Pesky; just looked Kyron up; he's a few years older then this little guy- looks like Kyron lost his baby teeth. What a horrible story. Dlm- I will never understand why people do what his mom did. It breaks my heart that he's probably with someone & he has no clue what's going on. The sneakers threw me over the edge too. How many little boys do you know that wore similar sneakers? The news conference video is pretty good except you can't hear the questions reporters asked. It sounds like they are going to try to match his DNA with people already on other sites to try to trace family DNA but they don't think it will be ok'd in a court. I hope that one day every newborn will have a chip implanted in them so that things like this will not be so hard.

An overall cleanup is in order first. I’d remove all plants/weeds/shrubs next to the house shown in these 2 pictures. And all the stuff on and around the steps by the yellow inset door. Then assess. I don’t understand what you said about the front door - the yellow inset door is not the front door? (By the way, that yellow-painted inset looks really odd, at least in these pictures. I’d paint it the same color as the rest of the house.)

Rinse aid can (partially) counter-act the problems that all dish washers have with hard water. If you have really soft water, as I do, you can mostly forgo rinse aid and you'll still have excellent results. If rinse aid isn't an option, then what you need is a water softener. A whole-house softener obviously works, but that's an expensive investment. Instead, you could buy a dishwasher that has a small internal softener. I know that this is a pretty common feature on many Miele models. I don't know if there are other manufacturers who do the same. Please note that you will now have to buy salt to recondition the softener every so often. So, you won't completely be able to get away from buying some extra consumables. But presumably, you aren't allergic to regular kitchen salt...

Harvey- Thanks My landlord would blow his Colombia gasket if I altered his building. It's a new gut rehab of an old theatre. You got me thinking though, maybe I can find big trees. I hate palms but they do the trick for shade. and yes there are very very reasonable opportunities to live near orchids. One can live very well on about 1,500$ USD a month here. I have a penthouse in downtown. I refuse to drive here so I live in the city. Does this board have a PM? If so drop me one and I'll turn you on to some eye-popping areas in the Coffee triangle. It's a very safe area, modern Colombia is very safe and this area is most beautiful in Colombia. I am a woman alone, I have no problems. If you remember the old Juan Valez commercials...that's where I live :-) and living is good and this is real freedom. There are no rules here. I do not regret my decision to expat at all. I am having a ball. I just saw a brand new eco-house outside of town that was a jaw dropper. 400$usd a month... about 3,000 sq ft in the middle of ....amazing... I didn't keep the pics of the house but I kept one of the view. (below) the national park is behind the house. To James. Yes, I have tried Ecuagenera with horrible results. I just don't like that guy. I've met him several times. I don't like the condition of his product either.- he's lost packages, not done anything about it, not good with him. They are restricted from shipping to Colombia. We have an orchidist about an hour away from me. I've seen his stuff. 4 large greenhouses. Good -but maybe, 30-50 species, mainly cool growers and tons of purple cats-our national flower, grown super dark to my eye. I live in a valley so we have warmer temps Really, when I think about it, this is a real orchid hunt, here in Colombia. I would have never guessed. It's kind of fun to find the rare beauties and then to try to know what they are by blooming them. It's a whole other level that I have to get comfortable with if I want to collect orchids here. They don't come with names or pedigrees. I never know what will pass by me on a cart or in a box on someone's shoulder. I am not confident but I'm going to give it my best effort. Saludos de Bella Colombia and thank you.! I am happy to talk about Colombia anytime :-)