OMG Sandy, Just read this post and you talked about thrush. That is a nasty, nasty word in my book. I supposedly have asthma and am on the inhaler Advair. After too many, too many bouts with thrush I went cold turkey off of Advair. I got thrush back in February. It got so bad it went to my throat and tonsils. Even my gums were bleeding. I couldn't even drink tea I was in so much agony. I lost 5# because I couldn't eat. I still had thrush in May after a month of being on Diflucam to take it away. I could eat but it still hurt, and forget about taste. I lived on applesauce, jello and pudding. On Father's Day this year I thought I had a small stoke. It felt like someone had stabbed me in the left side of my head with a sharp pencil, then my whole left side went numb, even my tongue. The MRI showed I had a slight brain aneurysm that had healed itself. That was it. I decided the Lord gave me a second chance at life and I wasn't going to abuse it. I am now on a strict low-sodium diet. I have lost 30#. It seems like the pounds are just melting away. If it ain't natural it ain't going in my body. I gave up diet pop, and anything with splenda, neutrasweet or aspartame in it. I have been told I have had asthma and allergies my whole life, and I can't believe the difference. I haven't used an inhaler since February and don't have a problem breathing. I haven't had an asthma attack (thank God) and this is the first year I haven't sneezed my head off during allergy season. I am up to 1.60 miles on the manual treadmill and can bench press 50# on the Bowflex. I don't care what my allergist tells me, I refuse to put anymore steroids into my body. That's what caused the thrush in my mouth and throat, steroids in the Advair inhaler. I feel like I have been reborn. Jenny

Thanks everyone for the comments so far. It seems crosses involving Twilight Zone or any of the mauves are heavily favored, and I don't blame you! Twilight Zone just came out this year but it is such a gorgeous rose, and definitely an improvement over Ebb Tide. Diane, in my opinion I think you have the right idea with using Ascot in breeding. Cynthia, there is no time like the present, and don't be intimidated by the numbers! When they say worth keeping they mean is having commercial and market value, and most of the fun in rose breeding isn't about money or finding americas next super-rose, it's the anticipation of what you might get. Also every breeder, like roses, is unique and has his or her own personality and I believe that is reflected in the roses each breeder comes up with. For example I bet when I mention the names Radler, Swim, Carruth, David Austin, Moore, Sproul, etc. a certain type of rose comes to mind. I'm not sure I have a defined "style" yet but rest assured I am determined to revolutionize roses in my own way. My dream/goal is is to create thornless fragrant shrub roses, in beautiful colors, high petal count, with the disease resistance of knock outs. Some people say well that's just the perfect rose but l believe there's no such thing and never will be since different people value certain traits more than others. Sure my goal is ambitious, but just watch, eventually I will succeed! :)

This tends to be a design issue with apron-style tables. A larger apron provides more strength and stability, but unfortunately intrudes on leg space. Some tables will use an apron design that curves up in the middle to allow "leg crossing", others go with a smaller apron, and others make the user suffer! The dilemma is that if you make the whole table higher to compensate, then the tabletop is too high. If you want to keep the table and that's worth the tradeoff to you, then you can do a combination of shortening the chairs by a couple inches, and the raising the table by an inch with some rubber foot/floor protectors. I made my own table and made sure I could cross my legs while seated, but it was definitely a design and construction consideration. I ended up making the tabletop an inch or two higher than standard and also curving the aprons.

Thanks to both of you, to clarify, I was going for a floor plan similar to that linked, with a facade similar to the picture (neither exact, as they don't match perfectly). It's hard to tell from the picture, but we have a very steep slope just past that tree line (we have a lot of work in our future cutting some zig zag paths down to the pond). That, coupled with a very deep front setback requirement (40 ft from property line, approx 60 feet from road), leaves us with a max house "depth" of about 45 ft (including any porch on front) before we get into prohibitively expensive sloping terrain. We can go as long as we want to go, but we're trying to stay with a 1500 sq ft foundation. If we do a side load garage, with our slope, we're talking about a significant extra cost in retaining walls along the side of the driveway. I'd rather spend that money elsewhere. In this area of Iowa, 95+& of garages (even on very expensive houses) face front. I guess that's why a front-facing a garage door really doesn't bother me. Update - we have a draft of the first floor plan... what do you think? For context, top is north, view is to the north. Neighbor to the east (right) is quite a distance away, and there are trees between. "Back yard" would be to the east. My first thoughts - garage and dining room/living room area might need to be a foot or two bigger. Need to add a fireplace and windows to living room. We'll have 3 bedrooms upstairs (plus bathroom and possibly bonus room), and will eventually have a rec room/wet bar/in-law suite in the walkout basement. I don't have drafts of those yet I really want a first floor master bedroom, which coupled with my max depth requirement, lends toward a little different thought process for the floor plan.