Thanks Sylvia and Sally, This is a large organization that I know does do a lot of good. Apparently, they do more in the area they accustomed to working in. I can understand if they don't have members in our area and the volunteers are reluctant (or whiney) about the drive. We won't be requesting a refund or publicizing this because we don't want to harm the good they are doing elsewhere. The lady (Judy, a volunteer from the organization) who came when we rounded up the kittens a month or so ago came today and picked up Cookies. He will be tested for leukemia and feline aids then vaccinated and, a little later, neutered. During this time he will be living with a foster mom. Then he will go with the rest of the kittens to a PetSmart in Richardson. Adopters must agree that the cats will be indoor cats and that if for some reason, at any time things are not working out, the cat must be returned to the organization and not just given away or "thrown" out. I understand that the adoption fee at PS is around 125.00. Hopefully if someone is going to pay that much for a cat, they will give it a wonderful home (considering the number of free kitten ads they could have chosen from). I told myself I wouldn't do it, but I cried. Just couldn't help it and can't help it now. Barb, Candy and I discussed this morning with Judy the possibilities of us doing it all on our own. She volunteered her help and traps and we will be contacting the organization to get their approval which we will need in order to work with the local veterinarian (free spaying and neutering) and our local PetSmart who won't accept animals from individuals. Anyhow, thanks all for your advice and help. I know Cookies will be fine and find a great home, but I need a tissue right now. Take care, Kristi

There is a vegetarian biryani in from Olive Trees and Honey: A Treasury of Vegetarian Recipes from Jewish Communities Around the World. If you use oil rather than ghee, it is dairy free. The vegetarians/vegans like it as a main and it can serve as a side for the rest. It has a layer of rice, then a layer of vegetables including garbanzo beans and topped by another layer of rice mixed with nuts. Vegetable Biryani RICE LAYER: 3 tablespoons ghee ( Indian Clarified Butter ) or vegetable oil 2 cups white or brown basmati or other long-grain rice 4 cups water (5 cups for brown rice) 2 teaspoons ground turmeric About 1 1 ⁄ 2 teaspoons table salt or 1 tablespoon kosher salt VEGETABLE LAYER: 1 ⁄ 4 cup ghee or vegetable oil 1 large onion, chopped 1 1 ⁄ 2 teaspoons black or yellow mustard seeds 1 teaspoon poppy seeds 1 teaspoon ground coriander 1 teaspoon ground cumin 1 teaspoon ground turmeric 1 ⁄ 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 ⁄ 4 to 1 ⁄ 2 teaspoon cayenne 3 small or 2 medium-small eggplants, peeled and diced, or 3 cups cauliflower florets 1 large zucchini, diced 1 large red or green bell pepper, seeded, deribbed (white removed), and diced 1 cup lima beans or green peas 2 cups tomatoes purée, or 1 cup water mixed with 3 seeded and diced plum tomatoes 1 teaspoon sugar About 1 teaspoon table salt or 2 teaspoons kosher salt 3 ⁄ 4 cup cooked or canned chickpeas (optional) NUT MIXTURE: 1 ⁄ 4 cup ghee or vegetable oil 2 ⁄ 3 cup raw slivered almonds 2 ⁄ 3 cup raw cashews 2 ⁄ 3 cup golden raisins 1 ⁄ 4 cup chopped fresh cilantro for garnish 1. Preheat the oven to 350 ° F. Grease a 9-by-13-inch baking dish. 2. To make the rice layer: In a large, heavy saucepan, melt the ghee over medium heat. Add the rice and sauté until opaque, about 3 minutes. Add the water, turmeric, and salt. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce the heat to low, and simmer until the liquid is absorbed, about 18 minutes for white rice; about 40 minutes for brown rice. 3. To make the vegetable layer: In a large, heavy saucepan, melt the ghee over medium-high heat. Add the onion and sauté until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the mustard and poppy seeds and sauté until they begin to pop, about 30 seconds. Reduce the heat to low and stir in the coriander , cumin, turmeric, cinnamon, and cayenne. 4. Increase the heat to medium-high, add the eggplants, zucchini, and bell pepper, and sauté for 2 minutes. Stir in the lima beans , tomato purée, sugar, and salt. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce the heat to low, and simmer until the vegetables are crisp-tender, about 10 minutes. If using, add the chickpeas. 5. To make the nut mixture: In a small, heavy saucepan, melt the ghee over medium heat. Add the nuts and sauté until golden, about 3 minutes. Stir in the raisins. Remove from the heat. 6. Spread half of the rice in the prepared dish and top with the vegetable mixture. Combine the remaining rice with the nut mixture and spread over the vegetables. 7. Cover with a lid or aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes. Sprinkle with the cilantro. Serve warm. VARIATION Omit the mustard seeds and poppy seeds and add 2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger with the other spices. Marks, Gil (2008-03-11). Olive Trees and Honey: A Treasury of Vegetarian Recipes from Jewish Communities Around the World (Kindle Locations 14024-14031). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Kindle Edition. For vegetarian chili, I don't use a recipe. If not using canned beans, I soak dried beans overnight (or do a quick soak by bringing the water to a boil with the beans, turning off heat and letting them sit for a few hours). I usually use a mix of pintos and kidney beans or black and pinto beans. I saute onions. Add some other diced vegetables - bell peppers, summer squash and carrots are good. Add to the beans and pour in a can of diced tomatoes with the juice (or you can use tomato sauce or tomato paste and water). Add chili powder to taste (for 3 16 oz cans of beans, I start with about a tablespoon). Making it for our family where the grandkids don't like it too spicy hot, I usually add some ground cumin and oregano to flavor it without getting more chili heat than they will accept. Also add a bit of salt. Sometimes I'll add soy crumbles (i.e. some soy ground beef substitute). but most of the time I don't

