jennmonkey, It's funny because whenever an American guesses I'm Canadian they always tell me they couldn't discern any accent at all, but our habit of using the questioning word 'eh?' at the end of some sentences is the dead give away! We tend to use it to replace the words, 'don't you think?' or 'is that correct?' So we'd say "Wow, that was an amazing game, eh?" or "looks like you could use another drink, eh?" whereas some of our American friends would replace the 'eh?' with 'huh?' for the same purpose. The funniest conversation I had was on vacation in Europe. I met someone on the beach who sounded exactly like me, having that generic North American newscaster non accent. We talked for about 10 minutes when I said, "What a beautiful day, eh?" to which he replied, "It certainly is. You know, I thought you were American until that last sentence. So clearly you're Canadian, huh? to which I laughed and said, "And I thought you were Canadian until you said that last sentence. Clearly, you're American!"

For me it is simple, while I appreciate many granites and some ss appliances, they are not for everyone. I also find many granites to be downright ugly and many ss appliances to be boring looking (hard to distinguish from all the others I have seen that day). I think the best plan is to figure out what you like by having an open mind. Shopping out your options and getting what works for your home, family and budget. What I have heard repeatedly on this thread that just because the masses think that granite and ss are "musts" that one should follow their own instincts and not worry that you are not part of the trend. We got 3 ss elements in our kitchen (hood, wall oven and micro shelf), 4 in white (fridge, freezer, micro and range) and a black dw. No one can accuse us of following the herd. Each one was chosen on its merits. If we had found a perfect granite, we might have gotten that, but over time, I think we came to the conclusion that it would not work with the vintage homey vibe we were shooting for. It was not for lack of trying though. We met with fabricators and walked miles in granite yards trying to pick one if it hit us right AND worked in our space. We saw many that were lovely but were not the right color scheme or look for this particular kitchen. I think if people don't consider their options, then they will have a limited kitchen (and life). We ended up with Corian counters which I would have bet heavily against going into the project. An open mind and patience led us to our right choices. Others will find their own answers, but hopefully not look down on kitchens that don't have ss or granite. Luckily, we have GW where we can read about others' experiences, see their choices and learn about more options. I'd know so much less if I had not practically lived here for a few years, lol!

My SM #3 is this way PO1. She has a good heart but it annoys me to no end. She publically takes all the credit for us skids and our achievements but married my dad after I was an adult and all but 2 of our children were already born. She has just met my brother and his wife and their kids this past year for the very first time... She's been married to my dad for almost 10 yrs and has never met my brothers fam or even talked on the phone. Mostly because my brother was estranged from our father.... Anyway-- on Facebook she writes to my niece and brother and SIL, I am so proud of you, I love you and miss you!! And then she has some crap about 'interests' watching my children and grandchildren grow. I hope to have great grandchildren one day. She has one adult son that is estranged from her bc he is a jerk and he has no children. So the grandchildren would be our children. I personally haven't seen her in quite a while none of us have but she acts like she saw us yesterday. She was signing her cards to us 'momma(insert name)' and we are all adults. My sister finally said, please stop. We don't mind the kids picking a nickname for you like Nana or grams but we aren't calling you Momma. We have a momma and we don't know you that well. People always write on her fb 'hope your kids and granbabies are well. And I just wonder if they are confused.

I switched from Epson to HP as at least the color cartridges were replaceable individually - old Epson was not. What is weird is that it's just the black cartridge that is the problem - all the color 3rd party ones work just fine. Google told me this is a known problem - apparently, it's the control for the black that triggers the "this is not an HP cartridge" and then messes with the black one. What is strange, is that the 3rd party cartridges got excellent reviews on Amazon. I think they may have been from the 3rd party themselves - this is a big problem with smaller sellers on Amazon and eBay - they get their employees/friends/neighbors to write great reviews. These ink cartridges are a HUGE rip-off, price wise. Yes, I know - it's how the companies make their printers very cheap. I do use the color so I don't want a Laser printer and color ones are very expensive. Plus I really need the all-in-one in order to be able to copy and FAX. My HP is the HP 309a and has been a very good All-in-one printer. I'm a bit tempted to buy a new printhead on eBay for $35 and see if this fixes the problem with HP ink, but the ink alone is almost $100 for all the colors. I can buy a Canon for less than this. Yes, I was VERY uncomfortable with the HP Customer Service wanting to have access to my computer. I have allowed Apple to do this when I had a problem, but HP? And then when this guy started trying to scare me into thinking I had tons of "problems" and malware on my computer, I got even more nervous - HIGHLY unlikely on a Mac. Then we got to his pitch that he could "fix" my computer and "clean it" and then send me a reconditioned HP just like the one I had for $399. Whoa!!!!!! I did run a free and highly recommended malware program after this phone call - was afraid of what HE might have put on my computer! I was horrified to see that he had gone into Terminal Mode - this is BIG TIME and there would be no reason to do this if it were a software glitch - just reinstall the printer driers. No malware. He was just expecting me to be a typical non-computer savvy customer who could be easily scared into buying anything. Wrong customer!!!! But this experience certainly gave me a VERY bad taste in my mouth about HP and I won't buy one again. I'm in no hurry to make a decision. I don't need my Proof of Insurance card until 1 July and I have the tax document on my computer and can convert it to a PDF file, put it on a thumb drive, and print it off SIL's printer is needed (it's not - it's just for my records). But this experience showed me that it's not just those phone phony phone calls alleging to be from ones credit card company (funny - I don't have a Visa or MC so why are they calling?) that are out to try to fool the public. I would have expected better of a large company like HP. I have no doubt that like many large companies, they outsource their customer service dept to off-shore 3rd party companies and they are not very closely monitored. BIG mistake!