This house has four bedrooms and three bathrooms, the real estate agent tells them. It has a fenced-in back yard, lots of light, a good school district, a new furnace. It comes with a unicorn. This house � she thinks they�re ready to hear this news � this house will make them lose 15 pounds from their thighs. Does it have granite countertops? the husband asks. No. Well, then. 15lbs from my thighs? Sold. Of course, I'm a soapstoner so lack of granite isn't a dealbreaker. ;-) Too funny! Thanks for posting the link.

I have been going through a similar experience. I have been coming up with many of the same concerns. I saw a show on television a couple weeks ago that used recycled glass for the counter top and it showed how you can choose your shades of glass to get a solid color or mix it to get a look you like. I have not followed up on that process in person yet but it may be a process you might want to look into.. I also like quartz. It is a much more environmentally friendly product than granite and not busy like granite and I think you can get it with a less polished surface so it is not so shiny. One thing making my decision a challenge is that I currently have a marble look solid surface Corian countertop. It has been in my kitchen for over 35 years. 35 years ago a solid surface instead of a laminate surface was pretty cool and at the time a bit of a splurge. It is easy to work on, has no chips or cracks, all I have ever done is wash it with LOC and a sponge after cooking meals. There is one slightly darkened spot where my husband set a pan that was on fire directly on the surface.  I have always loved it because it has the look of an ivory marble without the high gloss. My kitchen is pretty classic. After 35 all I have to do to update my kitchen is put new handles on the cupboards and darken the countertops to create a slightly more dramatic look. I was considering real stone because of being older, that should one of us die, or we should decide to downsize  the current brainwashed mentality that a kitchen is not a kitchen without stone might make the house easier to sell. I want to be more green so I did not consider granite at all. I think with the green trend, granite will be way out of style in just a few years. I heard from a friend recently, who wondered why I was looking at counter material because there was nothing wrong with my current counters, that the color in Corian can be changed to a solid. So having read unhappy complaint after complaint about most counter products, changing my color would certainly save money and I would get to continue to live with a really easy to care for product. At my age I know that there are many more fun ways to spend time than cleaning the kitchen. Hope you find a product that works. IÂll keep checking back to see what answers you come up with.

Quite a few of the British also use that glottal stop in a word where Canadians would vocalize an "r": e.g. "fo-y" instead of "forty" (I guess that involves both the disavowed "R" and "T")! (Spell check doesn't like my pronunciation, either). ole joyful

Unfortunately, he's already slipped to the point where the computer is too much for him, that's why I'm looking for alternatives. I don't think he'd have a problem typing but all the other stuff that comes up with a computer is too much now. So a Chromebook wouldn't help. The place they live hasn't got their act together computer-wise (although they do have good wi-fi now, which is handy for me.) The generation that really insists on computers hasn't quite hit the nursing home yet; I expect it will be different in another 10 years. I don't think he's going to like the laptop keyboard much; I don't like it that much myself. Audio to text is actually an interesting idea; I've never had any experience with that. Worth looking into. Thanks for the suggestions.