Yahooooo!! I hope it blooms before the frost for you too! I have friends who are all going to a VERY popular dog show back east next week and they told me the weather should be great. The weather here is changing now---up in mt shasta they are getting ready for snow-we should be ok for another month or so---we get cold nights but wonderful sunny days--than the rains come, it's unreal like the rain forest-- days on end -makes the redwood grow! cole--deer watching and worring about the bananna slug!!! ugh!

"...staying on the 3rd floor of a hotel...tornado warnings...sirens started going off... My sister told her it means take cover so she got in truck and drove to where her husband is at." She is lucky. Getting in a vehicle is one of the worst things you can do. She probably should have asked the hotel desk clerk where to take cover. Without a shelter, the rule of thumb is "Lower level. Interior room without windows."

ilene-84, Happy Birthday to your Dad! Is he a WW II vet? I hope all the medical issues are behind you and your family now. Spring is around the corner and it's such a great time of year. And, I'm sure when your kitchen is all done, it will be great simply because it has been a labor of love. It's good to know I am not the only one sleeping terribly. I wake up every day with a terrible headache and neck pain. I also wake up in the middle of the night repeatedly adding up cabinet sizes, trying to make a list of events of what should come next, what goes and doesn't go, if I do this then I have to do that and the infamous DID I MAKE A MISTAKE and what are my options now if I decide to change the layout. I started keeping a pen and paper on the night table to be able to jot down the ideas and make notes. However, one kitty is a pen thief, the other is a paper tearer. So when I get up to find the pen, big doggie has to come over and inquire as to what I am doing but more so to make sure he is not missing out on a food tidbit. Then DH starts in, what's wrong, is everything okay . . . it's so pitiful I have to laugh because I would cry. Now I try to get back into bed and find out that another kitty has stolen my warm spot and I just can't bear to move them so to the couch for me where I wonder, I just left that bed with all of them so how did we fit on there before! At least I'm off the kitchen biz. So much for the couch idea. There is usually the shy rescue cat there who so prefers DH to me. Then if I manage to lay down, it's impossible to get my back comfortable but then I finally fall asleep out of sheer exhaustion and then there is DH waking me, come back to bed, you know the couch is no good for your back. Argh . . just leave me be! This is a daily routine for us. I almost want to quit my day job and get a night job just so I don't have to go to sleep. I am sure also that the massive amounts of junk food I am eating is not helping the situation either. I am actually craving veggies so I don't know what that says about the diet. But in the end I will have a nice enough kitchen that I have built out of a labor of love. I am so looking forward to cooking again for us so hang in there! Christine, thanks for sharing your perspective on things. I must say you must be one strong resilient woman! You go girl.

Shelayne....thanks! Not quite sure how I feel about the LG yet....I think the cycles are too long....DH and I work in offices...do our clothes really need to wash for an hour? I think the shortest cycle is speedw wash and I think its 35 min....which was about how long my 15 year old Maytag did any cycle. And water temperature is pre selected,maybe you can override it buti haven't figured out how yet. Drying seems to take longer than my Maytag as well. But boy, can you fit a lot without an agitator! I've only had it a month and I probably need to read the manual some more, but the jury's still out...