Agree with 3 strikes and you are out ------ don't necessarily follow it. After 2 strikes I take pause and try to find out as much as possible about the natural environment of the failing plant. I also try to identify a grower who successfully grows them. I have tried over and over again with Dendrobium cuthbersonii and have always failed . So I finally talked to Tom Perlite from Golden Gate Orchids who grows these things like I grow Dandelion and got some hints from him. Now it takes me 2 years to kill them instead of one. I have finally given up on these little beauties. Dendrobium nobile is another example. No matter how closely I follow the instructions as to how to grow them, winter rest etc, I cannot get a decent bloom. Either they don't bloom or they make a few lackluster blooms. So I finally talked to the grower in Hawaii who is the source of most of the commercial nobiles you see on the market every spring. Success, last spring all 3 of mine bloomed ------------ with a few lackluster flowers! Enough, they went on the plant table of my society and I'm done with them. Miltoniopsis; Killed every one of them in the past. Finally talked to Theresa Hill form Hillcrest Orchids who grows beautiful Miltoniopsis. Her advice was simple, keep them cool in the summer, warm in the winter, they like to be within 5F of 60F. Doing this I am now growing them successfully, meaning the plant is increasing in size. Last year they even bloomed, one or two spikes on a large plant. That should have been 10 spikes or more. So I'm not there yet and unless they pick it up may also give up on them but not yet. Parvisepalum Paphiopedeliums: I just got started with these so have no failures to report. Go to the Gallery where you see an entry I placed yesterday of my first success with Paph armeniacum. They also have a reputation of being a little difficult and I had a discussion with Dr Holger Perner at the San Francisco show who thinks most people are growing them wrong. Most people treat them as cold growers. True in the winter but not true in the summer. In their natural habitat, the ones from China get treated to a bright, sunny, cold, dry winter and a shady, hot, humid and very wet summer. The result of the monsoon season there. So unlike Dracula who should be kept as cold as possible in the summer, these Paphs should go in the warm greenhouse and drenched every day. Since there are 35,000 species of orchids available, I generally don't mess with ones that don't like me. My greenhouse is full of robustly growing plants. Not because I'm a genius but because that is the price they have to pay in order to stay. If a plant lingers, grows poorly and fails to bloom, I will get rid of it. Visitors to my growing area think I do magic because most plants look very healthy when in fact it is a process of throwing them against the wall and if they don't stick, they don't stay. There are innumerable others to replace...

Mr Kapaun, my most humble apology. I am not computer literate, yet, so I was not aware the two items I sent were not to be together for the readers. I had the filler cap off while I was cranking the engine over to get the gasoline out of the cylinder. That's when the air/oil residue came out the filler. It would appear I need to seek a repair person locally to fix the engine, as I am having a difficult time putting in words what the engine problem is. Again, to all, I apologize for my making two entries on the same problem. Thank you all so much.

Thanks Sierra. I thought later that that was probably what happened. I had been on PB yesterday making a new album. Northspruce: Gladys Campbell is my only double. I thought I didn't like doubles but I bought her to try and see how it was. When I bought her I was told she doesn't always come up double but she always has for me, I've had her for 2 years. The picture doesn't really show the full double, she gets fuller as she gets older. I think I may just have to get some more doubles!

Holly-kay, in my mind you are the hardware goddess of GW; I understood what you meant, no worries! Romy718, if it was just me, I would go all knobs on the uppers. But I am taking dh's wishes into consideration, a little, and I do like the look of my pulls in a vertical position. I have them that way on pullouts and the few lower doors. I could certainly be wrong - I have been spectacularly wrong on hardware so far! Rococogurl, you are likely right. But I just couldn't get those knobs out of my head! I am worried this may be one of Jakuvall's "don't let a good idea ruin a design - use it next time" examples. I may send those knobs back and pay the restocking fee...or decide to use them in my bedroom...or just put them in my kitchen and know that while I love them no one else sees them the same way. I don't think I'm going to have a "next time" in remodeling a kitchen. I'm quite interested in how design elements successfully migrate from different rooms - I think lots of people first see mop (and my mop mosaic) as "bathroomy" and my GC was appalled by the idea of glass knobs in my kitchen - he said they are good for tween girls and strippers, lol! People with my level of talent really ought to just follow design rules and use experts. Winston Churchill once said that American will always do the right thing, after exhausting all other possibilities. Call me patriotic, I've got the "exhausting all other possibilities" part down pat!