Here are some pics of my planted tanks....some have been posted on here before. This bottom pic is plastic plants and just one of those plastic picture backs taped to the back of the aquarium. I know you are sorting out the good info from the bad...but I really can't express enough that a quarantine tank is VERY IMPORTANT......it regardless of where you purchase your fish.....some fish diseases don't show up for a long time......such as 4 to 6 weeks.....Even if all the fish in the store look healthy....you don't know what they were exposed to before they were put into the store tanks. Sometimes just the stress of shipping causes illnesses to show up. Having managed fishrooms for two pet stores and having my own fishroom.....I have seen this. One time I purchased some huge georgeous swordtails....put them into a quarantine tank for less than a month...all looked healthy......so I didn't wait the 6 weeks or two months.....I added them........I lost the whole tank of fish. The store where I purchased them...was a very reliable fish store that always had healthy looking fish...they were not a pet store! He lost them all too. There was no guarantees in this store...so I had to take the loss........won't mention how many $$ I lost with this mistake.....and I did know better too. The tank had to be taken all apart and disinfected and recycled before new fish could be added.... I would never go without quarantining any fish before adding to a community now......and I quarantine for 6 weeks or more......its a safety precausion...that works. Again, its one of those decisions that you have to make for yourself. The size of the tank....is really up to you....what you want to maintain and the size of space you have. Any of the Innes books, or Axelrod books are good to read. You mentioned an Atlas.....is it the Axelrod atlas? There is also the Baensch Aquarium Atlas.....there are soooo many books out there.....again its difficult to just name one or two that might help. Are you anywhere near an aquarium club? Some clubs also offer long distance membership and usually there is a bi-monthly newsletter where members write about there experiences with plants and fish. Also there are mags such as Tropical Fish Hobbyist, Aquarium Fish Magazine and Freshwater and Marine Aquarium Magazine...there are probably others as well. Hope this helps and doesn't add to the confusion! Sierra

Jo Ann: solar powered lights as a door prize??? oh wow how cool! i sure hope i win those! what a great idea! Beverly: i am glad you like my signature saying. i dont know who wrote it but i just feel that it says it all!!! how else can you justify buying a pot of asclepsias in april or some virginia bluebells in the summer? my husband thinks i have lost my marbles when i bring home what looks like just a pot of dirt! lol i just finished potting up 31 plants and i have loads more to go plus several plants for direct trades too! but you know what? i feel great! i keep thinking of more and more things that someone might enjoy and its a great way to thin out some of my plants! I am really getting excited and it BETTER NOT RAIN THAT DAY either! so Margie and i were thinking about what time we have to get up that morning to get there around 10 and since i live about 1.5 hrs from her and she is closer to columbus than i am i am thinking i will have to get up at the crack of dawn along with the dern roosters!!! Sue 'The one thing all gardeners share in common is a belief in tomorrow'

Hi Bethesdamanman, My apologies then, Dave. I thought that I had recalled you posting on the other board that mortgage rates would stay low for years and years, and that we would never return to the high rates of years past. My error. Eeeesschhh .... well.... actually... kinda sorta, YES.... your apologies in this case are NOT warranted. Herein lies a case of "text failing where a verbal conversation *may* have worked better." I've never said rates would stay low "well... forever".... I HAVE said rates (30 FRM rates to be precise) will unlikely climb over 7% in our lifetimes. I *STILL* stand by that.... albeit, I am now offering that we are entering a territory of government-induced inflation at levels I (perhaps naively) thought the United States political system was above. If we continue down the path of dollar-dilution that we've begun accelerating along, there are only two end-game results; A) we reverse course back out of it before we self-destruct in revolution, B) we self-destruct (and the devil we do not know is always a potential problem.) *IF* we successfully reverse and dig ourselves out of the hole of trouble our most recent past and our current government administrations are hell-bent on digging us into... there are only two ways of "sopping back & vacuuming up" the diluted unbacked funny-money that has been injected out into the system; A) The Treasury collects more taxes than it provides to the government to spend, and/or, B) The Fed increases interest rates higher than its blended payout on the treasury bonds (and then some... the greater the positive income spread to the Fed, the more painful to the "fixed-income retired crowd" which is our baby-boomer bubble... who will rally with AARP-sponsored pitchforks.) Both A & B will be met with *MASSIVE* resistance from the only crowd that the poloticos *KNOW* will consistently show up to vote, and have almost unlimited spare time to write, call, email, and generally pester the daylights out of the politicians; The Seniors. SO.... I've learned to never rely on "common sense" when it comes to anticipating "government logic" (an oxymoron if there ever was one.) Obama has enlisted the original architect of option B... Paul Volcker... as a "senior economic advisor." ("Senior" may (MAY) work somewhat to our advantage here... as Gramps Volcker *MIGHT* have some age-gained sensitivity to his classmate comrade's plight.) Volcker is the one who decided to fight inflation in the 1970's by driving short-term interest rates up to the 20%'s... The late '70's and early '80's result was that Volcker recaptured (in a VERY painful way) the excess liquidity (flooding of funny money) our country created by going off the gold standard and adopting a "weak dollar" policy through the 1960's. WHAT WILL WA DC DO??????????????? I dunno.... (I know what I pray/chant/meditate they will do...) *IF* the government (both the loonie left & jackthug right) get OUT of the way of the naturally balancing markets... then my expectations and predictions stand, with virtually my 100% confidence. My fears are that the United States idea of a market-based capitalist self-righting system has been a grand and wonderful social experiment... but that the human frailties (compounded in mob psychology) are sabotaging the underlying DNA strands that made it possible to stand. My COMFORTING REALIZATION... is that despite my egoistic pride for being part of a "successful system".... even if that system turns out to be a decaying failure, INDIDIVIDUALLY I and my family, and those I guide, can still retain their own personal success and quality of life. Cheers, Dave Donhoff Leverage Planner

plllog, we have a appliance repair company I can call. We haven't had to use them often (thank goodness) but when we have, they've given us good service and (we felt) honest answers. I'll also ask the HVAC tech when he comes to give us a quote on installation of hood and downdraft (we have to tweak downdraft venting by a few inches). I realized last night that installation for a hood just might be spendy enough to make our minds up for us. I figured the squared hoods were too modern looking - dang it - but I had to ask. jeanteach, when I walked into the kitchen this morning and saw my cardboard hood hanging there, I thought, "uh, no, not that." So I'm back to leaning towards a downdraft. Both options have their pros and cons and we just need to figure out which cons are easier to live with. I keep staring at my kitchen, whipping out the tape measure and revisiting how to move the cooktop to the perimeter because that would solve this issue for me. But short of compromising on way too many things - and stickier issues for me than the cooktop ventilation - it can't be done. Not without 2 more feet of wall space in one direction or another. Ah, well, hubby really likes the cooktop in the island. And I honestly don't mind it but I'd be happier with about 8-12" of counter on either side. Oh, there's that danged 2 extra feet again! Oh, don't mind me. I'm exhausted, it's been a long week and I'm obsessing for no good reason. This isn't an end of the world decision. I need to step back, take a breath, and just pick something! Either option will work just fine.