Hi all, kind of new to this forum. I might have posted last year, but I don't recall. Anyway, we have app. 2/3 acre here behind deer fence, with all the rest (woods, fields, pond) not. As you've probably assumed, the fenced-in area is for my good stuff -- my daylily collection, hostas, and new-to-me veg garden. (Never have had one before.) At one end of the fenced area is a smallish barn -- with a nice little burrow letting out into my garden. One of the windows in my home office looks out onto the garden, and all this summer, I watched the resident woodchuck waddle out and start eating. He started with my broccoli before I knew he was there. I won't kill an animal, and I didn't have a Hav-a-Heart trap, so he (she? it?) and I immediately came to an understanding. He/she/it can eat all the grass, clover, and chickweed he/she/it wants. The daylilies, hostas, and veg are mine. And it's worked very well, probably because there is so much grass here. If he/she/it starts waddling too closely to the veg bed, I make a big to-do on the patio, jumping up and down & yelling. He/she/it immediately makes for the burrow. Yes I know, someone here's going to tell me it's just a matter of time before the thing destroys my garden, and I take to extreme measures. Nope, I'm with the Marsha who leaves unmowed grass and a natural buffet buffer for critters. If necessary, I'll buy a Hav-a-Heart trap, catch the thing, and release it in the state park down at the end of our lane. Anyway, maybe there's a lot of joking on this thread, but I am not reading through the whole thing to find out. :))) So my comments are actually pretty serious ones. Anyway again, I can't worry about one fat woodchuck -- not when I have mice behind the walls here and in the pantry and two cats who are sleeping on the job!

thats why i lease mine, dont want the headaches after the warranty runs out. still cant get mine fixed right, but at least its under warranty, they pay for it and give me a car to drive. cant be easy on the private repair guys, dont know how anyone would be able to keep up, not to mention the cost of test equipment, thats old news b-4 its paid off. good thing the place i`am retiring to in fla., i could get by without a car. because it looks to me like car ownership is going to be a luxury for the rich in the not to near future.

OA, I have to admit that not much thot went into this. It just kinda quickly evolved in a few minutes from what was close at hand. A warning about the transferware - once you find a few pieces you will likely want more! I started with a few plates to use on the wall and now I want sets of the stuff. I even find myself buying chipped and crazed pieces altho don't usually buy other damaged things. The right hand setting is where I sit so do hope that's the winner! Jeanne, sorry you have bad memories of this game, I can understand. We're late to discovering this game altho my parents always played and DH and I have played many card games. He's much better at cards than I am and I can't take card games very seriously unlike Scrabble. Luvs, my DH is a pretty laid back guy and could care less what I buy. His only concern is "where will you store it" as it sometimes means moving the furniture or getting more. LOL Karen, the turntable we use for Scrabble is one of the few things there that's not a YS find. I used to use it on the table for condiments but it's even more useful for the Scrabble board. Lynn, I didn't know the new boards come on a lazy susan. Mine is one I've had for years and the Scrabble game is from a yard sale. Funny thing is long before DH and I started playing Scrabble I only had my parents old well-used set. I wanted to do crafts with the tiles but wanted to keep their set 'for posterity' so watched for them at yard sales. Never saw even one for a couple of years then all at once found about 4 sets for $2 or less each. So I've used one for a craft, then we started to play and now keep one in the RV and one in the house. Thanks Kathleen! Frou, most of my 'play' settings are practical as are my company settings. I've spent my lifetime being practical and likely will never change! I do enjoy looking at the really fancy ones but doubt I could do one.

When I did a hang out room for the kids years ago I did it with the thoughts that all tops needed to be nearly bullet proof, the sofa had to be leather so I could clean it, I would revamp used things so I would not worry about things getting destroyed and the room had to be suitable for adults as well. I do not have a picture of the sofa area on the other side because that area is now an office but the sofa was leather and matched the drapes (and hit dirt). Those bar tables on each back corner were rusty and used so I painted the base stalk to match the used bar stool bases and added glass mosaics to the bottom and painted the tops adding several coats of poly. The picture frame came from a thrift store and I added my own mixed media art on top of an old painting I also painted the other picture. The room would only take a small pool table, I bought it used for $150 and had it re-felted. The coffee table near the sofa came from a garage sale and I added a bullet proof granite top. On top of the coffee table was a very cool antique brass chess set (from a garage sale). I also had two ottomans near the sofa and coffee table in reds, raisin , purple and teal tapestry fabric for extra seating and also because it would not hamper the pool playing in limited space. From that area (sofa) you could view a wall mounted TV for sports. So, even though the room was not large I still had areas, areas for game playing and TV watching, areas for snacks, and the center for pool playing.