I've bought and sold many things on Craigs List and have had no serious issues. That said, just like any other person to person transaction, do your research and check things out. If you are careful, you can get some great deals. The main "scam" for large items like this usually involve a few things: 1. A seller says, "There's a bunch of people before you but if you send me $50 via paypal, I'll hold it for you." Run for the hills if any seller asks for a deposit or partial payment. Pay in full when you pick up the item. 2. Stolen goods. Get the serial numbers from them and search for it online. Even a simple google of the serial number might produce some hits. Try one of several stolen item databases (link below) and local law enforcement. Some states/cities have online searches set up to report and search for stolen items via serial number. BTW, to protect yourself, it's a good idea to write down all of your serial numbers for expensive items and keep them in a locked safe or hidden somewhere. Make several copies and keep one off site. That way if you're ever robbed, you can report the items and possibly even recover them. At least you'll make it more difficult for the thief to sell the item. I started doing this with all of my photography equipment over 15 years ago. 3. Severely damaged, lemon return, or rebuilt items. Sometimes, items that were damaged due to fire or other severe circumstances can end up back in circulation. For instance, there's a fire and someone makes an insurance claim to get a range replaced. The old one goes to the junkyard where someone picks it up and gives it a new paint job and replaces a few obvious parts. Might look in decent condition but there may be unseen damage inside. To protect yourself, call the manufacturer and verify the person selling it is the registered owner and ask for a repair history on the item. Also, open the top and back if you can to see if there is any damage that is not obvious from the outside. 4. Fakes. Yep. They're out there. Back in the mid 90s there were people selling red knobs and wolf emblems to make a cheaper commercial range look like a wolf. Some might say a commercial range would be nice but realize that it may violate fire codes to install one in your home. In any case, if you buy something thinking it's a wolf, when it isn't, then you're being cheated. Best way around this is know your product. Research everything about it. That's what's great about the internet, you can get pictures and measurements and make sure you're buying what you think you're buying. Obviously also look at the serial number plate/tag to make sure model number matches. Doing research and knowing the product can go a long way in preventing these last two problems. For instance, if you know that a 2008 Wolf range has a certain knob layout or only certain color options, then you'll know immediately if it's a fake or if it's been repainted due to damage. Here is a link that might be useful: Slolen item database...

I don't think it's right to tell your child what to do at the other parent's place, if it's undermining the other parent - if it's really a concern (and one should choose one's battles) if you can civilly discuss it with the other parent, much the better. Kids are stuck in the middle. You also have to take what your kid says with a grain of salt sometimes ("what?? my child never lies..." hot flash- kids do lie.) - they will say what they think the parent wants to hear, especially if one parent is domineering or they are afraid of them. DD would go home to mum after having an enjoyable stay with me and tell her nothing but bad things, things that didn't even happen....like how dad gives her a hard time about this or that. Mum mentioned it to me, and I had to say, not how it happened. DD thought it was what angry mum wanted to hear. DD also mentioned to her sister (from whom I'm estranged) how she could get anything she wanted from me - not that I consider I was spoiling her by any stretch of the imagination, but....whatever. Mum, in a rare moment of shared co-operative parenthood told me how daughter had mentioned it, so I made sure I was not being hoodwinked. I know two boys whose parents are divorced, dad is a nut job, mom is a basket case but keeps kind of sort of stable, keeps up appearances which at least means kids are fed, go to school etc. Dad is some sort of undiagnosed bipolar, does drugs at home, has way too much money and spoils the boys, has all night poker games etc. The kids can do pretty much anything they want and miss a LOT of school when they are with dad. Boys went to live with mum. Went to school, things were a bit more normal. Mum is a bit uptight and probably wigged out about too many things but things were ok, but.... both boys decided they wanted to stay with dad. Kids don't really 'get' consequences, if they can do anything they like and get away with it, if one of their parents allow it, they'll probably choose the 'fun' parent. So son staying up late with dad probably isn't end of the world, but for your kids to get the best you have to dispassionately communicate with the other parent to do the best for the kids, and choose the battles. Unless other parent really is a (and not just you being petty, for example) danger to the kid, as it were, choose your battle, accept what the other parent does differently within reason, and never EVER undermine the other parent in front of, or to the children. My ex did that, since long before she became the ex, and both kids can be people I don't like very much at times. Mum is suddenly realising this now, too late, and can't do anything about it. On the other hand, newgardenelf, no offense but BE A PARENT - age 14 is young for a cellphone with unrestricted use...I would argue they should be set to receive calls only and only able to call you and emergency numbers....but here's a thought - 9.30 is a reasonable bedtime but that will have to change as dd gets older, HOWEVER - turn her phone off when she goes to bed. DOn't tell her, just turn it off. Not appropriate to relay calls after bedtime.

