I can hardly believe some of the ignorance [as in, just not knowing] I have just read here. And some good advice also. One groundhog does not threaten a garden, and a house foundation??? baloney and I mean baloney big time.] and yes I am a contractor and a union carpenter] However a groundhog, rabbits, squirrels,skunks, deer, insects,slugs, voles, moles and mice to name a few, working different "shifts" will do damage to your plants. Too bad all the hybrids and use of pesticides that threw the natural balance of nature all out of wack. Apples are good for trapping, truth be told, they prefer bananas. Natural foods are dandelions, timothy, plantain, stuff you don't want in your yard or garden anyway. yes they climb trees for fruit and to survey their surroundings. Fact is , they dig about 5 feet down with an escape tunnel or two, you see more than that, you have many. Usually one clean hole about 5-6 inches in diameter is all you will find, till the winter, when they will most likely go to the woods to dig hibernation dens anyway. They will move some serious dirt around then. I discouraged one by simply putting some sticks and a rock over the hole. He left, but I found an orphan little while later, and now I got one anyway. He pretty much steers clear of the garden, not real sure why. Shooting groundhogs, ok, if your not close to any neighbors,as in a city, a 22 can go well over a mile, gasoline in the hole???, and you were thinking of going green, wth, are you serious, that's just stupid, I actually know a guy that heaved the pavement up in the rd pouring gas into a ditch that went under the rd and lighting it. Haveahart or animal control,"(yeah, the latter prolly won't do anything], actually make sense, and yes, there are areas that they will not "harm" anything and can carry out their part of the eco system without the ignorance of man interrupting. Oh, you mean they were put here for a reason other than to annoy tomatoes growers. Imagine that. Yes, meat fed fox urine smells real real bad, talking drops here, funny thing about that, "oh, did I mention fox's like a variety of veggies and fruits also>, anytime I ever went hunting and used it as a cover scent, guess what followed my trail later that evening, yep, a fox. Now, I have nothing against fox, but you really want one hanging around your place, they have been known to carry rabies, as can coyotes, yeah, they like veggies too. Oh and raccoons. Course, a lot of these guys don't come out til dark, so you don't see them, but blame it on the solitary groundhog. There are ppl in this area don't even know deer visit their gardens at night, just weird . Now, addressing Jenny, groundhogs don't have that large of a territory, and if it was moved away, it will not come back, sure it's happy where it is, your solution was the right solution, good job

Thanks for that, Borngrace! I grew up with Kitchen Aids and currently have an old Whirlpool. And between I've used any number of Kenmores or whatever was in rentals. Never had any complaints. It is SUCH a shame to hear about the lemons. Plenty of people here love their new KA's. I keep thinking I don't like the racks, but there are other good features so I waffle. But I think I like the Monogram's racks, it has perfectly fine features, and I just don't need a special dishwasher. The most important thing, for me, is that loading it doesn't annoy me. I've been loading someone else's new Asko lately and that's really annoying. Important things, back to topic, about loading it are where do the little dishes (ramekins, custard cups, etc.) go? Where do small casseroles fit? Large ones? Can chop plates fit in the plate tines, or only round plates? Is there enough room for tall glasses? What about cereal and soup bowls? When they rave about place settings they never show bowls. We use cereal bowls for the fruit course and rim soups for soup, pasta, or whatever. Do the rim soups fit between the tines? Do they need to go in every other set? Do the cereal bowls fit at all? On tines? How many fit? Those are my questions more than absolute amount of stuff. It sounds like you have some similar stuff. The Monogram does do the absolute disappearance that the Europeans do, except the 18" one which has a front control panel. There are both long door and short door models. I'm not sure, but in the picture it looks like that means that the long one doesn't have a higher toe kick. You can see their loaded pictures at US Appliance's website (click on the "nylon upper and lower racks" link, and on "integrated top controls" to see the panel. I've seen both in person, but didn't have any dishes. The Monogram pix look more like real dishes than the Miele or most of the other promotional materials I've seen, including small pieces, weird ones and bowls. The only KA pix I've seen are on the AJ Madison site. The "kitchen view" ones show both with and without the third rack. That third rack looks good, but if that's the way the dishes load when they're staging it, how is it going to work in real use? Wow!! Borngrace, you've helped me more than you could know! Waffling over (I hope). Monogram wins. I mean, they all clean dishes, right? I hope this helps you too.

