I would not have recommended acrylic. We had an acrylic tub and surround that did not last. Acrylic has some disadvantages: - It is very brittle and will require support underneath to remove any possibility of flexing, which would make it crack over time. Our surround cracked within five years under very minimal use in an unsupported spot. - Be very careful to use ONLY recommended cleaners. I damaged the acrylic with a brand-name cleaner and ever afterwards, could not keep it looking good. It would look dirty within a week again. - Your salesperson is talking out of his hat. Acrylic is not quite as slippery as cast iron, but it is still slippery enough to be dangerous with water and soap. I'm actually very surprised the surface of your showerpan is not nubby-feeling. I thought all horizontal surfaces in mfg'ed tubs and showerpans were federally mandated to have a non-slip coating. It's usually a plastic overcoating with a "pebbled" feel underfoot that works very well against slippage.

With all the after Thanksgiving sales going on in the states (if that's where you are)I would check your local fliers for better deals. Keep the specs for that one and see if you can find another (Toshiba, HP, Acer) with same or better specs for less money

Hello again everyone. Just wanted to do an update. Well, DH was not able to keep the prep down at. all. He has rescheduled for next month. Dr. is going to try a different type of prep. DH is not the type to be afraid of procedures, he donates blood, & even had a colonoscopy 10 years ago. I'm a (currently unemployed) phlebotomist & I totally get that people have serious needle phobias. It might not be rational to those of us for who it is no big deal, but it's a serious, anxiety laden procedure for some. You have to have a lot of compassion with sensitive individuals like that. Heck, my irrational fear is flying so I'm a white-knuckle flyer, So, not everyone can physically & emotionally deal with every single thing thrown at them. I've seen a lot when I was the one drawing the blood. I was dx'd in July with CRVO.... central retinal vein occlusion that came out of nowhere. I lost some vision in my left eye & now I have to get injections IN MY EYE. Not fun, but I can do it. Now, if I had to go to the dentist and get a shot in my gums, you would see me running & screaming out of the dentist office. So, we all have our fears & phobias. LOL No one should be made to feel "less than" just because they fear a procedure--IT's NORMAL to not want to be poked & proded, imho. I've had 4 colonoscopies myself, so I kind of know the ropes. One of my preps was a breeze, & one other gag-inducing one--not so much. We also started earlier too, but he just couldn't get past the second step of liquid prep. On top of vomiting up the prep, he ended up with chills & fever & a horrific headache. It IS a shame that he will have to repeat this in a month, but we are hoping for a much more condusive (to his system--at least ) prep. To the poster wondering...He can't drink coffee or tea or any kind of carbonated drinks to begin with EXCEPT for Diet Coke, but did NOT drink that yesterday, due to the coloring. Everything needs to be clear as you mentioned. I had everything in place for him.... bottled water, jello, broth, popsicles, reading materials, juice with no pulp, extra TP, soothing wipes for a sore bottom, loose jogging pants for running to the commode (even a pair of Depends if needed) -- but even with the best-laid plans, when it came to keeping it down-- it just wasn't in the cards for him. I know the prep is a pain, but in my case during my second colonoscopy, 3 pre-cancerous polyps were removed & it may have saved my life. The small amount of discomfort for me was totally worth it. Kind of like having mammograms & pap smears etc.--not fun, but can be life-saving. Thanks again for your interest & all your thoughtful replies! Blessings, ~~ katclaws Will let you know how it "goes" (pun intended) next month!

I have grown Tatume here a couple of times. While it outcompetes squash bugs, the squash vine borers still can kill it in a year when they are really bad. I don't grow it any more because we liked the flavor/texture of Seminole harvested young (baseball to softball-sized) better than Tatume. It is a huge space hog too, and because I already grow 6-10 kinds of C. moschatas most years, the last thing I need is a space hog that isn't as tasty as they are. Bon, I couldn't help noticing how many of my favorite Texas horticulturalists (Sam Cotner, Malcom Beck, Howard Garrett) were in Howard Garrett's story about Malcom's pumpkin. (Mr. Garrett and Mr. Beck write extensively on organic gardening and all their books are excellent, and Mr. Cotner wrote THE book on growing Vegetables in Texas. I've worn out 3 copies of it and am on my 4th.) Jay White, by the way, writes regularly for Texas Gardener magazine (as does Greg Grant) and their articles and columns are the first ones I read when a new magazine arrives. It is a well-known and well-understood phenomenon that healthy plants grown in healthy soil are more disease tolerant and more pest tolerant than less healthy plants. When pests relentlessly attack plants, I try to figure out what it is about those specific plants that make them less healthy and, therefore, more alluring to pests and to diseases. Sometimes it is obvious to me because the plants under attack are growing in less healthy soil. Sometimes it is something much more subtle---like cool-season plants that are beginning to be subjected to hotter temperatures than they like. Howard Garrett makes a convincing argument for us to grow our brassicas in the fall only in this part of the country because they have less pests since they are less stressed in cooler conditions---and I believe he is right about that. And, there are some pests, like grasshoppers, that relentlessly attack everything still green in the hot summer months, whether the plants are healthy and happy are not. So, for every "rule" that we observe, their is an exception, and I find grasshoppers to be one of the exceptions to the rule that healthy plants in healthy soil are not attacked by pests and diseases. I grew up eating yellow summer squash for as far back as I can remember and nothing I've ever grown as a more pest-tolerant substitute for it is 100% acceptable. When I want yellow squash, I simply want yellow squash---nothing else will do. So, in order to have it, I just grow it in low tunnel rows under row cover and hand-pollinate it. I feel like I don't have to settle for less in my own garden, and growing Tatume instead of the yellow squash I really want is, indeed, settling for less. You'll never know how you feel about Tatume until you grow it yourself. I just wasn't crazy about the flavor and didn't find it to be a really heavy producer either. To be fair to Tatume, it never will look like a heavy producer when it is grown adjacent to Seminole because Seminole outproduces it (and everything else) every single time. There is a reason Seminole is a perennial fave in our garden----it is beaten everything else for about 15 years now, and that track record is hard to break. It has been around forever....I can remember it being on seed racks in Texas when I was a child, although I think then it likely was sold as Calabacita, because that is the name that pops into my head every time I see a packet of the seeds. For squash vine borer tolerance or resistance, as George noted, C. moschatas will win every time and, for me, the C. agyrospermas like White Cushaw, Green-Striped Cushaw and Orange-Striped Cushaw are in second place. Tatume might come in third, or actually, a distant fourth behind every kind of yellow summer squash that exists when grown under row cover. YMMV. You can grow any squash or pumpkin you want if only you'll grow them under summerweight row cover, tulle netting, mosquito netting, etc. and hand-pollinate. Does it take longer and a bit more effort? Sure it does, but it is worth it to avoid the heartbreak of losing plants to the dastardly SVBs. Dawn