Mike, thank you! I do indeed have a picture or 5 or 6 from my back deck. But you must promise not to laugh. I have gardened for a long time -- but in the back of a big brick colonial in full sun. After 10 years I had a really lovely Southern garden built around a pretty carefully curated collection of ~150 roses, from Old Blush on up through the ages. The old teas and noisettes were my favorites. THAT was maintenance, LOL. But just as you note, that was also about (ever expanding) beds,... Life changes and now I am single again, caring for a very sick mother who lives with me, communing to work in Philadelphia, trying to rehab a house and learning to garden in a new way. I mention all this to beg a little bit of a pass on my unimpressive results to date -- its hard to find time to study and learn! That said, what time I do have is devoted not to trips to the tile store, but to this -- there's an image "just below the surface" -- its compulsion. And given how precious that time is, it feels awful to be floundering! I am so grateful for your note. The site is not easy to photograph because when the sun is out, the camera really exaggerates the shadows; therefor I'm uploading shots taken on overcast days. The setting is a suburban woodland of ginormous red, white and chestnut oaks and tulip poplars that slowly are giving way to runs of American beech. It is hillside watershed into a Potomac river tributary. Soil is two or three decades of leaf litter sitting on top of marine clay, and that clay is important to keep stable. The backyard is on the south side of the house -- the sun travels right over my roof line, is blotted by 2:00 p.m. by a big old white oak on my west wall. It is a pie shaped lot, the narrow end deep in the woods. The first picture is from last fall, looking at the back of the house from about half-way to the back property line. That's metasequoia "Miss Grace" planted high on some big rocks (that can be repurposed eventually). On the far left, a very old, not terribly lovely Fosters holly (I think) -- the end of a screen of now 18 footers that I've been trying to rehab with pruning but... The second photo is from early this spring-- my little Lilliputian garden secreted among those great big trunks. [All the cryptomeria here took a bad hit with the freeze/thaw cycle this spring]. I was okay with the idea of a "grotto" as the best I would be able to do in the shadows. But when the big oak off my deck that so intimately connected the house to the woods finally gave up and came down, everything changed. In the photo below, the rocks along the property line on the right (which extends another 20 feet beyond the rocks) I put there with the idea of filling in the grade a bit, but want someone trained in water/erosion control to keep me from making a mistake I might regret. I imagined, and still do, a small pondless falls next to the big stump on the far right -- not for splash, just for some sense of movement. Now that I am thinking bolder, I also imagine that the "source" for that falls is a very shallow "destination" pond roughly behind the azaleas (in the photo below it would be mostly screened by the top of the variegated dogwood). The dogwood is Samaritan -- just one of many poor choices/placements I've made -- it will get too big to between the sun and everything that is behind it. The river stones I was just playing with. Those will go away. You can just make out the deck coffee table in the photo below, where I imagine a bench would be. The Nootka (oddly my favorite thing in the whole yard-- I love weeping forms and this one just makes me smile) also is poorly placed, probably should be snug up against the big stump to backdrop the vignette of a the falls, with a red dissectum in there somewhere (I have 1 gallon Shaina, Temukayama, Red Dragon, and Orangeola waiting for homes), and a bigger boulder than I have. I also went with Alice hydrangeas on the left for scale, but honestly I do not like them, at least not now -- they are coarse -- another variety would be lovelier. Or something else fronting that stand of oaks. The Atlas Cedar was another inexpensive chance taken -- I'm fond of him but tall as he is, he'll get no respect inn that spot. Apricot carpet roses in front of the hydrangea were meant to help call him out. Not shown here are a recently purchased an "at your own risk" 6 foot Seiryu that needs a home and an Omurayama that I imagine on the property line next to the "pondless" pond, this side the stump. And Red Sentinel, back there just to the left of the wood pile, is not his best self in that shade, neither red nor sentinel-like. Seems like his columnar shape should be next to a trunk. LOL, Where do I start from here? Lay in the hardscaping, re-position the existing trees...purchase many more... but this time with something like a plan. I sure could use a steady hand to guide me..

Need a nap in the daytime can certainly be a symptom of a sleep disorder. It can also be a "symptom" of old age and less activity. I don't know anyone my age who doesn't say that they often fall asleep at night during the regular Primetime TV shows. Some do have sleep apnea and use a CPAP machine, but they still doze off. Others take naps due to health issues that cause fatigue. My late mother had Lupus and had always turned up her nose a her sister who took a daily nap; she found she herself truly had to do so. Some people find a short nap is an energizer, the "executive power nap". There are as many reasons as there are people. Yes, if one sleeps well during the night and feels exhausted the next morning, a sleep study done by a specialist is in order. If one falls asleep early and then wakes up and has insomnia for hours, this should be checked. If one regularly has a drink or two before dinner or wine/beer with a meal and falls asleep afterwards, blame the alcohol and cut back or cut it out altogether. My late FIL had two rum and tonics for decades, each night before dinner. When he reached his mid-80's, he had no trouble going to sleep (and actually went up pretty early) but would awaken in the night and lie awake for hours. His doctor told him to cut back to ONE rum & tonic before bedtime, but he was a stubborn old cuz and said he'd done the same thing for 60 years and was not changing. Oh well... A bit of "sleeping over a good book" or dozing off while watching TV is usually nothing morbid that requires any treatment.