Kathy, I tried looking up your name and didn't come back with anything. Is Deckie your shop name? I'll be fixing mine so that my signin screen name is my shop name and just not part of it. What do you sell on there? Jeanne! Oh yeah! I may have to delve into the photography as well. I see a lot of people who have photography. My cousin Amy is painting and has hers listed in her shop there. Hummmm, now where can I find MORE time for the photography?? Tasymo (another Kathy!), Well, I'm not sure. I guess it depends. You need to learn as you go for sure. Read tutorials-take some leave some. You definietly learn about a lot! SO, I got another sale last night! I won't say who or what because it's a surprise. I think it's a great purchase especially since they've been looking for awhile! :-) Thanks so much for all the encouragement! Ok, got to make things happen today. TTYL Love, Jules Here is a link that might be useful: Amy's ImpastoArt

Hi back at you all! Regarding Cinco de Mayo tables, if anyone else wants to do one along with OA and myself, let's look at that first week in May. Luvs, yes, it really is a week-long reunion . . . and it's wonderful! I'm the oldest of nine "kids" in a very close family. I'm also the executor of an inherited trust fund designed exclusively to fund annual reunions for my immediate family. My parents are eighty, in good shape and, of course, they come as well. They live in Florida on the Gulf most of the year, but have a summer place in Michigan where we were all born and raised. Six of my siblings still live in the area. So, with the trust fund money, we rent an entire small resort on Lake Huron in Michigan every summer for a week. It's actually just a group of wonderful cottages with our own private beach. Each family has it's own cottage (small, cute, very clean but not fancy by any means). And, since it's private and gated, our children (and now 2 great-grandkids) can safely run back and forth with their cousins. BTW, my folks have 23 grandkids, although by now they range from 31 down to age seven. Our aunts, uncles and cousins are invited for cookouts or afternoon visits, but this is really just a week for my immediate family, our spouses, kids and grandkids to get together by ourselves. It's a wonderful week, and more so because we all get along so well. No family feuds or bad apples . . . thank goodness! My job in organizing it, other than paying the bills for the resort, food, etc., is mainly planning day outings, golf outings and family dinners. We all eat together every evening on long picnic tables under the trees out back. We spend our mornings visiting back and forth, shopping in the little resort town nearby and golfing. Afternoons are always spent on our beach. We have a huge bonfire every night and take turns making appetizers to pass around, being a family with a number of chefs and a LOT of foodies. Yikes, I got carried away talking about it, sorry. It's just a special week each year that we all look forward to a lot.

Yuck -- I'm sorry it's already so far along. The way it sounds, the process has put the appraiser in the position of having to defend his work, so now, instead of simply (and quietly) being able to say "Thanks - these comps are much better than anything I was able to locate" (in the 2-3 hours his $150 cut of the fee fairly compensates him for) --- Well, now he looks bad to his superiors and has to either eat crow or discredit your comps... At one point in my career, I used to do some commercial appraisal work related to a specific industry. For this type of appraisal work, in-depth knowledge of the industry was critical, and 'ordinary' appraisal knowledge was insufficient; so in the course of my work, we came across a number of grossly incompetent appraisals. Even though we could show how and why they were wrong, getting them 'ignored' in the minds of the lenders was exceedingly difficult. The lenders want the appraisal as a CYA document. So ignoring a low appraisal -- even if it's proved to be faulty -- leaves them vulnerable. If the loan were to ever go bad, anyone could point to that [bad] low appraisal and criticize them for making the decision to lend. Your best bet might be to switch lenders...

Hey Calamity, I'm Canadian too! Slow, I think I would have to go check out a place called Electric Cowboy. You have far more get up and go than I do. You are so lucky to have found a handyman who will work in "bits and pieces" they are almost impossible to find here - doing good work at a fair price, in small "bits and pieces". We have HUGE bits and pieces coming, I found a great guy to do our whole renovation. We tried to have a yard sale this weekend. We had GREAT STUFF, but nobody came. The weather was "cold" at 55 degrees!! All that work to set everything up, then I had to pack it all into the van (I was determined to get it in there at one load) and we took it to the thrift store. Hubby spent the weekend dismantling an entire metal kitchen set from the 40's in which every element had been painted on several times. The patience that man displayed. I'd have been bored out of my TREE! But every plastic, chrome or bakelite piece had to be removed for stripping and powder coating or re-chroming. They did not tell us this until we got it all the way out to the coaters!! So back home again to take it all apart. I think I would have rather gone country dancing, lol :) GGG