Nancy, LOL, I wish I could blame it on that! This was complete before the cocktail hour. Now, I did have couple before dinner that night and didn't notice until I was half done with my serving. Of course my SA group wanted to know if I was going to post it on the forum. I told them heck ya...it's all good and I'd wanted to share a good laugh with my cooking pals. I thought it was time for us to have a good laugh or two. : ) I want to say again that the cake was well received by everyone. I just prefer chocolate. Imagine that! Hey Woodie! Good to see ya checking in. We were talking about making this for different things and Halloween came up. Can you make black frosting/icing? I've never made black frosting. The upcoming football season came to mind too. Think this recipe or method will be used again for sure with various colors. Thanks y'all! Hope you got a good chuckle or smile from my little mistake. David

This is the information I have concerning this pattern. As I stated in my original post followups (http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/quilt/msg091614491939.html) If anyone wants to make this quilt they should purchase the pattern! Here is a response from the pattern company where mine was bought (for my guild's use): www.piecesfrommyheart.net "The Pattern #230 Trees Up! Lights On! is definately not out of print. We ship it every day. We will be glad to send it to you. Retails for $7.50, plus shipping. You can place your order via e-mail, website, or call/fax 515-295-5672. We are in the office Tues thru Thurs from 9am to noon and 1pm to 4 (Central Standard Time)" It can also be found here: http://whiteswanquilt.com/detailPM230.html And here: http://www.seamstome.com/pat_kit.html Though it was generous of someone to recreate this pattern, it is infringing on copyright laws to use the one posted above! This pattern is still in print, and as I'd stated in the original post, if anyone wishes to make this quilt (myself included) you must purchase the pattern. I had tried to explain this in the followup posts to my original thread, and if I had known it was going to create such an issue, then I never would have shared a picture of that quilt. [This is a different issue than say the One Block Wonder also posted in the original thread. The tree quilt was from a pattern, not just a technique such as OBW from a book] Call me the quilt police if you'd like & kick me off this board if you like, but I've been around long enough to know that copyright laws are there to protect the creator. They are there for a reason...The designer wishes to make money from their idea. It is wrong to copy their idea without giving them due credit for their efforts. They've gone to a lot of trouble to get this protection and they deserve to be paid their price for their idea/pattern. There are 3 links given for purchasing this pattern. If you really like the pattern then just shuck out the $7.50 and purchase it! I've said my peace. Here is a link that might be useful: tree pattern

Thirty to Forty dollars an hour is nothing compared to what plumbers, electricians, locksmiths, carpenters, landscapers, webmasters, computer techies make. Even the fellow that built our pond charged $75. an hour. Many get paid under the table so that they don't even have to pay taxes. Compare our education and responsibility. I can't remember my exact salary when I had to leave nursing with cancer 5 years ago but it wasn't as high as forty dollars and I was at the maximum level allowed with 32 years experience. I must look up an old pay slip. Chemo brain has me forgetting such details. Better labelling on bottles does help. I particularly remember one case where a heavy duty drug was in the same shaped and coloured bottle as a standard vitamin. It didn't happen on my floor but a number of the babies became really sick and had to come to my unit due to the error. Changes were made in labelling and it never happened again. There certainly are cases where good can come out of mistakes, and I bet this is one time where there will be a change in policy. In hospitals, when incidents happen, they are reviewed to see if changes need to take place. Errors aren't just swept under the table. Hospitals have personnel who do nothing but quality assurance. There is always going to be anger at hospitals and medical personnel. It is one of the stages that people go through when they are grieving. When my FIL died, I was very angry at the hospital for not recognizing the signs that he had a bowel obstruction until he perforated. I had periods of anger over the care I received with my mastectomy. Today, I realize that this anger was good, it was just what I needed to distract me and help me get over the loss. I have been at both ends of this medical debate.

