That thought didn't escape me... But being as the big boxes do minimal watering and maintenance, and tend not to get much new stuff in during the summer (until the fall seasonal stuff), it appears that they could shove the annuals on a back table at let them "mellow" until fall. Some local nurseries up here do that. They have a back section where the unsold spring plants go. The unsold summer perennials join them later in the season. A half-price sign on the table usually lures a few shoppers to pick through the "seconds" daily, and eventually most of the stuff gets sold. Interestingly, at one nursery a lot of landscapers have bought out whole tables of annuals in the fall, because they were doing late-season landscapes for new condo or apartment developments that wanted whatever greenery available at that time of year. I guess the nurseries broke even (on the cost of maintaining the plants) by selling such volume.

2) Sounds like you got unlucky with a bad blower. A 1000 CFM hood with the griddle should be fine. If you had the infrared grill, it would be a different story. 3) I'm guessing what you are seeing is, indeed, humidity. A gas oven will exhibit plenty of moisture on the backsplash until the oven heats up and the water is turned to steam. I'm also guessing you're coming from an electric oven. Enjoy the humidiity, especially if you bake. Breads, cookies, etc will all turn out better. 4) "Season" the griddle just as you would a cast iron skillet: dampen a wad of paper towels with vegetable oil. Swab the griddle with the wad. Heat the griddle on max until you see smoke. Once the hot griddle starts to seem dry, CAREFULLY rewipe it with the wad (wear an oven mitt or other substantial protection if this makes you nervous). Cool the griddle completely. Repeat entire sequence three times. Your griddle is now good to go. NEVER clean it with soap, or you will have to start over. Same goes for acidic foods, such as tomato, vinegar, or lemon. Be prepared to embrace that dark mahogany patina; the showroom-new gray is gone forever.

It very much depends. Automated readings are, I think, far more common in electric utilities than in gas - some gas metres have no data transmission capability at all. So actual physical readings by an employee are not unheard of, and some utilities do annual averaging because customers don't like their bills fluctuating. At any rate, your monthly bill should at minimum indicate the meter reading and cubic feet/meters/therms used. It may also have a statement somewhere noting the basis for the bill - most recent reading, estimated usage, historical usage or some other term, although the specific meaning may not be obvious unless you look at the small print or footnotes. At any rate you do not need to monitor daily (can't hurt of course) - you should be able to compare your recent gas bills to the current reading. I've had this happen (I thought the info was being reported to the utility by a family member and instead they were just using estimated usage). It should be immediately obvious - i.e. the utility bill might show 50,000 units on meter on estimated basis and your actual current reading is substantially below that. (Obviously allow for your usage in the current month). On the positive side if this is the case you can ring up the utility and ask them to adjust based on numbers you report or ask to have the meter read by an employee, if you've overpaid in previous months you'll have a negative balance and get a month or two with no bills. Unfortunately this may make estimating how much the new efficient unit is saving you a bit more difficult.

There are a lot of factors that can play into whether or not it is a good idea and those factors can change over time. Right now, the commute is only an hour. If the area grows/increases in population, that amount of time could increase a little or a lot. How one feels also depends on if that hour is spent actually driving or just sitting in traffic most of the time. My DH does commute. We have a home on acreage that we enjoy and it is in a good location between 2 cities that have government work (which is who his employer is). A house like ours closer to Santa Fe would be double the price (on a city lot), perhaps triple with acreage. I work at home so I am close to the kids needs for school and socializing. I think it is important to have one parent close to the kids. There are times when the commute does get to him but when he hand the opportunity to apply for a job with a pay raise and shorter commute, he chose not to. There are downsides. He cannot invite his co-workers over for dinner and if we are invited to something, it takes a considerable amount of time. We could sell and buy something closer, but that would be a major disruption to the kids and our life outside of work is here. When the kids move out, he will only be about 4 years away from retirement so our lives will have changed again. If you do buy a house that far out, like most house purchases, it is best to have enough equity in it that if you decide to sell, for whatever reason (in this case shortening your commute), you can afford to do so.