Here are some pics of my planted tanks....some have been posted on here before. This bottom pic is plastic plants and just one of those plastic picture backs taped to the back of the aquarium. I know you are sorting out the good info from the bad...but I really can't express enough that a quarantine tank is VERY IMPORTANT......it regardless of where you purchase your fish.....some fish diseases don't show up for a long time......such as 4 to 6 weeks.....Even if all the fish in the store look healthy....you don't know what they were exposed to before they were put into the store tanks. Sometimes just the stress of shipping causes illnesses to show up. Having managed fishrooms for two pet stores and having my own fishroom.....I have seen this. One time I purchased some huge georgeous swordtails....put them into a quarantine tank for less than a month...all looked healthy......so I didn't wait the 6 weeks or two months.....I added them........I lost the whole tank of fish. The store where I purchased them...was a very reliable fish store that always had healthy looking fish...they were not a pet store! He lost them all too. There was no guarantees in this store...so I had to take the loss........won't mention how many $$ I lost with this mistake.....and I did know better too. The tank had to be taken all apart and disinfected and recycled before new fish could be added.... I would never go without quarantining any fish before adding to a community now......and I quarantine for 6 weeks or more......its a safety precausion...that works. Again, its one of those decisions that you have to make for yourself. The size of the tank....is really up to you....what you want to maintain and the size of space you have. Any of the Innes books, or Axelrod books are good to read. You mentioned an Atlas.....is it the Axelrod atlas? There is also the Baensch Aquarium Atlas.....there are soooo many books out there.....again its difficult to just name one or two that might help. Are you anywhere near an aquarium club? Some clubs also offer long distance membership and usually there is a bi-monthly newsletter where members write about there experiences with plants and fish. Also there are mags such as Tropical Fish Hobbyist, Aquarium Fish Magazine and Freshwater and Marine Aquarium Magazine...there are probably others as well. Hope this helps and doesn't add to the confusion! Sierra

I just purchased bathroom wall and floor tiles and kitchen backsplash tiles from Classic Tile on 86th Street in Brooklyn. Excellent selection and great prices. My contractor suggested a Westchester tile shop, but the prices were beyond my budget. I found the same tiles (both ceramic and marble mosaic tiles) for about half the price. They're very helpful and there's no hard sell. I can highly recommend Classic Tile.

You know I feel just the opposite. I have never seen so much creativity. When we were growing up, people just had furniture by necessity and homes were not really decorated, they were just well, functional. Now I see young people doing all kinds of things, painting, learning new ways of doing things with what they have, going yard sale and fixing up. I'm so amazed and proud of them for finding something that looks like it could go to the dust bin and they make it into some really great and useful item that is distinctly unique. I've seen them make an ugly place into an amazing abode that just says so much about them. Even people who had never had any training learned how to faux paint or stencil (not the ugly stuff or bunnies or ducks but sophisticated patterns) wallpaper like motifs that look really great. In my mom's day they never did stuff like that or even thought of it. The odd person here and there did but were often thought of as eccentric! I don't see too many cookie cutter PB houses around here, some will incorporate pieces here and there and I do love some of their accessories such as the pewter or faux silver pieces and some of the mirrors and bedding, pillows. There is no doubt that TV is what changed the world. You can view the same programs around the world and people are so easily influenced by it. But I don't feel there is a hard line about what furnishings are in or out. I think cookie cutter neighborhoods are the result of builders coming in and throwing up a bunch of homes all at once. It's cheaper for them and less risky to stick with something they have had success with, they don't really care, they just want to sell them. I do lament the feeling that no matter where you go you could be anywhere with the malls all being the same, this holds true around the world actually. It's surreal to be overseas and see the same things in their malls! The one class I wish they would bring back to high schools is Home Economics. I learned to sew, design and cook, grocery plan and shop and how to write a check and balance a check book, etc., in home ec. Those are the things that helped me the most once I was out of my parents home and living in my own apartment going to college. Of course the core curriculum of the math and sciences did too but the practical truth of home ec really saved me. My high school was pretty good looking back on it even though it was a small town and county school. We had languages, art, art history, literature, writing, phys ed, Latin, speech, drama and home economics ~a lot of these things have gone by the wayside to make way for the almighty computer classes which I will never understand because you could teach computer in an afternoon. I will never understand all this emphasis on computer literacy especially since it becomes outdated so quickly. To actually think of giving up cursive writing classes because they don't have time for it? How is that possible? I'm sure it is frustrating for teachers as well.

Unopened mayo will still be perfectly good after the use-by date...at least a year, IME. Off topic but a good use for excess mayo is a topping for cauliflower. I nuke a whole (unbroken) head of cauliflower...in a pie plate with a couple tablespoons of water, Saran Wrap stretched over and sealed under the pie plate ...until it is almost done. Mix up 3/4-1 cup of mayo, a teaspoon or so of prepared mustard, dash of Worcestershire sauce and 1-2 T. finely minced onion. Remove Saran wrap from cooked cauliflower, spread the mayo mixture over the top of the cauliflower, add some grated Cheddar Cheese and return to the microwave...cooking until the cheese melts. This is one of our favorite ways to serve cauliflower; there are never any leftovers and it's rare that I manage even a tiny second helping between DS & DH. :(