Thanks for the additional comments everyone! While there's no doubt that the Maris is a great looking toilet, it's really important to me that it functions well too! It sounds like the clogging issue might have beeen isolated to the floor-mounted Maris, but the streaking issue might affect both the floor-mounted and wall-mounted versions. Another issue I've read about the Maris is that "men don't fit it", meaning that a man's special member can touch the inside of the bowl while sitting (which would be plain gross). Is the bowl really shallow at the front? I'm going to get a second quote using the Aquia instead of the Maris since I don't read of the same problems related to the Aquia. numbersjunkie, when will your reno be complete? It would be great to hear your first-hand experience that can directly compare the Maris and the Aquia. My biggest fear is that the Aquia will suffer the same issues as the Maris :S Thanks!

My brother and 2 sisters and I had a blast planning my mother's 70th birthday party. We come from a very corny family that loves to sing together so keep that in mind when reading what we did. We all dressed the same--light green tops and white bottoms. Kids, spouses and grandkids. Why? Because we did a skit. It was fashioned after a Bill Cosby Show episode and was called, "When Mom Was my Age." It took quite a bit of research. We lined up oldest to youngest and stepped forward one by one to say, When Mom was my age the year was 1980. Ronald Regan had just been elected president for the first time, Charlie's Angels was the number one show on TV (here my sisters and I adopted the Charlie's Angels huddle with guns that's their 'trademark'), and a gallon of gas cost $1.10. Then the next youngest (my sister) stood forward. At one point we all hummed the theme from Star Wars, another point we all did the Hustle. We tried to get as much sound and movement into each person's fact recitation as possible. Each of us said 2 facts about the times and ended with the cost of a gallon of gas. It took a lot of prompting to get our 4 year old neice to say her lines at the end (a gallon of gas was around 24 cents) but the whole thing was a big hit. We also did a Powerpoint presentation to music. My mother's childhood photos to In My Life by the Beatles, her early married life to What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong, pictures of us growing up, getting married, the grandchildren to Through the Years by Kenny Rogers. On the tables we had small Hershey candies with computer made wrappers with photographs. For favors, each guest got a larger sized Hersey Bar with a photo of them with my mother at some point in life with the words, Thanks for sharing Connie's birthday. The table numbers were made from an enlarged black and white photo of her from a beauty pagent in her early 20's. We glued them to foam board, secured them to bases and put them out like a large paper doll holding a number and stood one on each table. My parents taught us songs to sing in the car for long rides. My siblings and I did a corny rendition of Down By the Old Mill Stream with fake moustaches after a funny story about how my father dealt with us in the car. My SIL made a big scrapbook with contributions from all the party guests. It took her over 6 months to gather the photos, stories and rememberences from everyone. My husband, a radio DJ, was MC and kept the day flowing smoothly. All in all, we had a terrific time. Everyone was entertained, well fed and my mother still brings the party up when we're together. She says she watches the DVD of the party every once in awhile, too.

All parties are ultimations...be there or miss the party :) Come on now, that does not mean "be there or miss the party and I'll never speak to you again" it just means the party is on Saturday and I'd love to see you, but if I don't we'll see you another time. :) The party takes place on whatever date it's set. I wouldn't call that an ultimatim, but maybe that's just me. I too cherish time with girlfriends W/O kids. I rarely get it (two days to date since my son was born) so it's a big deal for me. Just last night I invited my bunco girlfriends to come down for a bunco retreat at our new house sometime. I'll be leaving them and would love to have them come visit, but I didn't offer to foot the bill. It didn't even occur to me. And as said above, had it been reverse, me being invited, I'd almost have been insulted to have someone pay my bill for me unless there was a logical reason (and friends traveling to a casual party is not a logical reason). I know that of the twelve ladies I invited last night that maybe six or eight will attend. They are busy, and timing is always a challenge, and perhaps expense as well, but I won't be offended if someone does not join us for the weekend. I just want to see my friends and enjoy sharing my new home with them...not much different than wanting to share a special weekend (birthday) with friends really :) and nothing to get upset about.

Today is my gdtr's fifth birthday. Her parents rented a ballet studio for two hours and invited 20 kids. Afterwards, the family will gather at their home for dinner. The day will cost them at least $500. They have three kids. $1500 a year for birthday parties. Every time the kids go to a party, they spend $15 to $25 on a present. Currently, two of the kids go to at least two parties a month - the third is still a baby, but she'll start going to parties, probably next year! That's an additional $80 or so a month on presents. My gkids have so many toys and junk it's...well, I'm at a loss for words. Personally, I think it's ridiculous. We are always outdoing each other with presents and venues for kids' parties. This started long ago, when my kids were little. We had cake and pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey at home, and parents said things like "Oh, how cute." Then they rented halls for their kids' parties. I know I sound like an old crank, but I like to think that gifts have meaning beyond the WOW factor that lasts a few minutes. You never know what's going to tickle a kid. I am absolutely thrilled beyond words that my 2 1/2 yo gson latched on to the sweater I was wearing one day as his cuddle blanket several months ago. He sleeps with it. I can't possibly give him anything better than that.