Houston does have really good international markets, but I've noticed that these are showing up in many more cities. Perhaps this will encourage more interesting ethnic cookbooks to become available to take advantage of the availability of ingredients. I think the availability of good ethnic cookbooks in English has changed greatly in the last 30 or so years. One of the first good ethnic books I got was from the Frugal Gourmet on Immigrant Ancestors. Of course the recipes he collected were already Americanized to some extent, since he got them from immigrants and not the native countries, but it made it easier to make the recipes. I have found some recent cookbooks on Asian cuisine that have good glossaries describing exotic ingredients, where to find them, and what substitutions to make if they can't be found. I like this trend, and I hope to see more books with completely authentic recipes that the chef can then adapt as he likes or needs to. I have an old Chinese cookbook that my sister gave me in 1987 (although it was first published in 1966), and it goes into detail about how to make the skins for spring rolls and egg rolls but say nothing about making noodles from scratch, which I think would be easier than spring roll skins. It's called The Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook, and I've used it as a general reference for several years now, although I seldom follow the recipes to the letter. Many of the recipes offer quite a few variations, and so I felt that adaptations were encouraged. Lars

I agree, the tech support is horrible. Especially when dealing with someone who speaks English as a second language. But sometimes, it's toooo funy! I was doing Dell tech problems with someone in India, who spoke English fairly well. And then when she was telling me the numbers & letters code to type in, she said "wee." I said "huh?" She said "wee, as in walentine." I try not to be rude with English-as-a-second-language-speakers, but I just started laughing and couldn't stop. Our surname has a "V" in it and I have to spell it out for everyone. We used to say "V, as in victor." After that conversation, my DH and I have switched to "V, as in Valentine" and we crack up every time we say it.

Three of my great grandparents came from Canada and spoke French in their homes. I was raised in a primarily Franco American community and attended parochial school through 6th grade where 1/2 of the school day was taught in French. Sunday Mass was said in French. My parents, aunts and uncles spoke good English but a fond memory I have of holidays are of conversations going back and forth between French & English. Relatives always sang and spoke to little babies in French because it was "softer". As a child I used to dream in French. What a rude awakening, though, when I took French in HS! My background sure was a mixed blessing. I could read and write well, roll my r's but there was such a distinct difference between Parisian French & what I grew up with that it I had a lot to unlearn. I ended up doing well in both French & Latin. But sad to say, by the time we did a student exchange when DS was in HS with a family from Brittany, I hadn't used my polished up version of French in decades and what surfaced was my Eliza Doolittle version ;) At least we could all communicate. I've always wished I'd kept up with it. When we visited Paris in 2011 I was able to read, but was too shy to try to use my French. I wish I could learn Turkish. My DIL is from Turkey and DH & I did our best to learn a few phrases before we met her family. It is a hard language to learn. My DS is fluent in 4 other languages but struggles mightily with Turkish. He & DIL have lived in Denmark for 7 yrs. With my 2 yr. old GDD they speak English at home as a family, and DIL speaks Turkish to her and she Skypes in Turkish with her other grandmother. At daycare they speak Danish. Surprisingly, GDD, seems to be grasping all 3 languages and answers in the language spoken to her. That's the time of life to learn easily, it seems. Holly-Kay, go for it! And thank you for the inspirthing post!

I just wanted to chime in to say that I've seen pictures of homes with doors and window sashes that are unpainted wood paired with trim work that is painted, and I thought it looked beautiful. Basically, anything that opened/closed/moved was unpainted wood, and the rest was painted. So that's something to consider as an option. I wished I'd thought of that option before we went with all wood trim and doors in our main floor living areas and all painted trim and doors upstairs (bedrooms, bathrooms, and laundry room). We have lots of stained wood (trim, doors, built-ins, etc.) on our main floor, so I understand the challenges of decorating around it and finding colors that work with it. But when you find the right colors to bring out the best in your wood AND give you the vibe you want, it's worth the challenge. There were times (after spending too much time looking at trendy design magazines or web sites) when I second guessed our decision to go with so much wood, but I've come to love it more over the years because of its character and richness. I grew up in a house that had unpainted fir paneled walls in every room (even the bathroom, though the walls in there were varnished), so for a long time I just longed for light, bright, painted walls. After having those for years living on my own, I guess I finally came around to appreciating natural wood again.