dcarch, The sea bass and scallops look delicious! I'd enjoy having that for dinner. I love the summer when DH is fishing frequently. DH and his buddies' tuna trip is scheduled for Sept. 9 this year. They'll go a couple hundred miles past Montauk. Boat is being readied now. What is that red/yellow striped tomato - is it Berkeley Tie Dye? If so, we've got lots of those this year. Beautiful and delicious. We will definitely plant them again next year. About the BER on Green Zebra - have you tried liming in late winter? This year's weather has been so unusual. Normally we get pretty consistent rainfall but this has been a boom or bust season, dry in the early part of summer and torrential tropical downpours every 8-10 days since the end of July. Our locations are so close geographicaly but Mystic's weather pattern is much different because of our location at the entrance to LIS. There's a permanent "stable air" mass overhead - fun to watch on radar, rain will seem to be overspreading all of NYC, LI, SECT and when it gets to the Mystic River just disappates...poof, gone. Yet, we still get about 55-58" annually. It's those ocean storms that nail us. Anyway, my guess is this year at least it's the very uneven rainfall that's led to BER for your Green Zebras. /tricia

Oh Leslie, you made me laugh! I think I'm a glutton for punishment. Actually this house has become a "making lemonade out of lemons" challenge. It's been one big problem after another, all unexpected, and now we're trying to play catch-up. Time, energy, money; it's demanding everything. We thought all we'd have to spend extra effort on was the kitchen. Boy were we wrong. This room, and the one next too it, are actually the least labor intensive of everything we're doing. We're going to be able to complete them ourselves, except for the little assistance we had from the electrician. I have a couple tiny streaks to touch up in the red corners and the office walls are finished! Today we've began painting in the "Sewing Room." Wes is priming the ceiling right now. This room will be light and airy; it has two windows, the walls will be a paler mix of Lavender Ice and the ceiling will be Lemon Freeze. Think a room inside an Easter Egg!

It's not the best paint, but it has gone on nicely. It's Valspar, from Lowe's, in a Martha Stewart color "Picnic Table Red, MS 003". The upper walls and ceiling are "Spool, MS 093", and the trim will probably be "Lemon Chiffon, MS 113". I have a couple tiny streaks to touch up in the red corners and the walls are finished! Today we've began painting in the "Sewing Room." DH is priming the ceiling right now. This room will be light and airy; it has two sunny windows, and will be painted with Benjamin Moore's Lavender Ice for the walls and Yellow Freeze for the ceiling.

Very nice! The kids are so sweet! Really very nice! Now you can get back to normal huh? It's a lot of work and stress to amke this all happen...relax now!