G.M., I always share recipes. It's not like it's going to hurt me if someone else makes the same thing. It is a recipe I found on the internet, but then I had to change it up just a little bit. It gives roast a bit of a different flavor, and we just love it. Here's it is: one 6-lb. roast 4 T. butter or margarine 2 medium onions, chopped 16 oz. sour cream 32 oz. chicken stock or chicken broth 3 T. dill weed 1 and 1/2 t. seasoned salt 1 t. red pepper flakes Pour the chicken stock, sour cream, dill weed, seasoned salt and red pepper flakes into a crock pot, and stir together. Cover the crock pot and turn it on. Let the broth ingredients begin heating up. Melt the butter or margarine in a dutch oven on top of the stove and then brown the roast on all sides. While it is browning, chop up the onions. Remove the roast from the dutch oven and place it in the crockpot. Saute' the onions in the dutch oven until they are lightly browned. Pour the onions/butter mixture into the crockpot and stir well. Set the crockpot on low if you want to cook the roast all day, or on high if you want to cook it for a half-day. Cook, serve, enjoy. The longer it cooks, the more the liquid cooks down and thickens. Sometimes, if I only cook it for 6 hours, the liquid is a little runnier....more like au just when I want it a little thicker like gravy. So, to remedy that, I pour about 80 percent of the liquid into a saucepan and simmer it on the stove for a while to evaporate more moisture. Then I pour it back into the crockpot and stir everything together again. (Usually, while I am doing that I am preparing the side dishes.) If I cook it all day on low, the moisture usually has cooked out and the broth is thickened up the way we like it. A roast this size makes the four of us a couple of big meals, and there is usually some meat left for sandwiches. I like to make open-faced sandwiches like the open-faced roast beef sandwiches at Cracker Barrel. Just chop up some of the leftover roast beef and heat it and the sauce. Serve over thick slices of sourdough bread. Yummy! And the tomato plants.....well, the ones I have more or less match what I thought I was raising. I have to finish the comparison tomorrow, as I got distracted by a movie DH was watching and sort of stopped in the middle. There are a few tomato plants that weren't on the original list, which isn't unusual. Often, after starting my seeds in late January, I come across a variety that sounds delicious and decide to start "a few more tomatoes". LOL And, of course, sometimes a few seeds don't sprout, or sprout and die, or sprout and get eaten by the deer or rabbits when I leave the flats sitting outside at night. (sign) Tomorrow, I'll let you know how much the list changed. I know I did add Ramapo F-1, which is back on the commercial market for the first time in quite a while. I ordered seeds from the New Jersey Agriculture Extension Service at Rutgers University (in January, I think) and they didn't arrive until March 10. I started them right away, and they are now about 3" tall and have 2 to 4 true leaves, so they'll have to grow a little before they go into the ground. Still, with the very warm weather we're having, I think they'll reach planting size pretty quickly. Sometimes I think back to how easy it used to be before I started raising my own from seed, and think that life was so much simpler then. (smile) But, I do love the huge variety of colors and flavors, so I don't really mind. I want to plant a lot Monday, so I'm free to run down to Ft. Worth the rest of the week to see Mom in the hospital, especially if they start the tests Monday. I think the oncologist is going to try to diagnose the probable cancer without extracting bone marrow (due to her age and lower bone density), so it may take a few extra days to get a definite idea of what is going on. We also have the annual Fire Dept. awards dinner Saturday, and have to do some running around one day this week to pick up plaques and other awards and stuff and get ready for that. I hope for a rain-free Monday so I can plant, plant, plant, since the weather seems good in the extended forecast, and it may be the only day I have "free" this week. (At least the recent rainfall has kept down the number of grass fires, so I'm not having to drop everything and go!) Dawn

