I received a great box of goodies from Cathys1951!!!! She sent the following seeds: nepeta (catmint), lithops, chocolate Joe Pye weed, unknown sedum, calendula, sumac, yellow tansy, lanceleaf coreopsis, nicotiana, ladybells, cinnamon fern, globe amaranth, liatris, sneezeweed, yellow rose, & Phillipine lily. As if that wasn't enough she also sent this cute little pot scrubber set that the bottom looks like a pot & the top one looks like a flower. She also sent a little kit with pumpkin seeds, soil, etc. for kids (which my daughter has claimed), a weave basket planter, 2 pretty flower pot stakes with birds on them, a bag of 25 plant labels, & what I needed most, a waterhose attachment (I'm not kidding either. The one this one immediately replaced was duct taped because the trigger was broken). Thank you so much!!!

lauren, I spent what seemed like forever (it was actually over 6 years!) drawing up the plans for our house. My earliest plans were, in retrospect, awful (I didn't know what I didn't know!), so try not to be too disheartened by the comments people make about your plans; they are trying to help you. I looked back at your previous "final" plan from your post on Feb 10 at 9:39, printed off that one and this, and am looking at them side-by-side. I'm not clear on several things. If you're building on 10 acres of flat pasture land in Illinois, why is the orientation of the most important rooms to the southwest? Seems like that would put a lot of unnecessary heat into them in the summer, and that they'd get hit by some strong winds in the spring and winter. All of this will increase your heating & cooling needs/bill. And the most desirable elevation, the southeast, is entirely taken up with the bedroom suite. Can the orientation of the house be changed? Could the master BR suite and study be switched and the MBR then moved back to the right of the screened porch behind the present study, and the garage be moved so that its SW wall is where the present study/deck wall is? The laundry, bath, and office can be reworked if these other moves could be made. I'm also trying to understand why guests pulling up in the driveway would have to go all the way around the garage to get to the front door. Can you post or draw a sketch of the lot, road, and possible driveway access choices, and possible building locations on the lot for the house? To get rid of so many corners to save on costs, try drawing a rectangle with a wing bumping out on the right side to the SW & NE. Place the 5 main rooms. Then, instead of bumping out a room to get more space, try moving the whole side or back wall of the house a few feet or inches as you play around with the minor rooms. Once you get the rooms more or less settled in place, you will find that moving pieces of short & long room walls by inches (many times, as I'm sure you already know!), you can fit everything in to a much less expensive footprint. Also, even though most houses have the fireplace on an outside wall, it's much better to have it on an interior wall from an energy efficiency point-of-view. Also, I know there is a different feel to a screened porch, but realistically, wouldn't you get more use out of a 4 season room? You have to build a foundation and roof for a screened porch, so that's already a major expense. Adding an insulated wall and lots of windows would cost more up front, but get you much better living space, IMO. Anne

friend installed the Epsom printer but the printer won't work. It's got lines going through it all the time. she's followed all the instructions on cleaning the heads and aligning it but it's not working. Called Epsom and they said, it would have to sent in for repair. She wants to uninstall it from her computer since it doesn't work anyway and it's says it can't be uninstalled since it is the default printer. She's running xp pro.

That's all I have here, Brother. I have Two Color Laser AIO Machines (MFC-9440cn & DCP-9040cn) and One Inkjet AIO Machine (MFC-845cw), also have a Brother Label Printer (QL-570). I've had them for many years and I have been very happy with my Brother Printers. I did have a Brother B&W Laser Printer before the Color Lasers (HL-1440). It worked great, sold it because of the Color Laser Printers! I know you're asking "Why Two Color Laser AIO Printers"? Well I purchased the MFC-9440cn for home. My wife kept threatening to take it to work with her (she worked in a Small Office). Well, one day I showed up at her work with a New Brother DCP-9040cn Color Laser AIO. I decided to make her happy and get her her own Color Laser Printer for work. The business has since closed and we brought the printer home.