The best place for indoor plants is probably a nursery that has them. Yeah Lowes and HD have them if you get them when they first arrive. Otherwise check for bugs and soggy plants. Never seen them at Costco but I don't see why they wouldn't be ok. You can always rescue them and give some TLC and they'll be ok. Once next summer rolls around you'll find yourself outside and all the new plants you can grow. Come over and hang out at the houseplants forum also. Great bunch of peeps there and lots in CA. All my mom's family is from Lansing area...then she got converted when married my dad! I'll probably get in trouble for posting these: You know youre a Wolverine when... 1. You beat Ohio State. 2. Youre the best in the Conference. 3. You think Heaven must be a lot like Ann Arbor, Michigan. 4. You think the colors of the rainbow are Maize, Blue, Maize, Blue. 5. All your kids are named "Blue". 6. Michigan games come before...well...anything. 7. You count Wolverines when trying to fall asleep. 8. You believe the Wolverine should be our National symbol. 9. You paint your vehicle Michigan Blue. 10. You petition for a carving of a Wolverine to be added to Mt. Rushmore. 11. Youre Winning and on a roll. 12. Your entire wardrobe is Maize & Blue. 13. You name your family pet Blue. 14. You honestly believe the Wolverines Rule. 15. You petition to change the National Anthem to the Michigan Fight Song. You Know You're From Michigan If: 1. You've never met any celebrities. 2. "Vacation" means going to Cedar Point. 3. At least 1 member of your family disowns you the week of the Michigan/Michigan State game. 4. Half the change in your pocket is Canadian.....eh! 5. Your idea of a 7-course meal is a six-pack and a bucket of smelt. 6. You drive 86 mph on the highway and pass on the right. 7. Your idea of a traffic jam is 20 cars waiting to pass an orange barrel. 8. You know how to play (and pronounce) Euchre. 9. You know the "Big Mac" is something that you drive over. 10. You know how to pronounce "Mackinac". 11. You've had to switch on the "heat" and the "A/C" in the same day. 12. You can see a car running in a parking lot with no one in it, no matter what time of the year. 13. You end your sentences with a preposition; example: "Where's my coat at?" 14. You bake with SODA and drink a POP. 15. All the festivals across the state are named after a fruit, vegetable, grain, or animal. 16. You think of the 4 major food groups as beef, pork, BBQ sauce, and beer. 17. You carry jumper cables in your car. 18. You design your kids Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit. 19. Driving in the winter is better because the pot-holes are filled with snow. 20. Your favorite holidays are Christmas, Thanksgiving, and the opening of Deer Season, which you consider a National Holiday. 21. You have 10 favorite recipes for Venison. 22. You know what "cow tipping" and "snipe hunting" are. 23. Your little league game was snowed out. 24. You learned to drive a boat before you could ride a bike. 25. You owe more money on your snowmobile than your car. 26. Your snow blower has more miles on it than your car. 27. Shoveling the driveway constitutes a great upper body workout. 28. You attend a formal event in your best clothing, finest jewelry, and snowmobile boots. 29. The municipality buys a zamboni before a bus. 30. The word "thumb" has geographical, rather than anatomical significance. 31. You show people where you grew up by pointing to a spot on your left hand. 32.Traveling coast-to-coast means driving from Port Huron to Muskegon. 33. You measure distance in minutes. 34. When giving directions, you refer to "A Michigan Left". 35. You know that Kalamazoo not only exists, but isn't that far from Hell. 36. You have experienced frostbite and sunburn in the same week. 37. Your year has 2 seasons: Winter and Construction. 38. Home Depot on any Saturday is busier than toy stores at Christmas. 39. You know when it has rained because of the smell of worms. 40. Owning a Japanese car was a hangin' offense in your hometown. 41. You believe that "down south" means Toledo. 42. You think that everyone from a bigger city has an accent. 43. YOU ACTUALLY "GET" THESE JOKES AND FORWARD THEM ON TO ALL YOUR MICHIGAN FRIENDS AND FAMILY! Subject: YOU KNOW YOU ARE IN CALIFORNIA WHEN------- 1. Your coworker has 8 body piercings and none are visible. 2. You make over $250,000 and still can't afford a house. 3. You take a bus and are shocked at 2 people carrying on a conversation in English. 