you get someone who doesn't speak English and only installs what they're given, without thinking outside the box. they just figure, "this is what boss gave me to put up, i put it up. not my fault if they were crooked". OP said this was a 25K job. how much of that went to the tile install, I do not know. I also think, overall, it's a decent job. there are a few tiles that are off and should be fixed, but if that's all there is, then I wouldn't do a tear out. The way everyone was acting about his install was a bit much. We've all seen horrible tile jobs on here and this is not one of them.