GMX2, I don't know how well thistle seed lasts, but I would store it in a dry, cool place and try again in the fall. The only birds I know that eat it regularly are the migrating goldfinches, so you'll have to wait until they are passing through again. I only had 2 or 3 goldfinches this year, too, compared to at least 20 or more last year, which stayed for weeks. I hope that's not a bad sign! Maybe they found a better source somewhere else. Generally, I wait until I see the first goldfinch at my regular tray feeder before I hang out a thistle sock or wire thistle feeder. Sometimes I sometimes add a little pile of thistle to the tray feeder to help them "get started." I find a tray style feeder to be the best all around feeder in the yard. Gets a larger variety of birds than any other type, though I hang several out there. I always have at least one with a very small perch area so the little birds have a good chance, too. Not all birds will eat safflower, but many will, and it is a great hit with cardinals and titmice. The black oiler sunflower seeds are definitely the best overall birdseed, drawing in more types of birds than anything else. And I'm loving the hull-less mix I got yesterday at PetSmart. It has peanuts and a bit of fruit in it, too, and boy do the birds love it. A much smaller mound of it goes as far as a HUGE heap of seeds in the shell. This morning, a red-bellied woodpecker was taking advantage. (They are just about the only woodpecker that will come to the feeder. The rest prefer insects. The red-bellied will eat both insects and some seeds...usually sunflower. A photo of two red-bellied males enjoying some peanuts, another favorite of theirs. You can tell these are both males because the red on their heads comes all the way foreward to their beak. On the females, the red starts back much farther on the head.) Marcia

I am big on propagation from cuttings. As someone else said if you has a healthy banana you will get lots of pups. Dig them up and replant them as soon as they are a foot tall or trade them for something else. Taros, cannas and hardy gingers mutliply quickly. Keep thining them out and moving them around each year. Many plants like impatients,begonias, coleas,pentas,brugmansias,cordylines and sweet potatos are easy to root from cuttings in water.Just put them in a clear glass or plastic container on a windowsill. I take cuttings from my house plants like pothos, monstera,arrowhead vine, wandering jew, swedish ivy and philodentron and root them in water and plant them around everyhwere durring the summer along with divisions of spider plant. Most die in the fall, but they cost me nothing so I don't worry about it. The idea is to take one plant and make many, even if the original plant looks crappy after providing the cuttings it will grow back in time. It might be worth investing in one premium plant that a lot of people like, like the more expensive fancy leafed cannas or taros. You can enjoy it in your garden and once it can be divided you have a comodily to trade for other plants you want. I won't trade online, I have been burned many times, so I go to local plant swap meets. Look into local gardening groups, their are bound to be people into tropicals just like you even if their are no specific tropical garden groups. Many garden group members who have lots of plants think nothing of giving a newbe a helping hand with excess cannas, gingers and taro roots, banana pups, plant cuttings or seedlings. When I lived in Hawaii I lived in a house with a large garden filled many varieties of ginger,jasmine,heliconia, Ti plant, dracenea and plumeria that had been ocuppied by an elderly woman several years before me. Neighbors, told me Mrs. Tanaka never purchased a single plant. When she saw a plant in a person's yard she liked she simply knocked on their door asked for a small cutting. Aparently few people said no. I myself was given a double white brugmansia cutting several years ago and have started several new plants from it, but have given away many more cuttings to stangers who simply asked. PS roses can look great with tropicals if the colors are right. Tropicana, Circus and other combos of hot red, orange and yellow look fine mixed with gingers, cannas and taros.

Good job on the fireplace it looks GREAT moved down.... and no one but you will ever know it's not perfect. It fits the wall much better. Gorgeous actually. But more important is that it was IMPORTANT enough to both of you to have it lowered. That's all that matters. As far as the granite....Both edges, the one you wanted and the one they're forcing on you, look to me too substantial for the edging you have on the rest of your granite (again it's a personal thing). One suggestion... have you asked them about other edging styles? One that might satisfy you but less chance of breaking the piece if changed? Several people here have talked about detailed granite edges. I had one in my other home and agree it's a pain to keep clean (toothbrushes helped). But you mentioned the reason they don't want to give you the right one is it probably will destroy the piece. And like you said they have no more pieces in stock. If they cut and break it then have to get another piece it could take several weeks (or months) for the piece to be shipped and fitted. And even then it might not exactly match the pieces already installed. Are you willing to wait for that to move into your home? Or is it such a personal thing that it will truly drive you crazy for years to come if you leave it like it is now? If that is the case rather than the granite place just not getting it right then you owe it to yourself to not give in on this one either. Or give up on the $600. While we were building 3 other couples divorced over their builds. In each instance it was in the final phase of the build when things were getting ripped out over and over to meet one idea of perfection over the other's. I'm not even saying that applies to you... in the least... so please do not take it as such....all I'm saying is sometimes it's more stressful holding on to an idea than it's worth. On my home DH and GC both wanted to do a poplar ceiling painted white in my "rustic" kitchen. I fought tooth and nail over that one and won. I've never regretted it for one minute. You have to decide what to fight for and what to give up. Good luck.

