Hi Everyone!!!!!!!!!!! ok, I just set a personal record, I have managed to get here to the forum 2 times in 3 days, wow!!! (grins) Hope everyone had a lovely Easter that was filled with love, laughter, family and friends. Karen, I meant to say how sorry I was to hear about both your kids and your medicine ball.(and you with the horse) And to apologise for laughing so hard when I read it. I know it isn't funny, but I just couldn't help myself, you made it sound hysterically funny the way you wrote it. Guess I have a warped sense of humor. But, I am very glad all of you are ok now. hugs. Dawn, No, I never got it. Did you get my change of e-mail? Debbie has the new one in the latest member list. hugs Dianne, I am so sorry to hear that. But, on the bright side, now you will have a lovely new kitchen. So, keep your chin up and focus on that. Wish we lived closer, I have gained lots of weight since my mom passed, and I have decided this is the year I am going to lose it again.If we lived closer, we could walk together. Also sorry to hear about your DH. Your hubby and mine must be related. Gene got his finger with the table saw late last summer. Doc said he exploded the bone in the tip of his finger (index, left hand)And, yes you might have to hire someone to watch him. I have often felt that way myself. They somehow manage to get into all kinds of trouble when we aren't around. What is that all about anyways? We have so got to get together this summer. I know we talked about it before, then my life went off to Jupiter. But, we are back on earth now, so we really need to make plans to meet. Maybe we could meet halfway, and go to lunch, or plan a picnic or something. (and maybe a small sidetrip to a nursery, grins) We had a great Easter. DD and I worked on Alex new bedroom. Cleaned it out, painted all the walls. She will finish up the trim today. Then we will be putting the furniture in. We are making the bed, it will be built in, with "walls", so it will kinda look like you are going in a door to get into it. Drawers underneath for storage. A small desk with lots of shelves on both sides and recessed lights over it for when he is older, so he can draw, paint, do homework. Also, a built in closet. Right now it will be decorated with Scooby Doo, cause he really loves him, but we have been buying "sports" themed things for later on. We were lucky and found a super cute ceiling light with sports balls around the outside of the glass, too cute. All of our other grandchildren will be over tonight for dinner and to get their Easter baskets. We make all the childrens baskets out of new large bath towels wrapped around a large strip of cardboard, then we fill them with goodies. It is a great alternative to baskets, cause they always wanted to take them home and never remembered to bring them back, so they were really piling up. And, the towels are way more useful. We just make sure to buy them in each kids favorite color, and...

Down...........

I can contribute some German perspective. The standard in Germany is to take your kitchen with you when you move, so most of their kitchen designs have a modular quality to them. Then there's that pervasively sleek Bauhaus influence that feels more historically "natural" in Germany, and less superimposed, than elsewhere. The Germans have a very strong tradition of functional/ergonomic kitchen design, going back to the socially-aware 1920's and efforts to improve worker housing. Read all about the famous Frankfurt Kitchen here and here. (Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky was Austria's answer to Lillian Gilbreth.) But then there's also the traditional German aesthetic of cuckoo clocks, carved wood, breakfast nooks and enormous tiled ovens. It's a class issue, as these things often are -- so you see far less of the cuckoo clocks and more of the sleek Bulthaupt in the kitchen porn mags. Germany has smaller habitat spaces than the US in general. Appliances are smaller than the US norm and the standard refrigerator is an under-counter model about the size of an American dishwasher. (This makes the perennial GW question of where to place the honkin' huge fridge irrelevant for most Germans.) Perusing the latest kitchen design mags for Germany, Austria, Switzerland (all one market), I do notice a few things of interest. --> They are not as in love with upper cabinets as Americans. And when they do have them, they tend to be the lift-open type rather than the side-hinged ones we're familiar with here. --> Germans are not afraid of color, and their combinations are not always what we see here. Check out the violet purple cabs with pumpkin accents: Or purple and black: Pistachio and gray: --> But when they do white, they do WHITE: --> Germans, like most Europeans, don't drink tap water. They haul bottled water and beverages home by the case every week, requiring kitchens to provide space for the cases: --> Tiered electric food steamers are the new appliance non plus ultra. Here from Miele: --> Small spaces lead to more innovation. It's like IKEA meets the '20's bungalow kitchen. Because they seldom use wood for cabinetry, they can do some interesting things with doors and corners: --> They're also inordinately fond of large walls of cabinets -- they prioritize storage over prep space:

Time & Date - world clock, time zones, info on holidays celebrated around the world, etc. http://www.timeanddate.com/