Deee, me too. Thank you, everyone. Marina, I hadn't heard of Sara Ward but just looked up her web site. I will keep an eye on her site to see if she's speaking anywhere around me. dlm, good question with a long answer but will try to be brief. Lots of difficulty with friendship until he was in HS. He was in special ed schools until HS, then went to a regular HS but very small and welcoming to kids with "learning differences." Anyway, he found some good friends there and has held onto a couple of them. Then when he went to college briefly, he made a couple of friends who he is still friends with. In the last two years he has really managed to find a few good friends who are quirky but functioning (I mean, none of them are teachers or lawyers, but they are working musicians or artists or bartenders....). Mostly guys but he does have a couple of girls who are friends. He has had a couple of girlfriends and the last one was a disaster of epic proportions but I won't say more about that here. Most of the friends he's made over the past 2-3 years have been a few years older than him. All have their own apts. so he mainly goes to their places and we don't really see them, so it's hard to describe the dynamics of these relationships. When we do meet his friends, they always seem quirky but very nice. I think the linked article explains NLD/NVLD pretty well. DS doesn't have every feature, but definitely has most, including physical awkwardness (never played sports, trips up or down stairs, etc), OCD tendencies, dominates conversations, lousy hygiene, etc. Some of the features he had when he was younger but not as much now, possibly because he has been in therapy since he was 6 years old!? Here is a link that might be useful: description

Please REREAD my original post.It was never meant to be condecending or belittle anyone who eats or makes white bread.That being said you did nothing in the way of offering help to someone who was asking about whole grain baking.Its great that you can bake by feel and make ajustments based on your experience.Where does that leave someone who is a novice and needs help? How many recipes from our mothers and grandmothers have been lost forever because they did it by feel and no one ever bothered to measure the ingredients or jot down baseline instuctions, so future generations would have a starting point and be able to enjoy a heritage dish.Everything we create in life has to have a recipe or starting point from which to go;it either being in your head or from a book.I have 30+ bread books and good or bad they all provide a basis on which to start.Reinhart's book on whole grain baking is one of the better on that topic,in my humble opinion,and has taught me a great deal and that was the only reason I chose to answer the question.It was certainly not to get in a battle of words with someone who completely misinterpreted my remarks.

Thank you KathyNY and Debrak for your feedback. First let me say that after a lot of consideration DH and I have decided to get rid of one of the windows and move the stove to the left giving us more prep space between the stove and sink. This also gives us more upper cabinets. The Kitchen, Dining and Living is open concept in one big space . Most of the home is only 21 feet wide. Beyond the dining room is the screened in back porch/deck. KathyNY there is only one dining space inside the home and I hope to have either a table or sitting area out on the back deck. There is a 12ft wide sliding glass door between DR and back deck. My hubby is the main cook and I do some baking. Yes we hope to do more entertaining but we've been saying that for years and haven't done a lot of that. I initially wanted a more closed off kitchen because we are currently living in an open concept home now and the noise from anyone working in the kitchen makes watching tv in the living room area impossible. The dishwasher in the island is a nightmare too because it's very loud. We plan on purchasing a better quality quieter dw and plan to put it along the wall cabinets. Due to the lack of space the open concept just makes more sense than closing it off. I go back and forth on how to end the cabinets that are next to the living room. I'm not sure I want the wall or not. Thank you again for your feedback and questions.

Wow, some nice stuff. Photography is art and art is subjective ("eye of the beholder")so what's "best" is dependant upon the judge. Top ones photographically in my mind are, in numerical order, #2, 3, 6, 8 & 9 and I have some comments on them if you don't mind. I should say I was attracted to these since I have a thing for lighthouses and for farm scenes so it impacted a bit but those are good shots. Are you allowed to crop or manipulate? Mind if I make some comments? If I were judging these I'd feel this way: (Photo #) 1) This is a cute vacation snapshot of someone taking a picture of someone taking a picture. However photographically, you have about 4-5 different major subjects jumping at you so the eye jumps around and doesn't give the overall impact until you stop and concentrate. I'd crop the top half and drop a ship in there! :) 2) This one GRABBED me! Look at the clarity of the lens in the lighthouse! Again, as a lighthouse fan it had increased impact to me but the lens really made a statement. The problem photographically is the water cutting the picture in half. I'd crop this to about the top of the bottom window and it'll move the waterline down and still have the impact I mentioned. Then I'd hang it on my wall! 3) Probably the best of the bunch as they sit. The fence leads your eye to the water which brings you back in. Photographically, this is textbook. The fogline essentially ends on the rule of thirds, the major set of "bushes" is pretty much on thirds, the fog gives mystery and a peacefulness. I'd put this on my wall as it is. 4) Nice, but again, the water cuts the shot in half. Photographically that's bad. If you crop about the bottom third off you set the berg at thirds, it's slightly framed on the bottom right and it seems like the clouds lend more impact. With the cropping, I'd hang this on my wall too. 5) I loved the potential of this, but went ARGH when I first looked at it. So many great elements but the killer (in a bad way) is cutting off the building. It's like a portrait where the top of a person's head or an arm is cut off. What felt like a knife in my guts was the building "spoke" of a history, but it's only part. Look at the weathering of the paint, how those hinges on the door stand out and talk about history! No offense but this one is not your best work. BTW, what this a lean-to on a barn or a free-standing building? Just curious 6) When I first looked at this I literally said to myself this is STRANGE....ly interesting. It has almost a shock value and this is a fantastic use of black and white for impact. Rule of thirds vertically and horizontally and a leading line too. This would go on my wall or in a gallery. It really probably ties with #3 for me as your best... at least so far! 7) First off, I like this but it's difficult on which to comment. It grabs you a bit and it stands out in several ways. The table is a nice addition. Problems for me: A) The waterline merging with the roofline. B) A little too "flat" a shot. The building is only two dimentional. Shooting from a bit more of an angle and maybe a little lower down - from ground level maybe, and show two sides of the building might have added impact and eliminated the cut. Again, this is difficult because I like it. I like the colors and it does say something (I mean something good) but in a way it almost looks like a real estate listing photo too. And I also like the cloud pattern. Leads your eye in nicely. This has eye-appeal, but it also violates standards so it would depend on how it's being judged. 8) When I saw the thumbnail I went HERE WE GO!!! Sigh. But there's been good and it almost minimizes it! LOL I like this a lot and I'd put it on my wall. This shows how shooting from different levels adds dramatically. You're shooting upward, the foreground leads to it, it almost has a halo around the top. If only the lens were so clear in this shot. (See what an impact that had on me? LOL) Also this shows one of the exceptions to the rule on centering or non-centering. But it's still off just enough to add. Not sure if that was intentional or not but it's great. 9) OK I like lighthouses but I'm a bit of a snob. I like "traditional" looking lighthouses. But this is truly spectacular. I'd hang this on the wall definitely. To me the clouds give almost a stormy look and that goes with the function of a lighthouse. So out of them, if *I* judged these 9 pictures, uncropped or manipulated and by judging photographically, 1st prize would go, to #6, a close 2nd is #3 and 3rd place would be #9 (by a sliver of a whisker over #8, and in an hour it might be reversed!). But as you see from other posters, people judge things differently. That said, one caution, some will judge with bias on whether they like B&W or don't like B&W so it could be a risk. You might know your judges better. These are comments from me and hope there's no offense taken. I did say more than requested! Just thought you could take it or skip over. Good luck to you. Let us know which you submit and how things turn out. Again, GOOD LUCK!