I grew Graham Thomas in a pot for about 5 years. It stayed a fairly reasonable size but it was definitely taller than most HTs would be. I had a small trellis in the pot to tie it to and that worked out well. Lovely blooms, good fragrance fair disease resistance but a water HOG! I use it as the canary in the mine for watering because it droops immediately if it's the least bit dry. So it may not be the best for a very hot, dry climate. La Marne was a lovely polyantha that bloomed nearly continuously for me. It didn't winter for me so I don't know what it's eventual size might be but it only got about 3 x 3 feet in the season I had it and that seems to be about the perfect size for container roses in my opinion. I don't remember it having a lot of fragrance but the blooms were really lovely. They would start out with more pink and even burgundy touches and then open to white.

Sorry, caylos, I don't have the knowledge to compare systems. My price was for a 5 ton XL 16i, clean effects and TCON803, 16 months same as cash, $8300 after rebate. If you have time, get another quote or three. My HVAC story ends more sadly than it began! The drain line was clogged, the emergency shutoff didn't work, and so condensate from a "weep hole" slowly seeped into the drywall box and through the walls under my wood floors. By the time this nightmare is over I'll have moved out of my house for a couple weeks, and the HVAC company's insurance will have paid three times what my system cost in damages. So much for the "quality control" guy. My advice to the forum: check your drain lines and emergency shut off yourself, OFTEN. Right now there is putty blocking the weep hole, so we presume that if the drain were blocked again the water would rise to the level of the emergency shut-off. I'm rather concerned that a piece of putty is the only thing keeping my $8300 A/C system from ruining my house, again. I can't imagine this is a Trane-approved solution.

Wow, love that sink. It was just waiting for you! I'm glad you decided on the stainless. I just don't think white would look right with that sink! Plus, I think it's hard to get white cabinets to look good with white appliances. Slight variances in whites can make the appliance have a yellow cast. Especially those white plastic handles. As far as cleaning stainless, I've found that some of the cleaners they tell you to use to clean stainless make them harder to keep clean than just windex. Some of the "stainless" cleaners leave a greasy residue that attracts dust. I have a Kitchen Aid fridge with stainless panels and they are no problem at all to keep clean. My stove and DW are also stainless and I just wipe them off when I wipe off the counters. Can't wait to see your glass knobs. Please post some pictures as you get things installed. I'm sure it's going to be beautiful.

Thanks, Islay! I think I will try the Cake Provençal, but I have to buy some canned tuna, as I do not keep that on hand. Since you use a silicon pan, I think Pyrex would be fine. I was considering an 8x8" pan because I thought it might make more cubes, but I will make that determination when I see how much batter I end up with. I found another recipe for it here, but it uses ham, and I would rather use tuna. I think ham would make it crumbly. Here is another similar recipe that looks interesting. I made the Roquefort mini-popovers yesterday, and I determined that they will not be that good cold. They were fine when hot or warm but are a bit too eggy to eat cold - the texture would be off. I also learned that you absolutely must use a non-stick mini-muffin pan. I have an old one that I used, and I had bought a new one (which is non-stick) because the recipe calls for two pans of 12. I almost bought two new pans, which is what I should have done, as I will now be recycling my old pan, since the popovers got completely stuck in the old pan, even though it was properly oiled. I had to scoop the popovers out with a spoon from the old pan, but they fell right out of the new pan. I took pictures, but they are not pretty. It is very easy to eat six of these popovers, and we had twelve each last night, more or less as a main course. They are a bit like cheesy eggy waffles - more like a breakfast food, but still good as an appetizer. I would make them for a party at home but not to take out. I might also still make hush puppies, as they are like cornbread and will be okay cold.