Meyermike, Why grow citrus? Many years ago my then girlfriend had unlimited access to citrus at Christmas. I ate lots of it and put several seeds in a potted plant. I think every seed sprouted. I was hooked. I gave them all away. Later I raised orange trees on purpose (for the challenge). They were left out and froze. Several years ago I received an orange tree as a gift. It has produced some fruit for three years. 1. For the challenge. 2. For the envy of those who are either unable or unwilling to grow them. 3. The one that I have produces the best tasting orange that I have ever eaten (in memory). 4. I have four grown children that covet my oranges. 5. I would like to have enough to share them with my 12 grandchildren also. 6. The aroma is so intense that we cannot keep it inside the house. We keep it in the attached garage in the winter. 7. There are too many reasons to list them all.

I was so very tempted to get the cedar fence post by the shed and roll the snowmobile down the bank and off my iris. Figured why stoop to that. Besides my husband thinks he can make it run well enough for my daughter to play in the field. Don't think it will ever be a distance machine. Don't think it's Meth. I don't see the physical signs. There is a big problem here that the police are just starting to recognize. Heroine too has made a strong come back (something I was warning them about constantly in my final years as a cop but nobody listened) Last summer a car full of speed freaks totalled my car. No insurance of course. Both are currently in jail for drug violations. My insurance paid off all but $500. Car was kind of full of crayon and kid goo from my daughter. Fortunately my daughter wasn't hurt. No chance at all I'd ever see my money again. The girl's husband got it into his head at one point that he was going to work for the Dept. of Corrections. Passed the oral and interviews and drug test. Couldn't pass the physical agility. I found this very odd. The pt test isn't hard. I could pass it at 46 and smoking. It's mostly to check if you are in reasonable shape so if you get into a tussle with an inmate you won't drop dead. He was 24 and working at a lumber mill and had been working for a landscape company before that. Should have been pretty buff. Took the test 3 times and each time failed. Doesn't make sense. However I'm finding lots of really large beer cans around. Not tons but ones forgotten in the woods and out around where he was working on his machines. Lot of boxes from custom bike shops shipped here stuck in the shed. There's my rent money. New cell phone boxes, new computer boxes, looks like a lot of shopping went on very recently. Found part of my cabinet. Was being used as a ramp for motorcycles. Ruined of course. My husband is going to see if he can get a one of his corrections buddies who is a good carpenter to come down and make the counter and cabinet look less horrendous. They weren't fancy, very country. The kitchen had kind of odd space too work with and factory cabinets just weren't right. The kitchen part of the house began it's life as a storage shed for the house next door. Lot of rough barn boards and the cabinets kind of looked like mini barn doors. I bought it as a summer camp from it's next owner and added on as my family grew. I've owned this place since I was 23 years old. Really breaking my heart. In the kitchen there were two lofts on either side. I used to use them for storage because the only way up was to grab a ladder. They cut a hole through the ceiling to one loft and made 2x4 stairs. Not a bad idea in itself but you don't cut holes into a home your renting. Thing is real rough but functional. Maybe a coat of paint and some finish wood. I don't know. I have a child, I have 2 dogs. Have a bunch of horses. I never let the kids just run through and mash things. The dogs were kept under control. Not saying accidents didn't happen. Actually happened pretty often but spaced out enough were my plants could recover. Pulled my knome out of the pond yesterday. He was on a big boulder in the middle of the pond in bed of creeping phlox that would drape over and into the water. Mud and cigarette butts there now. Got tired of cleaning yesterday and tried to find some of my daff bulbs in the beds. I can't find one. There were daffodils all over the yard. Every bed had literally hundreds and in some cases thousands. Nothing named or fancy. Most were oldies from my grandmothers garden and old aunts. Can't even find a rotted one. I can't imagine that $%W@%! dogs ate them all. Thought a little digging in the dirt might relax me, that backfired bad. Every shovel full should have brought up a bulb or 10. My yellow climbing rose is dead. Just twigs. Undermined by dogs. Roses are so hard to grow here. Only a few can take it. Canes chewed, roots chewed. I really need to put blinders on and just clean up the crap. You know they even managed to kill most of the psued that lived around the pond. I didn't have the heart to kill it all when it became a banned plant. Pretty amazing accomplishment. That stuff is one tough plant. Maybe I should rent these people out to various wetlands boards around the continent. It's still there but down to a third of what it was. Another season and they would have done it. Something not even Monsanto and Dow Chemical can do. Sueing them would feel good. Limits of small claims in this state is $5,000. I'm already over that just in rent alone. I doubt very much if I'd ever see anything. $35 to file and another $35 everytime I needed to get the court to order them to pay. Think I'd be throwing more money down the hole. However... It might put the kids on notice that this isn't the way people live. I could easily prosecute a small claims case myself. Kick it to Superior court? I might be able to deal with it. Getting a little out of my league but they allow a layman a lot of leeway. Little more money in fees. I did find one of his pay stubs. Stuffed it in my pocket just in case. Not going to get much out of my husband except plain old grunt work on this. He's heartbroken. Kind of gone silent on me. Over the fireplace mantel is a picture of the girl with a big bunch of ballons all smiles at disneyland. She's about 9 years old in the picture. That's what he's remembering. I think I should just take the tax write off and leave it. I'm just so hopping mad at this point. Then there is this other bizarre observation. I found 2 big trash bags full of nice baby boy clothes, small infant. There is no baby that I know of. I often watched their girl because they always whinned how much daycare was. I have this horrible image of an infant being left to lay with the dogs while they are at work. Kind of freaks me out. If I tell the police or youth services they would think I'm nuts. Icky thought. They were letting some person live in the back bedroom. I had to really get harsh to get a name out of them. I wonder if he had a baby. Never saw the guy. Another one of those annoyance points. Nice baby clothes, I'll take it to the church next time I head to town. Somebody can use them.

