I am sorry to hear about your loss lily. Friends and family laugh at me when I tell them my koi are like family. I don't know what would have cause this to happen, but I will keep you and yours in my thoughts and prayers. Don't beat yourself up too bad. Even if you were home there is nothing you could have done. Thank God that you and your family are all alive and unharmed. This spring has been bad weatherwise just about everywhere. Massachusetts had a tornado touch down last night too. That is my worst fear and something I hope I never experience first hand. Your fish were 20 years old and had one heck of a good life with you and your husband. Even though it's like losing a family member you and your husband were excellent koi parents. We can't question Mother Nature as to why she does things, we just have to look at the bright side. I have overstock of 1 year old koi if you are interested. They are free to a good home. Send me an e-mail if you are interested and we can work something out. Jenny

Saintpfla, you won't have a mosquito problem in a pond with a good circulating pump. They really only lay eggs in standing water. Besides which, if you have a few fish, they eat the larva, especially fish like guppies, minnows, mosquito fish, gambusia and the like. As for raccoons, that depends on how much of a problem you have in your particular yard. If you have a lot of raccoons, a pond can really be difficult to maintain. Depth of water helps a lot. Even if it is only deep in the center, it gives the fish a place to hide, especially if you add a piece of 6" to 10" pipe to make a "cave" for them to hide in. In the summer, you have to top off the pond more often to compensate for higher evaporation, but if you have a nice depth to it, the fish will be fine, if they aren't overcrowded, and if you have enough floating vegetation or tree coverage to provide shade. The winters in Florida are nothing for goldfish, koi and most tropical fish to contend with. I've never lost a fish due to temperatures at either end of the range. It is not nearly as much work as you might think, once you have reached a proper balance between plants and fish. And they are SO worth it. Nothing else adds as much sheer beauty and tranquil relaxation as a pond. It really is the final step in bringing "nature" into your yard. Marcia

If possible, have a "LATCH" or "ISOFIX" connector installed in your car (possible on some late model vehicles, and standard equipment on many new cars) and use a recently built baby seat. These are very easy to install properly - they just snap right in - and it is easy to remove and replace them when necessary. Some cars and vans even have built-in child seats available that fold down for kids, fold back up for adults. I'm a bit disturbed at the campaign in recent years to only place children in back seats. Of course, rear-facing infant seats should *never* be placed in a front seat with an active airbag, as the bag would inflate into the top of the baby's head first. But using a forward-facing seat for post-infant younger children in a front seat may not be any less safe than in back, and may in some cases be safer. The kids-in-the-backseat campaign has been waged in recent years for reasons partly cultural, partly political. The cultural aspect pertains to parents' and society's general predilection to put kids in the back seat both metaphorically and literally. Based on past statistics, both children and adults are (slightly) better protected in the back seat. But there haven't been any efforts to get people to put their wives or husbands in the back seat for safety. The political aspect pertains to the rash of airbag-related fatalities several years ago, many to children or shorter adults. The government's airbag mandate had always had its detractors, and now there were choruses of "I told you so's" amongst those who opposed mandatory airbag requirements. To help quell the criticism and repel efforts to repeal the airbag mandates, the government began the "put kids in the back" crusade, which was picked up by car manufacturers and just about everyone else. Most of those injured or killed by airbags though were not wearing seatbelts or were in rear-facing seats. What those statistics from past accidents in older cars don't take into account is that many new cars will probably protect post-infant children and adults alike better, or at least as well, in the front seat. The advantage of the back seat was largely due to being further from the impact area in frontal collisions, which would often intrude on the passenger space in front but not in back. (Also, center positions offer better protection from side impacts from either direction than outer positions, and more cars have center-rear than center-front seating, although using the center position is often impossible if you have more than one child seat.) But due to safety advances in new cars, many cars have recently passed the government or insurance institute frontal crash tests with no intrusion into the passenger compartment. This means the front and rear seats experience exactly the same rate of deceleration, and common concerns such as crashing into the dashboard or windshield aren't an issue. Airbags have been redesigned to inflate less forcefully, especially in low-speed collisions. What's more, several new cars are equipped with seat-belt retractors (that automatically tighten to eliminate slack during a collision) and side airbags (which are safely positioned for both children and adults), whereas these features are less commonly found in rear seats. So the front seat may actually be safer in some new cars. And the front-passenger seat height and shoulder-belt height adjustments found in some new cars can better position a small child properly in respect to the seat belt and airbag. BTW, I spent two years working for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and am a lifelong car buff. And I'm not the only one reconsidering the "put kids in back" mantra. Check out this article in the current issue of Car & Driver magazine, from its chief editor: Here is a link that might be useful: Where Should Kids Sit?

If I didn't know the back story, I wouldn't know! It looks GREAT! I so understand the frustration you are feeling. We just finished up a couple of months ago (haven't posted finish pics yet because of KITCHEN FATIGUE) but when things go wrong in the moment, it just seems so awful. I know that you had a grand master plan and were meticulous and other people's careless errors are almost unforgivable, *but* it's going to be okay. I promise. On my remodel, my kd talked me into creamy white instead of bright white cabs. Deep down inside I hate the creamy cabs, but still, I realize they look good (if I don't think about their creaminess). The guys installing my cabs, who were great all around...well, I don't think they ever worked with painteds before and did lots of dings, scratches and nicks during install. I needed to take many many deep breaths there. The counter reveal around my farm sink is off on one side, despite me pointing out to the templater that the sink was installed, not going any where and was off an 1/8th of an inch and he would have to correct that with the templating. I don't have the overhang I wanted and spent years thinking about on the countertop because I had morningsickness when the templater was here and just couldn't deal/be bothered. Some tiles are crooked. I hate the paint color on my walls but it went up so quickly there was no time to contemplate it. I was supposed to have marble for a table top. They didn't have enough material. I picked out a slab of granite. It got cracked as it was being loaded to deliver. I picked out another slab from what was available. It has brown in it. I hate brown in stone. I have more, but why bore you. My advice about your beautiful beautiful counters is to take a little vacation, visit some friends' houses (chances are their kitchen will not come close to function and glamour as yours) and come back to your house. You will love your kitchen more than ever and probably have forgotten about the countertop thing. Okay, maybe my advice sucks. But I do want to say I feel your pain and I *promise* you will feel at least 60% better about it in a month or so. IT LOOKS GREAT!