Charlikin, I am so happy for you being so delighted with your very functional and beautiful kitchen. My dishwasher is on the brink and so is my stove so I will love to know which ones you bought that you love so well. I know I dislike my old stove so much that came with my home and is supposed to be self-cleaning but when I moved in there was pizza cheese and sauce all inside that I could not get out. I changed my refrigerator at the end of 2006 to a LG French Door Stainless Steel Refrigerator when my tiny almond Whirlpool Refrigerator died on me. I love the French Doors only because they do not bump into my small table's chair that is right in front of my refrigerator. I remember moving into my prior apartment that had a dishwasher and I was so happy. In fact my requirements for my townhouse was dishwasher, washer and dryer hook-up, and central air/heat. But I see now that I wish I had hot water heat since the air is so dry in the winter time despite a humidifier running all day and night. I am really happy for you. I am glad all that hard work designing the kitchen and making sure everything was done right paid off. I always love to read your posts.

Update: I contacted a water scientist from Penn State, and he was very helpful. He hasn't seen the faucet debris, but he thinks some of the "hair" might have come from insulation, which is spilling out of the large pipe that houses the pipe that carries water from the well to the water tank. His recommendation is to have the water tested before I do anything. He gave me a list of labs in the state, and three of them are within driving distance so i can easily get water samples to them within the 30-hour window, and save myself some of the cost of postage besides. If the tests show no bacteria, I can do nothing. If the water is positive for bacteria, I could order the shock chlorination. But if I want to avoid chlorine, I could instead have a whole-house UV light filter installed. I'm going to explore that possibility tomorrow.

Seeing people like her and Christie Brinkley make me happy that it is possible to look yourhful at any age. Funnily enough, those examples do not fill me with hope of possibility. I never looked as good as any of them when I was young and now that I am older, I have different priorities. I want to stay strong enough to continue on with the things important to me, but have no desire to spend the time or money necessary to look that youthful. As far as MS, I am rather ambivalent either way. I tend to think that standard is possible by a combination of good luck and dedication/willingness to do more. Aging "poorly" can be a result of lifestyle habits but it can also be from living in an area with pollution, and not having the money to move. It could be the result of having illness or disease that zaps all the beauty and vigor out of you. It could be from living in areas with terrible nutritional opportunities all your life, etc. Some things you can control but for many people. they are lucky to even make it to 81 and they should not give a fig if they are not aging well.

I'm not much into cookies anymore but my husband still bakes at Christmas - the one I can't resist is the anise seed biscotti from il Fornaio Baking book I've made lots and lots of cookies both growing up and as a mom- snickerdoodles became my daughter's absolute favorite, she'd bake them and take to high school ... and of course chocolate chip toll house, I could still make those blindfolded.. My specialty as a kid, though, was brownies off of the baker's semisweet chocolate squares box. As far as commercial cookies, it seems like we always had oreos and 'nilla wafers around growing up - I remember buying the 'healthy' Paul Newman version for my kids from time to time. And the wafer cookies were addictive, I mean the small rectangular pink, brown, ones with a little frosting inside?! I remember an oatmeal raisin that I used to splurge on as a treat for my office lunches as a young adult when my food budget was tight - they remained soft... I forgot the name but the packaging was a rectangle with 3 or 4 stacks of 3 or 4 oatmeal raisin cookies on cardboard with a cellophane wrapper. I can't remember the name, if anybody remembers those please post:) For backpacking it always had to be pepperidge farm mint milanos .... fun thread !