Beach - are you ribbing Jeff about the good ol' days of the Jade-gone-wild he enjoyed in his yard? (That wall-o-Jade was in your yard, wasn't it Jeff?) You southern folk got it so good! Jeff, your Jade looks like it's on its way to being a bushy fella. I've been known to whack them until there are nothing but leafless branches. Had one (of the sports) that got beat up in a bad wind/hail storm in June 2008. After two months, it looked like this... By this last May, it had filled in nicely... I don't have a current photo, but it's looking pretty great! I love the way the trunk thickens with each serious pruning. I have two big standard Jades that are in dire need of a serious pruning that I plan to whack at as soon as they're done flowering. And I agree with Josh - I'm a little nervous (even after all the pruning I've done) the first few cuts, but it does get easier. The fun part is waiting to see those cute little leaves emerging from those tough barky branches! Denise in Omaha

The gas jet, sometimes called a "spud" or "orifice" sits between the valve and the feed tube that supplies the burner. Its job is to increase the speed of the gas flow right before it passes by the mixture "shutters" resulting in a venturi effect. At max open valve, the orifice serves to limit the gas flow to achieve optimum mixture and pressure at the burner ports. If the orifice is too big, the gas flow can blow itself out at the burner. All of this is a balance. Burner port angle, if mostly horizontal, will just shoot the flames out from under the skillet if you turn the burner up too high. If the burner ports are too few, or too small in diameter, then an overly large orifice will cause "jetting" at the burner and could result in poor mixture/inefficient burn, or even extinguishing of the flame. On my RCS, the burner was designed for double duty, either as a 22K burner, when paired, with a #47 drill size orifice, or as an 18K burner with a #48 drill size orifice. I did some experimenting and settled on a 46 gauge orifice, which yields me around 24K BTU/hr performance and still a decent blue flame and great performance with my cookware. It is important to note that the Bluestar burner configuration is like a commercial unit in that the gas ports in the burner arms are angled up toward the pan and not horizontally out away from the center. I get a nice pile of fire when I light up the big boy, it rocks a wok about as well as I could ask, and it will never heat a pan as fast as Gary's induction cooktop. So it is always good to keep things in perspective! As far as the griddle, grill burner performance, I simply cannot answer without seeing the range and examining the flame pattern. I do know you do not want to increase the spread of flame outside the design limits of the system without a careful evaluation of danger. Are there wires in the flame path? Gas piping? Plastic, insulation, frequent contact surfaces you will burn yourself on. The list is endless. I am comfortable engineering stuff around my house because I have a long history of doing that. All I would say is that if you are interested in hotrodding your range, do it carefully, in small steps, and make sure that what you are doing 1. Helps. 2. Won't burn your house down.

Cypress, The decision is yours but here is what happened to me... I met a man who I thought was the greatest thing since chocolate 5 years ago. I have 2 children (he doesn't have any) but he seemed to get along with them well. My son was 16 and didn't want me to marry him but I thought that he was being jealous because he had been in the past. We had always been very close. My daughter was 6 and enjoyed spending time with my new love. I never saw him treat them badly or say anything that was out of order. After 12 years of being single, I chose to marry him, after a year dating. 3 months after the wedding, my son left home, REFUSES to even come to the house to visit because Husband is ALWAY rude to him and cut's me down for defending him. My daughter HATES him!! I can never leave her at home by herself in case he gets home before me. He scream and fights with her all the time. He sends her to her room within 5 minutes after she get off the school bus EVERY DAY. My daughter is staying with one of my sister's for the summer and I am trying to get Husband to talk to me. He doesn't see a problem. He is the adult and man of the house and she needs to behave. Yes, she has developed a 'smart' mouth and voices her opinions more than an 11 year old should but IMO he needs to have some respect for her also. Children are people! their feeling can be hurt just like his. THey have a right to have their own opinion when ask a question. All the monthly bills are in my name as I moved them over to our new home instead of paying another deposit. My ENTIRE pay check goes to pay for them and food. His paycheck is his ~ he says he works hard for his money and deserves to have some fun. Leaving is not a do-able option for me. Your man may not do these things, YET!! That is the key word. If he is behaving in this manner now, just imagine what it will be like when he gets you to sign the license. Do you want your son to have to be by himself every evening, lonely in his room? Be scared to bring a problem to you or just discuss his day, because 'he' is home? Just my 2 cents, Good luck

"So, what I don't understand is if my deflection is L/868, why is that not sufficient for tile? That is great than L/720, so what is wrong with that?" I believe the only person to say it was not sufficient was Sophie because she was looking at the wrong number. "Sophie Wheeler last Thursday at 8:41PM It is LD 360, which is sufficient for small to medium porcelain (12"), but not large format (defined as any tile with an edge over 16") or any natural stone other than maybe a small mosaic. None of the long plank tile, and no marble etc. You will have cracked tile if you go outside those guidelines" . "That is great than L/720, so what is wrong with that?" L/868 is LESS THAN L/720 just as 1/4 is less than 1/2. The floor should have LESS deflection than L/720. . "I don't love the idea of being limited in floor tile size for remodels and such though. And, with the the floor tile we picked, do we have to worry about grout cracking?" It is hard to tell you anything definitive on this side of the internet. Someone that is actually there will have to look at things more closely, but so far, so good. All anyone can do away from the job is look at the calculations. "So what does : when tested per ASTM A108 mean? You have a kitchen floor tiled, Does engineer use a worst case calculation to satisfy the TESTED statement?" Yes, basically, the calculations are done before the plans are finalized or the floor built, so it is hard to "test" it at that point. After the floor is built, testing is moot to a point because it only tells you what you can no longer fix very well. The only thing that testing after the subfloor is done really does is warns you not to use the big tile you may have wanted. "You have a party and you have 20 + people milling around in kitchen, maybe some are pretty BIG people, ..." The calculations don't quite go to that "worse case". The "live load" is listed as 40 pounds per square foot, so 200÷40 means that a population density of more than one person per 5 square feet would go over the limit. That is an area 27"×27", so if everyone tried to see how tightly they could pack together and jumped up and down in the middle of the floor, it would probably crack the grout. That is one reason to add strong backs, cross-bridging in the middle of the joist spans. But it is often better to increase the size of the joist and space them closer together. (Less time, and less potential squeeks) . "I don't love the idea of being limited in floor tile size for remodels and such though. And, with the the floor tile we picked, do we have to worry about grout cracking?" Everything may be fine. Assuming the floor joist are all the same height and type, you need to get the numbers on the "actual deflection" of the total load, taking into account the weight of the tile and underlayment/tile bed you will be using for the LONGEST joist span that will be under a tiled area. Some stone applications can increase the dead load to above the 15 pounds allotted in these load sheets. Therefore, the total load would be more than the 55 pounds. There are an infinite number of possibilities, and you can't allow for all of them without spending twice as much money.