I would offer the suggestion that you start looking for the best varieties in the kinds of orchids you buy. Figure out what grows well in your conditions, and then unless you have unlimited space, buy the best varieties. They all take space, light, and care, but some plants are just more vigorous and floriferous than others, and they are worth an extra few dollars. For example, Phal Baldan's Kaleidoscope 'Golden Treasure' is one great plant. Another great phal that's not expensive is Taisuco Firebird. Both often put up two spikes and bloom for months. Another smaller plant that I absolutely love is Bc. Memoria Bernice Foster, which blooms twice a year for me, and has a faint but pervasive scent in the evening. There are many other great plants like these, which forum members will happily tell you about. My bottom line, after 6-8 years of growing orchids, is that you figure out what you like and can grow well, and buy the best of those varieties. That said, I have a big brassia that takes a lot of space and hasn't bloomed for more than a year. If it doesn't put up some spikes pretty soon, it will be looking for a new home.

Okay. You guys are great. Clearly the collective wisdom is not to throw money at the problem - but figure the problem out. Owbist - in my thread on not connecting my husband's vista laptop to our network, I tried quietly, methodically to troubleshoot the issues - to no avail. I found lots of similar frustrations on google - but no solutions that worked - and I think I tried them all - at least to the best of my ability. thanks for those great, easy-to-follow instructions to transfer to an external hard drive. He'll want to do that anyway - even if he keeps this computer. This computer guy is pricey - but where I am in DC they seem to fall in the $125-140/hour range - and they can usually fix a problem. Others that charge $40-75 - that the uninformed think are good - but their know-how is less than what I find here. I tried a few of those locally recommended guys - and they accomplished the simple tasks but also made mistakes I had to hire the more expensive guy to fix. My main complaint with him is that he's wedded to his biases - he hates Vista - so his recommendation is usually to avoid or ditch it. Our struggles with Vista seem to often be how often we're blocked from things or performing simple tasks have all sort of obstacles - for "safety's" sake. Thanks to everyone for pointing out that Windows 7 is just a revamped Vista. I got my first issue of Smart Computing and they were tauting it and described some features I thought I'd love. DA - if W8 is in process, is there any indication of what it will be like? Probably worth waiting for - or at least waiting to hear more about how Windows 7 is panning out. So I'll keep plugging away on my other thread to get him connected. If I don't succeed by Tuesday, the computer guy will come and fix it. I guess we'll stop there. Thanks. Lynn.

Try the brand Palliser. We just got ours (the Venus) and love it. We bought through sofasandsectionals.com and found them to be pleasant to deal with. I wanted brushed aluminum legs on it and could not figure out how to configure it online, so I called and placed the order with a person. It was a nice experience all around. You can see sizes in detail online. We got their new fabric, Phoenix, which feels like soft Nubuk leather. It is different from microsuede and has cleaned up very well, despite our 2 young sons. We got the color Anthracite, which is a very deep gray and it is very nice. I had not been sure about a pure black and were thrilled it came in this color. It is well made and looks great. The size was perfect for the room. I would not want any bigger or smaller.

there are lots of these and you can get them for your android devices as well as apple devices, just google for price check apps. I had posted a link to several on that same thread on computer help where the priceblink was. Having them on cellphone while out shopping can be helpful, some let you just scan the code on the product and it will pop up with the best prices in your area for the product. Five Best Mobile Price Comparison Apps the Amazon price check app is great if you use it to check the price of anything it will tell you if you can get it cheaper on Amazon and to sweeten the deal they will give you a 5% discount right there for doing so. So anything you are going to buy whether on Amazon or not go ahead and use the app then buy from Amazon and get your 5% discount.