You don't need Japanese plants to make a Japanese garden. At the Japanese garden I work, we have lots of US natives as well as plants from Europe. Of course we do have Japanese maples of several varieties as well as some other plants from Japan. But I would suggest picking plants that work for area 1st and foremost. If I had to recommend some plants though I would choose small evergreen shrubs (yews, boxwood, holly, etc), GREEN Japanese maples, and evergreen trees such as pines, falsecypress, etc. Here is a link that might be useful: Some great green Japanese maples

First off let me say that I prefer Mini DV camcorders to the direct to DVD type. If you plan on editing you video then a Mini-dv will end up giving you a better quality result because it will stay uncompressed until you are done and ready to author the DVD. In the DVD camcorders you get MPEG compressed video on the disc so any editing will uncompress and then recompress resulting in lower quality. To answer your questions: 1. The mini dvd's are either DVD-R or DVD+R discs these differ not in the content on the disc from normal DVD's but in the actual disc itself. The recordable disc's both mini and full size use a color changing dye to record the bits of data while a normal dvd is a pressed layer. Most newer DVD players and DVD-ROM drives in PC's will read either format with no problems. However you can go to Video Help.com and look up your DVD Players, others have put in feedback about what type's of disc your player works with. 2. The CCD is the electronic device that actually converts the incoming light signal to the electronic format, the number value attached is typically a resolution number, the higher the resolution (pixel count) of the CCD the higher quality the captured visual information can look. There are higher end models that employ three CCD's to give an even higher resolution image. 3. Both digital camcorders (a sony and a panasonic) I have owned had this feature, its name varies by manufacuterer. 4. Nope no adapter is typically required. If you look closely at the tray there is normally an indention to hold the smaller disc's, this has been a standard back to the mini CD. 5. Sound sync issue you experienced is likely due to the way you captured the video/audio. You dont say much about it so I can only speculate. In any case the MiniDV and the DVD camcorders should not have this issue is setup properly. You can also go the videohelp website for tips on how to capture analog video and convert if you are still interested in that for you old tapes. 6. Dont know check the manufacturers specs for their camera. Are you certain that the Panasonic was mini VHC (VHS-C)?? If its miniDV then I think you need to reconsider a new camera and look at how you edited and converted the video to DVD, it should not have the problems you described. Here is an excellent camcorder buying guide at Cnet.com

I'm trying to select a grout color for some ostrich gray slate right now. I have another installed floor of the same variety of slate (though a different batch). I noticed on that floor the grout seems a bit lighter than the sample stick. When I discussed with my tile store, (they also do tile installation), I was told that grout between natural stone can sometimes be lighter because the natural stone sucks some of the moisture out of the grout as it's drying. Also, I have discovered that grout and tile (samples and actual installation) color will vary depending on time of day, natural vs artificial light, etc. I was hoping to grout this weekend, but decided to take a step back and make certain to see the grout color with the tile in daylight as well as with artificial light.

Post a picture of the house.