here's my .02 cents- Calacutta/Calacotta (you say po-TATE-Oh, I say po-TOT-oh, actually I say "spud") is a MARBLE - with the majority of the stone being CALCIUM... Calcium reacts with ANY form of ACID - lemon,lime,tomatoe/tomatto,grapefruit, and anything else that has acid in it... Are you using this in a kitchen application? if so, I would STRONGLY (in the most professional sense of the word) ADVISE YOU to consider having a "textured" surface - aka: honed, leathered, antiqued..etc I did a podcast at Natural Stone 101.com (actually two on the same subject) that talks about the issue of acid etching of polished marble, textured surfaces, and sealing the stone to help retard the potential of staining... hope that helps y kevin

I am hopeless when it comes to doing anything with yarn and needles or hooks, I have tried and I just cannot get past the awkwardness of it all, I become fumblefingers. So I gave up trying, I knew if I needed something knitted or crocheted, I could get Mum to do it for me, or find someone other sucker, er, friend to help me out! lol And I think tiny stockings might be harder than full-sized ones. I could sew some, but I think the knitted ones are just so precious. Thanks, Janie, for the offer. Send it to the Buzzard, though, because she's going to need it! Buzzy, watch yer mail, yarn is heading your way. Thanks for giving it a good home.

I had a horrible day with my computer as well!! I checked my emails and saw that all of them were dated 2010. All the 2011 emails were gone...I checked the "deleted" folder and nothing there either. I looked in the other folders..nothing. I checked C drive, program files, Outlook..nothing. After a couple of hours of this, I called my server tech. He said he'd check my account and see if they were still on the server...NO. He said I (or someone else) had to have deleted the emails, therefore putting them into the deleted folder. Then deleted them from the deleted folder, thus deleting them from the server..permanently. I absolutely did not do that!! DH said, "Well, maybe you did it and forgot." I can't even tell you my reply. :( I do delete the unnecessary emails as I read them. I flag the ones I need to save. I publish a monthly newsletter for our little city and have people who write some of the columns for me via emails. I try very hard to get the paper out by the end of the month with the details of activities for the following month. So as I was preparing to start the paper for January, my writers had emailed their articles. See? Now I'm rambling, of course. The episode ended about 4 p.m. with 2 Excedrins, coffee and a nap. Pulled the cover over my head and decided I'd surface next year. But, oh no, someone mentioned that Christmas had not come yet. Deep breath...I am now wrapping zillions of gifts, preparing bedrooms for DD and grands who will come home with us after Christmas & making cookies. Yep, all at one time. No stress...

Hey, Houzzers, From a basement remodeler who is sadder but wiser, my advice to those who live in wet climates and who are thinking of finishing their basements is: Get to know and understand your home’s water drainage system. I learned by trial and error two drainage issues (and I am sure there is more to learn. I am just a hapless homeowner who is just learning about all this the hard way) so check with your professional for your own drainage situation and needs. Before you even think about doing your basement remodel: 1) Check your gutters and downspouts to make sure they are all using the advantages of gravity and that they are not sagging and that they are connected to drain pipes and draining properly and away from the house. Much of your home’s roof drainage system is likely unseen and underground. Make sure the ‘daylight’ end of the drain piping (piping that is likely connected to your downspouts underground and which runs out in the yard and that drains by gravity) is in tact and clear of debris. I didn’t even realize we had such drains out in our yard and we paid dearly for our ignorance when the drain pipes were blocked by leaves and soil And by the yard guys collapsing them by running over them with their trucks. We had to have “The Underground Detective” come in and help us find our drain lines—a very helpful guy, btw. 2) Be sure your sump pump system is in order, including a back up pump or battery or generator for storm outages or other failures. Additionally, if you don’t have a sump pump consider if you might want/need one (for our house we need two—one on each end of the basement). Secondly, find your exit drain pipe for your “footer drains” and/or sump pump (if you have a sump pump). I don’t know much about sump pump drainage because we don’t have one yet (we are getting them installed after 20 years of living here) but I am sure they have an exit drain, either separate or connected to your “footer drain” set up. These footer drains (which if you, like me, may not realize you have) are situated eight or so feet just underneath your foundation. They have at least one exit drain for overflow water that typically works by gravity or a pump and goes out in to the yard or maybe to your sewer system. This footer drain pipe should be separate from your roof gutter system drain pipes which I wrote about above, so that in the case one exit pipe gets clogged the other is not affected. Depending on the quality of materials used in your footer drains they may have corroded or be on the verge of corroding if your house is older (ours was built in 1991) as ours did. 3). If you are on a septic system, as we are, be sure to get your tanks pumped out regularly if you have tanks. I am sure there are different kinds of septic systems—ours uses tanks. My neighbor has lived in her house for ten years and never had her tanks pumped (ignorance again) and had her basement ruined by a horrible back up. (At least we knew enough to get ours pumped.) As I said, we are learning the hard way about our home’s drainage system. After twenty years of living here and having not so much as one drop of water come in to our basement, in 2018 during a winter of heavy rain we totally remodeled our basement, and after eight months of work, on the day the contractors were leaving, our basement flooded! We sustained major damage. The cause was poor gutter drain connections and blocked up exit drains for the roof system and footer drains around the house. A very very expensive mistake made out of ignorance. (Sob). Please don’t be ignorant and pay such a price like we are paying—pls inspect your drain systems and understand how they work.