At first I thought I was okay with the new format but as I began to use GW outside my pre-defined pattern I saw what others were complaining about. Eventually I did find the forums list, but you're right, it is completely unorganized. Definitely the new changes are a disadvantage for those of us who use the forums regularly. (And Melissa is right, many of us ARE the experts; at least we are experienced and fairly knowledgeable.) I find myself wondering if Houzz actually cares, though. For us GW is a community. I've been on GW for more than twenty years. I'm not the only one. Many of us have formed lasting friendships here, both online and in the real world. On the other hand Houzz is a commercial venture, I would even say a high quality one. I quite enjoyed Houzz myself long before the GW takeover. But I think Houzz has very little interest in supporting interest-based friendships. They want to make money, which is perfectly understandable. As far as I can see, our choices are Houzz/GW or Facebook or Nothing, and take them as they are. There is nothing else out there. Veldfire tried setting up an alternative years ago after Spike evicted him, but that seems to have fizzled, at least as far as I know. Long ago Spike tried to get GW users to pay for the service but most would not, so he sold it to iVillages. They turn sold it to Houzz. Am I missing a link in the chain? Not sure. I don't think that anyone considers the old text-based Usenet groups a viable alternative anymore. Some will choose Nothing. A lot of people have done just that. But so far at least, not me. Rosefolly

Most of us over the age of 65 have never had to worry about what we served when entertaining except for shellfish - perhaps a severe peanut allergy but I only know one man with this. He simply never eats anything prepared in anyone's home as he knows they probably have used peanuts or peanut butter in their mixing bowls/skillets. I usually just dealt with the shellfish by never serving it unless I absolutely knew my friends ate it. But when we were younger and had and went to lots of dinner parties, no one was on any "special diet" - no gluten-free (not sure anyone had even heard of gluten outside a home ec class!), no paleo, no Mediterranean, no vegans or vegetarian. When I was married 40 years ago, my matron of honor did not eat red meat at the rehearsal dinner, but she found plenty of other things on her plate and did not go hungry. I think she was the first person I knew who didn't eat red meat. If one has never learned to cook for such diets, it's pretty hard to learn, especially when entertaining. I never serve a recipe I have not prepared multiple times before. At my age, just preparing a meal for others is not easy and trying to figure out what is "allowed" is frankly just more than I am up to doing. I wonder how we all survived all those dinner parties in the past. Have people's bodies really changed that much? I don't remember anyone ever becoming ill and we all knew one another pretty wells.

Unless your doctor has told you it is carpel tunnel it may be other things. I have a tendon in my wrist that ruptured on my right wrist. It forms a knot ever so often and can cause tingling etc. My left hand has a pinched nerve somewhere in my should that causes the three outside fingers to have the same problems. I do have carpel tunnel problems on the other finger and thumb on that hand. I had to stop gardening because of the pain in both hands. Talk to a hand surgeon to see what they suggest as it is one of those you can do it now while it is not a major problem or wait in pain until you have even worse problems.

Sons of the Wolf by Barbara Michaels. I really liked her books back in the olden days. She was actually Barbara Mertz and also wrote as Elizabeth Peters. I liked all those gothic-type books. Mary Stewart was my favorite, although she mostly wrote current-day stories. I blame her for my love of travel. Her characters were always having adventures in different countries. BTW, I'm just back from our Switzerland-Austria Odyssey Tour. It was great--possibly the most tiring trip I've made what with climbing to the tops of stuff. No Heidi sightings, but I did get a souvenir Christmas ornament of her.