Beth - Do not fertilize them for now. Remove the dead or dying leaves from the bottom. Check the leaves that are not yet dying - gently pull them from the stem. If they separate easily and have the end of the leaf stem getting brown - rotting - then you are in trouble- it is a root rot. Check all the leaves - are they limp? They should be turgid - juicy and springy. I would suspect root rot first - because you overpotted them in a heavy soil - which is the main reason of this thing. The soil retains too much water- and the roots cannot take it. Just as a precaution - snip some leaves from the middle part of your plants - trim the stems to 1-1,5 inch and put them in water. They will root easily and you will have your replacement plants to return to your Peace Corps friend. Keep us posted, please. Irina

If I were you, I'd try to match the directions for the front pieces which say "Bind off 8 (10, 12) sts.from shoulders edge every other row twice." That means a total of 4 rows that you will knit to finish off each front piece, with the bind-off at the shoulder edge falling every other row. You're going to be knitting 2 rows with the bind-off alternating with 2 regular (non-bind-off) rows. That's how you create the slope from the neck edge down to each shoulder edge. But because the botched instructions are for the back, you'll need to bind off 8 sts the beginning of EACH of the 4 rows. That means that you'll wind up with 2 rows of bind-off alternating with 2 rows of non-bind-off on both sides of the back. That will give you the same slope down from the neck to the shoulders that you'll have on the front pieces, so everything should match. Capice?

I have a few, OK A lot of things, I'd like to mention from experience as a homeowner and the painter in the family. First is BUY GOOD PAINT, the best you can afford. If it's taken you 10 years to decide to paint, the last thing you want to do is use a cheap paint. You'll end up having to do it all over again in a couple of years. Also, as paintguy and funcolors mentioned, I recommend a primer over 10 year old builder walls, they will drink up paint like water. Zinsser 1,2,3 primer costs about $22 for a gallon where as some of the premium paints are between $40 and $60 a can. Now, what is "good" paint? It depends on who you ask and what you have available in your area. Here's a list to use as a guide. If money is no object: Fine Paints of Europe or Farrow and Ball. Really good, once and you're done for 20 or more years kind of paint. Some people believe its worth it. I tend to change my decor scheme every few years. DH already feels I spend a fortune on paint, if I used FPE or FB, it would be a king's ransom. Plus, there aren't any dealers near me. This is probably a very good thing. For the rest of us: Benjamin Moore Aura. It can be tricky, especially if you've never painted before. However, since you've never painted before, you don't really have anything to compare it to. It dries fast, you basically roll or brush it on and keep going. It covers well and brush strokes disappear. I hear it's easy to touch up, but I've never had to in a year since I used it in my family room. Benjamin Moore Regal. It's basic good paint, pretty thick and forgiving. Benjamin Moore Natura. It's 0 Voc and has an almost herbal smell. This is good when you need to use the space and don't want a heavy paint smell. Sherwin Williams Duration. I found it a bit fussy to work with, but the results are excellent. The pigments like to separate, so you have to stir it constantly and only put a small amount in the rolling tray at a time. Sherwin Williams Super Paint. I've never used this, my uncle who is a GC swears by it. Of course, I know he also gets a ridiculously huge discount, so google or search this board for opinions. ICI/Dulux - now called Glidden Professional Lifemaster. Funcolors recommended this as a good paint. Do not confuse this with the Glidden at Home Depot. It's the same manufacturer, but different formulas. Muralo Ultra Ceramic. Hard to find, but I hear it's really great. As the name suggests, the paint has ceramic in the formula, so it's supposed to be hardwearing. Graham or Miller Aqua Borne Ceramic. Same as above. Unfortunately, I don't have these near me or I'd give them a try. C2. Anything you want to know, ask Faron. I'd kept my paint samples for a while and when I finally decided to do C2, I found out the paint store no longer carried that line. Kwal - There's one practically in my backyard, but it's a very intimidating place that caters to pro painters. I've only bought a quart as a sample. They have a huge array of paint lines. They say it's good, but you'd probably have to ask them which line is best. Pittsburgh Paint Manor House. Again, harder to find. Porter Paint. PPG again, but their product is called Silken Touch. I don't know why. Ace Royal. According to Faron, it's good paint for the money. So if you have a smaller budget, definitely consider the Ace. Most Ace stores also carry Benjamin Moore, so if you love the BM colors but not the price, they'll be able to mix it for you, probably better than most other stores since they have the actual paint formulas as opposed to scanned formulas. Kelley-Moore Acry-Plex. Again, limited locations and one of those stores that seem to cater to Pros, but I've used the Acry-Plex in a previous house and I like it as well as BM Regal. Pratt and Lambert. Pretty colors. I've only used Red Seal which went on well. It was an oops paint, that is a tinted paint where the customer didn't like the final result. I don't know how durable as I ended up repainting. I didn't like the color either. Home Depot Behr Premium Plus Ultra. It's only been out a couple of years. I used it in a house we were selling, so I don't know how well it holds up for the long haul. I used leftover semi-gloss from that house on my current house in a very limited area on baseboards. I had just painted the walls with BM Aura and hadn't planned to paint the baseboards. But, when my walls looked fresh, I noticed the baseboards looks pretty bad. I used the Behr to freshen them up. It went on fine, in fact, I liked it better than BM Satin Impervo. It's only been a year, so they still look good. I wasn't too worried about the Behr as we are planning to replace the skimpy baseboards when we get new floors, hopefully this year. For trim: I REALLY like Cabinet Coat. It can be harder to find. Their online site was pretty worthless. You might need to call around and even then, I found out that sometimes people on the phone don't know they carry it. I found it at Ace, which is further away, but I also found it at Kwal, who told me on the phone they DIDN'T carry it, and now my local mom & pop hardware store carries it. Elliots in Dallas area if you're near here. It dries smooth and silky like an oil base and no brush strokes. There's a learning curve, learning how to apply it without it sagging, but the results are amazing. Ace Cabinet, Trim and Door. Again, Faron is the go-to guy to ask. I've never used it as Ace is 15 miles away whereas Elliots, my Cabinet Coat supplier is only 5 miles. Benjamin Moore Satin Impervo. For trim, doors, baseboards. I didn't like it very much, although many people swear by it. I got a lot of brushstrokes. I should probably have used XIM Extender, but I didn't know that at the time. I'll post a great like for "10 Tips for a Perfect Paint Job" by The Family Handyman magazine. The instructions with pictures came out in their magazine a few years ago, but the website has the same info. Sooo, google map your address and then click the Search Nearby link on the left column. Type in paint store and a list of stores near you will come up. You might be surprised at what you find, I know I was. Good Luck and Happy Painting! Here is a link that might be useful: 10 Tips for a Perfect Paint Job

