Maria your pictures and the time you spend to document and help to inform others through your images is very much appreciated. We are very blessed here. It is a real shame that someone would just take them without at least first asking. The only good that comes out of it is the flattery I suppose! You could always offer them the use of your images in exchange for lots of free bulbs! Larissa- I think the things we type here and the "conversations" if you will, are the same as if we were all at the coffee shop or Burger King talking out loud for anyone to hear. Unfortunately, there are terrible things happening all the time. I don't even like to watch the news because it is always about who has been killed. Also, the internet has given criminals so much access to scams, it isn't even funny. Please if anyone asks you to send them money and you don't know them DON'T do it no matter how great it sounds. I believe Jodi is right about the Google search. I know I have searched for images of different plants and a GW post comes up many times. It is very easy to just search and go right to the image here. Then with the way Photobucket is set up, nothing is private. Once you link one photo, all the other images you have saved in other albums are available for viewing. Make sure what you upload is something you want to share with anyone, anywhere! Hang in there, Maria. I know you will get a response from Ebay and they will want to help you. I had an issue once with a fraudulent seller once who was running up the prices on his own auctions with different user names. They busted him and turned his account off very quickly! -Frank

Wild Swan is probably my favorite book on China - fiction or non. The stories of her grandmother, mother and herself read like good fiction, and I came away with a much better understanding of modern Chinese history and culture then I had before. I agree - I don't think you can really make any generalization about any country, but esp not one so big. Yes we export some of our most glaring stereotypes for all to see. But its so very different between regions, states, rural/urban/suburban, and so dependent on class, race or nationalities. Rather an interesting mix, actually. Im in a website that has a language forum, and people from all over the country pop in with their favorite regionalisms, and comments on others. Makes me remember how really diverse this huge nation is, and makes me wonder how in the world we managed to all stick together for so long!

Memories of Four Score Years - Colonel H Harrington-Roberts

The acrylic radii sections are cut with a trammel. The cut sections are clamped and adhered together. Blocking is hot melted to the acrylic circle. Note the side and front-to back spacers. I made sure blocking was hot melted over each seam. The 3/16" sides are adhered to the blocking and the solid surface. I pulled the built-up edge out of my oven, 15 minutes at 350 degrees, and thermoformed it around the frame. As gentle as the Daniclamps are, I should have used a laminate shim on their lip to spread the load because they dimpled my pieces occasionally. Fortunately, the dimples sanded out. My neighbor Frank cuts my old mirror on my dining room table. He wouldn't take any money. We built the reflected chandelier and valance too. I've painted the frame and I'm sticking tile with Power Grab. The white solid surface has been profiled and polished, hence the blankie. I've painted the raw mirror edge with clear nail polish per Frank's instruction and installed it. I've used mechanical fasteners with an uncured rubber roofing shim between the metal and mirror; Frank wanted mirror silicone. The blobs are mastic that stuck my old mirror to the wall. If I remove them and they take the back of the mirror when they go, I'm screwed so I leave them. Detail drawings dribbled with Acetone.