Thank you all for your heartwarming words about Ruffin and the enormous milestone he reached today. My two angels are in bed (I also have a 3.5 year-old) and as I think about today, a date I'll remember forever (or until my brain gives out!), I just feel incredible warm fuzzies about his standing unaided and that step. The marble slabs / house remodel? Don't care. Doesn't matter. My sweet little button standing? I'm on top of the world!!! And you all totally understand. Thank you!!! Thank you, louisianapurchase, for telling me about your children and the work you did with your older son to help him overcome his fine motor issues. I just love hearing stories like yours -- I love hearing that children can and do get better. And thank you for writing that St. John (my older son) reminds you of your younger son! That's a nice compliment. mnhockeymom, holy cow that is remarkable about your son! Honestly, these medical professionals can scare the living daylights out of you (at least they have me with their earlier [mis]diagnoses of Ruffin) and to have heard the word "fatal" about one of your babies must have been incredibly frightening. I am so grateful your son is fine, healthy and "normal" for his age. When it comes to the health and welfare of our children, the world is a small place for people who care about children. I feel like holding hands with all the involved parents and singing "Kumbaya." I know it sounds goofy, but I just feel so connected to the other loving, concerned caregivers out there. I'm excited your countertops still give you a thrill -- since I am following your lead that'll hopefully be me later this year! katmandu -- I just have to tell you how much I like you! I'm so glad you joined GW. You wrote exactly what I'm feeling -- that Ruffin's steps are really all which matter to me. The countertops will be nice and the way this all happened (the rude lady, the "switched" slabs) was wrong, but keeping it in perspective, doesn't matter! Thank you, too, for telling me about when your children started walking. It is really helpful to my psyche to know that "normal" children (without delays / special needs) can and do start walking throughout their second year of life. Now about the marble: do keep it in mind when it's your turn. If it hadn't been for GWers who'd written out what to do for slab countertops (taking photos of your slabs as you pick them, being there when the templates are made, insisting on being there for the templates to be applied to the slabs and taking more pictures) I wouldn't have had the "proof" to both show others I was right as well as assuage myself! If I had to do it again you can bet I'd say to the first guy (with whom Ruffin and I selected our slabs): "Are you absolutely sure THESE are the slabs I'm going to get? Because THESE are the only slabs I want!" and then I'd check the claim tickets and make sure the numbers there matched up with the slabs I want. vwhippiechick -- reading your note brought (more) tears to my eyes! Bless you for all the incredible good you've given people. You truly are a miracle worker. I love (and I really mean "love" with my heart, not just a throw-away euphemism) all of Ruffin's therapists (physical, occupational and speech): these women, on a weekly basis, are vastly improving the quality of all of our lives (Ruffin's, mine, my older son's and my husband). You really are a miracle worker! You are 100% right -- marble? My little boy is improving!!! Your families are lucky to have you. Mindi -- you are so sweet. Thank you for your supportive words and advice. I loved reading your note, and a fine man like your son is exactly what this world needs! Yours is a kitchen I am going to be closely following -- you have such a fabulous aesthetic and with that marble -- that marble! -- it is going to be stunning. From an earlier note of yours, I want to say I can totally relate to your wardrobe: I pretty much live in black (don't feel comfortable in white -- I am incredibly fair and feel white washes me out, like a walking block of tofu!) and love "architectural" clothes (my mainstays are BabetteSF and Yohji, although since living covered by snot and cracker crumbs I wear more Eileen Fisher because I can wash it at home!). I think I'd love poking through your closet .... Ah Robin -- my virtual hand-holder. You give so much to so many of us here on GW. How are you? I worry that you don't receive as much as you give, and I don't want you feeling depleted. You are too valuable. You're too important to me! You have seen me go through it all -- beating myself up for yelling at my children, losing our beloved kitten (since, gratefully, found), getting a puppy (she's great!), these silly slabs, and now something wonderful: Ruffin! I'm so happy I could share something positive with you, friend. And thank you for the encouraging words about our kitchen. Listen, if my kitchen looks 1/88th as good as your kitchen then we'll be one lucky family! Maybe by virtual osmosis your good taste will rub off on me .... Hopefully the next time I post about our kitchen it will be to share pictures of things falling into place (doors / drawer fronts on, countertop installed, backsplash installed, appliances in / panels applied, and maybe one day, the whole kitchen done!). To a one, Thank You. -Brooke

