We lived in Georgia when I was eight years old. Had a cool creek that ran through the backyard that my friends and I spent lots of time in, catching crawdads and throwing lily pads at each other. The first week of May I got horribly sick with what the docs guessed was an allergy. I couldn't breathe, even though I've never had asthma. My face turned very red and swelled to the point that I couldn't see. My hands swelled so much that they actually cracked and clear liquid ran from the cracks. It lasted for several days and then disappeared as suddenly as it came on. The following year it was back -- again in the first part of May. It was worse the second time and I ended up in the hospital, on oxygen and being pumped full of antihistamines. After asking tons of questions about anything new in my environment, the doctor finally told my mother that he believed I was deathly allergic to something that only bloomed during that time of year. His suggestion, besides documenting everything that I'd recently come into contact with, was to be GONE from the area well before the following May. Needless to say, we moved up North, and there were no more episodes until I went to an Easter Sunday service where the church was filled with blooming LILIES. The uncontrollable coughing started before we were even seated. Within five minutes I was having trouble breathing and freaking out. Mystery solved. I got out of there like my pants were on fire and my butt was catching! Nowadays I don't go to Easter services, or weddings, or funerals. I steer clear of the floral department in garden centers and grocery stores. No more lilies for me. For the record, I don't think I'm allergic to ALL types of lilies, but I have no plans to test that theory.

Hi EQ, Speaking of "as long as I can remember".. Maybe I just read your post twice and that's why I thought you had made two tables or possibly equated your apple pie recipe with making furniture, who knows. I can almost remember the days when I could remember. Senility is the "E-Ticket" of life. The un-induced double vision is like the metro bus that that awaits you on every corner. o_O I've never missed a bus in my life but sure do miss being able to see straight. At least with senility you keep forgetting you have it. You can't remember that you can't remember. I used to be able to spot things a mile away and now all I see are spots. I was reading another post where someone was talking (if I can remember correctly) about miscommunication with contractors and architects and was going to be relaxing with an "adult beverage" and the fist thing that came to mind was "yuk-!", prune juice is not what you want to be drinking if you want to relax. Then it dawned on me... Tequila. I should remember to ask my doctor about that. Not for me but for my friends so they'll talk louder so I could possibly hear them. I don't think I've ever bought a new piece of furniture that made it through the doors of my house. I have bought some Grants' specials to gift to others knowing the piece it replaced would be tossed to the curb though. It is amazing what people consider garbage. People used to think I made and refinished furniture because I enjoyed it but that was the farthest from the truth. I just like nice things and you could not buy them at G. Fox et al. So now that your table is done and you're anxious to have some people over for dinner the moment your chairs arrive what's on the menu for the christening?

I wonder if it's at the node level? Have you tried rebooting? Both the browser (double click the home button and flick the browser pane up to close it), and the iPad (hold down the top button until the slider comes on the screen, slide it to turn off, and let the device cool down for half an hour). Sometimes when weird crap happens, rebooting makes it all better. But, most likely, it's another of those really annoying GW advertising schemes...

Mrs Pete..I agree..now OT, sorry, but I was reading your post all starry-eyed, and I have deep personal interest..)) do you bake gluten-free too? I can bake gluten-free. It is more difficult in that the finished product tends to "spread" and don't like to stand up straight, and they require more internal support ... which is something you want in a wedding cake. If you need to serve gluten-free people, these are my suggestions: - Go with a single layer of gluten-free cake ... most people don't care about gluten, so this allows your baker to do what's easiest for the majority of the cake. - Make that layer one of the small layers. - Consider carrot cake as your gluten-free layer. Most people like it, and it's an easy choice for gluten-free. - A whole different thought: Opt for cheesecake, which isn't always gluten-free, but absolutely can be made without that bitty-bit of cornstarch or flour. Yes, a cheesecake can be stacked. If I were doing this for a wedding, I'd offer a variety of self-serve toppings: Strawberry, cherry, blueberry, chocolate, nuts, maybe coconut. I did not even have cake at my wedding - no, not even Costco, so I am likely not your target person to talk cake with, but I am most definitely craving cake now (lemon please, with lemon filling...maybe alternated with raspberry....). And that's the point. A whole lot of people just want a house ... they'd see a difference in 3 bedrooms vs. 4, but their eyes might glaze over if you started talking about optimizing the kitchen or the merits of different types of windows. Aren't they just ... windows? As for lemon, I am making a small wedding cake tomorrow for the royal wedding. My daughter (but not her English husband) is absolutely insane over the royal wedding. Since it's just for us to play with, I am experimenting with a "naked cake" ... it will be lemon (my lemon cake is INCREDIBLE, if I do say so myself) with fruit (or maybe just blueberries? I haven't been shopping yet.) and lemon cream-cheese frosting between the layers. I am driving this cake over to the hospital where my daughter works because she and her fellow nurses are coming in to work early to watch the royal wedding, and I'm going to watch with them. How'd she convince them to come in before 6:00 am? She promised them my cake, and she reminded them of the cake I brought them recently ... it was two layers of carrot cake sandwiching a layer of cheesecake. It was better than what I made for my co-workers on St. Patrick's Day: I experimented with a Green Velvet cake (like red velvet, but containing an entire bottle of green food coloring) sandwiching a cheesecake ... the next day every one of us was confused: we felt fine, but we were all pooping green. When we all realized the source of our malady, we laughed 'til we cried. If you like lemon and raspberry, try Key Lime Cake with Raspberry Filling. I made a simple three-layer cake (with raspberries on top instead of flowers and whipped fluff icing) for a casual wedding that featured BBQ ... it complimented the food very nicely. I thought it was "you CAN'T have your cake, and eat it too." We always seem to have cake at my house. We eat it, and we still seem to have more. Current house is someone else's fully custom house. I've always wondered why realtors advertise that a house is "custom". That means it was built to someone else's taste. Doesn't seem to be a selling point to me.