Carol, I think Quadra is an exceptional climbing rose. The bloom form is wonderful and the blooms last for a long time. The red is very vibrant. It blooms in nice clusters and the leaves are glossy and more importantly, very healthy. I have not had any disease whatsoever on my Quadra. It is also quite hardy and there aren't too many hardy climbers that repeat here. Phyl, thanks for the compliments...you can come to my gardens anytime...er, well when there's something to see..LOL. Right now things look pretty pathetic, all brown and bare. Jen, I am glad you like Pink Rosette (Valerie, too)... it is such a charming rose and blooms its head off. It has large clusters of the cutest little rosettes you've ever seen...they are so perfect they don't look real. And the blooms last FOREVER....if you cut one of the big clusters, it will last over a week in a vase and still look fresh. The bush stays compact so its great for the front of a border or bed. Believe it or not, I STILL have a cluster of Pink Rosette on the bush out there right now! Valerie...you have to try this one! I'm going to post more pics of it tonight on a new post, along with Quadra, for you guys. Thanks,Kathy...I appreciate your kind words. Celeste

Thanks for all the kind words. I still look at it in disbelief that it came together so well. Kompy,yeah, the title was tongue-in-cheek, because I was warned about using friends as contractors, but I knew these guys and their work ethic, so I wasn't worried. Cabinets are clear maple with a natural finish, from a local custom maker in Salt Lake, Mt Tech cabinets. Countertops are Maron Cohiba granite. They almost read as black from a distance, but are deep brown and scattered with gold flecks, small fractures, large flakes, etc. Really have a lot of depth. Backsplash is from Daltile, from the Urban Metals collection, UM01. It's a running brick pattern with pewter grout. It's kind of weird, not really tile, almost a composite substrate with a thin laminate of shiny material that also has specks & color. Hard to describe. The whole thing was really a collaboration with input from a number of different people. I had a rough idea of what I wanted, and had spent a lot of time talking about it with Dale & Damion, my friends who were the contractors. Dale loves to do the "Craftsman" style woodworking, so a modernized version of that style was the base. The original kitchen was cut in half by a bank of cabinets that totally cut off the "dining" area, with the original stove in that section, and the old sink where the range is now. I really wanted to open up the kitchen and join all that space, so that also was one of the primary design criteria. From there, things just developed, and as we went along, I decided that I'm only going to do this once, and I wanted to do it right, and do justice to the beautiful woodworking that the guys were doing. I was also fortunate to meet and enlist the services of a great designer, Carrie Snyder of Avatar Design in Salt Lake. Carrie was just awesome at coming in at crucial moments to make sure things worked together. She did the lighting plan, helped me choose the countetop material, chose the backsplash, and all of the interior wall colors. The walls are Pratt & Lambert "Briarwood", with accent walls of "Clove Dust", and some "Chalk Grey", with the same Chalk Grey ceilings. All of the woodwork was laboriously hand sanded, then shot with sanding sealer, sanded again, then shot with three coats of lacquer. One of the details that you cant' see in the photos is that the baseboard is 5/8" thick, the jamb legs 3/4" thick, then the frieze boards on top step out another 1/8" to 1", so there is a three dimensional step out on the trim, which was all milled in my garage. Anyway, I hope I've answered some of your questions without prattling on too much like a proud papa. If you could have seen what this house looked like before, you would not believe it. I bought the house in 1988, and the entire thing (including bathrooms!!) was carpeted with a short blue-green industrial looking carpet, all walls were the same battleship grey, (it was listed as a "Newport Contemporary Solarium") The transformation has been awesome to watch. This past Monday I got my final inspection, and was able to start moving back upstairs after spending the last 6 months in my dungeon of a basement with my two Bengal cats, (hence the screen name). I don't have any more photos at the moment, but would love to share some of the rest of the house when I get back home from work in 2 weeks. Thanks again for looking & listening! I got a lot of great information from the folks on this forum, so if there is anything that I may be able to contribute, just ask. BTW, the range is a Blue Star, 36" RNB with charbroiler. I haven't really had the chance to cook on it yet, but the installation was relatively painless (it's heavy!), and all burners, ignitors, broiler, etc worked perfectly first time.

Reading here it is implied that the only offensive memes are posted by only one political stance. Surely you all receive these posts from all perspectives. I do. Most are slanted and sensational; a few do make you think. I think that more annoying than receiving political blurbs from Facebook friends is receiving them from friends of friends. Generally I find them annoying and close them. Most of the time I don't read them.

I can see that the end is coming for Facebook due to their unethical practices. That said, social media and online communities in general have been very helpful for me. As a very unpopular highschooler, I came online in the very early stages of the Internet. There I could find like-minded people who enjoyed my personality, of all ages. Those friendships, while virtual, were extremely important to me and helped ease some of the loneliness of my high school years. I met many of my current irl friends and husband on a local music messageboard. Through Facebook I have founded a very successful book club and found other moms, I belong to a low drama mom’s group that is great for support and problem solving. I would be a lot more isolated and have feeer friends without social media. I think some of the things that we blame on social media, for example, people not getting out and having real life friendships, can actually be at least partly blamed on a much larger structural forces in our society. How in the world could we expect two working parents, with the world’s most minimal vacation time, working 50 hours a week, in many cases uncompensated for the extra hours, to develop thriving time consuming friendships outside of work? It is only for the superhuman to do so. Life would be a lot more social if we had two hour lunches, worked near where we lived, had reasonable work weeks and had eight weeks of paid vacation. I’ll add two years’ parental leave and quality universal daycare to the list as well, haha. And maybe the ability to live near our families and extended families if we so choose.