Adblock is wonderful. You can block anything on any webpage that you don't like. I don't see ads anymore on gardenweb at all. Once you've downloaded Firefox and adblock you can click on the little Adblock text at the bottom right corner of the screen. It brings up a list of everything on the webpage you are on. You scroll through the list to find the ad to block it, or add a general filter that will block everything with that name in the name of the file. On gardenweb you should add a block *doubleclick* which will block everything with doubleclick in the name of the file. That's the ad provider for gardenweb so it should get rid of almost everything. Other good filters are things like *ads* but *ad* seems to be too general and blocks some of the things you want to see.

mymimi43- the onion babies haven't dropped off yet, but they should very soon...but there are a bunch of babies on the bottom on the onions that I can't see...I'll check later on today to see if they're ready...I do have a medium-small pregnant onion I would probably be willing to part with for a trade..it has two babies on it right now...how about you e-mail me and I could end you pictures of it and the Louise plants...but I wouldn't be able to send them for atleast a week or so because I have Pneumonia right now...I can barely move, so if I don't answer right away, don't think I've forgotten..I'll take a look at your trade list and see what I might want... My email is in my profile. cactusmcharris- I'll check out those places you mentioned..I just want good plants at reasonable prices...thank you. -flowerpottipper

>For me however, given the choice in cabinetry, I'd go solid, so now I will tell you why. I like the feel of the heavier doors. A solid panel is also easier to repair if it gets damaged. I've seen some veneer panels completely blow out when hit hard enough. Plywood and veneer aren't the same thing, and both come in many thicknesses. I have no idea what you mean by "blow out", but properly glued veneer (or properly made plywood) will never delaminate. OTOH, only a fool would make guarantees about solid wood and warping and splitting on larger panels. Many companies, for that reason, will either not make the large doors without extra stiles or will not guarantee them. If you have a raised panel fridge door with just two panels, for instance, all the luck to you, but there's a reason that raised panel passageway doors are made with SMALL panels. >I've had several clients complain about the rattly sound when closing a door with a thin center panel (especially if the doors are large...tall 42" uppers and pantry doors are the worst). You don't think about that until you're using it everyday. You mean that the whole DOOR vibrates? Or that the panel vibrates in the door? With the second, it's more likely that solid panels will develop that problem over time, since they move more with the seasons. You can reverse-cove-shape a plywood panel, too, though the results wouldn't be as pretty on the backside, but I'd take that before having a *big* solid wood center panel. The LAST place you want big panels is with solid wood. (Unless, of course, you can magically keep the moisture and temperature exactly steady year-round--like you'd have to to keep paint from splitting where stiles join, as Woodmode mentioned.) It will warp very rapidly. You're courting disaster if you insist on it. If you have to have solid wood on big doors--if, for instance, you have the actual panel with a cove facing out--then you should keep the size of each panel to a reasonable dimension considering the dimensional stability of your chosen wood. That means raising the number of panels per door. >And finally, veneers can STAIN differently and AGE differently than solid wood. I've seen kitchens where the center veneer panel is slightly lighter in color that the solid wood frames. Now you're making no sense. A horizontal stile will look a different color from a vertical stile because of the direction of the wood grain. This is true with the vast majority of stain colors. Natural variation in the wood mean that panels and stiles will also look slightly different colors to a very careful eye. The BEST way to get panels to look the same, if you're not doing an almost opaque stain, is with veneers. (True veneers, not plywood.) The BEST way is to book match or slip match veneers. Without that, the best you can do is to do a "pleasing match" of solid woods--that is, select them to make sure they are all the same color. If some moron didn't do so, blaming the veneering process (or the fact that they used plywood) shows an astonishing lack of comprehension of what veneer/plywood is. If you like solid wood panels because you think they're more authentic, sure, whatever, I'll give it to you. If you like the idea of being able to put an enormous gouge in a piece of furniture and the color underneath being able to be stained to the same color, I'll agree but I'll think you're crazy since any sensible person would fill it, sand it, stain it, and make it disappear. But if you're pretending that, in performance, solid wood is superior for a flat panel application or if you're pretending that the most exquisite furniture made today isn't enormously dominated by rare and beautiful veneers...you're selling your clients a load of nonsense. The very best casework is made with a mixture of plywood, veneers, inlays, and solid wood--typically, in that order. The pieces that are worth more than my car ever was rarely have more than trace amounts of solid wood. Pretending that solid wood=high quality is dangerously deceptive. The stile-and-panel style door was originally developed because slabs of solid wood warp so dramatically. (Yes, solid-wood panels work--as long as you keep the doors within reasonable sizes ***for the material.*** Many people don't want that, though....) Historically...yes, Shakers wanted simpler designs. They couldn't change the existence of stiles-plus-panels because plywood technology didn't exist yet. The cove actually has a function in solid-panel doors, so they kept it and reversed it to make it seem less decorative. If Shaker villages were thriving today, they'd probably all have slab-style doors! :-) (Which aren't just slabs of playwood, BTW, but are built up--with plywood and solid wood, both--and usually have...yes, veneers, if they are any size at all. Those amazing zebrawood modernist design? All veneers!)

Tim Park's Medici Money has a very interesting take on Lorenzo. Cosimo, his grandfather, built up the bank that made the family's wealth, but apparently Lorenzo had no interest in banking or being a working man; he wanted a more aristocratic lifestyle and so neglected the business that supported his expensive habits. He also consolidated political power into his own hands, so that under his rule, Florence was a republic in name only. It's a very interesting, short read.