4. Your child's 3rd grade teacher has purple hair, a nose ring, and is named Breeze. 5. You can't remember...is pot illegal? 6. You've been to a baby shower that has two mothers and a sperm donor. 7. You have a very strong opinion about where your coffee beans are grown and can taste the difference between Sumatran and Ethiopian. 8. You know which restaurant serves the freshest arugula. 9. You can't remember.....is pot illegal? 10. A really great parking space can move you to tears. 11. A low speed pursuit will interrupt ANY television broadcast. 12. Gas cost 75 cents per gallon more than anywhere else in the U.S. 13. A man gets on the bus in full leather regalia and crotchless chaps. You don't even notice. 14. Unlike back home, the guy at 8:30 am at Starbucks wearing the baseball cap and sunglasses who looks like George Clooney IS George Clooney!! 15. Your car insurance costs as much as your house payment. 16. Your hairdresser is straight, your plumber is gay, the woman who delivers your mail is into BDSM and your Mary Kay rep is a guy in drag. 17. You can't remember...is pot illegal? 18. It's sprinkling and there's a report on every news station about "STORM WATCH 2000." 19. You have to leave the big company meeting early because Billy Blanks himself is teaching the 4:00 PM Tae Bo class. 20. You pass an elementary school playground and the children are all busy with their cell phones or pagers. 21. It's sprinkling outside, so you leave for work an hour early to avoid all the weather-related accidents. 22. Hey!!!! Is Pot Illegal???? 23. You AND your dog have therapists.

"Hi Anthem, and Happy 4th!" Same to you. "You don't know how much money I have. I have a lot." Good for you. All relative I guess. Glad you have a lot, buf if you have a lot, why do you fret over supporting other people ? If you have a "lot" why don't you give away most of it to the beggars with sores that seem to be so important to you ? Why are you asking others to forgo their desires when you yourself have "a lot" ? "You don't know what kind of house I can afford." You are correct. Nor did I ask or care to really know. "Maybe nicer than yours!" To each their own. Again subjective, but I seriously doubt it. "My reasoning has nothing to do with "libertarian" principles." Good. "You don't sound like a libertarian BTW you sound like a Republican" OK. . . So what difference does what I sound like ? I never said I was a libertarian, democrat, or Republican. What relevance does my political leanings have ? "...if only these terms weren't so boring and narrow. I'm an unaffiliated voter myself." Good for you, but I fail to see why that has any relevance or why you it enters this discussion. "I think you lack imagination. I don't believe humans cause global warming but I do believe in finite resources." Finite resources, yes. Humans don't cause global warming ? You're kidding right ? Maybe not directly but absolutely indirectly. Without humans, there wouldn't be anywhere near the carbon footprint that we have now. "My objection to the OPs post wasn't actually related to his elaborate (and evidently dysfunctional) wiring scheme, but to his personal environmental footprint. Try really hard to imagine the moment when technology development stops keeping up with rampant overconsumption of non-replenishable resources." rileysmom, your stated immoral objections have been noted before. It appears that anyone who spends (or apparently capable of spending) more than what you think is a reasonable amount is immoral - and that you feel the need to tell others that their are needy people in the world. I'm not sure it has to do with environmental footprint either as you don't really know his environmental/carbon foot print and/or otherwise. But seriously I don't see your concern for environmental footprint as you don't mention it anywhere. You started off as you did before over the fact that someone else spent more than what YOU consider acceptable and called it immoral. Here, let me refresh your memory "I was wondering: does anyone else think the OPs house is practically immoral? If you have enough money for 11 refrigerators (just had to have each and every one of them, huh?)". . . . Now its environmental ? "If he'd added a paragraph or so about using ICF construction (do you know what that is?) I'm quite familiar with ICF. ICF works really well for "simpler" houses and is a nightmare with more complex houses. Complex houses might be immoral to you, so that would preclude