My Double Delights are in their first year and are both in the ground. One struggled at the start and is just now taking off. For the other, I have noticed that it is among the most "chintzy" of my bloomers so far. It does two or three blooms and then rests a little longer than some of my other HT's. The blooms are beautiful, though. I have convinced myself that, at least in my garden, which is in a very different climate than yours, Double Delight is just a slow starter. Mine do seem to be taking off now that it is very hot and sunny here in central California. We had an unusually cool and rainy spring here. As I mentioned in an earlier post this morning, I wonder if DD is a rose that loves hot weather.

I can honestly say that I won't ever buy another Kenmore appliance in this lifetime. They are not what they used to be. When we remodeled our kitchen a few years ago we bought all new Kenmore - dishwasher, range, fridge. None of them have worked properly since we got them. The dishwasher died after only four years, springing a leak underneath, that we were unaware of until we noticed a problem with the flooring. The sub-floor was destroyed in the fiasco, and it had to be replaced. The range caught fire last weekend. I turned the broiler knob on, there was a boom, and the upper element caught on fire at the connection. It was nearly impossible to put out. The fridge, I'm already looking because it's had it's own problems since the get-go, and I know with the other two appliances gone it won't be long for this world. For a new range, Maytag is out (very poor reviews these days), so I'm looking at an LG or GE double oven free standing range (I have no wall space for wall ovens). I need electric as gas is not an option in my area (I wish it were). We have LG computer monitors and a front loading washer/dryer set and love them all. Good luck to those of you in the market. Even when you do research it's difficult to get a hold of a good product these days. And appliances are only expected to last 5-6 years, as opposed to the 10-15 that once was the norm. Kind of sad really.

I swear we are dealing with the SAME woman! Last night, my DH got a call from BM. This weekend is a 4 day weekend so SD is to be with BM from Friday until Monday. Well, BM says she can't keep SD on Monday so she's going to send her back with grandma & her sister and she wants DH to pick her up from grandma Monday after he gets off work. (He works a few minutes from grandma's house) She didn't offer to let DH pick up SD Sunday evening. That's fine. He is working Monday and BM says grandma wants to spend time with SD, I know it's NOT because she doesn't want me to spend the day with SD. Right? Well, then DH tells her that SD will not be in school on Friday so she can pick up SD at the regular time from my place of business. (We also run a family owned business and all hired help has been let go due to the economy, so I am now working 7 days a week there and running my business from that office) Well, BM yells at him "NO WAY! The order says I am to pick her up at your house and she'd better be there!" The funny thing is, my work site is closer for her. She has to drive an extra 7 miles our of the way & another 7 miles back (passing my office) to do that. DH started to argue with her (which is what I guess she wanted) but I told him it's okay, I'll come home to meet her on time. He tells me that if I'm late, she's gonna start trouble because last time I was 2-3 minutes late and she had already started calling him and leaving nasty messages. He's pissed a little because she isn't even keeping their daughter all weekend but he's not going to stoop to her level and 'force' her to keep her daughter. After all, he's working too and she is grandma. Other examples of BM's **double** standard: **She has SD call BF 'dad' but constantly reminds everyone that I am not her mom, she is. **The day she got the paper from the court, telling her how much child support DH had to pay her, she left a nasty message on his voice mail, telling him he's in arrears and if he didn't write her a check the next day when he picked up SD, she would file contempt charges and have him arrested. (an empty threat that we knew she couldn't possibly do.. but nonetheless, it was a nasty message) Now, we've had SD in our custody for almost 18 months. We didn't pursue support for the first 8 months (during which time she paid for nothing) and it has now been 10 months of support that she is behind in and still telling family support she is NOT going to pay. **If we don't take SD to the doctor for every little thing that BM tells us to take her for, she calls CPS. When DH asks her to take SD to an appointment (for something that happened at BM's house anyways) she refuses. **She has a fit because SD could overhear my tv shows (unsolved mysteries type shows) through the wall and closed door and my shows give SD 'nightmares' but she watched 'lady in the water' and other R rated scary movies at BM's. **She had a fit because SD told her that she was left home alone (we were outside doing yardwork & SD was in the house alone, not left alone) but BM leaves her home alone all the time... with her 12 year old sister of course) and of course now it's okay for SD to ride her bike across town with no adults but at our house, she can't go play outside (on our 6 acres) without an adult supervising her. It's all about BM wanting to control. I don't think it is so much a double standard because only a nut job would truly think it's okay for them to do one thing and it's not okay for the other to do the same thing. That isn't about the kids, it's about wanting to control the ex. (and I'm sure ex husbands are guilty of doing this too)

A big thank you to each of you who posted! Buehl, I checked out the sink you have and it's wider than my sink cabinet, so that one won't work for me. :-( I read about your baking marathon session. My new stove also has the option of convection baking and that is something else I need to learn about. It was good to read about your experience. cilantro, the sink you mention is also too big for my sink cabinet. I think that the S105 is the largest I can go, but I will be confirming this with my KD next week. Mustbnuts We were part of a CSA for several years and loved it also. We didn't renew this year because there we so many veggies that were part of the share that we were not eating (too many green leafy things for us). But I will really miss the Jersey tomatoes! I did wash my veggies in one side/bowl in my double sink. That feature is handy. holligator, thanks for giving my your thoughts on your sink grate. I keep wondering if I will be constantly having to lift it out of the way when I need to clean up the sink/rinse the kitchen scraps into the insinkerator. Old1880home, Your sink looks lovely. I went to the site you posted and I did run into a problem. Several of the sinks I clicked on could not be shown. Even your sink I could not get to on that site. Thanks again everyone! Decision #562!