Westsider--Yes, I found a Pratt and Larson tile. I was supposed to get a couple of samples in the correct size and color last week, but they messed up my order again. I'll post pics when it gets here, unless they have another "miscommunication" at the showroom. The party was a success!! I'm not sure what happened with the people who made comments over the last months about arugula being a nasty weed and that capers were sickening, but everyone ate, and ate, and ate, and enjoyed the food! The woman who couldn't believe she ate capers stopped in her tracks when I told her that she also ate anchovies in that tapenade so loved so much. I received lots of praise during and after the party. Thank you all for your help. Most importantly, everyone, including me, had a great time. The group was smaller than expected as none of the husbands came, and a couple of families had the flu strike them at school that day. I think it all worked out for the best as we women just gathered in the kitchen to laugh, listen to Christmas music, talk, and eat apps while I finished plating and garnishing the main course. It was just how I hoped it would be. I ended up spending more time the night before on my son's project and having another commitment at my son's school that day, so I had to adjust the menu a bit to accommodate less cooking time. For apps I did a sour cream, herb, and cucumber dip with fresh veggies and blanched haricot verts and asparagus as suggested. I also did tapenade with crostini and Kathy Casey's sexy baked olives and feta. For the main course I did the cold beef fillet with sherry wine vinaigrette served on arugula with shaved red onions, haricot verts with walnuts and lemon vinaigrette, scalloped blue cheese potatoes, and the citrus salad with mint sugar. For dessert, I made the eggnog tiramisu trifle, cream cheese swirl brownies, and leftover lemon ginger cookies. We drank lots of prosecco, wine, and the hot buttered rum I made for the first time. The kids drank the spiced apple cider. I also had a beverage dispenser filled with water, lemons, and cucumber a friend termed "spa water." Sounds so snobby to me. ;) For compumom, here are the three recipes for which you asked. Eggnog Tiramisu Trifle http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Tiramisu-Eggnog-Trifle-108981 Tapenade In a food processor, pulse 1 garlic clove and 1 t fresh thyme leaves until minced. Add 1 1/4 c pitted kalamatas, 4 drained anchovy fillets, 2 T capers, 2 t lemon juice, and about 4-5 T EVOO and process until coarsely pureed. It's best fresh, but can keep a couple of days in the fridge. Cold Fillet of Beef with Sherry Wine Vinaigrette

Sorting my thoughts about pantry -- I like to know what I have and be able to find it easily. It would irritate me to open up multiple storage units to find what I need or inventory what I have or need at the store. I'm kinda willing to open two and that's it. I would rather have stuff on shelves than drawers or pullouts for food storage. Don't want to be looking at the tops of the items (and I'm way to lazy to relabel them) or have to walk around something like an open pull out unit to be able to see what's in both sides. I'd rather just take stuff off shelves. Don't get me wrong, if it was a cabinet pantry v. no pantry, I'd certainly take it and be grateful. Drawers are fixed sizes and are just not as flexible. Want to buy that large size of cereal? Too bad, won't fit. Paper products, pet food, or stuff that comes in larger packages are examples of things that may not fit in drawers or pullouts. Some kinds of pullouts can be reconfigured, but that can be a pain - stop putting stuff away, empty the target location and adjust a shelf, bin or pullout, put the stuff back. In your original kitchen plan, the thing about using the dining room wall is that the food storage is a bit far from the likely prep area on the island - up near the range. This can be an ok situation for an organized chef - the type that gets out everything first and wouldn't mind carrying a basket to and from the pantry. But if that doesn't describe you, like it doesn't describe me, that kitchen plan is a recipe for a lotta walking and some frustration. Like 20 to 40 feet of walking for everyday stuff like a cup of milk or the forgotten can of chili beans. You can duplicate some items in a nearby cabinet. In fact, in the original layout, you have enough upper cabinets to duplicate most food products. Then the pantry itself becomes a place to store overstock and little used kitchen stuff. Lastly, everybody's interior image of "pantry" is different. My ultimate pantry is close to this... found on Design Sponge Each person will try to talk you into their internal image because it works for them. If you or your spouse has a completely different image, that's ok! I have no internal image of "butler's pantry". I'm kinda puzzled by why people who don't entertain a lot have one. Maybe if I had one, I'd figure it out, but I'm not in the price range for that!