that issue for you though, right? Besides there are quite a few diverging opinions on using concrete and by extension ICF. While less wood is used, it isn't any more energy efficient than a well built/insulated house. I think the discussion of "green" revolves more around energy efficiency than the actual material being used. It's just that people choose to use insulated concrete forms because its cheaper to attain the same level of energy efficiency than its counterpart - but again with significant drawbacks (especially when it comes to flexibility or automation, which the original poster did do (or attempt to do)). "low VOC finishes" low-voc is definitely human healthier, but it remains to be seen if it has any real relevance to environmentally healthier. The majority of low or no voc paint has enough enviro-unfriendly ingredients that no matter what you do it isn't environmentally better. It's just less voc's being emitted into the household. "or even...energy star appliances" I don't know his appliances or items, but usually anyone who is into automation is going to have fairly high-end appliances which almost certainly are "energy star" appliances. By the way, energy star is a MINIMUM standard. It's such a poor standard that I am not even going to get into it. It's meant to establish a minimum standard so that the average consume shopping for a refrigerator isn't going to be ripped off by an energy inefficient refrigerator. Most anyone who spends big bucks on autmation is going to be buying in the subzero, viking, GE monogram, Liebherr type of level which are all well beyond energy star minimum ratings.. . . "for all 11 refrigerators and 4 dishwashers and maybe 2 laundry rooms) I'm sure his megamansion wouldn't have chapped me quite so badly." And that gets back to the basic question - Why does someone doing beyond YOUR levels dictate them being immoral ? People can spend what they want. If you haven't walked a day in their shoes - why are you calling them immoral for building their house ? Hey, you only need one toilet in a house. How many do you have ? Is it immoral for you to put more than one in your house ? It's all relative depending upon where you are coming from. I just don't get where you think everyone who does a bit more than you, or spends more than you, or is less energy efficient as you is "immoral". "Note this has nothing to do with how much it cost to build and how much it is appraised for now." Not what you said earlier. Should I refresh your memory again ? "Well, I do get a laugh out of something I read somewhere at some time...maybe The Economist? predicting that these whopping huge houses eventually will all be subdivided when the gated communities become the gated slums. Probably this subconscious thought prompted my comment about the poor and downtrodden." I really doubt it in our lifetimes or the next. Most of these won't last beyond a generation or two. And even then, it gets much more complicated with property lines. You're more likely to see teardowns than you will of change of use. The reason you see "mansions" (true sense of the word) in the past being used for multi-tenant is in high-density areas. You don't see today's megamansions in high-density areas. you might call them high-density, but even if everyone bred like rabbits and doubled the current population - it wouldn't change suburban america. Perhaps if you increased the population 10 fold, but we're talking many more generations beyond now.

Oh My Gawd. They are positively REVOLTING when you take them out of the package! I have them marinating right now and will cook them for dinner tonight (I'm making Chances Mom/Janet - Burnished Chicken Thighs with Sweet Potatoes, Parsnips and Shallots) but it is unlikely I will ever buy them again. I am even having trouble with the thought of ever making whole roast chicken again now that I know what those thighs look like...... THanks anyway for the ideas everyone - I will probably try them with breasts in the future since so many sound great. Alexa

That was cute and they were obviously having a good time singing. To put a link in a post you copy and paste the link into the space that says " Optional Link URL ". If you are the original poster I don't think it will show up until you Preview your message just before you submit it. Below that is a space that says Name of the Link. You can name it whatever you want. I named it Southern Barbecue. Here is a link that might be useful: Southern Barbecue