Sheri, You know, I had forgotten all about the UFOs! LOL I didn't see any either, but it was daylight, so I guess we should have stayed until dark. It is so beautiful in the Stephenville-Hico-Granbury area. The wildflowers were spectacular, although a lot of the yucca had already finished their round of spring blooms. Merry Heart, The cafe at which we had lunch was in Hico in Hamilton County, about 20 miles from Stephenville. It is called the Koffee Kup Family restaurant, and it is right there in the middle of town. DH and I had our usual, chicken fried steak (real meat! not the pre-fab junk) and fixin's and Kristine had chicken strips and cheese fries just dripping with cheese. We had German Chocolate cake for dessert. We visited all the clothing stores, tourist traps and antique stores we could find in Hico and had some wonderful chocolates from a little shop just across the road from the Koffee Kup. They were the best! I did buy Nolo Bait (for grasshoppers) and Sluggo Plus (for sowbugs and pillbugs and slugs/snails) at Marshall Grain on the way down, but no plants again. Maybe I am just all planted out? And there was no rain for us, some morning clouds and lots of heat in the afternoon. It almost got too hot. It was a gorgeous day and a lovely evening too. Dublin Dr. Peppers are the best Dr. Peppers in the world, made and bottled at the little Dr. Pepper Bottling Company in Dublin, Texas, which is about 20 miles from Hico and Stephenville, and is home to the Dr. Pepper Museum. For a couple of decades now, Dublin has been the last remaining DP bottler who uses real sugar instead of High Fructose Corn Syrup. Why does this matter? BECAUSE! Because these Dr. Peppers taste EXACTLY like Dr. Peppers tasted when I was a little kid in the 1960s (before everyone switched over to high fructose corn syrup) and they are just so, so good. It used to be that Dublin Dr. Peppers had a cult following of people like me who adored the flavor they remembered from their youth--the ones made with HFCS just don't taste as good. Then a lot of parents who have children with various conditions, including autism, attention deficit disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder discovered that their kids could have Dublin Dr. Peppers without getting as hyper as they get with regular DPs and Dublin DPs became even more popular. For years and years, the Dublin bottler used only glass bottles and bought all the used DP bottles he could find from all over the country, and you had to pay a deposit on them. As the Dublin DPs grew in popularity, he finally had to contract with someone to make the glass bottles for him and now they all say Dublin DP and Imperial Sugar on all the bottles. They are also available in cans too. I have gotten our fire dept. guys addicted to them too. Sometimes we have them at cookouts and fundraisers. So, while we were there we all got our Dublin Dr. Peppers from a soda fountain at a convenience store in Hico, where a big sign in the store window said "WE NOW HAVE DUBLIN DR.PEPPER ON THE FOUNTAIN". Yippee! Then, as we came through Stephenville on our way home from Hico, we stopped at Wal-mart and bought 3 cases of canned DPs and one of bottled DPs. You can buy them locally here in north Texas and some places in southern OK, but they cost a whole lot more due to transportation costs. We "owe" some DPs to friends who said "next time you're down there, get me some". I'm sure by the time we give our friends the ones we bought for them, I'll wish we'd bought more. My niece wanted Dublin DPs at her wedding reception two years ago, so she and my brother went on a "road trip" directly to the Dublin bottling plant a few days before the wedding and brought back about 400 or 500 of them.....and everyone at the wedding reception guzzled them down! It was cool. Dawn

I do hope you took her to the vet already. My dog had a swollen toe, which I didn't think was a real problem since it didn't affect her walking or seem to bother her at all. I had taken her to the vet for other things and they noticed the toe, but didn't seem too concerned of it, so I figured they would know and left it as just another in a long line of benign bumps she'd previously developed. It became a natural part of life for months until it suddenly turned dark and made her limp, at which time I panicked and took her in. My deepest nightmare and regret... Even after they surgically took the toe off, she developed Mast Cell cancer from it. The surgery was too late and killed her about a month later. The kicker here is that once the toe turned dark, my vets relayed of their having heard of many other dogs getting Mast Cell cancer from swollen toes before and that if ever a dog had a swollen toe you should just take it off and not chance it, because even if it's benign in the beginning, the chances are it will turn later, and probably too late. These are the same vets that noticed it earlier and didn't say a damn thing! I'm angry and frustrated and just don't understand. I miss my girl terribly and feel I truly let her down. I know I was in denial and should have investigated further and not just count on bumbling doctors not paying attention or simply not giving a damn. I think I was afraid of knowing due to not being able to fix it, but this was fixable if caught in time. Please do not allow this to happen to your baby. You'll regret it forever. I do. My heart aches terribly from it all. I will never forget my beloved baby girl and pray I reunite with her in the ever-after when my time on this earth is done. God knows it would never be Heaven for me without her.

Why are you replacing with triple sliding with double (not single)? I am you have thought through this but.... What if you replaced it with standard single door with large glass area (since you have decided to bite the bullet and replace door and spend the money).... I think this will be fine since you have access to the "deck" from the sliding door in the living room. So you still have double access to the deck. Sliding double door versus single door has the exact same access width. The only difference is the amount of light coming in. I think you have enough light that you can do this. I would not do any uppers between the frig and sink to open up the room a little. You could move the frig to that wall, so you have frig, sink, then range on the L going from left to right. This will give you more landing around the stove. I think you will still have enough room for a table in the eating area. Visually, if you are running the cabinets to the ceiling, you need trim that is as wide if not slightly wider than the stiles of the cabinets. Even if the crown is simple in detail, you still need a little more "weight" to balance the cabinets than what is drawn. If you want more modern clean line look (which would not look good with your 6 panel doors), then you can use slab or very plain doors with minimal trim.

The bond you had with your DIL was so awesome to witness via this forum. Thank you for being a wonderful mother-in-law. My prayers and heartfelt condolences to you Radio Dok and your families.