Thanks for all of the compliments!! Also....thanks for being impressed by my carrot, but did you read it was "styrofoam?" Not too difficult to shape, other than static cling with all the little pieces, LOL I did know better than to use spray paint after the warnings on here!! Karen, we tried to play golf in Sedona after Christmas, but the snowstorm decided to visit the same time as we did, : ( We actually have had very little snow in Denver, just enough to keep the courses closed. Then it melts and the weather looks good, and whamo, another couple of inches! It is supposed to be back in the 50's tomorrow and Thurs., so maybe this weekend..... The mountains are a different story, they have had several feet of snow this winter!! Great for skiing, but I would rather play golf. It was a fun table to create. I have been planning it since I found the snowman mugs and the hat. I am using my wedding china more now for tablescapes, than when I was actually eating off of it!! Glad you enjoyed it. TTFN, Candy

I'm going to keep the pointy end heading the same (sorry, that's boater's venacular) for a minute. Americans desire for "perfect" looking food is also partly what's driving the heavy use of pesticides & herbicides. Americans are consumed with "looks" over substance. Farmers use more & more 'cides to create prettier products. They plant seeds that ship easier & stay looking pretty over those that taste good and, maybe, even offer better nutrition. Sure, there are also economical benefits to the 'cides mass agri-business uses such as more product per acre but we can't lay ALL THE BLAME of those awful strawberries on them. We want inexpensive, plentiful, & pretty food but we, in general, are unwilling to pay for the quality we expect. It's a vicious cycle. We decide we're going to eat local & organic. So, off we go to the farmer's market. Hmmm, the organic apple doesn't look pretty & is smaller than the apples at the other non-organic stand plus it's half the price. Which do we purchase? Pretty? Healthy? We each choose. My two local grocery stores do not offer bruised produce. It is thrown away in black bags as shown in the video. Heck, here there's not even a "mark down" meat section like I've read others describe here on the forum. If it's pulled from the shelves - it's trash, period. We live with the sea every day. We are long distance, deep water boaters. We are fisherman. It's ridiculous to say that a lobster MUST be alive at the time of cooking to be safe to eat. But, since most Americans do not have much hands-on experience with seafood...it's good advice to follow. Lobster spoils very rapidly after death & the ensuing bacteria build-up can make you ill. But, I assure you, if something goes wrong in emptying one of our traps & a lobster dies - we do not feed it to the gulls. We'd be rightly laughed out of town if we suggested such a thing. That's waste - pure & simple. But, when I lived in Denver there was no way I'd purchase a dead lobster because I had no personal way of knowing when death occured. In general, IMO, a lobster's good for a day properly refrigerated. Some will still cook at two days but I've got a compromised immune system so am persnickity. If a fresh fish smells like ammonia it's probably starting to rot. As with most things, there are exceptions. (Skate being one.) But, again, it's good general practice to not eat fish that's starting to smell of ammonia. Should smell slightly briney, like the sea. If DH brought home fish yesterday, or the day before, & it had a slight aroma - would I still cook it? Yes, & I'd do as John has suggested - wash it in lemon juice. It's surface bacteria. BUT, I know exactly when, where, etc. that fish was caught, how it was cleaned, how it was held, & how it was stored. Makes a big difference. And I still say that everybody that owns a home should have a compost pile to avoid waste even if the resulting compost is used on the roses instead of a veggie garden. Recycling rotted produce from the refrigerator to the earth is the environmentally sound thing to do. Also, if every year you top off your gardens with 4-6" of leaf mould, compost, & manure you will not need to purchase/use commercial fertilizers except for pots. You'll have less garbage that needs hauling away, the city trucks will use less gas, & you won't need to buy as many bags. Win-win. :) Sorry 'bout the compost lecture but it's something I believe most Americans can easily do & don't. /tricia

"It is easy when you have the right tools" Mostly the right tools. A smallk propone cylinder with a torch head screwed directly onto it is one of the worst things. Everything works adequately on 1/2 inch pipes, and maybe 3/4 inch pipe with two joints on a fitting. A 3/4 inch T is very difficult with an inadequate torch. The flux burns out of the third joint as the other two are completed. The lead free solder is a little harder to work with (it does not flow as easily as lead based solder) but has gotten better over the past 5-10 years with improved alloys (a very small amount of silver is one of the additions). If you are very green at seating pipe a plumber might be worth the price to avoid any chance of damaging the surround.

Thanks for the suggestions, All. I appreciate your posts! An offline friend I saw this morning told me something which I looked up, and I think she might be right. Usually when you talk about chocolate seizing, it happens after it melts. Going by what you've all said about the humidity/temperature, and what chocolate is like when it seizes, I'm thinking that it's a matter of hitting that once (un)sweet spot, where the chocolate skips the melting and goes right to seized. Seized is what happens when it's too hot, so knowing the oven was accurate, or if anything cool from opening the door, I'm guessing that there's a certain point where there's something akin to a triple point for it, where the moisture is off or something, and it just seizes. Or something like that. Lucky I bought extra supplies. I now have 3.5 qts. of the good stuff crowding my fridge. :) Thank-you all! Jasdip, thanks for the kind words. Now I have a happy-face to take on yet another trip to the store! JC