Mike, I know what you mean. Just, was it yesterday,?, a little girl of nine, 60-70lbs?? with long, medium brown hair, big, brown eyes was jumping rope, Hop-Scotch, and Hide-and-go-Seek. Today that girl still has long, brown, 'from a bottle,' hair, big brown/green eyes, 5'5, 115 lbs, sits before a computer, 'What's that, mom?,' watching big people tv shows, in a home filled with greens. That 9-yr-old wasn't allowed to keep plants in the 'spotless' house, so instead she went to the store, bought veggie seeds, dug and planted these seeds in the ground. The tomatoes were big, two watermelons, her doggie decided tasted yummy, grew, but she didnt know onions and carrots grew underground, or the corn seeds would grow into tall blades of Horse Corn. :) Mike, I HATE winter, too. SADS. Don't want to step out the door. I'm really trying to be optimistic. It could be worse. We could live in International Falls, MN..their temp was -45..that isn't counting wind-chill. The high here was 4F, tonight -2F. Wonder what the temp will be counting wind-chill. No snow, but it's on its way. One thing about snow..it reflects and brightens the ground, air and our plants. Mike, do you have outdoor perrenials? If so, cut off a branch, and place in water..it'll flower! I had a Pussy Willow..'it grew like a weed, so out it went.' Late Jan, early Feb, I'd remove a few branches, place in water and it'd flower. Magnolias do, too. I'm sure there are other plants, but those are the two I've forced. Flowers might perk you up. Do you grow Snow Crocus? They flower, outdoors, when snow is on the ground..It's not much, but that's all I have to offer. :) Feel better, it could be worse..Toni

I would say no. I think the square rods send you off in another direction from your original vision. If lighting is truly the hardest thing to find in your town, have you considered looking online? Most lighting stores should be able to order just about anything from the lines they carry. There are SO any choices out there, even HD carries LOTS of lighting! When I renoed our first BR, I actually started with my faucet (Just cuz I got it at HD for a super deal), and then matched EVERYTHING to it! LOL I ordered nearly everything online (and 4 years ago from Canada, not so easy to do). My vanity handles (vanity was custom made to maximize storage- lots of drawers, and pullout shelf under sink) came from Germany, towel bars, paper holder, robe hooks from US, and shower from Great Britain! My light fixture was actually supposed to be a temporary fix (DH hates it), but the one I really wanted was just too expensive, this one came from a local Canadian Tire,(not sure what you have in US that is the equivalent to a Tire and auto store that carries just about everything 'cept groceries!) I looked at the finish, and lines of my faucet, and tried to echo that thin round rod in every other fixture. Probably no one else would notice, but I love it everytime I walk into the BR. DH hates the shades on this fixture...tried to find replacements, but lost interest after a while...once you're no longer in the midst of reno angst, some of the details become not so critical anymore...LOL

Ha, Stinky! My DH is..."slow to change". He does the exact same thing in the exact same order every morning and gets all out of sorts when he is forced to make accommodations. I've only been married 4 years, but I've learned it is much easier to change the environment than try to force change by direction. He just digs in his heels. Example: about 6 months ago I wanted to hire housekeeper. DH said it was unnecessary. I dropped the idea for a few months. I then started talking about how the dog got lonely during the day when we are at work and how nice it would be if someone would come keep her company. And now, we have a housekeeper who walks the dog..! I don't think I'm being sneaky or devious, but now we are both happy. Sometimes a different approach is needed. He may say the same things about me. But anyway, that's a long explanation of why simply telling DH that he is making a mess by wadding up the towels on the bars won't work. So having hooks may be my way around it. Back to topic, though, I was thinking of something like these from RH? Do they look like the towel would stay on well?

Of course with the gas dropping like it has all week the b@stards jacked up the price by 10 cents for our Thanksgiving weekend - they ALWAYS have excuses for the holiday weekend which is a load of cr@p...how are they going to explain this one this week? MMMmmmmmmmm? Add my name to the list wanting a bailout. I keep telling DH we are extremely fortunate only having a cat and banking ahead when we have the opportunity (we both do contract work so it's not a luxury but a necessity). I've been shopping at charity shops for years and we are not shy buying xmas gifts...this year I've already started xmas shopping at the charity shop and plan to use my sewing skills for xmas among other skills. I'm also starting early on my home baking to utilize the sales as much as possible. Retail will have the toughest xmas since the depression. I mentioned too that this year I'd still like to give an xmas donation to our local animal shelter because I am sure they will need the help more than ever, although it will be much less than last year. I count my blessings everyday and thank my parents for teaching us over the years the skills they learned while living through the depression. As for cable, we're so dissatisfied with shows moving over to specialty channels we've been buying box and used movies since we have drastically cut down on going out to the theatre and restaurants. We just can't afford it. Even our home improvements have stopped for now until we are sure of our winter income. I shake my head at those who have teenagers in the house - it must be really, really rough.