Fall MTPS Date Bama week! Oct. 21st. If I can make the ultimate sacrifice then so can everybody else. Hohenwald has their October Fest the weekend of the 14th, UT's only open date in October, and Jan says that the place shuts down and the streets are full of yard sales or something. Anyway, "The Third Saturday In October" will be our fall swap date. Do you know how much this hurts me? I'd rather take a written beating over the spring swap every day from now til then than miss getting to see UT beating Bama!!! Oh well, I'm a dedicated Swap Nazi I reckon. Jeff aka, Big Orange Boo-hooing

Well Ladies... I never got any clearance bulb shopping done today like I said I was going to : ( Oh well I am sure someone else gave all those lonely bulbs a home.Maybe there will be some left this weekend for me to snatch up.Not that I really need any more..but like I said before..there is nothing I like better than a sale : )I shoudn't complain about today tho.I did manage to get all my swap boxes ready to go for this month : ) The electricity went out in our entire town last night and it took them all night to get it fixed!Thank goodness we are having unseasonably nice weather.Otherwise I would have had to put little sweaters and booties on all my birdies : ) It actually was kinda cool really because there was a Full moon Sunday night so it was still really bright last night so I just opened all the shades and hardly needed any candles : ) Oh Sassy,I can't wait to see what you come up with for me besides : ) and : ( LOL!!! If I don't come up with something soon I will become known around here as the smiley frowny gal : ) Oh I got so long winded here I almost forgot.... Sue/Guazon ol' buddy ol' pal for this month..I shipped your box today #0103 8555 7498 4875 5206 Hope you like what I sent : ) Also..Deb,I sent your hostess gift off for this month today also.It is in the box along with the other swap we are doing together. : ) #0103 8555 7498 9079 3010 Have a Great Evening Ladies! Nancy

Oh no, marcolo, what did I say?! Whatever, I'm sure it wasn't intended as a swipe and I do apologize, any and everyone!... the "group think" I was referring to was part of this sentence: "What I was referring to was the KD-group think that insisted I had to have a box around the fridge and I had to have a conference about it and insist and put my foot down and say no and then worry about it for months and months: 'what do I know that the KD doesn't know'? Did I make a mistake being so insistent....' That sort of misery. " I was referring to how unpleasant things felt for me regarding this stupid little potential wall next to the refrigerator. It was something I had to fight hard for, not having. My KD (no one on here) ... actually, I should say the person who sold me the cabinets as she had almost zero planning input - but she is a designer and I valued her design sense (in the absence of any formal training here). Anyway, this person told me, in a completely shocked voice "Oh there is no way I would ever build a kitchen without a box for the refrigerator. It just doesn't look good". I hadn't really even realized she'd included it in the plan; I hadn't in what I'd asked for. But this was during a meeting with her boss where we were trying to save some money (!) and it came to light that this massive hunk of wood was planned. Her point was also that it was required additionally for structural reasons. But her boss, a (former, I should think) carpenter, waived this away and said structurally it wasn't necessary as there were two walls. It was evidently a very expensive part of the bill as the piece of wood is large, requiring stitching together and much finishing. But that left me wondering what she knows that I don't know. Thus I came here with this question, wondering why I was so crass as to imagine such an installation different from the requirement of the "KD-group". Obviously, many many haven't boxed. Moreover many who do, do so wisely and serenely (as David and others point out). My swipe was at the way I was made to feel it was utterly unthinkable to do what I wanted to do, when in fact many have and do and there is good reason to; as it turned out my kitchen was just one such one. But I couldn't see that confronted with an angry person insisting I was doing the completely wrong thing way back when! This thread was really instructive for me first of all seeing so many boxed-in fridges that looked terrific, so many that not only looked terrific but necessary, and many more that really didn't need it; as well as articulating some of the reasons, in both directions, people have for going one way or another, reasons quite apart from design considerations. It's my impression that this is one decision that is squarely and flatly in the middle ground where reasonable minds can completely disagree, or also that reasonably different kitchens converge to the same solution and conversely, similar kitchens reasonably conclude with a different solution. The 'group think' I was objecting to was that evidently somewhere in KD-world is the rule that One Shalt Not Box. It flustered me! Apologies for: (1) the persnickety, overly-long explanation and (2) any residual unintentional insult I may have implied. Marcolo - thanks for noticing about the grain. That's something that was a new 'articulation' for me. That is, I've always loved the grain of wood I saw that some doors had more than others (I also love that clear open aspect that sometimes comes that it may have been Buehl? forget who - who pointed me to a great explanation of in another thread about how this arises when you sever certain plants cells at an angle). When we got a sample of the door my husband pointed out that it had a seam down the middle disrupting the wood grain. This was evidently required with "solid wood", a high-end upgrade. But this observation let to realizing that veneer might actually be preferable from some perspectives, like this one. He wanted an uninterrupted stretch of wood grain (I agreed) so these doors are all veneered. I really love it. And I would never have noticed or realized quite why some doors look better than others. If you want to see the wood grain and it's not too expensive (it was cheaper for us actually), I highly recommend this option. For some reason I haev associated 'veneer' with 'less-good', but I think I've been all wrong. It's quite a nifty technique. Silly prejudice again; not sure where it all comes from! Anna, you're cute. A bunch of people have asked about the Rainforest Green slab. I have noticed it's hard to get a good picture of the - I think it's sandstone and not marble? Not sure... whatever it is, it's shiny and moves and varies tremendously; hard conditions for a good picture. Oee of these years I'll get a good series of pictures. In the meantime if you're thinking of using it, you might want to know I think it can be difficult for the fabricator to work with. I think it's quite popular and therefore often thought not to be so difficult. But I think there's more to it. I'll gather my thoughts on it some more at another time. If someone's in a hurry, let me know. Thx!

Don't ever mail anything to Spain! Several packages came back to me, they attempted to ransom them to my exchange student for "tax" on something they insisted she bought, even though the package plainly said it was a gift. One I paid $50-60 in shipping and sent it back again, paying the same amount. Last year they sent a package back and I decided to just wait a few months and take it to her personally since we were going to visit. This past Christmas, wasn't going to send anything because I was tired of the crap, sometimes it gets to her with no problem but others they try and make her pay for it. But, then I tried sending a small package in a big envelope and it went through to her with no problem. Next year I will probably just order her something from Amazon and have it directly sent to her and see what happens.