My dh and two friends had the pleasure of meeting Anne and Max this spring. We spent a Sunday helping them in their garden. They are two of the warmest, most generous people with a great sense of humor. The garden is incredible with the soaring giants rambling through mature trees and enveloping the fences. Anne was kind enough to share cuttings and being a novice at rooting, I still managed to root some. The garden is a lot of work for them and they are most grateful for any help that is offered. While getting directions from Anne she warned us they had several dogs and so I came armed with doggy treats. Hercules would follow and smell out my pockets looking for more. He's a wonderful dog. Sorry to hear he's ill and hoping for the best. Krystyna and Gino

We have a small study (I think about 11'x13') in our new house and DH is determined to have built-in bookcases and desk done to finish the look. I know for the type of design we want, custom work is going to be beyond out budget (budget around $5k-$7k). So looking at some alternatives of quality hardwood modular home office collections online, I came up with these options: 1. Parker House Furniture - Da Vinci Collection (7 piece unit here and we'll add an outside corner piece separately: http://belfortfurniture.com/Item.aspx?ItemID=511270891&ItemNum=DAV-7P) 2. Aspen Home Furniture - They have a lot of different collections. Maybe something like this: http://www.aspenhome.net/default.aspx?tabid=223&pid=568. We want to stick with the peninsula desk design because having a stand-alone desk in that room looks way too crowded (seen it in my neighbor's house and didn't like it). We are open to any other brand that makes high quality configurable home office units, with more intricate design. And for the price we are paying, hopefully we are not going to end up with a bunch of MDF boards like Hooker Furniture uses (they were on my list before I learned about their quality issues). Many thanks for any suggestions! Here is a link that might be useful: Parker House

I don't know if these things are cheap or not. Two inch plastic that I had no idea that weren't wood until I tried to clean them! LOL Hate cleaning them with a passion. Most of them are for windows that are much longer than they are wide. I've been doing them in a laundry tub, 1/2 at a time. (Dunk one end, soak and scrub, then flip them around and do it again.) I have one set that just won't fit. Going to have to try a bathtub with that one. I've been using one of those 'ultimate duster cloths'. The dust on some just wipes off. On others where windows are sometimes open to the elements, they're stickier and actually dirty, so I'm scrubbing with it. The truly nasty ones, I'm soaking in detergent and bleach water. Had ten of those. And someday I'm going to replace the bulk of these puppies with other window coverings. Ones that I can either wash in a machine or send to a dry cleaners. Blinds are for the birds! I like the idea of that for a birthday present! Unfortunately my birthday isn't until April. LOL

Spenser and Hawk are old friends at our house. I can't endure Susan, though. Neither my husband or I warmed up to the new series. Yes, the books follow a familiar path. I don't want that in most books, but find it comforting that I can always count on Spenser and Hawk, changeless in a changing world. Rosefolly