I think the trick is to do as much ahead of time as possible, stick with fairly simple recipes and have one or two Martha-y touches. And as others have mentioned - decor is a good place for the Martha touches, since you can do that way ahead of time. Mashed potatoes are a great option since they fill up a big bowl on the table, most people eat them and they are a snap to make. Why not use vegetable stock and a bit of roasted garlic instead of dairy products? (I know that chicken stock is the generic substitute for butter with dieters, but I think that vegetable stock has a bit more flavor) I'd serve a simple veggie that can be steamed or blanched at the last minute - broccoli, asparagus, green beans - whatever your family likes. Add a bit of lemon or margarine or olive oil to keep the dairy out. (another big bowl on the table with minimal effort) Fruit salad was a great idea. A green salad would be good too. You should be safe with almost any oil-based dressing. Throw in some star fruit or pluots or something to make it seem fancy shmancy. Breads and rolls were my favorites as a kid - and certainly what I see being snatched up at the kid's table at our family gatherings. Bread doesn't need to contain dairy - you could ask what kind of bread the kids normally eat or call your local bakery. Since they are more likely to use real ingredients rather than chemicals, they'll be able to tell you what's safe. Or if wanted to be kind of Martha, you could make your own bread - not a big deal if you have a bread maker or make the dough the day before and slow the rise in your fridge until the day of the party. You've got pies coming. If you want another dessert, there is a great recipe for oatmeal chocolate chip cookies that the kiddos would like in The Garden of Vegan. Vegan or kosher recipes are good ways to keep the dairy out. A veggie tray or hummus and pita bread or some spiced nuts are super easy things for guests to nibble on until dinner is ready. I think we forget how delicious things can be with simpler flavors or just a few ingredients. If you fill your menu with stuff like that, you will have more time for one or two knock your socks off details and more time to spend with your guests.

It is VERY common for a store to repair an item rather than replace it. This is not because the store wants to shaft the customer. It is usually because the manufacturer will want to send replacement parts (ie, the base of a chair, seat of a sofa, side panel of a bed, etc.) rather than replace the entire piece. This is common sense. Why would any store replace an entire piece when a part can be ordered and make the existing piece new again. Most people have no clue how the industry works nor do they have a clue how most furniture is made and built. If you bought a new car and something was wrong right away, the dealer would repair it, not give you a whole new car. This is standard practice in the furniture industry as it should be. I have worked in furniture for over 30 years with 3 different companies. Repairing before replacing is not a scam and is standard practice in most instances. Most advice given online about how to deal with furniture stores is garbage, and most issues can be resolved with a simple repair of replacement part. If a leather sofa comes with a big scratch, why on Earth would the manufacturer replace the enitre piece when they could replace just a seat cushion, or even send a cut and sew piece of leather for a repair person. American consumers are spoiled and seem to think they can just demand whatever they like from a store and the store has to kiss their ass. Nope!

