amck, I don't have any of the blackened pieces, but am lusting a little over their wide ladle. The ladle I have has the holes, so I wouldn't mind having one without them. I'm certain the quality is very good across the board, for any of their pieces. Enjoy your new utensils, and don't forget to let us know how you like them! Carol, are you left handed? I know you'll like them as well. They have some of the fastest shipping I've ever experienced. Wait till you hold them in your hand. You won't want to put them down!

Thank You ALL! I thought you might like to see what I woke up to this morning. This was made by my husband, who used to be The Reluctant Baker; now he is The Accomplished Baker. I think he did an excellent job for a guy who only attempts this once a year. The cake is four layers, the pecans are toasted, and he does it all now by himself. He only asked me one question yesterday, ''Should I use cake flour or regular flour?'' What a guy. (I'm sorry I haven't worked from Sharon's incredible tutorial yet, but it's on my list for the coming year. The photo is only a matter of record you see!) The best gift I received was a kiss from my sweet dog, who is still with us! She's stingy with kisses, so that was a big deal. The bigger deal is that she seems healthy and happy, which I think is because of all of you. (Remember, ''Please Say a Prayer for Luna''?) She was here for both our birthdays this year. It's six months later after her ''aggressive cancer'' diagnosis so this is a huge gift. Here is a recent picture, and another from when we took her swimming (her favorite thing to do). I appreciate all of you and count you among my blessings.

Thank you ALL! How nice to see Birthday Greetings when I checked in this afternoon! I had a lovely day...the weather was delightfully crisp and cool, my dh baked our traditional German Chocolate cake and gave me my own personal gps. (The cake is delicious, and now he has all the important cake baking secrets and tips. In fact, he thanked me for sharing them, and said baking was kind of fun this year. We figured he's been making that cake for the last 12 years, and he's finally comfortable with the process after a dozen practice sessions, I guess.) I'm very impressed with him as he toasted pecans, split two layers into four, cooked the icing and cooled it until it was ready to frost the cake, and set wax paper strips around the cake to keep the goo off the cake plate. He only asked me one question about it this year, and that was ''how long?'' to keep the cake in the freezer until he should split each layer into two. I'm loving that he's turned into a baker, and not even a reluctant one! I gave him a gps last year that we shared, and I secretly think he wanted to keep it all to himself! Seriously though, I'm the one who is constantly known to always ''miss the exit'' so now I have no excuse. I'll accept all help given, and appreciate it too. Thank you my old (and new) friends, fellow Scorpios, candy and flower givers! I love Angel's Trumpet Sharon...how did you know?

This is a great thread. We're not remodeling but building a new house, and man, can I relate to a lot of these. ...you know every lighting fixture, faucet, sink, appliance by memory because you have endlessly researched each one. you freak out your own GC because you can discuss minute details about your house/kitchen from memory down to the 1/8". you have more e-mails from your GC/subs than you do from your friends. you wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat about some critical detail and then go downstairs to e-mail your GC about it right at the moment before you forget.