Thank you both for your help! I just went out to check on my plant, and It has two new leaves coming up from the center of the vine. Perhaps the leaf falling off was a sign of stress from shipment or something. I have my plant potted in a mix of orchid bark, perlite and vermiculite. I also had it up on the top bench on the western side of my greenhouse...so, just to be careful I moved it to a table in the middle of the greenhouse with some protection from southern exposure sunlight. I took it out to the greenhouse, because I didn't feel like it would get the proper amount of sunlight inside my house. I don't want to put it directly over an a/c vent... I have read you can put it under grow lights of 400 foot candles...so if I see even the slightest bit of decline, I'll just bring it back inside and put it on the kitchen countertop and install a light under the cabinet for it. I appreciate you info!! Hopeful, if I am lucky and get this plant growing...I surely wouldn't mind sharing a cutting with you so you can enjoy it again! :)

If you figure that you're going to need that CDIC back-up, better put your money into a small bank, for several banks have failed and I think that quite a few feel that if a fair-sized bank goes broke, the CDIC till will be bare. Being a gov't. agency, there'd likely be back-up, but that would cause substantial delay, quite likely ... and incur more debt for the U.S. gov't., which has taken on far too much, now. As most of that debt is held abroad, they'll have to start paying higher rates in order to entice lenders to buy their debt instruments ... and have been printing money, with the likelihood that they'll be printing a whole lot more, soon. These mortgage-initiating rascals in recent years sure make a bank robber carrying his loot in a pillowcase look like pretty small potatoes. I remember as a kid, when I learned to ride a bicycle down our country road, wishing that the gravel on the road would become gold ... but it didn't take me long to realize that if it were gold for me, it would be for everyone else, as well ... and that soon it would take more than a pocketful of gold to buy a loaf of bread. How long has it been since the U.S. Dollar was backed by gold? Or silver? Our Dollar - same game. And - when your economy gets a cold ... ours gets pneumonia. What's the expected time-frame when you'll need to use those assets? Almost 10 years ago, when I was 70, I called a financial planner on a phone-in radio show to say that I felt that I should plan to fund my life to age 100, which was six blocks of five years each. Fortunately, I was able to live on somewhat less than my three pensions, and expected to be able to do so for some time - now, 10 years later, same story. But it seemed to me that were I to need some of the assets to live on, I should not eat up all of the first block in the first five years, for it would no longer be there to earn some income for my future needs. In fact, I thought that I should try to avoid using any more than that first block of the six in the first 10 years ... especially considerig that inflation would cause me to need more dollars to live the same lifestyle, a few years down the road. You know - that "inflation" that has shrunk the value of each one of our dollars-in-hand in every year since the late 1930s. And money in the bank is like money-in-hand: each dollar of the principal doesn't grow (but it sure does shrink). Which means that I would not plan to use up 83% of my asset during that first 10 year period, and that a number of financial advisors feel that purchasing stocks for more than a 10-year time horizon makes sense. He said that my plan made a lot of sense, in his view. Short-term, if we fear losing capital, we need to invest in guaranteed dollars ... but long-term, those guaranteed dollar investments, after paying tax, and adding some to principal in order to maintain purchasing power, leave little for the investor. If anything. Now, at 80, I carry about 80% of my assets in equity-based investments. That would make many people have a hairy ... but I feel comfortable with it. Yes, I have some losses, but I have some gains, as well ... and the tax structure here encourages holding equities. A single taxpayer with no income but dividends on Canadian stocks can earn over $46,000. before being required to pay ONE CENT of income tax (and having a low-income spouse with transferrable credits, or gifts to charity or a political campaign, or eligible medical/dental bills over 4.5% [in that case - 3% ordinarily] of net income will push that $46,000.+ tax-free income level even higher). Some time ago, I wrote a thread either here or on "Money Saving Tips", I think, asking which ordinary person gained from inflation, and who loses. When you put your money in the bank, say $10,000., 15 years ago, they guaranteed to pay you back every dollar, in addition to the rent on the money. There's another guarantee, that they never mention - they won't pay you one dollar more, either. And the value of each of those dollars has shrunk, in every one of those 15 years ... as it has every year since the 1930s. That $10,000. would have bought a nice car, 15 years ago ... not now. I figured a while ago, when I could borrow at 6.25%, that most of the time I could come close to breaking even on such a loan, using it to purchase quality stocks. So ... now, when I can borrow for 4.75%, breaking even should be an even greater probability, no? If I'd borrowed your $10,000. from the bank, 15 years ago and paid only the interest in the years since (which I would never recommend, on a consumer loan) .................................................................................................................................................... ................................... when I go into the bank to pay off the loan, now, how much will I need to pay? Yes - $10,000. Which they will give to you, to pay off your CD, if you ask. I gained from inflation, because I paid off the loan in depreciated dollars - you lost, since each of those dollars would buy less than when you loaned it out to the bank, 15 years ago. The only value that your money would ever produce, relative to each of those years, was made right then ... and it was taxed - then ... and, in Canada, it's taxed at top marginal rate. When I used those borrowed dollars to buy quality (retirement type) stocks, and since I came close to breaking even each year on the loan that I made, on average, over the last fifteen years, my investment in stocks grew quite a lot, so now, when I sell them, after paying off the loan, I have quite a lot of money left in my pocket. Which asset was built with your money, not mine. Granted - if the stocks went down in value - I had to find the money somewhere else to pay back to the bank. But, as you know ... they didn't. And, over a time horizon of 10 years or so, they haven't. And a bonus for me - as the value of those quality stocks went up ... so did the annual rate of dividends that they paid. When I bought shares in a Canadian bank 41 years ago for $4.20 or so (also referred to below), they produced annual dividends of about a dime or 12 cents per year: now they pay $3.48. As the number of dollars in a CD doesn't change over the years ... the amount of interest that they produce doesn't change much, either. But - my investment in shares of a Canadian bank have gone from $106. in May, 2007 to just over $62.00 now ... why? They put substantial amounts into those sub-prime U.S. mortgages ... and that "asset-backed commercial paper" ("acid-backed commercial paper"??) that some of the U.S. financial scoundrels were peddling. That now the U.S. government, which can't afford to, is going to partially bail them out of. As some say - socialism for the rich ... private enterprise for the low-level guys who get stuck with the bill ......................... when the rich guys pull a big-time goof (but the rich guys get to keep their previously ill-gotten loot). Remember the savings and loan fiasco of, what, 20 years or so ago? Have you given thought to how much it has cost for the Mccain-Obama campaign over the past couple of years? Where do you figure that money came from? Apart from the costs associated with running for Congress or the Senate, etc. Good wishes for increasing skill in managing your income ... and your assets. ole joyful

