David, I'll second your comment. My wife and I recently found a new internet store front by a seller I was not familiar with. Being that I spend a lot of time online dealing with maples, I am always happy and surprised to find something new. To my surprise, I found that they had a couple of locally named varieties as well as three very rare plants that I have not seen offered elsewhere. At $40 to $50 for what they called a one gallon, I figured I better ask a question or two. One plant they offered has not been for sale on line in at least 4 years and very few people have it. I respectfully asked a couple questions about their business and where and how they came by that plant. Since they pirate most of their photos from other internet site, I asked if they might have a photo of their own plants. I used the link they provided on their site and as you would guess, never a word! We all know what one gallon on the interent equals: VERY SMALL PLANT. Anyone with the guts to ask $50 for one better be willing to answer an email. These sellers also need to realize that if the want to pirate and steal all of their photos from books and other internet sites (they even stole a photo from another online forum gallery) then they better be prepared to answer a few questions and maybe provide a photo or two. Do they think I will drop $300 bucks on my first order when they won't even answer an email--yeah, just click the "add to cart" button and hope for the best--NO WAY--I have been burned enought times with good and bad sellers. Customer service is even more important on the net. Sellers can't screw with shipping practices and plants sizes and expect repeat business. If I get a nice full one gallon one time and and a 3 bud twig the next--that is a problem and I won't be back. To say a plant is 6 to 12" means nothing. One is a twig and the other is branched. One is a fresh graft and the other is almost a season old. Yet they are all in the height range. Don't ship me something a person wouldn't buy in person! Enough! These sellers are burning themselves and they don't even realize it. It will be these rants that become the same rants with their names in big print! Even many of the $9.95 ebay acutions are going without bids, where a year ago they were all bidding wars. Is anyone listening??? MJH

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.

For those of you on Chrome, when you go to Stories and Advice, have you actually clicked on GardenWeb Discussions? Try it and see what happens. I do not get a list of forums but rather a mixed list of posts made to the forums in my personal My Topics list with a heading of Your Topics as if it's a forum unto itself. In order to get a list of GardenWeb forums I click on Explore Topics in the left column and all GW garden and home forums come up. HOWEVER I am on a laptop, not using an app on my phone, accessing through Chrome on both AND not using the Houzz web address. We all know IT is not their strong suit here so none of this surprises me.

There are a couple of topics which are sure to get some repetitive (and often entertaining) commentary here on houzz.com These include the always popular designer vs. architect debate and the bashing of internet or stock plans in favor of a clean sheet of paper design for all (if that sounds a little like "a chicken in every pot," it's purely coincidental.) It would save countless electrons if houzz.com created some templates with the usual opinions and check boxes for folks to weigh in. I'm not an architectural historian, and I didn't sleep at a Holiday Inn Express last night, but it's my understanding that architectural pattern books of the 1800's contributed much to the architectural qualities of homes built during that period. The copying of entire facades became common following Downing's publication in 1842 and copying of floor plans and elevations became common following the publication by Cleveland, Backus & Backus of an architectural pattern book in 1856. By the end of the century, mail order plans was a well-established business. I'm sure pattern books hold the DNA of many of the beautiful homes in my rural home town where folks to this day would have trouble even spelling "architect." If we think about internet plans as the pattern book plans of our day, I suggest the argument has more to do with poor architectural design qualities of both plans and elevations. I'd agree with that. But it would be wrong to tar all internet plans with the same brush. While the architectural purists were arguing, at least one designer identified an opportunity to dish up plans with enduring architectural character and put gold in his pocket. William E. Poole (he's an architectural school drop out, not a bona fide architect) adapted many period designs to fit modern lifestyles. He has an entire portfolio of home designs from Colonial Williamsburg. You can't get much more enduring than that. I get that the best plans consider the features of the site, potential views, solar orientation, etc. However, many home sites are too constrained to allow much coloring outside the box, and many budgets are too constrained to purchase architect services to design a single home. Perhaps the energy invested in the argument could be redirected to create quality pattern books for our time.