mom24 -- I'm sorry if my trying to be funny upset you. I've merely commented because I don't believe any 25 things I could list would be especially brilliant. If I had made a list, I'd like some feedback. Does it help you to know that I've lived 46 years with a Bears and Cubs fan? (A little sympathy here? For both of us? For ALL of us?) No harm/no foul? A shorter list? 1. I'm an only child, married to an only child, with an only child, who (until February) has an only child. 2. Our only GS was born (two weeks early) the night DH and I were flying back to Chicago from Maui. Looks like #2 has the same agenda -- pregnancy and due date announced after we'd booked our tix. 3. We lived for 30 years in one northern suburb of Chicago until 2001, when we moved into a house we built in a suburb farther north. Defending against the building review board here caused me to lose 30 lbs. 4. We're happy that we persevered and built here. (And I'm happy at 117 lbs. -- better than the 138 I started at or the 108!) 5. I was *delighted* to be a petite 5' 2" as a HS freshman. Then I grew four more inches. LOL 6. DH and I grew up in two different Chicago suburbs. We had met as toddlers, but neither of us knew that until after our first date, after meeting in a Northwestern night school course on public relations. 7. Our DS is adopted. DH didn't know that *he* was adopted until he was 40. I co-led an adoption search and support group in Chicago for 15 years. Both DS and DH know who and where their birth families are, but do not have ongoing contact. 8. We are currently owned by our fourth Westie, Eliot, a puppy mill rescue dog. I don't DIS-like big dogs or cats, just never wanted one. 9. We've traveled abroad a bit; now only to visit friends or to our Maui condo in winter. I often spent summers in my mother's home state of RI after my parents divorced. I like the TripAdvisor Hawaii forums and the real-estate related forums on THS here. DH and I read a lot. Seldom buy a book, using our library for books and DVD's. We have 'teatime matinee' most afternoons watching movies, cozy mysteries or British TV series. (Currently watching "New Tricks" and "Doc Martin".) I'm also a 'cusp' baby, between Aries and Pisces. I cleverly managed that by being three weeks late. It's convenient to blame my faults on 'signs'. LOL I'm also probably a DES baby. Gah! See, I told you so. I can't think of anything more! Can't imagine who would want to know THIS, let alone MORE. Oh, my legal name isn't Sue, but it's what I've always been called. Sue ;-)

Let's see - gardening rules I break all the time: - I plant my roses far too close together and I actually want them to intermingle - I interplant with a wide variety of other plants, when "everyone knows" rose gardens can only contain roses (smile) - I don't prune below the first 5 leaf nodule or some such foolishness - if it looks dead or is in my way I cut it back as much as I feel like - I don't spray anything - I don't fuss over them - I don't use products specifically designed (or priced) for roses, but buy my fertilizer at the hardware store and huge bales of alfalfa at the farm supply store - I don't worry about bugs or diseases and make them shape up or ship out - I put colors next to each other that aren't supposed to go together, most of the time by accident but I'm too lazy to move them - I buy roses from anyone and everyone that has quality plants to sell, including big box stores if that applies - I overwinter roses that aren't supposed to grow in my climate - I kill roses that are supposed to be perfectly hardy for me And gardening rules that I keep, most of the time - I find joy in the small things in the garden, and try to see the roses more than the bugs, blackspot or sweat dripping off my nose - I share that joy with anyone who expresses even a passing interest in any of the above - I bring bouquets all the time to friends and neighbors even though I rarely cut them for myself - I bring my kids out into the garden to enjoy nature, including the cool bugs - I get a kick out of helping newbies learn that roses aren't that hard to grow - I don't expect perfection - If I don't feel like getting out to the garden for some strange reason I take a break - I try to spend as much time stretching back out as I do bending over - I remember to hang out on my swing or hammock and gaze out proudly over the garden (however ratty it may look) and sigh, "Dang, I love gardening" Cynthia

ksc36/Joseph Corbett, LLC: I read the instructions and if you read it carefully, the wood block method is an alternative to use only if the clips are too long for the application ; in other words, if the clips would extend past, and sit on the cabinet side walls and keep the counter top from sitting on the cabinets. I don't think this would normally be an issue when installing a 30" sink into a 36" cabinet - both typical, standard sizes. I don't read it as an alternative technique to be used at the discretion of the installer in place of the specified technique using the Blanco instructions and hardware. In my opinion (which I have developed during my ordeal), installers will almost always use wood and screws instead of anchors and hardware because it is simply faster and easier with less chance of making a mistake - plus there's no immediate downside. The customer, unless he is watching closely and knows what he is looking at, will never know what the installer did .................until possibly months or years later. On the other hand, using the anchors requires that the counter top be turned over (bottom up) which would probably require a third installer. The installers that did my counter tops consisted of 1 installer and 1 helper - they were in my house about 2 hours. They said that they had 4 counter top installations to do and they had to be done that day. I don't know how these guys are paid but I suspect that they are paid by the job and the number of jobs they sign up for or are assigned - speed is definitely a factor in their pay. Incidentally, the men that did my installation were also upset at the mistakes in the manufacturing of my counter top requiring them to make field adjustments which ultimately resulted in my counter top not being flat and the "lippage". I tried to get their names so that I could subpoena them to small claims court but M.R.Stone, LLC would not provide their contact information.

"I would like to see it get back to how it was in the beginning. " Nooooooooooooooooooo. Remember when they ate ALL that gross stuff in food challenges? It was awful!!!!!! The dead bird that was almost ready to hatch....oh...and the BIG bug larvae.....nasty.....nasty.....nasty! No one should be falling face first into a fire and have to have skin grafts on his hands. I think it was too much to ask that people hurt themselves for a show. Now they have bandaids....did you notice? They don't show every little boo boo and owie. Much better.