Update: I looked high and low (well mostly surfed the web) for nightstands. Looked at a lot of generic stuff, a whacky tibetan pair from 1st Dibs, a set from Craigs List that sold out from under me, and even a pair from Stenella that was too formal. These were my choices, which I thought i'd include for anyone else on a nigthstand search. Then, I came across a set that I just love. They have a driftwood look, and I like the birds with the other fabric. They feel summery. I bought them. I will leave the final decision on the MIRRORS until everything is in place.

Thanks, Solstice98. Like I said, it only took me 30 minutes(LOL!). We've watched star-filled skies here since we were kids. I guess living in the country, away from city lights has it's advantages. I still know most of the constellations, and keep up with Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, & Saturn. Uranus and Neptune can sometimes be seen. I bought an adaptor for my Canon A-1 so that it fit my spotting scope. 15-60X, anything stronger moves too much without a motor to follow the movement across the sky. Several galaxies can be seen, some with the naked eye, and there are still some comets visible now with scopes. There won't be another major meteor shower until the latter part of April. OK! I'll stop, but I could go on and on and... Kt

Kinetico softeners are popular and they have a lot of loyal customers. Kineticos are proprietary and expensive. You'll be married to your dealer for warranty, parts and service at whatever price they choose to charge. If the price sits well with you and you have a good dealer you should be happy. The Aquasystems is incredibly complicated for what it is and yet it is nothing special. That doesn't bode well for reliability and ease of maintenance. You should consider looking for a local independent water treatment professional who will offer industry standard softeners assembled from industry standard components. Should be a lot less expensive than the other two choices and will work every bit as well and you can get parts all over and tech info is free for downloading.. Before I offer a recommendation on size you need to post more info... 2 people, right? how many bathrooms? hardness = 20 gpg iron = you said NONE manganese? TDS? pH? SFR of the plumbing?

I don't think steam escaping from an oven cavity that is full of steam is a 'design issue'. Seems more like simple physics! Any oven or range will perform this way under the same conditions. Try opening your dishwasher in the middle of the cleaning cycle -- steam! As for the temperatures, as the OP noted, the temperature of an oven is going to drop when you open the door. It's important to note that most ovens (including all of the KitchenAid ranges that I have experience with) display the actual temperature while in preheat mode, but then show the set temperature once it has been achieved. This means that you normally don't see the drop in temperature after opening the door once the set temperature has been achieved. In the case listed above, this drop in temperature was revealed because he reprogramed the temperature to be 375, causing the oven to enter preheat mode again, and and therefore display the actual temperature, which was, of course, lower because he had just opened the door. As for the brisket experience: Putting a 10 pound slab of cold beef into an oven is going to have an effect on the temperature. It's going to take awhile to recover. That's why they need to be cooked for several hours. The entire description of the temperature problem was all about what the display said, not the results. If you cook a meal to the recipe without twiddling with the controls, do you get the results you expected? If so, I would say that everything is fine, and he should just enjoy his fancy new oven, and find another way to steam vegetables.