I'm also an Eagle Scout, a scuba diver, an amateur guitarist, into hiking and exploration, a collector of knives and multi-tools, an unashamed geek and techie, an artist (I'm studying to one day write professionally), and dating a (female) biologist who works with raptors all day, and that's just to name a few of my odd interests! He has no idea what he thinks of me, and that makes him uncomfortable. :P I'm not bothered by it. As long as he respects me and doesn't bother my things, he's welcome to think whatever he likes about me. BTW, the local florist in my hometown is gay (and makes no attempt to hide it) and everybody loves him because he's such a great guy. You might not expect that to happen in a (VERY) small southern town, but it just goes to show you that there are good people and bad people everywhere. You just have to hope that you meet more of the former than the latter. :)

Before the GardenWeb gets around to pulling my plug I thought I would point out that one of the greatest, if not the only, benefit of using an Eagle Window is the fact that they will put a different color sash in their aluminum clad window frames as I referenced in my earlier post that was thought to be rude. A black sash can sometimes be an excellent choice in a gray or off-white frame because it gives the windows a more dramatic, deeper, and larger appearance. It was commonly used in older houses and has worked well for me in several historic restorations. But without seeing the rest of the trim colors and materials and the general setting of the house, it would be inappropriate to recommend anything that specific. Making the entire window sash and frame black can be too strong IMHO since subtlety is an important issue in any huse although it can work when the windows are inset in brick openings with no trim. Whatever is decided it should be accurately drawn to scale in color or mocked up. Making the windows all white seems a waste of a design opportunity unless the style of the house demands it (Georgian, etc). But if you like the Craftsman Style you really shouldn't be thinking about white windows or even clapboard siding for that matter. Pick a theme and try to reinforce it with the appropriate materials. There is a reason the Craftsman houses used shingles and earth colors; it was part of a cultural movement protesting the industrial revolution, not just a fashion or a "style". mdev, you apparently thought I was speaking to you about your window color comments but you should not have. I try to only speak to the OP in a thread and often don't read the other posts very thoroughly since I'm working in my office and often don't even see a recent post because it can take me an hour or two to post if a client calls or if I go to lunch. I can't do this full time. If I had something to say to you, I would normally have used your name. Others appear to have understood that and I only just figured out what you had assumed. I believe that responding to other posters comments rarely helps the OP and it often hijacks the thread which is truly a rude thing to do. The original post should always take precedence or AH would just become another chat room like the garden and kitchen forums. People come to BAH for real answers. The late Ben Thompson often told us to never design in a vacuum. It actually took me some time to understand what he meant: never focus on one design element to the exclusion of the others. The first thing you consider when selecting anything is how it will reinforce the central idea or design motif (called a "parti" in design school and you had to have one you could defend or your presentation was over). Only then should you consider the other aspects of the design. (You can learn a bit of this from the "What Not To Wear" TV show.) Focusing on the big ideas first instead of your old favorite ideas actually makes designing easier as well as more powerful. Toward the end things just seem to fall into place. The choice of a window color should fit into the larger "parti" and if you haven't defined that yet or can't describe it to others you can't move forward and get effective help from others. In other words, your're stuck. Know that feeling? It took me 4 years as an engineering and art student in college, 3 1/2 years in graduate school (interrupted by the war) and 10 years in an office to figure how a design process worked. I offer it to you in a 10 minute tutorial for free. Whether you understand it or not, you can't say I didn't try. The photo below is of a Cambridge, MA house restoration finished last year. On a lark I applied to do a another Cambridge house advertised on Craigslist with just my resume and this photo and beat out 250 other architectural proposals from all over New England. What many years of experience teaches you is proportion and balance. I don't know how to teach that in 10 minutes but learning to design a Palladian window would an excellent place to start.

Gosh, I don't know WHAT happened, but I lost my cool-calm-and-collected mindset overnight somehow, and missed my son so much today that I was on the verge of tears many times. Didn't say a word to anyone, so DH, DD and her friend who is with us for a few weeks were not really privvy to my feelings, also because we were all kind of in and out all day anyway. And then lo and behold, after dinner, my daughter excused herself to go get something 'she had made' to show me. Ten minutes later, I hear my son's voice calling me! Forgetting all logic, I responded, "Ohmygosh! Where are you? Where are you?" She had SKYPED him on the laptop, and then positioned the laptop to just outside the kitchen door. We had the most wonderful chat with him. It was so much more than great to SEE him! Poor guy got to see the remnants of our dinner, which included a particularly lovely looking pasta dish with fresh spinach, goat cheese, etc., and a mixed berry pie. Almost wistfully he said, "Aww, that looks so good..." DH and I both agreed he seems to have suddenly matured overnight... going to bed with a happy heart tonight.... both because I got to see my son and because DD and her friend surprised me in this wonderful way...

First of all, thanks for forwarding the link. I found this out during nighttime. After that, every time I remember to check them out, it has been at nighttime too. So, all I've seen was mom eagle tucked her head behind asleep. That is until today. I made a note to turn on the computer early to watch the eagles. It has been wonderful to be able to watch something up close that we otherwise could not see up at that level. The mom eagle was out of the nest by the food. She was feeding herself and was preparing food to feed the baby. It was interesting. It seemed like she picked and chose the meaty portion of the food for the baby, she ate the bony parts. I had to share this funny moment. While the mom was preparing the food, I saw something white literally shoot out horizontally from the baby and landed outside the nesting area at the edge of the nest. The baby pooped! LOL, I have never seen a bird pooped like that before. Such a tiny creature that operated like a shotgun. Yikes!