I tried another cappuccino with the pressure valve down. The instructions for a smoothtop say 6-11 minutes. I waited till the clock (yes, I did time it exactly!) turned 12 minutes (and could hear steam trying to escape between the two sections and afraid the release valve would go off) and then I manually released the valve. The coffee sprayed all over and came out boiling for about 2 minutes (I took it off the stove immediately). It did continue to froth for the 2 minutes or more but the coffee, after I poured it, was overextracted and bitter. That was a full 14 minutes! and way too much. Without the valve down I usually have the coffee dripping in the pot between 6-7 minutes and done at 8 1/2-9/12 min. There must be a valve problem with this particular pot and I really don't want to mess with the cost and effort of mailing it back. Will call the store it was purchased from and see if they (or bialetti) will replace the valve as the rest of the pot is ok. I just get very irritated with myself when I buy something like this and it doesn't work. My DH just shakes his head and says I should just use the old drip pot we have and let it go! He doesn't understand that for me the process is part of the whole experience!

"It sounds B1t(hy, but thats how I felt about it...they didnt care so why should I?" I'm in agreement with you on this one. My friend's daughter is my god-daughter so I know she was raised to have manners. Whether or not she chooses to display them is up to her. She's an adult now (28), but up until she was 23/24 my DH and I gave her a birthday gift. It was at that age that she stopped acknowledging our gifts, not even a verbal "thank you", and she had many opportunities to do so. We figured that if she didn't care enough to say thank you, obviously it didn't mean that much to her. Nor should it to us. I even queried whether or not she had liked the (last) gift and she said "yes", not "yes, thank you". We stopped giving her gifts and the following year during a conversation with her she jokingly asked if I had somehow "forgotten" to send her gift. I said that no I didn't. When she said , "I guess I'm too old to expect gifts any more". My response was, "Actually, no one is too old for gifts, but some people, like me, are too old to deal with those who lack manners." She just got engaged so this should be interesting. I certainly hope she's planning on writing thank-you notes for engagement, shower and wedding gifts she receives.

Gwendolynne, I LOVE your choice of colours. I wish my furniture and decorating could mathc your colours. They are soo soo nice! I am completely colour challenged, and I have seen all of these wonderful rooms posted with fabulous colours, so I need your help with choosing colours for my rec room, bathroom, and kitchen. 1. REC ROOM/LIVING ROOM: We live in a side split house and are wanting to redecorate our rec room area, which is half in the basement but with full windows and still with lots of natural light. The bottom half is with cedar / oak wainscotting and the carpet is a blue colour. I have no idea what colour to paint the top half. Our furniture conssits of beige couches, wood coffee table and end tables. Our theme is going to have bar and sports paraphernalia (and we have a foosball table). I dont want to go with a blue paint because two of our bedrooms are painted blue and I would like some different colours in the house. I love colours but have trouble picking out colours on my own. Since this is the main room where we watch tv and hang out while the kids play, I would like a warm colour that makes the room cozy but fresh and new/classy. Someone suggested yellow or beige to me, but I am thinking I want more colour. What about red (Benjamin Moore Northern Fire) or would that be too dark? 2. BATHROOM: For our bathroom, it has a "teal-like" colour for the countertop and gray-blue cushion flooring. I have no idea what colour to put on these walls. I know green is not good to put in the bathroom. Someone suggested white, but I want colour! However, I know that the green counter top probably limits my wall colours. Am I stuck with white walls? 3. KITCHEN: Our kitchen has wall paper on the bottom half and a beige on the top half. Our counter is a pink (UGH!) and our back splash has pink, browns. Our theme is a country kitchen. I would like a dark warm brown for the bottom and a lighter colour for the top, but I dont know if this would work or not with the pink countertop. Any suggestions are very much appreciated. I have pictures of all three rooms, but I dont know how to post them. (Can someone tell me how?) THANK YOU SO MUCH!

"...many adoptive mothers are overly possessive..." That doesn't come close to describing the MIL I have to deal with. She's a controlling, manipulative Queen B. She adopted a son because several of her friends had adopted children and it was very important to "keep up with the Joneses." She let him know from infancy that he was adopted, and he should be grateful he was adopted, and that he was "a sorry little SOB (her words) that was more trouble than six kids". In fact, he was "so much trouble" that she quickly decided she wouldn't adopt any more children. On the other hand, if someone dares to say "adopted son" she goes off on a tangent. No one is supposed to "know" he's adopted after all these years. She detests the fact her brother raised two step-children, loves them and loves their children. He calls them his "sons" and "grandchildren," which they are. She went off on a tangent to her brother that they are "only step grandchildren and no real blood relation; they're not family" and to quit calling them "grandchildren." She was violently angry about his choice of words. And yet, her son is adopted. I pointed out DH is not from her blood, no more than Tom's kids are from his, so I asked if she considered him not "real family" too. That she shut her trap...for a minute. She makes a great show of always "hiding" his adoption papers, and then telling me where they are, and saying he must never, ever see them. She moves them about every six months, calls me to tell me where they are, and then goes into the song and dance that I'm to keep them hidden after she dies. Yeah; sure thing. He's 47; you'd think she was over it by now. Since his late teens he has desperately wanted to find his birth family. He "feels" he has a brother, and he longs to know for sure. I tried to explain this to her. She said "well he doesn't need a brother at his age so he can just %$#@* forget about finding out." I've been trying to find out how to go about finding his adoptive family but keep running into brick walls. I'm sure there are wonderful incidents of adoptive parents loving and caring for their adoptive children. I'm sure there are adoptive children who feel special and loved, and even more specially loved because they were adopted. Sadly, this is not the case of the dear, wounded man I live with.