@cpartist, thank you for the thoughts, that's what I was looking for. I'll say upfront that many of these questions are ones we already mulled over (and went back and forth over in the design process), and settled on the decisions as our attempt at optimum balance between desired features and budget (we're already about $200K over our goal budget before we even broke ground). But I am always open to being challenged on these decisions. I should also add that perhaps "retirement" home has the wrong connotation. I am still in my 50's (not for long), and while I know none of us know when we'll need assistance and care, my hope is that it won't be for many years yet. So retirement home is not the same as nursing home :). With that in mind, some responses: "Are you planning on having a housekeeper at least weekly?" -- Not sure yet, I'm guessing your point /concern is that the house is too big? "Why do you need a powder room and a 1/2 bath? And why does the powder room need a shower? If for a swimming pool, do you really expect guests to shower in your bathroom and then head home? If they're staying, can't they use the shower between the 2 bedrooms?" -- We obviously don't "need" those elements. The thought process was that since we only have one full bath for the two guestrooms, we might as well make the powder room in that area into a full bath as well, to have more capacity for when kids and family come to visit. As for the 1/2 bath by the gym, it seemed like a good spot for it while using the sauna/gym, or if I'm working in the workshop and need a potty break, without having to schlep through half the house to either the MBA or the powder room. "How often will your adult children be coming to visit? I ask because have you considered letting some rooms do double duty? If you have guests will you also be using the office at the same time?" -- Hopefully a few times a year. We do view the office as double duty for those times when we have the whole family gather once or twice a year to go foraging in the National Forest. That adds a few more people to the equation. So the office will serve as the third guest bedroom. I know it seems silly to have some rooms/bathrooms sit idle 99% of the time, but I also figured that there is some element here of "if you build it they will come" - i.e. if we have the nice space for friends/family to come and stay, they might do it more often. "Where in the master bedroom will the bed go? As it appears, you'll walk into the room and the first thing you see is the wall and closets, and the bed will be right by your side. Not the best in terms of feng sui or how it feels to walk into a room. Additionally it means in the middle of the night, one of you will have to walk clear around the bed to get to the bathroom. I had that arrangement in a past rental while waiting for our house to be finished and I still think I have the bruises from hitting my shins on the side of the bed." -- Correct, the bed is on the left side as you come into the MBR. May not be ideal, but we struggled to find a better arrangement with the rest of the design layout. We were inspired by this layout, we really like the look and feel of it: I thought a lot about the "walk around the bed to get to bathroom" question, and realized that that is arrangement we've had in our MBR for the past 25 years, and didn't hit our shins on the bed but once or twice. I think what helps is that in our MBR now, and in the proposed house, there will be about 5-6 feet of clearance all around, so we won't be hugging the bed when walking around it. "Do you need a nook, a dining area and an island?" -- They serve different purposes - island is for food prep and having a couple of folks sit at while food or drinks are being prepared. Nook is likely to be our daily breakfast area, to look out at the greenery. Dining is for larger gatherings, likely to be used very rarely. "Why does the guest bath need 2 sinks?" -- Definitely don't "need", but seemed like a cheap enough upgrade for guest couples to use at the same time - especially when they have small kids. Probably will never happen, just like my wife and I have probably never used our bathroom's two vanity sinks at the same time :). "I'm not a fan of the toilet up against one of the guest bedroom walls." -- Excellent catch, I missed this. Not sure how to rearrange it to get it away from the wall, but I'll ponder if that wall can be soundproofed, or made it a double studded wall. "How big is the ADU bathroom?" -- About 8' x 9' "Is that a stackable W/D in the ADU apartment and if so, what happens if your MIL can't bend and lift anymore?" -- Indeed. Valid question about the bending and lifting, I'll see what my wife thinks. Not sure what one can do to completely foolproof that - if one can't bend or lift, I'm not sure what W/D arrangement would work reliably? "Will your MIL be cooking much by herself or will she be having most meals with you. If by herself that kitchen is not very workable. (And fridges can't be up against walls)" -- Hard to say, probably mostly by herself. What do you mean by not workable - size or layout? Kitchen cabinet/countertop size is limited by zoning to be under 10 ft, that's exactly what we have. And the fridge is not against the wall, it is by the breezeway/link door. "Is there a way out of the ADU from the bedroom in case of emergency?" -- Yeah, code requires an egress window which we do have. But I guess your point is whether we should make it an easier egress for an elderly person than a window, by making it a door? Worth some thought. "There should be more light in the ADU facing south since east will only give morning light." -- the south wall has a TV is the lower right corner, hence the limited (6 ft wide) glass door/window combo unit. We can potentially add a wide/short window high along the ceiling, above the TV. You don't think a 6' x 8' combo glass unit will give enough light?