Hi I'm getting terrific gusts and frequent downpours and I'm over 600 milea away lol. This right after the record setting downpours of Fay. interesting how the level of Okeechobee was at historic lows due to the record drought. and now is setting at 10 year averages.in less than a week!! The decision to lower the water level will come today. Gustav is going to have terrific unexpected effect and Hanna at the very least is going to drop a lot of water. I know for a fact that my soil can handle 20 inches of rain in 24 hours. i only got 8 in 3 hours from Fay while areas north got up to 30 inches. Noted that the engineers are saying that they doubtful the levees in N.Orleans can tolerate a direct impact .I pray they don't experience a repeat of Katrina Here they are fairly confident the Lake O can handle up to 19 feet of course depending on the strength and duration of the winds. all that would be required is around 10 inches in 24 hours in the right spot. Imagine 75 square miles of water coming at you all at once?? Good luck to all those in the path of G Gee there;s still 3 more months of season lol gary

Kathsgrdn - I was going to say the same about the blue tooth thing. You really need to be on the phone so much that it has to be glued to your ear? And you look ridiculous walking around talking to yourself. It drives me crazy. The trend I really hate is how people use cell phones, as mentioned in many posts above. Yes, I've used my in public, but I try to make it short. I see people walking around a store in deep conversation. Hey, I don't want to hear your conversation. Take it outside! Once when I was in Starbucks, a women couldn't even pry the phone off her ear long enough to place her order. She instead grabbed one of the business cards on the counter, wrote down her order, and threw it at the barista. She talked the entire time, took her drink and left. The barista and cashier were floored. They couldn't believe the nerve. Don't even get me started on people using cell phones when driving. Zeetera - really, you don't like scarves other than in winter? There are some cute linen ones for the spring.

Jodi, interesting that you mention the T-shirts. Correct me if I am wrong, please. When Spike first started the KT, there was no charge. Later, in order for him to be able to "pay the bills" which were getting higher all the time, he started the $15 fee. Then T-shirts were offered fo sale to help raise money, but I don't remember the price, because as much as I appreciated the forums, I don't wear any T-Shirts with advertizing logos. I do remember you made the iron ons. About the $15 fee, I could not understand why anyone who could afford a computer, and the cost of the internet provider, could not come up with $15 a year for these great forums, and so I never offered to pay for any one to join. And so Spike sold to iVillage. Although things here have gotten better, still proof that we get what we pay for. Sue

Yes, dhygarden! I should have mentioned ebony and Madagascar rosewood in the same breath as ivory. I returned home in September from a year in Zambia doing research, and the elephant situation is dire. Zambia is one of the few African countries whose elephant population is not going down, but South Africa, who has the largest elephant population, has terrible problems with ivory poachers, even though they have a very aggressive program to stop them. As long as there is a market for ivory, the poachers will not stop. I spent time in an area where we had elephants and they are magnificent creatures. To kill them just to take the ivory is so... well, I could go on, but that's not the question at hand here. I usually don't have a problem downloading pictures or reading photo-heavy blogs, but Joni's was an exception. She could re-size them and make it a lot easier for her readers. I do have to say, other than the first picture of her daughter's table, which I thought was pretty neat, I didn't care for any of the others. That second picture, of the Veranda bedroom, was perfectly hideous, in my opinion. Looked like it reeked of Chanel and cigarettes and belonged to a high class madam. LOL Of course, just my opinion, someone else may think it's awesome! :-) I'm not sure the reports of the death of gray aren't greatly exaggerated. ;-) Maria Killam says gray is still "the neutral of the decade," and we're only halfway through the decade. A lot of people here on the gw forums are doing new kitchens and bathrooms as we speak in gray. Maybe it's not as popular to paint all the walls in the entire house in gray, but I think using gray is still quite acceptable. In my kitchen remodel, I'm doing all the cupboards/cabs in gray, the IKEA bodbyn in their SEKTIONS line. The counter will be black (I think, still deciding), the sink will be white farmhouse, the appliances black and stainless, the table and chairs white (eat-in kitchen), the back splash stacked rock, mostly gray but other tones too, the area rug under the table maroon with gray and white, window trim in maroon and wooden horizontal blinds in white. The wallpaper by the table/chairs will be a textured very, very light gray, almost white, and the floors will be vinyl planks hardwood look, grayish whiteish whitewashed. I don't feel like that's too much gray. (But I'd love anyone's input into the whole color scheme!) I doubt any of my friends will say, "Oh that gray is so last year!" Actually, none of my friends would ever say anything remotely like that, lol. I agree with violet west in that it's bold and daring to do a "permanent" fixture like a bathroom floor in a very bright color (or colors), but as she says, you'd better have the time, patience, and money to re-do them when that color starts to look pretty dated. I have a bright yellow sofa that's really a queen sized futon. But I can buy new covers for it for less than $100 on Amazon. Not that I have $100 to just throw around all the time. I ordered it with the yellow in 2011 and it's still yellow. I'm probably going to order a new cover in gray linen and get maroon throw pillow covers. My living room will have the same floor as the kitchen, as the LR, K, and DR are all one big great room. My accent wall will be stacked rock, just like the kitchen back splash. The area rug is a bigger version of the kitchen rug, maroon with white and gray. Same wallpaper on the one wall. I don't know what to do, if anything, about my chocolate brown recliner and loveseat. But then Maria Killam said yellow is hot this year, especially yellow sofas, LOL. Figures I'd be changing OUT of the yellow sofa the minute it becomes trendy, haha! But even though it might be fun to do, say, the bright yellow IKEA cupboards or a floor in primary colors, those are things I won't be able to afford to change, plus I think it's wasteful to rip up perfectly good stuff just because you want to be trend-setting. I'm confident my gray and white color scheme with pops of maroon will stand the test of time...and if not, who cares? :-) As long as I love it, that's all that matters. :-) Lana, well said. Monica, you did it right. People used to buy houses and pay them off. Unfortunately for my kids' generation *(genX), the crazy housing bubble taught them that houses are virtual ATM machines, sell every couple of years and buy something bigger and better. Of course, that all came crashing down in 2008. Now these kids in their mid-30's are stuck upside down in houses where they owe far more than they're worth. What Monica and her husband did was to pay off the loan early (easy if you just pay a little more than the minimum every month!), take out prudent equity loans to add on, rather than buy something bigger, pay the loans off. Now they're set for the rest of their lives in a home that they love, and it's theirs free and clear. Homes are still the best investment around IF you do it that way. Kudos to Monica and her DH! Lynn, I too really enjoy looking at pictures of other homes, even when they're not my cup of tea. I like seeing people's creativity in many different styles. I still think the bottom line is if YOU think it's beautiful, then it's beautiful. If YOU'RE happy, then who cares what Maria or Joni or anyone else thinks? You're the one living there day in and day out, and if your home makes you smile, that's all that matters. :-)