Hi - I'm a gal and I just sanded my deck yesterday with the vibrating floor sander that's talked about on this forum, which I rented from HD. All in all it had plusses and minuses, and here are the details of my story. The hardest part for me was getting it in and out of my hatchback Subaru Forrester. It fit fine, but it is heavy enough that I could not lift it by myself, and I'm pretty strong. At HD, the tool rental guy loaded it for me and at home my DH and I worked together to get it out and back in at the end of the job. We have about 10 steps up to our deck and DH and I got it up there by me pulling on the handlebar and him giving a lift to the floor machine part at the beginning of each step. It was definitely work to do this, for both of us, but we did it. I was able to get it back down the steps by myself by "bumping" it down each step. I found it was easier to do this with the handle on the "down" side with the sander machine part coming down last. There was no damage to our wooden deck stairs. Actually using the machine to sand is a breeze. Although it is a heavy piece of equipment, it feels as if it's floating on air when you're sanding. I guess the vibration makes it pop up and down very fast. It moves incredibly easy and it was very relaxing to do--do you think there's such a thing as Zen floor sanding meditation? Anyway, that's kinda what it felt like. The space I sanded is about 15' square. It took me about 2.5 hours to go over all of it with 60 grit paper. I used 7 sheets of sandpaper, 1 red pad and 2 white ones. I had to use the white ones because HD ran out of the red. I wish I had had all 3 in red instead, as it worked much better, being considerably thicker. Here are some observations on the sanding process. Our deck is pine and new. I had put a Cabot semi-solid stain on it in the bright sunshine (which is intense here in Santa Fe) and it flash dried on the surface--my fault, now I know better. It was splotchy, ugly, with water marks. So I wanted to sand it off to start over. First off, the pads really matter. It sanded so much better with a fresh red pad. Like, 100% better. So, get lots of pads. Second, the vibrating sander works quite well and fast if your boards are perfectly flat. If you have a little cupping as I did, the sander is not as effective. This is because to sand the middle of the board, the sander first has to take off its raised edges. I was sorry I hadn't gotten a coarser grit paper. The 60 grit seemed agonizingly slow for this and the pads didn't last long with this kind of work. I hadn't expected it because I didn't even realize my boards were cupped--this is to say that even the little cupping I had really put a crimp on things. I ended up after 2.5 hours with a sanded deck that is quite a bit flatter, but which still has flashed stain spots all over the new looking wood. Another hour or 2 and maybe I would have gotten them all out but I ran out of pads and didn't want to continue with 60 grit. So we put the sander back in the car and returned it before I ever got to the 80 grit stage. You will also probably need to do edges with a hand sander. That's OK in my view. Also, although our steps up to the deck are wide, this machine is too big to use on them. Now I'm thinking of renting HD's drum sander to finish the job on the deck proper and to try on the steps. It's a considerably smaller *and* more powerful machine. I know the chances to mess up are greater but I've sanded a lot of stuff including with a hand belt sander and I think I would be OK with not gouging the wood. But if anyone has any tips I'd appreciate it. I'd like to finish leveling the cupping and get rid of the remaining stain spots. Otherwise I would use my hand belt sander to finish the job. A last note. There is another sander that I've used on an interior wood floor a couple of years ago. This wasa a Varathane sander, which a hardware store (OSH) in L.A. rented. It was a "safe" orbital floor sander, designed for DYI. It's also slow on curved boards (I had them in oak) but eventually got the job done and faster than the HD vibrating type. I'm not sure I can find it here in Santa Fe but thought I'd pass it on. Swirl marks were a little bit of an issue with this one if I remember correctly, but not a big deal.

Glad to be of help. Navigating the prepaid market isn't easy nor is getting a good deal on cell service. There's a lot of choices and they can be very confusing. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what I wanted to do. As it turns out, Verizon doesn't seem to have much interest in offering the prepaid market LTE (or 4G) phones. Frankly there's a big difference in connection speeds between LTE and 3G but that only matters for things like web browsing or apps that use the Internet like Facebook. Connection speed has absolutely no impact on voice calls or text messages. It's certainly important to hold the phone in your hand and "play" with it. It's equally important to decide what you want the phone for. Is it just making calls, texting, or using it as a mini-computer? If the later, I might suggest that screen size becomes very important. Scrolling around a little screen, at least for me, is at best annoying and significantly reduces productivity and enjoyment. I don't know what your budget looks like but if you're committed to Verizon, I would stick with phones from Samsung, LG, and Motorola. The LG G2, for example, is a great phone, great screen size and very comparable to the Samsung Galaxy S line but because it was less popular, usually available for a few dollars less. If you want to venture into a Windows Mobile phone, again popularity has a big impact on price in the used market. Nokia makes some great phones but you have to be willing to accept the limitations of a Windows phone (which is the lack of apps). I could have been talked into the Lumia 1520, which is their phablet and has a stunning screen but I also use my phone for work and my company doesn't offer a Windows app. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have...