Just floating by and saw this thread. I've been married for 8 1/2 years and learned a lot from my own. Will pass it on here for what it's worth: My best friend and I did my entire wedding...for 500 people. I darn near died by the end of it, trying to save money and 'do it right'. I had a big wedding to please my husband. I picked the reception hall to please my husband...yaddayaddayadda. In the end, I realized that I should have gone for the wedding that *I* wanted. Small, family, and extremely close friends. I was exhausted adn wiped out halfway through the day. Didn't help that we had an unseasonable heat wave and I was wearing about 4000 pounds of beaded satin. Or that the reception halls didn'thave a/c..and that my husband was about to faint from heat stroke so we drove around and around in the limo between the service and the reception because it had a/c. Or that the friends who were supposed to help with the reception set up split on my caterer to go to the wedding and she was about to have a breakdown. And my husband indeed ended up spending our wedding night in the ER of the hospital that I worked in, getting pumped with IV fluid. So as a veteran of a guerrilla wedding, these are the lessons: Hire a wedding coordinator if you can at all afford anything at all. Better a smaller wedding that is perfectly put together than a monstrosity that can draw blood. Let HER run around trying to find the perfect site while you wait for her call. I would call one in a heartbeat now and give her my left arm. If you're going to spend money on anything, figure out what the ONE thing is that will thrill you to pieces. Is it the site? Is it the gown? Is it the honeymoon? THEN DO IT. Skimp in other places. For my best friend, it was her rings...So she spent her money on having them designed exactly the way that she wanted to... Hire a professional to do your pictures and your video. I had seriously good videographer friends, but they were unable to compensate for the fact that the sun was going down and blaring right behind us. I have a lovely video of us in sillohette. :P Your pictures and your video are really what you will have left 10 years from now. Make them good ones. Things that you will never use again: the cake cutting knife, the toasting goblets, the shoes, the bustier, any of that stuff. You will dust or pack your guestbook. Your favors, the attic. Some folks actually keep the wedding candle if you use one. I kept mine in my bedroom and burned it when I was in labour wtih our two children. But that was the only trinket from this party that I used. I dropped massive bucks on cleaning and packing my dress, and it's in my closet. I'm sure that my daughter will hate it when her day comes, but my dress was the thing that I spent money on..that I cared about. So it's worth it. Spend more time with family and friends in the planning. Let your maiden aunt Selma help you with the rehearsal dinner, et al. None of that has to be picture perfect. Again, save the money on the important things to you. Let your family be involved. Don't spaz over the details. You read enough bride's magazines and suddenly the thought "maybe I do need a silver jam spreader" will go through your head...THAT is the point where you need to take a day off and clear your head! Showers? Go for housewares. Be practical. I have silver trays for days and unless you're really Martha Stewart, the odds of you doing anything but occasionally griping and polishing them are slim. Not to say just go for the Pyrex or the Revereware, but seriously...a good coffeemaker with a spare in the garage will be used more and appreciated more than the push up bra from Victoria Secret. ;) I had 50 women at my lingerie shower. I still have stuff in plastic boxes that have never been used. But I used my fancy towels until they were dead. As my sister of 17 years once said "go for the linens!" LOL High end cotton sheets...don't take back the extras. A few years later, you'll pull out that gift and it will be like Christmas. It's very cool. Have them pack a box of food for you at the reception. It's very difficult to eat, even under the most perfect circumstances at a reception. People are too busy talking to you. My first bite since am was about 6pm at night (just before we left for the hospital). Practice saying "it's so nice of you to come!" Use that line when you run out of things to say. Fatigue can make it difficult to be chatty. Never, under any circumstances, rent anything that someone else who is completely trustworthy, will return for you if you can avoid it. Even your mother. I had a friend who's 'friend' once 'forgot' to return a bunch of rented linens. Left at the site in a garbage bag. Bride came home from her honeymoon, only to find that she had to pay to replace all of this stuff. Someone else had to pay for candelabra. These are nasty surprises from people who've just plunked down a LOT of money. Better to pay more for a rental company who just comes and gets it at the end of the party so you have no worries or disasters to return to. Plan this day in a way that you can enjoy the process of getting there...AND enjoy the day itself. Delegate everything that you possibly can. Know that somethihng somewhere will end up less than perfect, but that's okay, that's what happens. In the end, you'll still end up married to the person that you love and it's the stuff that funny stories are made of later. Anyway, this is merely JMO. Have a wonderful time and wonderful wedding days...