I have terrible defoliation problems from little green worms on my green gooseberries, Oregon Champion, but they don't bother my Red Velvet gooseberries at all, which taste better anyway but might not be as productive if I ever actually had a crop from Oregon Champion. I wouldn't mind using Bt, I guess I should try it next year. My bushes do seem to recover and look good the next year, with lots of fruit until the caterpilars hit. I think most falls of instead of ripening though from the impact of losing the leaves.

Assuming they hired a professional designer to do the model living room, what I see is that under the best of circumstances, that living room is awkwardly set up. In the model room, there is space for three, maybe 4 people to sit. Only one seat directly faces the TV set. Look at the furniture in that room. One small sofa or loveseat. One armchair. One TV stand. One end table. One large coffee table that was chosen to fill up the empty space in the center of the room to make it look more furnished. Imagine that room without the coffee table and it starts to look a lot like the OP�s room. There are three lamps, one of which appears to block part of the TV. And then at least 4 plants, to make the room appear more furnished and welcoming. I think they did a wonderful job making that room look open and inviting, and hiding the more obvious flaws in the design of the room. The room�s layout simply doesn�t function well. Either you have the sofa on the wall in the model room, and then you have a hard time watching TV, or you put the sofa on the window wall so you can see the TV set, and then you lose the view out the windows and have an awkward layout. OP, it�s not you. It�s the room. Working with the furniture you have, the first thing I�d do is take out the two small chairs. They don�t work with the rest of the furniture. Then I�d try to put the sofa on the wall where it is in the model room, and buy a table top TV swivel stand so that you could easily watch TV from there. Move the blue chair to the same position as the woven chair in the model picture and place an end table between the sofa and the chair. Down the line, look for a coffee table similar to the one in the model picture�glass or Lucite to keep the space looking open, and slightly oversized to fill the space better. And maybe a smaller unit to hold the TV.

I'm late to the party but this is one recipe that I've had many times. The list of ingredients is long but OMG it's just *the* best spinache/artichoke dip I've ever had. California Pizza Kitchen's Spinach/Artichoke Dip 1/4 cup olive oil 2 tablespoons unsalted butter 3/4 cup diced white or yellow onion, cut into 1/8-inch dice 1 1/2 tablespoon minced garlic 1/2 cup all-purpose flour 1 1/2 cup chicken stock (preferable homemade) 1 1/2 cup heavy cream 3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese 2 tablespoons dehydrated chicken stock base or crumbled bouillon cubes 1 1/2 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice 1 teaspoon sugar 3/4 cup sour cream 12 ounces frozen spinach, defrosted, drained, wrung out by hand, and coarsely chopped 6 ounces canned artichoke bottoms, drained and cut into 1/8-inch slices 1 cup finely shredded Monterey Jack cheese 3/4 teaspoon Tabasco Sauce Blue and white corn tortilla chips Directions: In a large saucepan, warm the olive oil and butter together over medium heat. When the butter has melted, add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until wilted, 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook 2 to 3 minutes longer, stirring frequently and stopping before the onion and garlic brown. Sprinkle the flour and continue cooking, stirring continuously, until the mixture turns a golden-blond color, 10 to 15 minutes. Then, whisking continuously, slowly pour in the stock until it is smoothly incorporated. When the mixture begins to simmer, stir in the cream. Let it return to the simmer. Remove from the heat, add the Parmesan, chicken base or bouillon cubes, lemon juice, and sugar, and stir until thoroughly blended. Add the sour cream, spinach, artichoke bottoms, Monterey Jack cheese and Tabasco sauce, and stir until the ingredients are thoroughly combined and the cheese has melted. Transfer to a warmed serving bowl and serve immediately, accompanied by blue and white corn tortilla chips.

WindowDog, It is not my intent to get into an argument with you. That being said, millions of viewers read this forum so I think it is worthwhile to make sure that we deal in facts so that future readers can make decisions based on that rather than opinion. For the sake of future discussions into the comparison of fiberglass vs. vinyl, lets assume that we are comparing the premium versions of vinyl. Comparing some cheap, builders grade junk vinyl to fiberglass is not a level comparison from the outset. The fact that you have installed thousands of vinyl windows in which the customers have commented about glass loss is great, however, if done as a comparable insert installation, the Infinity provides very little advantage when compared to narrow line vinyl. If you were installing a vinyl insert with a edge of frame to glass dimension of nearly 4", then yes...customers are going to note a difference. Using that as the benchmark and therefore basis of the statement that you loose much more glass with vinyl is accurate in that application but false as a whole. As I noted above, the Infinity only provides you with 1/4" more glass per side as compared to narrow line vinyl and a whopping 1% more visible light. Sunrise is one of the more well regarded windows out there and nearly all of its product lines will have very similar reveal and dimensions to the Infinity. Couple this with the fact that it is much more airtight and achieves much better thermal numbers and I think that a customer would likely choose the more performance yielding windows at the expense of 1/4" and 1% light. Much more is certainly an apt description for the Infinity's air leakage number. Most of the premium vinyl windows out there on the market have air leakage numbers that are 0.05 and below. An air leakage number of 0.19 does not even approach the performance of the better units out there. The Infinity, by comparison, has and air leakage rate of 0.27 based on the AAMA test report that I have in my hand of their insert window. It also has a DP30 rating. Interesting performance out of a window that is supposedly 8X as strong as vinyl (an often quoted data point on their site although it is referring to tensile strength and that is a completely unrepresentative force that is ever placed on a window installed in an operational capacity). It the material for the Infinity is so superior to vinyl, why the low DP rating and the high air leakage. The best explanation that I can come up with for the lower DP is that it begins to leak water at what is and equivalent rating of DP30 and is therefore assigned that rating. Looking at the Sunrise again, it has an air leakage rate of 0.04. The Infinity's leakage rate of 0.27 is absolutely "much more" than 0.04 (a nearly 7 fold increase). You mention that the degradation of vinyl window performance in the sun. This has been a well debated subject but without any real data. Heat of deformation on vinyl is over 160 degrees (far from normal conditions or even possible in about 99% of the country) and I don't see windows reaching those temps. Until someone can provide me with a data report to indicate the degradation of vinyl performance as a result of normal exposure, I don't see it and it purely conjecture at that point. All windows will loose a measure of performance tightness over time because the weatherstripping seals will loose some of their pressure but that is window universal. Again, I appreciate your personal experience and the conditions that you are exposed to, however, data and facts are just that and are laboratory generated. By comparison to the higher end vinyls out there, the Infinity leaks more air. It is enough to create and issue for the customer, probably not but, it does have a higher than average rate and I doubt you will ever see it being installed in a net zero energy home. I would agree with you wholeheartedly that the RBA is a less than average window.