Dear Monique - what with one thing and another I've been unable to get here to wish you a very belated but Happy Birthday. But here we are - some flowers from last year to remind us our gardens will bloom again. very best wishes, Mary

"Gary, out of sheer curiosity, what wholesale HVAC warehouses did you look into around our area (though I believe you bought it in PA, didn't you?)? Is there one for Trane/American Standard you checked out (do you think you could somehow get equipment from them?)? I think I recall you saying you priced an American Standard system for around $3k and was curious where this was." Ryan: I did indeed get an A/S quote "back in the day" when I first started looking. It was a Heritage 13 3-ton (don't think the air handler was v-s) with 15 kw strip heat for $3600. It was from Northeast Plumbing and Supply. They weren't too happy that I called them for pricing as I am not a pro. I wound up geting a 14 SEER, 12 EER, 9 HSPF Goodman. Copeland scroll, and a full 36,000 btu cooling and 35,000 btu heating. I went with the 3-speed air handler and TXV. Also got a hard-start cap, bypass humifier, filter/drier, sight glass, and condenser mounting pad. Paid $2500 for everything from DESCO, over the MD state line in Hanover PA. I picked everything up from their warehouse with a tow trailer. They provide the 10 year parts warranty. My wife works for a Property Management Company so I paid one of their pros $1200 to install it. 2 guys, 8 hours each. He had to fabricate 2 custom duct pieces for the installation. $3700 total for the new heat pump. So far so good with the Goodman. Take care.

Hey, thanks everyone. I'm just enjoying the beautiful fall day. Thanks again for remembering. Judy

So, looks like birthday dinner really will be a month long, lol. I thought the cooler box would show up last week- then I was informed short of a couple things :( I approved to have the box sent anyway. Turns out the weekend delay meant it sent it out complete anyway, it arrived today! What they were short on got subbed out with other stuff, kind of better stuff too :) A bit late in the day to start cooking from the cooler- stuff was still pretty well frozen when I opened it up, but tomorrow is going to be the shrimp boil- those things are frigging HUGE! Some shrimp, little red potatoes, and a few chunks of cob corn, seasoning mix- gonna keep it simple, cook it on an outdoor burner since it's gonna be hot :) The delay turned out to be a bit of a blessing too, lol. While on the delay, I did act on the notion of making up a batch of muffuletta olive stuff. Turned out I already had everything on hand to make a nice batch of the stuff. And it used up a bunch of jars sucking up space in the fridge down to one big jar to boot! I think I might have found my lost bread recipe too- not the handwritten one, but an online sidetrack that correlates to some previous research. Turns out I may have been looking in the wrong place, name, and time from what I thought. I'll let folks know if the bread from "hunters pressed round" turns out to be that missing recipe, lol.