Pupwhipped, I grew up the same way. Back then the DW was for the heat and detergent (i.e., sanitizing) and if there was any crud on the dishes it would get baked on. That hasn't been true for an awfully long time, but I can't stop myself running water in a dish if I set it in the sink. 'Course the roommate 20 years ago who left cooked on crud when he handwashed pots might have something to do with it :) You can learn to taper off the rinsing--I don't get every bit of crud off any more--even if you aren't 100% cured. The main reason to do this is to save water, which is quite precious in most parts of the world. That said, you'll probably never need a dishwasher made for people who expect so much more. Have you looked at the GE Profile? They have a few variations. All should get your dishes clean, and I'm pretty sure all the better, newer dishwashers are pretty quiet. The reason I mention the GE in particular is I think GE give a discount when you buy a whole suite, don't they? I've been looking at the GE Monogram, which seems to have the features I want and racks I like. It also does either convection dry with a fan or heated dry at operator's choice. The Kitchen Aids have the soft food disposer and pot scrubber which you don't need, but are supposed to be very quiet. I'm sure you've seen the thread talking about their model with the third cutlery rack, which is a nice feature. European dishwashers are very nice, though don't have heated dry, but they generally cost more, and if your dishes are that clean to begin with it seems a shame to spend on them. They are, generally, conservative with water and energy. I don't know how the American ones stack up against them on that. For instance, Euro ones heat the water, whereas American ones have the heated dry (depending on where your water heater is set). There are lots of variables :)

well, I work w/ graphic designers, and it's very true--their tools have changed quite a bit. Classwork will really, really help. You know what also might help? Being able to sit at the elbow of someone doing a similar task w/ the software you're learning to use. Take the class first, but while you're taking it, start scouting out a publication, or advertising agency, or something--tap into those friends!--that uses the same publication you will. Contact a designer there, not necessarily the top cheese in the dept., and call. Explain yourself, and ask if you can come spend a little time watching them work. I've learned so much by seeing them do something quick, and then saying, "how'd you do that?" They then explain the tool to me, and bingo, I've got it. Seeing it happen in real life is such a big plus in terms of learning. Bcs I don't even know enough to realize the "tool" is in the program. I'd just figure out what the long way was, and do that. Then, once you're going, see if you can get them to come watch you design something. They may find efficiencies you could use. Also, one other thought: Efficiency is going to be really important. Maybe more so than creativity. So, try to spend some energy creating templates you can then simply tweak or use outright, without further fussing around. Another thing I've found: the PRINCIPLES are the same. We ship files electronically to our separator. We still send the "mechanical" (except now it's an electronic document, the QuarkXPress file)--it is the real, live, perfect thing that they will actually use. And, bcs an electronic file *can* be change and is therefore more vulnerable, the "mechanical" is now two parts--the one they use (the file) and the one they check it against. That second part used to be a printout. Now, it's a PDF. But the PRINCIPLE is the same as when it was paper. It just has another name. And often digital pictures are sent to the separator instead of actual artwork for them to photograph themselves (and sometimes actual film is sent by the advertiser, here), the principle is the same. Time consuming steps shaved off, that's all. So, as you learn the system for transmitting to the printer, or a program like Quark, with all the tools inside it (dragging, dropping, drawing, step-and-repeat, etc., try to compare with previous systems and methods--because the parallel is there. The same things are being accomplished. Also focus on the GOAL of each of these steps and not their names; it will help you understand them. And, you'll be able to mark them up even if you can't remember the term. (Remember the old days? You could write "KO type" on the tissue overlaying the mechanical; or you could have written "type should be white"--and the people reading it would know what you meant even if you didn't use the "KO" jargon) More random thoughts. Is it that you're intimidated by learning something new? Or is it that, because you are older and a better planner (and not idealistic and unrealistic, which we are when we're younger), that you have a clearer grasp of how complex this could be, and how inefficient you will be at first? That doesn't mean you should quit--just that you should STOP deciding this is an age-induced character defect, and start thinking of it as a "signal system" that's telling you something. It's telling you where the difficulties will lie which hopefully will help you tackle them. What software will you be using for your page design? I'm curious. (oh, and...if your printer can handle more than one software, you guys should use the one that your friends use, so you can use them as coaches)

Well, it only took me 45 minutes to finally find you all and get in here. I am easily frustrated. :( I'll have to come back tomorrow to explore more - depending on , of course, if I can get in again. Well, dad-blast it! My picture is sideways and I can't figure out have to move the picture out from in the middle of my typing! Aauuughhh!!!! edited = Well, why is my photo all stretchy? It looked sideways when I put it in but now it's upright.