I am very interested in your wild red morning glory if I can tempt you with something. I don't have much on my list, but do have a few other things that aren't listed. I just need to look through them once I get home tomorrow. Hopefully we can arrange a trade - thanks! Diana

Interesting thoughts -- we could all improve on paperwork storage in our homes. Two things I think I'm doing well that differ from the above mentioned Script, and someone else might find some ideas in my methods: Taxes. Yes, like Script, I am scrupulous about maintaining records for my taxes. About a dozen years ago I went to the office supply and bought two big boxes of BRIGHT GREEN folders (green like money). I labeled them Taxes 2000 ... Taxes 2001 ... Taxes 2002 ... Taxes 2003 ... and so on. Given my family's typical lifespan, I made enough green folders to take me to age 110 -- probably more than I'll need, but I'm ready! They're all stored in my file cabinet, taking up very little space. Now when I receive anything tax-related -- a charitable receipt, an end-of-the-year bank statement, whatever -- I have a place to file it. In April, I have a place to file a copy of my taxes, and I can go back and see previous tax years. For the rest of my life, this system is in place. Death folder. Ours is a notebook. Two identical notebooks, actually, since we have two children. Our girls are young adults now, but they've never dealt with an estate -- even if they don't open it 'til they're old, it'll be useful to them. It contains a lot of stuff: - A personal letter to the two of them - A list of our wishes about funeral and items we'd like donated to various family members or charities - A list of things they must do immediately; it starts with going to our house and taking possession of the dog, but it also includes small details like canceling our voting registration and destroying any medicines in the house. At every turn this list includes addresses and phone numbers, including the lawyer we suggest for probate, the funeral home our family's always used, and family members who should be contacted. - A copy our will; they know what's in it -- everything split between the two of them - A list of our financial assets -- bank accounts, investments, insurance, deeds/maps of real estate ... when our youngest became a legal adult, we made the two girls co-beneficiaries of every account; note that this was done before either was married, so our two kids -- not future son-in-laws -- will own these items. - A list of the bills we pay each month -- electricity, phone, even the guy who cuts our grass. - Official copies of our birth certificates, our marriage certificates, and the girls' birth certificates -- they might not be needed, but the girls won't have to scramble to find them - A flashdrive with all of the above in digital format plus photographs that might be useful in putting together the funeral Our rule: We keep two years of tax returns in the notebooks ... the reason being that someday an accountant will file our final estate tax return, and he or she will want our last two years of returns -- so every April we pull out the notebook, discard one old return and insert the newest ... so our rule is that every April we look over the notebook and update anything that's changed. For example, last year we changed bank accounts, and someday we hope to add items concerning grandchildren to the book. Our girls know that the notebooks are stored in the safe, and they know where the key to the safe is hidden, and they know it's labeled with a misleading name so that a thief wouldn't look at it twice. Last thought on this notebook: Though this project took us the better part of a year --- we kept remembering one more thing, one more thing that really should be included -- we didn't find it difficult emotionally. I suspect that if we were older and/or one of us were in poor health, it might've been different.

Paul ma: It sounds as though you may not have gotten what you had specified. The "Venezian" process is one that uses a flaming device to blast off the top few milimeters of material, then, diamond brushes are used to smooth down the surface of the stone to acheive the shiny patina that everyone is attracted to. From your OP, it sounds as though the installer may not have had much working experience with a "Venezian" type of stone, AND you may have gotten as substitute - Vwwhippiechick is giving you some golden advice - find out IF you got what you had originally specified - contact ASN and see IF ASN REALLY sent the slabs you selected to your fabricator - ASN should have a record of the delivery with confirming pick tickets as proof - IF this did NOT happen - I'd call the credit card company and put a stop payment on the transaction - which will BUY you some time to get everything sorted out with your fabricator. Hopefully, your Fabricator has been "on the up & up" with you on this project, and this is just a case of too much enhancer left on the stone - which in most cases, is an easy fix. I'm trying to give your Fabricator the benefit of the doubt as everyone makes mistakes from time to time....but deliberate switching of material to increase profits is wrong - so you need to find out what has happened,,,, my .02 cents worth hope that helps kevin Kevin M. Padden Fabricator, Trainer & Consultant to the Natural Stone Industry www.azschoolofrock.com www.naturalstone101.com

Jane - thank you! And I love those statues! I just loved all your pics from Mexico that you have shared. Barb - thanks, and I'm tickled that you recognized the Sue Zipkin dishes. I really love her patterns, too. I lucked into a set of 18 of another pattern of hers - The Sweet Shopee - just took a picture - couldn't you just eat these up? And I really love it when the design is on the whole plate. I'll have to investigate slow's new discovery of grinding off the footers - would really help to use more of the plate on these! I get just about all my dishes at the thrift stores. I've been really, really lucky. The dishes on my WIP terracotta pot (Lynns "Savanna"), is a set of 30 pieces - that I paid $20 for - found them at our local Kiwanis Thrift Store. I was soooooo excited to find them - and was thrilled with the price. Some of our thrift stores are ridulous on their per plate price - like GW - I pretty much quit going there. But I have really good luck at Kiwanis, Habitat for Humanity, and Family Thrift.