One can use IPM (Integrated Pest Management) which says to use the least toxic product that will kill the pests. It recommends organic control but also suggests the least toxic insecticide that will do the job. Meaning, one doesn't go to the cabinet and get an insecticide that kills everything it comes into contact with. It also suggests limiting the spray to the infected area and only when the pests are present. This is just common sense, but many people spray to prevent insect pests which may cause some to build up a resistance to a particular insecticide. If we all used IPM, there'd be no problem but we usually go for the big guns right away. When I give programs and the topic of insecticides comes up, I recommend IPM. I'll recommend putting up with insect damage but if one has to spray make sure the label lists the pest and mix at the dilution rate listed on the label. Not all of us are willing to walk past an insect damaged bud or leaf. I figure the insects need to eat also and I choose butterflies and birds over insecticides. It takes a few years to get to a good balance of nature and just one insecticide application can take you back to square one. But if one has a perfect leaf or bloom phobia and they have to spray insecticide, use common sense. Remember also, you can sterilize your garden but if you're the only one in your neighbor hood doing it, you'll soon get the buggers back. It then turns into a vicious cycle. Then if you try to let the predatory insects keep your bad insects under control, remember they won't return until they have something to eat. This means you'll have damage again until they arrive in sufficent numbers to make a difference. Caterpillars eat leaves and many turn into butterflies. I'm not going to stand on a soapbox and say spraying any insecticides is terrible. I'll tell people what works for me then let them make the choice. Taking a hard line against insecticides is not much different than entolling the virtues of fresh human waste as a home fertilizer or insect/fungus spray. We all know how we felt about that! The leaves on my General Jacqueminot look like lace from rose slugs but I'm willing to put up with it. Not everyone is!

I find that it's not an issue. I give it a tug and if I'm using it two hands to pick something up, it comes out at a good enough clip that by the time I the casserole is picked up, the drawer is out and ready to go down. What does surprise me sometimes is how far it comes out. I'm standing in front of it and want to just slide in a coffee cup and it scoots me out of the way when it opens a few inches farther than I'd expected. You CAN push it all the way in and it will zip in as fast as you can push. Or you can give it a gentle nudge and it will take a couple of seconds to close. Or if you've got a sloshy liquid, you can push the button and let it smoooothly shut with no spilling. I've had mine for about 6 weeks now and am loving it. Cooks evenly, is easy to clean, I like not having the turntable of my old microwave and is unobtrusive. And a bonus is that I can hang two dishtowels on the handle!

GE extended warranty was a bit of a pain to deal with - I didn't get a call by Tuesday to tell me who they had assigned the case to. I tried to call them and sometimes I would go through the phone menu (which takes more than 5 minutes and I couldn't find a way to bypass it) and then it would say the system would say they couldn't handle the call and drop the line with no chance to even leave a message but Wednesday morning they did come through and had even assigned it to one of the two local service company that Miele had suggested. Of course, since the problem is intermittent my oven decided not to misbehave today. Friday it had been doing it very consistently. The tech found that the controller was set for 208 V power rather than 220 V and thinks that may have been the problem - he mentioned that it was the second oven that day where he had found that. He corrected the setting and asked me to call him back after a couple of days to let him know whether or not the problem recurs. On the one hand, me, the engineer, and my son, the physicist, are bewildered about A) why the Miele oven requires this to be set when so many products today can accept from 110 to 240 V and it figure out for themselves; and B) why having it miss-configured would cause this particular problem when voltage to the controller probably goes through a regulator anyway. But on the other hand, maybe it matches the problem being intermittent since line voltage will vary over time so maybe the controller only acted up when the voltage was at the high end. By the way, while he was here, the service tech mentioned that the extended warranty company keeps track of how much their repairs cost and their ranking gets dinged if their average gets too high (just like some health care insurance) so he was hoping not to have to replace the very expensive controller module. Time will tell if that needed to be done after all.

I love LEVER2000 soap. I use that to shower every night at home. I love feeling squeaky clean as compared to soaps like Dove. Anyway, I'm thinking of seeing a dermatologist as well, but am still debating... I guess I might as well take advantage of my medical benefits right now while I have it. I think I'll also try washing my face every time after I finish working out whether I'm going home or heading straight to work. Maybe that will help.