If you are up this morning, feeling pretty good, except for maybe some monday blues, you are running probably 85/15. A loose healthy number, 85 being a healthy system having no problem dealing with 15% everyday bacteria. The numbers shift a bit if your system is working hard dealing with a 'bug', or the common cold. As a home cook, it is being responsible to make safe decisions if a family member is not feeling well. Or if cooking for a crowd. I remember the NYTimes article. Choices explained. The original question was answered and i think a good choice was made to dump it. Sure you can boil it over and over and 'kill' it. Killing any flavor or food value as well. Our chili was chilled quickly but i still give any re-heats a good time on the stove. We have all dealt with foodborne pathogens. Those little 6-24hr unexplained 'bugs'. Or just a grumbly stomach. Others are more obvious and memorable. I've had a few. Not from our home that i've traced. Usually having eaten something out or at work. Why i like to serve buffet style for a crowd keeping everything hot/cold. Or serve right from the warm oven, in smaller serving dishes, passed around the table that can be re-filled when empty. Ha ha. Mr Sleeven IS sleevendog. We signed up with his screen name when shopping for my garden hog tractor. I remember seeing the other forums, "oh look, cooking people..." 'Sleeven' is a sneaky rascal person in the Newfoundland dictionary. I actually think it has one 'e', as in sleven. Not only is it spelled wrong, it isn't even me. : ) I agree about the hand sanitizers. Creep texture and where does it go?...I don't mind seeing them all over though. I've been in many NYC elevators with sneezy walking flu bombs.

staceyneil - I wasn't referring to you - I was referring to people who called him foolish and dumb. Your post is right on. Acutally, like you, I suspect there's got to be some kind of end panel between the DW and the wall that the DW could be attached to - that's actually the best way to do it. When I had my DW installed a number of years ago, my GC expected the granite installers to drill holes - they refused unless we signed a waiver absolving them of responsibility and suggested that my GC glue a strip of wood to the counter. We were planning to do that until I read the DW manual and discovered that it could be attached to the side cabinets which is what we did. On the other hand, I got into a mildly heated discussion several months ago on this forum with a "high end" kitchen designer who insisted that the proper way to do it was to insist the stone people drill holes without any waivers and if they cracked the stone, then they would have to replace the counters. She claimed all the stone people she used would do this and that I must have used some cheap, fly-by-night installers, which was definitely not the case.

Mine is on the diagonal and I can say it does not look busy. The veining is irregular, too, though it mostly flows in one direction. My kitchen has a lot going on and that was one more thing! I fretted over that, but it's fine. I'm sure you've got great fabricators...but I didn't get the warm and fuzzies from mine so I insisted on seeing the templates laid on the stone as they planned to cut them BEFORE they actually cut them. It took 4 visits for them to get it right. I am very glad I made them take that extra step. I was adamant about the fact that I wanted all the flow to go in the same direction across the kitchen. Initially, they had everything laid on the marble every which way. If they had cut it like that, I would have had seams come together like a V and that's not how the stone flows. So it meant jockeying some pieces around. It seemed like an obvious request to me, but they thought I was crazy! You can stand in one corner and look across all perimeters and the islands and see that the veins of the stone all go the same way...not zigzag at seams. You may want the zigzags, however, so be sure you plan it out that way. Plan out your pieces on graph paper and shade in your "pattern." Cut and place your pieces like you want them. That's the only way it will flow the way YOU want. (In fact, I would scale counter cutouts to an 8 x 10 print of the slab and template the print!) I apologize if I'm overstepping my bounds and telling you something you already know! :) You have a gorgeous slab! I really hope you can capture that chunk of veining in the upper lefthand corner (island?)...and I hope you get a counter out of that mid-right to lower middle-running vein. Mmmm. Mmmm. Scrumptious!!