Hi All, Your "Rascal" sounds pretty smart, Janie. Your description of his smiley-faced tactics made me laugh. And yes, I did get a sweet dog. I got my new dog on April 19th and new rabbits on April 17th, and between the rabbits and the dog, plus going back to work after being on vacation, and starting obedience training, I've not had much time to post here. The new dog is named Pearl. (I didn't have the heart to change her name since she'd already been through many changes.) She is a 2-1/2 to 3 y/o short-haired merle Australian Shepherd mix who looks very much like a farm dog with a bobbed tail. She is a LOVING dog who wants to be in your lap even though she weighs 40 lbs. She was originally at the local city shelter where, from my understanding, she was given up along with 8 puppies or maybe she was pregnant when they gave her up. The puppies, of course, went first and then a dog rescue group took Pearl.--I'm not sure if she was on the shelter's euthansia list or not. According to the rescue group, Pearl really mourned her puppies and consequently "adopted" a young three month old rescued puppy as her own. The rescue group believed Pearl was abused, and this may be the case because sometimes she will just cower when you approach her as if she expects you to beat her. On the other hand, Pearl is FULL of life. She practically dances when I let her out of her crate. (She is in her crate for 4 hours at a time when I'm at work. I come home for lunch.) Pearl's also filled with energy and wants to garden, but she hasn't figured out what she wants to plant yet. (I've put up a low wire fence around my blackberries to protect them, and she's decided to dig elsewhere.) I decided after having her a week that she would benefit tremendously from obedience classes. She's the kind of dog who needs something to do. (I didn't realize this about the Aussie breed.) Anyway, she is responsive to commands and just in the month I've had her, she's learned to sit, lie down, wait for her food, and "settle," which means to lie on her side. This week, we're working on the commands of "stay" and walking on a leash without pulling you down the street. Finally, Pearl's a little possessive when it comes to sharing me with my older dog, so I find time when Pearl is occuppied elsewhere to give some one-on-one to my older dog. They play together though and the older dog, Scallywag, tolerates Pearl. All in all, I think Pearl is a good addition to this house.

No I do not have any belief that abuse happened. My dad has always been like this with my sister for two reasons. 1-her mom died when she was young and he thinks that he is doing her good by always letting her do what she wants. 2-he likes drama and wants to be in the middle of everything! Today my dad "attempted" to make up with me in time to come to my house for Thanksgiving. He had my sm call me and tell me that if I just let this go and never speak of it again it can end! LMFAO I told her that I am unable to accept that whenever my sister is mad that my dad feels the need to jump in the problem and get involved. I said that I asked him to stay out of it and instead he was nasty to me and would only listen to my sisters side of it all. And when my sister went overboard and I tried to talk to him he told me to leave him out of it. And from the very beginning he said he was not coming to my home to celebrate my youngest sisters bday as a way of proving his loyalty to my other sister or something! I said that I could not let these things go without an apology. My dad told her to tell me that I had a choice....either be right or be happy. I said that I am sick of the way he always jumps on my sisters side and tries to play hero for her. And he was dead wrong in deciding not to celebrate my youngest sisters bday with me and my kids because my other sister was mad at me. And I said I can not just let it go and pretend it did not happen. She repeated it all to my dad who then told her to tell me to "go to he77"

Oh, thanks for this today.....I can't understand the Best Buy ads any more! (I'll have to remember that "bi-sacksual" term.)

Thanks everyone I think the reason I find it so funny is that he was seriously just supposed to finish patching a hole in the middle of the ceiling nowhere near the cabinets so I figured that he would hang the plastic from the ceiling but not taped all around. @romy718 the countertops are called New Superwhite they are a quartzite/marble I'm treating it as marble as it doesn't stain and it kinda scratched glass but it def etched. I'm a little hesitant to post finished kitchen pics when it's done as I know my layout is not totally recommended here but it was what worked for us.