While we are talking about the Seattle Japanese Garden, a friend of mine has gotten into photography and he has a few pictures up on his website. Some of his other galleries have cool pictures as well. It is a "commercial" site but I think it is more of a hobby for him. And no...not Rob Jordan the author whose real name is not Rob Jordan anyway. - Brent Here is a link that might be useful: Seattle Japanese Garden gallery

Like Zeffy, I hated the puter. I was living with my ex who had one. We ended up getting internet, I had a Hydrangea that wouldn't bloom and some how ended up on one of the gardening forums. I wasn't allowed to garden with him, I used to sneak roses into the garden. He used to be so mean that he'd have to dig up the part of garden where I had a few roses. I had a Gene Boerner; went to my dad's with the kids one day, came home & it was destroyed. No clue what he did to it. Ended up having him removed, started coming to rose forum.. that was back before user names. Think the name I used was SBA@NJBell. At one time there were a lot of us named Sue on the regular rose forum, we used to sign our name OOTO (one of the other) Sues. At some point GW started growing, we had to make user names. I remember how ticked off some of us were lol I wanted something original, took me days to think of Rose Lover - and making it into Roselvr. Been through a lot here. Many people coming & going, some of free will some to "Disney". I've been "Spiked" many times. I used to hate waking up knowing either I'd be Spiked or Disney'd. There was a time when saying the name Veldfire would send your post to Disney, or you to Disney. A lot of people left to go to his forum. Although he was banned, he was able to hide his IP and get here to read. lol GW lost a lot of people to his forum. A lot stayed there, never returning. I've seen vendor's and hybridizers that have come here and given their time, banned because someone didn't like something that was said. We've lost a lot of great people. Before Veldfire there was another forum on Delphi, haven't been there in years, we lost a lot of good people there too. It was one hybridizer who started it I think.. We also had a guy named Sharif from Bangladesh who used to post other people's pictures. I think Anne got him banned one day, she finally proved he was stealing people's pictures & posting as his own. I'd already been "Spiked" a few times due to him, almost banned. We lost Rosesense back then. I met GW members. Cindy Tx, met her in New Orleans. Sue Belle; Helen FL, Karl; who saved our butts in New Orleans when my hubby left the travelers checks in a restaurant. Karl was able to tell them who it belonged to. Baldo, Anne, The gal who writes the column for New Orleans; her name escapes me right now. I've met a lot of nice NJ people Anyone remember Kang?

I have Miele appliances in my home and like them. I bought my first Miele appliance, a DW and then a washer before I ever knew this forum existed. I never even heard about Miele from anyone...so I am not interested in snob appeal or prestige. I bought my stuff because it was advertised to last a long time and so far having Miele for 12 years things having been going along with out problems. The heater issue: If anyone from Germany walked down a supermarket isle, or watched any TV shows with advertisements they would quickly realize that folks in the U.S.A are in love with chlorine Bleach. It is everywhere, and most of us use it. So this machine was made with a bleach dispenser - for us. If you use bleach there is no need for high temps. The first thing people in the USA balk at with older Miele washers is the fact that they use 220V. Every time my neighbors look at the washer they go into a snit and say..well it needs 220V - I'm not doing that. So by adding the bleach feature which the general population LOVES, it enabled them to use 120V, and allow folks to bleach the death out of everything...getting things clean, white and sanitized. Voltage obstacle removed. My older unit will heat the water to boiling temps...but I rarely need it. Everything even whites come out just fine at a temp of 120F using a cycle that lasts 48 minutes. Sometimes I increase the temp to 140F but this is rare and almost never use a boiling temp. The advantage of 220V is that the washer can heat this hot very very fast if you need it...but with chlorine bleach you won't. So I think for the general population the lack of heat on the normal cycle(which is also not present on some other machines sold in the U.S.A) will not be a deal breaker for them. I am interested in having appliances that will last more than the current 6 or 7 year life expectancy we have now, and I expect to fix my units when they need servicing rather than immediately thinking about replacing them. Replacing is the first thing we think of isn't it? --"Well it's broken, I need a new one" Then we have fun and make ourselves feel good buying something new. It will be interesting to see how long these new super-sized units last.

@posskat, glad to hear that you are happy with your LG. I really like mine too. As far as your issues are concerned, I don't use vinegar in the wash but it's strange that it leaks out. I use fabric softener diluted with water and have no leakage from the FS compartment in the dispenser. You should check the dispenser to make sure that it's not cracked or assembled wrong - it shouldn't be leaking out before the last rinse. You are right about the door - mine can only be left open fully or half way too. I have the same issue as you do with the washer being located in a busy hallway leading to the garage. I usually do my washing in the evening and leave the door open overnight and then shut it the next morning. That seems to be sufficient for the washer to dry out. As to the borax and oxy bleach: if you are not using the prewash option, you can remove the liquid detergent insert and just put your liquid detergent together with borax and oxy bleach directly into the main wash compartment. If you are using prewash, then I think your only option is to switch to powder detergent (which may be a good idea anyway) so that borax and oxy bleach can be dispensed into the main wash. Oxy bleach needs time and higher temp to do its job. I don't think it's effective in the short prewash portion of the cycle.