Hmmm, here in New England many of our houses definitely meet the definition of "old". From mid-eighteenth century on...yep, that's "old". Creepy? Some of the basements in these homes have to be seen to be believed. I'm just the opposite of you. I'm strongly attracted to the "old". They talk to me. I love running my hands over the old timbers. I'm also quite sure you'd find our furnishings "old" since they are mostly from that eighteenth century time-frame. We have a few "newer" pieces...as in c. 1800-1835. Even our dishes can be dated to c. 1848-1850. Every time I reach for a plate I think about all of the historical conversations they've witnessed over their lives. When I clean the pre-Revolution corner cupboard that stores those dishes I think about women washing dishes together and, in hushed voices so as not to be overheard by the men, talking about whether war will come soon. Every morning as I'm rummaging for a pair of clean socks in my c. 1825 New York City dresser I think about the woman who was fortunate enough to have such a lovely piece & wonder what she thought about as she looked in the dresser's mirror by the candlelight coming from the attached candle arms. Was she happy? Did she love the beautiful mahagony dresser as much as I? Did her husband commission it or was it a dowery gift from her father? It's no ordinary dresser so I know there's a story being hidden in one of the secret drawers. My DH loves his collection of 17th & 18th century wine glasses & flips & I know he frequently wonders about their previous owners & ponders what history they have been privvy to overhear. The very fact that a fragile glass with its 7" air-twist stem is still here after 300 years says that we are not the only people who have treasured its beauty & grace. I've got one shelf in an old bookcase that's known as my "archaeology" museum. Here in New England, it's common to find pits & pieces of other people's lives buried in your gardens. I've got the handle to a redware pitcher, several keys of varying designs/sizes, half a dozen intact bottles, many pottery shards (a couple large enough I've been able to identify their patterns), & lots of other fun stuff. My dream home would be a 17th century cape anywhere along coastal New England...as long as nobody had "gutted" it's interior and history. So, there's somebody for most all types of houses. Some like only new...never used by anybody but them. Others, like me, seek out the old. If I purchased a home that had been furnished with "old" stuff...I'd be very anxious to see what they'd missed & left behind for me when moving out! (grin) /tricia

A 20+ YO should not be throwing a tantrum about not wanting her father to get married again, etc., especially in your presence. Strange how some of these adult children seem to think they should have a say in who, what, when and how one of their parents remarry. Yet, when they were age 15 or so, I'm sure they thought they should be able to date, hang out with whomever they wanted. Anyway, your husband really should have been the one to handle this with her. He has celebrity bio-dad status. He needs to handle his own children, adult or not, or else they will be inclined to see you as a meddling, interfering be.atch. His monkey, his zoo. Not your monkey, not your zoo. However, in remarriage situations involving children (yes, even adult children), guilty dad syndrome often prevails. It can depend on how long dad and his kids have lived apart, but not always. Many divorced dads choose to have more of what they see as an "ideal" relationship with their children vs. a real one. Thus, in a way, the father-daughter relationship gets stuck in time, with dad attempting to be the type of super-dad his child always wanted, and his daughter forever being his little-sweets, so to speak. Now, this may seemingly work for father-daughter, but it is a big pain in the butt for most else, and certainly for a new SO or wife that comes along. Because, what can happen is the father-daughter relationship becomes elevated and twisted to the point that it is almost more like a husband-wife relationship; or, the daughter becomes sort of a mini-wife, doting over dad, scolding him, telling him what to eat, etc. So, when a new SO comes into the picture, she, very surprisingly, almost finds herself competing with the man's daughter for what should be the one-and-only wife role. The husband or dad rather than realizing he needs to treat his wife like a wife and his daughter like a daughter, can start acting like a wimp and putting his head in the sand, or acting like poor him for having to be in the middle. In reality, he needs to step up to the plate and act like both a real dad and a real husband. At one time it was probably cute having his daughter doting over him, but this has, more than likely, twisted over time to that point that it will more than likely negatively impact her relationship with men. Time for your husband to grow a pair and treat his daughter like the daughter she is and you, his wife, like the wife you are vs. agreeing with his daughter just to agree with her, and kowtowing to her on other issues, "Just to keep the peace." But, where does this leave you!? He may like to pacify his little-sweets, but you don't, I'm sure. You, want a husband. Work with him on this, and he'll have to deal with his daughter, and not you.