First: I'd want to dig into the assumptions, etc. on the heat load calculations to explain the different size systems. That seems like the obvious first step. Second: I would take this opportunity to consider fixing some of the "character" of the house. Can you put the difference in the cost of these two systems into insulation, air sealing, etc. and end up with better comfort and lower energy bills? I say that as someone who pays a little over $400 a year for natural gas (heat, hot water, range and dryer) in central Indiana where it gets pretty darn cold in the winter. I have done that while maintaining all of the historic character of the 1924 bungalow. You have an energy audit. If it was done well it should provide a road map for where to invest for energy savings. If it was done poorly, it will be standard items without much application to your house.

After looking at quite a few houses for sale a few years ago, we decided to buy a brand new house. The houses we had looked at for sale either had dumb stuff done to them, or the owners just really didn't care, both of which were a big turn off for us. So we went for the new build. We needed to get a good price for our old house(built approx 1987), so we took about 4 months (while the new one was being built)and really looked at what needed to be done to help it sell. At the time, the market was relatively hot, so the better your product, the more likely you were to sell. It was in relatively good shape, but did need some work. We basically did things that we would have done anyway if we were going to stay there. We had it re-piped (the older houses around here are notorious for defective/degrading steel pipe). This was our biggest expense, approx $5K. We would have had to disclose it to the buyer and either lower the price or offer an allowance for it, so we figured that having it already done would be a selling point. We finished repairing and repainting the walls that were damaged in an earthquake. We tiled the floors in the kitchen and one of the bathrooms that had horrible ugly vinyl with a nice, light neutral ceramic tile (great buy on discontinued item). We repaired/replaced anything functional that needed it, front porch roof, side garage door, hanging light fixture, etc. We also cleaned everything, put excess items in storage, and had someone come in to cut back/clean up the landscaping. It took more than a weekend to fix it up, and we spent a little money, but I think the results were worth it. The first people who looked at it bought it for the asking price. We had two realtors call and ask to look at it because they had similar houses in the neighborhood that weren't selling and wanted to find out why ours had sold. There were plenty of other things we could have done, but I think we did a good job of picking those that helped the house sell, actually improved the property, and didn't take a horrendous amount of time or money to accomplish.