These forums are for people looking the learn. Looking for answers. You waste a lot of effort keeping tabs on me and you only further my cause. Every time you post you keep the thread active. The search engines monitor this activity and rank it even higher. Thank you Alice. Please keep after me. Maybe point out my poor grammar or sentence structure. Flood testing your showers is so important. Look at the shear number of threads in these pages with people in tough spots. Families grinding it out every day and then are faced to repair a "Crappy" job - when they where looking for "Turn Key" home and maxed out their lending to do so. It's not fair. No No No. I'm bring awareness to a code required inspection. Not a Water Test. But a 24 - 72 hour flood test that is inspected by the city. Code. Fact. Look it up. How many "Flood Tests" have you seen mentioned in these pages? It's not the fun stuff. It's not shinny? It does not come in "Off White" or "Bright White". It's boring. It holds up the job. It costs more. Things can go wrong and then cost more again. Why talk about it? BECAUSE IT IS A CODE REQUIRED STEP and one that protects not only you but the people you sell your home to. Kids bathe there. Think about it. I'm sorry if it is not "Cyber Space Friendly" but the system is broken and the proof is behind every black piece of Silicone... You might be breathing it right now. You baby might sleep up against that wall. Think about it. Do more. It's easy. Just work harder. My thoughts, John Whipple

Maggie, There are several companies that make the murder mystery parties. I like Murders by Vincent, BePuzzeled, or a la carte. They seem to be the easiest to use. They come with complete instructions on what and when to do things. The last one I did was called Chinese Takeout(I got it on ebay) and I did just like it said. I got chinese takeout. I sent a menu from the local chinese restaraunt and everyone told me what they wanted. I got lunch portions because they are large enough for dinner. I prepared the appetizers except for the egg rolls they were included in lunch. For desert I served bananas and strawberries with strawberry gel on top and brownies just like at our local chinese buffet. Once I decided what game I wanted to play I looked over the suspects and assigned charactures from there. When you send out the invitations you let each person know who they are and the invitations have a brief descritption of each character and what they would dress like, along with a story line giving city, year that kind of stuff. Your guests do not HAVE to dress in character but it does make it more fun. My husband was the chef, so we borrowed a chefs jacket and I was the long lost daughter of the woman who was murdered. My character was very excentric and didnt like things that matched...how easy was that. When the guests arrived as appitizers are being served with coctails everyone is given a script ( almost like a little brouchure). It tells you more about your character and tells you how to play the game. Normally in part 1 that is done over appetizers and it will tell you what to disclose and what not to tell, it will also guide you to ask questions of other people there. If everyone is new and has never played this before it does not hurt to ask if everyone has told everything they need to before you go to the next part ( or Act) and course throughout dinner. I normally try to do appitizer, dinner, dessert & coffee. Just remember that if you do one of these, that if everyone you invited does not show up ...you cant play unless they are a non suspect. The game we are doing on newyears eve I have one guest that is very very shy and wants to come but is not real sure how much they will participate so I am making him a non suspect that way he will participate as much as he wants. The best part of these parties is the party favors......I love that part. I found some small wedding photo albums at the $ store and bubbles, and with elvis being there I also had to get the new reese cups that have peanut butter and banana and a picture of Elvis on the front...I hope I didnt go on to long and I hope this was not too confusing...its been a long day and if I didnt answer all you questions let me know. Oh one thing I forgot you can buy these games at target they are about 25.00 but if you "WIN" (that makes me crazy) one ebay they are usually pretty reasonable. Donna

It will be interesting to hear your recipe, trailrunner! I just made a small batch (way too small as it turned out), this was enough for two pizzas. Minced garlic from 2 heads, simmered slowly in around 1/4 cup olive oil, for 5 minutes only, being carefully to not let brown. I can't remember for sure, but I think it was almost equal parts garlic and XV olive oil. Then, added a small can of tomato paste, 1/4 cup sugar and a couple Tbsp of water, and 1/4 tsp of oregano and pepper. The crusts do look different but I'm pretty sure they are both the Baguette recipe (which I must attempt this week, having found my pans). The second crust looks more like the Bittman recipe, but that was because it was made in a square pan, more deep dish style. I wasn't thrilled with either crust this time. We had a hockey game in the middle of the day so I made the 4 batches of dough in the morning and let them proof in the fridge, then skipped the second rise for the baguette recipe. Maybe they rose too long? Next time, I'll shoot for around two hours before oven time. Then again, I tend to not eat when I am hosting, so maybe I am imagining the difference. Everyone else loved the pizzas, which is all that counts. Between the two, I like the baguette recipe a little better but DH likes the MB.

I have a party shelf on an old bookcase I recycled as storage in our garage (aka laundry/storage area). I do keep all the decorative and even plain paper goods, cups, plastic utensils in that one area. I also have for years kept a 'surprise box'. It's a big Double Bubble bucket with a lid my husband dragged home from somewhere, probably about a gallon container to give you an idea of size. When my kids were little I used to dump in all the garba...treasures they got at various places: happy meal toys, and the big score were goodie bag trinkets from parties. I would toss everything in before the kids really noticed and then I had this surprise box that was really very useful. For birthday parties I hosted, the surprise box was a great prize source (whoever won whatever game we played could take a turn). I used it to cheer my kids up or give them a treat after something like the dentist, or a bad day at school, or as a reward for doing something special. The surprise box cost me zero, it recycled a bunch of those little bitty 'things' that drive parents of littles crazy and it really did tickle those littles. I've revived my old surprise box, which sat dormant for quite awhile, for my now-5-year-old niece. She gets to go to the surprise box just because we adore her, every time she visits--yes I admit I'm practicing to be a grandma :). Since we don't go to kid parties anymore my main source of goodies to supplement what was in there are the items I get free at our university job fairs--my niece is the proud owner of a bunch of logo-ed stress balls, eeny flashlight keychains and other corporate flotsam. She thinks it's all cool though! Anyway, for those still in this stage of family life a surprise box might be a fun thing-and it might get rid of some of the detritus children seem to attract like moths to a flame. Ann