We also did not buy our granite through our cabinet showroom. There were many reasons--one was that we were just fed up with our cabinet salesperson/KD and didn't want his firm to make any more money off of our project. We also wanted a better selection and the ability to negotiate the price ourselves. Our KD has a specific fabricator that he pushes (he doens't just sell their granite--he PUSHES it hard). He began giving us the hard sell on his granite fabricator the very first time we met with him and we got the same lecture about the space age granite sealant that this fabricator patented (it turns out that it is actually Sensa granite that is sold at Lowe's!) every time we met with him. After we heard this sales pitch 85 times (and unfortunately we had to hear the entire story--from development of the sealant for the space shuttle to the templating process that is done with a laser and turns out flawless each time!!) I decided that I really wanted to shop around and see what else was out there. We then visited every fabricator in our area and I discovered that I really wanted an exotic granite which unfortunately means more money. Because we dealt with them directly we were able to cut a deal on it. The KD is still pretty bitter about us not buying our granite from him and he tends to blame every problem we have with the cabinets on the granite, but I do not at all regret our decision. Even the cabinet installer who works for the KD said that we got a better deal than using the KD for the granite because they mark up the price so much. Although the installer doesn't have teeth and listens to Rush Limbaugh very loud all day, he may actually be right about this.

I took annkh's idea of creating an L kitchen with island and ran with it. :) I completely missed how wide your kitchen area is earlier and how much wasted space you have by not using more of the area between window wall and fridge wall. So I added more wall to the office area to give you a longer range wall. Then I moved the fridge over to the window wall with the DW and sink next to it, creating a good work triangle. I moved some of your existing cabs to fill in the space left behind when I moved the fridge so you're still using them. And then I gave you a nice-sized island with room for 3 seats and lots of storage. You can even top it with butcher block, either all of it or just the end closest to the range. [Contemporary Kitchen[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/contemporary-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2103) by Rehoboth Beach Home Builders Echelon Custom Homes [Traditional Kitchen[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2107) by Louisville Kitchen & Bath Designers Kenneth Fromme [Traditional Kitchen[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2107) by Atlanta General Contractors Blake Shaw Homes, Inc This plan still leaves very generous aisles between island and run of existing cabinets and between island and W/D closet but you won't be running around the kitchen to make a meal nearly as much as you would with your proposed plan. btw, I had to guess on the length of the fridge/sink wall. Your drawings didn't include the whole length of the space, only measurements for portions of it. I did the best eyeballing of "hmm, it looks like it's about X long" and went from there. Ditto for how much room you gain by lengthening the office wall. Obviously, you'll need to double check my numbers. This is just to give you an idea of what is possible. Oh, I forgot to note that the MW is a MW drawer in the island across from the fridge run.