If you want to set up a tank for an eldery person whose eyesight is weak and is becomming senile, and you will need to rely on tank maintenance by a caretaker who may not like or have the least notion of how to care for fish, I would strongly recommend that you belay both a 10 gallon, and tropicals altogether. If your budget allows and there is space in your MIL's home for a 29 with a really good filter, the old lady would receive great pleasure from a few fancy goldfish and the caretaker would have far less work. Because they are cheap, Goldies are greatly underrated as aquarium fish, yet some of the fancies are among the most beautiful of all fishes and will become very tame with a little personal attention, but they are large and bulky and simply cannot be kept in small tanks, let alone bowls. To make keeping Goldies really simple, you almost can't beat a 29 with an Eclipse hood on it. Then, all you would need are some large decorative stones too large to be picked up in a decent sized siphon hose. Then, cleaning the bottom is easy. Once a week, just move the stones around to pick up any mulm on the bottom, give the interior glass a swipe with a scrubber kept for that purpose to remove any algae, then 3, 5 gal. buckets out and 3 in- and the tank would remain sparkling clean and the fish healthy. However, the caretaker would have to know how to take the filter apart at least once a month, to clean the impeller and change the filter pad, but once they have done it, they would see how quick and easy a chore it really is. Such a set up would support 3 fancies nicely and your MIL would have beautiful, slow moving, hardy fish that would be both large enough to hold her attention even with weak eyes, and tame enough to keep her watching and talking to them.

I contacted a few sellers last week; one I was the high bidder but the reserve wasn't met. I wanted to buy the bag & told her what I'd be willing to pay.. she wished I'd contacted her sooner because she would have canceled the auction & sold it to me. What it ended up selling for was less then what I offered. I spoke to another seller who was very interested in selling me a bag; she needed to get merchandise sold. This one is on hold on my end. If she sells it to someone else, fine. The lady I bought that bag from, I was going to buy multiple bags; she had a lot of stock & IMO it would have been worth it because the bags I was going to buy didn't sell. Even if she paid cancellation fees; I was prepared to pay between $125 & $150 - as I said, I got it for $78. It worked to my advantage. Now if I could get the other seller that either sent me the wrong bag or listed the bag she sent wrong; that would make me happy. From what I see of her auctions; I think she listed the bag wrong - used wrong pic & description.. Emotionally with getting the wrong bag, plus losing the snake I really wanted because my browser hung.. I'm emotionally drained with ebay.

The decanter is cute but it is a very bad way to store oil if you don't use it quickly, especially in warm weather and doubly so right next to the stove like that. A little bit of oil in a large clear bottle is going to oxidize very quickly, and oxidization means rancidity. Air, light, and warmth are enemies of all food oils. Rancid oils not only taste downright wretched, but are unhealthy to consume. IMO only the amount of oil that you're going to use within a couple of weeks should be stored at room temperature in such a way that it will be exposed to air and light. Food oils should be stored in the dark (or in a dark bottle), at cool temperatures (the refrigerator is ideal), and with a minimum of air space in the bottle. I use mainly grapeseed oil when a recipe calls for "vegetable oil" or "salad oil". I prefer grapeseed for general use because I think it just tastes better and has a nicer texture than other neutral oils like canola and safflower, and it's cheaper than apricot kernel or avocado. Although the unit price is higher I purchase smaller containers so I have a fresher supply - it's not a good value if half the jug goes rancid - since we do not use a great deal of oil in cooking, an average meal for the two of us might use two tablespoons of oil assuming we're not splurging on something like pesto! I absolutely loathe olives too, but we do use quite a bit of olive oil - many olive oils on the market taste nothing at all like olives, thank goodness. Look for the ones labeled "extra light"; that term has nothing to do with calories, it's a description of its color and flavor. Even some of the extra virgin olive oils we've tried don't taste like olives, they have very different flavors ranging from buttery to peppery. A couple of the fancy-pants food stores around me have olive oil tastings from time to time and that's a good way to try different ones out. (Never buy "pomace" olive oil. It's not fit for human food IMO and doesn't even really make particularly good soap.) Cold-pressed or expeller-pressed oils are the way to go whenever possible; the solvents and high-heat processing used to produce cheap oils break down the oil and are not good for you to consume as well as just plain trashing the flavor. We also like to use some of the many unrefined vegetable oils out there because they taste so good, but they must be stored carefully (refrigerator) and the shelf life is still comparatively short. Unrefined corn oil is one of our favorites, sweet and buttery, and especially good for baking. I think I have five or six different oils in the fridge now, because they all taste distinctly different. Spectrum is one of my favorite brands for a wide range of good quality oils and is comparatively easy to find. I find clouding and thickening under refrigeration to be a minor problem and primarily an issue with heavier-bodied and unfiltered unrefined oils like higher-end olive oils. The oil still pours, albeit more slowly, and it cooks just the same. If I'm making a salad dressing or something like that and need the oil completely liquid right this moment, I pour it into a small bowl and set that into a larger bowl of very hot tap water. I never leave the entire bottle out to warm up, but rather pour out what I need and return the rest to the fridge. When I want a butter flavor for sauteeing fish or veggies, I use half butter and half a neutral oil to improve the smoke point of the butter (since I'm too lazy to make clarified butter), and toss in some broth or wine to assist further cooking and boost flavor without using a ton of fat. I almost never cook savory foods with plain water, except for boiling pasta - why throw away that opportunity to augment flavors? We don't use up butter very quickly (DH has gotten me spoiled on Kerrygold butter from Ireland which comes in a half-pound block instead of the usual 1/4-pound sticks, but it can take us weeks to go through a block!) so it does turn in warm weather if left at room temperature. I won't have margarine in my house though, foul stuff... there are two things DH and I will not give up no matter what, we'll rearrange other dietary components to accomodate them but real butter and real mayonnaise are sacrosanct. Oh, here's a trick if your butter is rock-hard and you need it to soften to a malleable texture quickly without risking melting (as often happens if you try to soften it in the microwave or the oven)... grate it on the coarse holes of a hand grater and spread it out on a plate. Set the plate in a warm, but not hot, place. oakleyok, what the heck is "Crisco lard"? Crisco does not manufacture lard (meaning rendered pork fat, and lemmetellya it is dang hard to find unhydrogenated lard!). Do you mean solid vegetable shortening?

Thank you all. Tammy, the rug was purchased from Room Service Home. I could not find online before ordering...was easier once I had the manufacturers name. It's by Loloi and is part of the Larson Collection. Mine is the Cinn/Beige 5'6" x 8'6". Soumak rug (they spell it "Sumac" on the ticket, but to me that is poison ivy! lol) It is a loose weave, not as tight as the more expensive soumaks in our great room and breakfast room, so I wouldn't put it in a high traffic area. Patricia, your mother sounds like an interesting woman! The card case contains a card from my paternal grandfather's sister, my paternal grandmother and myself. She had told my dad she wanted me to have it after she passed away, but it wasn't written down anywhere. Luckily, none of his brothers or sister fussed about me receiving it. Johntemp, why would I mind? We have a lab too, so I know what you mean. Those tails are something else and he seems to think he's a smaller dog than he is! I have two of the narrow ribbon/fabric boards hanging between the chest/shelves and my clothes. I enjoy putting new things on it from the children, trips or friends. lmnca, I'm not familiar with the VMT collection. I don't have a bed linen fetish, so I cannot relate! What do you do with all of your older ones - they take up so much room to store. Here is a link that might be useful: Room Service Home