Everyone's nose is different, and there's a lot -- really, a lot -- of variation among the same species or hybrid, especially when grown from seed. To me, the citrina was awesome, so of course now I gotta try and grow one, even though they don't like it really hot in the summer. There was a post recently on the orchid forum about brassavola nodosa: Lady of the Night orchid, heavenly scent, one flower perfumes the whole house, right? Well, some folks' plants had almost no scent, some had a fairly faint scent (like mine, d___it!), and some were so overpowering they weren't allowed in the house. I didn't see any cychnoches in flower, tho I really wanted to (I'd really like to try cyc. chlorchilon), but there was a couple of aerides (big, huge, things with tons of hanging roots, couldn't get close enough to smell them) and one or two angraecums, including an excellent ang. sesquipedalum, but no scent because of the time of day. Oh, a couple of additions to the list above: encyclia cordigera: strong, rose/floral rhyncholaelia digbyana: strong, lemon scent, mainly at night (didn't get a lot of scent from the one specimen I sniffed) dendrobium anosmum and parishii: both smell like rasberries, anosmum gets really big and rangy. Jim

God knows how to do his things. My heart goes out to you. We also wanted to build and we have been debating for the last couple of months. People that knows about economy and real estate advised us to get something already built. I was working on the plans (lots of work) and meanwhile I started to look in case I found something. Turns out I found a lovely place with the perfect size for DH and I (when I almost give up) and today we put an offer (35,000 below the asking price) they called us with a counteroffer (20,000 below asking price) we then offered 30,000 below asking price and asked 3 items that I fell in love with when we went to see the place: a big mirror, a set of 3 paintings (I was worried I had to fix 3 holes on the wall) and a desk, all the items were designer selected items - I know who the interior designer was. They called back saying that we got the set of paintings and the desk. Not the mirror because it was too expensive. I told the realtor NO. With the mirror or no deal and you have 1 hour or we will move on - What I actually wanted was building - she called back and said congratulations. I felt a little bit bad about the mirror (I have a problem of guilty conscience)but I am thinking that I also gave up my dream to build our house and the lady had troubles trying to sell the house and in just 2 days from start to finish she sold it. I know she did not loose money. (the idea of asking for some items was from the realtor - I never heard of that, she said that people is doing that more and more and that she had a client that went o se a house and said, I offer full price with everything in it!!! and he got it!!! :) Could you find a bid with a fixed price and no allowances (allowances scare me)? you have to chose everything in advance without going overboard and maybe you can find a builder that can do the work below your current price and level up the extra expense that you had with the dirt. Could you be your own general contractor? We have built 2 houses before and we were our own GC. What we did, we went to areas with nice constructions going on and got a lot of subcontractors names and phone #s. I also got a lot of names from a catalog that we got from the showcase of homes (all the builders listed their subs) and that is how we found good subcontractors with good reputattion. we asked 3 bids on each item or trade and most of the times went with the middle priced one. We saves some money but the best thing was, we used good materials and not "builder" grade ones. It is a lot of work but it is worth it. I just feel that if there is something that can be done, why not? Good luck!

LOL, not surprising. I've extended my congratulations but you can't accept it. That's OK. Guess it shows a difference between us. I told you before that I thought the Saints would win. Surprising though, with all the help they got, it came down to a field goal? Gloat while you can. Guess we'll see what happens in a couple weeks. How's that?

I used to do the priming thing on older engines, but I forgot all about it. I drove 25 miles for a plug, but it didn't help me so I decided to take it in since the sooner it got in, the sooner (a week or two) it would get back. Before we took it off my truck, the mechanic gave it a yank and it fired up for him. It still wouldn't run off choke. Mechanic thought it was likely an air leak, but after spraying carb cleaner at gasket without effect, and finally realizing that this engine has a Nikki carburetor, he told me that they almost never have good results cleaning/rehabing them. So, I took it back home; gave it one more air and probe clearing; changed the apparently good fancy internal gasket; and still wasn't able to get it to start or fire. The mechanic was 20 years my junior, but I thought I was pulling almost as well, but no cigar. So I ordered up a new (hopefully the same) carb from Amazon. Then I read your post. I can see how middling compression might draw low fuel. I will see if I can find my tester and I will check the valves. But remember, until last weekend, and even two weeks ago, this engine always started easy for (apparently weak armed) me and ran fine for at least two hours.