Is there really a "bad" seed company? I haven't heard of one. I tend to buy from different ones. This year, I think I ordered most from TGS and last year it was Totally Tomatoes. No offense to Totally Tomatoes but I'm one of those random buyers. I order some of my other seeds from Johnny's (or on occasion Park's or Burpee's). I think I decided upon TGS this year because they had a lot of great eggplant varieties I wanted along with the tomatoes I wanted so I could do most of it in one order. For me, choosing between companies, is pretty random. However, I do really like receiving a catalog right before xmas. I usually have to take a long flight to go back home for the xmas holidays, and reading the seed catalogs are my #1 thing to do on an airplane. That's the time to relax and dog-ear the pages.

I have never experienced Black Friday although thru my Aunt who was a buyer for a big department store, i know how meaningful that day is! My kids grew up on military posts and the biggest "I want-need-want that!" years were overseas with little commercial influence. Now I am a grandparent (x5) and Oh, how different and fun this all is not being the Santa Claus! And this year I did lots of BF buying over the net....sales plus free shipping! I even have my new artificial tree up tho not decorated. Now, this artificial tree is almost a crime for me who delegated Hubby in charge of bringing in the fresh tree and to decorate it--on Christmas Eve! What a wonderful mad rush that all was! I think all my outdoor gardening has made this rather heartless transition to pretty but plastic easier and my bad-back guy just brought in a bottle of cedar spray to ease the tension of this less-mess "new". Guess we are getting delegated to the sidelines now, but still having great fun and have great memories.

My favorite restaurant supply store find is my measuring scoops. I gave a set to Diana in the my favorite things swap - you can see a picture on that thread. Restaurant supply stores are good for getting substantial stainless steel measuring cups and spoons instead of the wimpy aluminum ones that bend or dent. Or the big thin spatulas that can be used for tasks like lifting a layer of cake after you have split it horizontally to add fillings. In addition to what others have mentioned, they often have the cake pans with straight sides instead of sloped which is nice when making layer cakes. Around here there are two kinds - the ones that sell mainly food with a bit of equipment and the ones that sell mainly equipment - everything from utensils to major appliances. Smart and Final and Cash and Carry are the food kind - they are under the same ownership but Cash and Carry is bigger with more specialized food. For example, our Smart and Final has a few kinds of Torani syrup but the Cash and Carry has the full line plus some other lines of flavoring syrups. The equipment ones aren't all equal either. The area that has Cash and Carry has about 3 of the non-food restaurant supply stores. One carries nicer more varied stuff than the other two. But all have at least the basics like the stainless steel sheet pans, good cooling racks and lots of utensils. All the ones around here are open to the public. You don't have to be a restaurant or have a tax ID. Here is a link that might be useful: Link to thread with picture of the scoops

Just go the LG website and click on support at the top of the page. Then click on Serice Center under the LG Service topic. Put your zip code in the box and pick "refrigerators" from the pull down menu. I was able to find 3 local service centers in about 2 minutes. The internet is a wonderful thing. :) I don't expect big box stores to service appliances unless I bought a service contract from them. Even then, they just farm it out and the best they will do is give you the number of the place that takes care of thier service contracts. Whether they have good service contracts or good companies to back them up is another matter. None are capable of appliance or TV repairs, HD, Lowes, Circut City or any other type of large store except Sears. When I needed service for my whirlpool Refrig. I called whirlpool. They gave me the names of local authorized service centers. Keep your warantee info for large purchases, including owners manuals. They always have numbers to call for service and warantee information. If you don't have those things just a do search for the manufacturers website and you will almost always find info t there, also. Hope it gets fixed soon. Sue Here is a link that might be useful: LG Website