Vee, until I went to live in England, I had never heard of, much less eaten, most of the fish you listed, with the exception of cod. Iowa is about as far from any sea as one could get in North America, so when Iowans had fresh fish when I was a kid it was freshwater kinds caught in local lakes and rivers. Otherwise, we had to depend on either canned fish/seafood or frozen kinds, such as cod. My Norwegian great-grandmother carried on the tradition of preparing lutefisk from dried cod (or some other whitefish). It was soaked for days in several changes of water to remove the salt, and then soaked in a lye solution for a couple of days, and finally soaked again in water to remove the lye. Only then was it cooked, either steamed or fried. Most of her descendants were less enamored with lutefisk than she was (it stank to high heaven and had a gelatinous texture that most disliked). Still, we ate it, mostly not to hurt her feelings and secondly just to carry on the tradition. I've had lutefisk prepared by other cooks, including Norwegians on a seismic vessel in the Chukchi Sea, that tasted better than great-grandmother's, so perhaps she wasn't very good at making lutefisk, which is not surprising because she wasn't known for good cooking of any sort. Fridays were 'fish days' in our school cafeteria, too; I guess in respect of Catholic students. You will probably laugh at what we were served: frozen breaded fish sticks, served with ketchup or tartar sauce and, for some reason, macaroni and cheese; tuna-noodle casserole with crushed potato chips (crisps) as topping; tuna salad sandwiches or pimiento cheese as alternative for those who couldn't stomach the tuna; and 'fishburgers', breaded fillets on hamburger buns, dressed with lettuce, mayonnaise and sweet gherkin relish. Garrison Keillor in his Prairie Home Companion radio show poked fun at the ubiquity of tuna-noodle casserole in the American Midwest. A 'fish dinner' that my family particularly liked was our mother's fried salmon patties or croquettes, always served with 'English peas' and potato chunks creamed together in one of those white sauces you referred to. I recall mama's white roux being very tasty but I know what you mean about the insipid ones and all those overcooked vegetables (not mama's). Another thing about the canned salmon that mama used to make her patties: My brothers and I thought it was disgusting because it was canned with the skin and bones included. Mama had us pick out those things. One day my brother decided to taste a bone and talked me into trying one, too. From that day we were dedicated salmon pickers and bone eaters, because the canning process had rendered the bones soft enough to chew with a very pleasant crunchiness. I'm sure other people have known this for a long time, but it was a revelation to us. Since adulthood I have loved fish and seafood of all sorts.