I was fortunate many years ago to be able to spend time with a master queen breeder. He was the president of ABBA in the 1960's. His method of finding the queen is methodical and orderly. He did not recommend trying to find the queen in a full size middle of the summer colony but if it had to be done, he could do so usually in 10 minutes or less. The key is to disrupt the colony as little as possible. This means use the absolute minimum of smoke, move slowly and deliberately, and don't bump or bang the frames around as you remove them. Remove the first brood chamber frame either next to the side if there is enough room or the #2 frame by squeezing the others apart. When you have that frame out, carefully check it for eggs and a quick look for the queen. She will very rarely be found on this frame. Carefully stack the frame against one corner of the hive maintaining the orientation it was removed. Remove the next frame and this time look carefully for the queen. It should take about 30 to 40 seconds at the most to check by scanning in 2 inch wide strips from the top of the frame to the bottom and then back up again. Hold the frame over the hive while you are scanning just in case the queen drops off and don't tilt the frame more than 30 degrees. Scan the edge of the frame then flip it over and scan the edges again and then opposite side. Again, move steadily and deliberately! If she is not found, then stack that frame against the one previously removed and move on to the next frame until you reach the far wall. If she has still not been found, carefully check the inside of the box then start checking the frames again in reverse order as you return them to the box. Fusion

I sympathize with you. My hand is still steady enough, but the eyes-not good. Are you painting the walls dark over a lighter paint? If so, here's what I would do. I'm not an expert, but I've done my fair share of painting and I've learned some tricks which work for me. First, you need to make sure you totally cover up the lighter paint. Do this by painting a thin line of the white trim paint along the edge of the trim and over the lighter wall paint color (you may want to fine sand that edge first so the trim paint sticks well). You don't want any of the original paint color showing and this is the only way to guarantee that. Allow a couple of days for that trim paint to dry. Using the Frog tape, tape along the edge of the trim (this will be harder on the crown molding-maybe you can get someone with better eyes to do that taping for you). Then press down the tape really well with a putty knife-a couple of times so you get a really tight seal. Then paint the dark paint, try not to go too heavy with the paint into the tape line-but you probably know that already. When the paint is dry-half a day or so, remove the tape, You should get a nice crisp line. Good luck.

I did not see that episode of H.I., but the paint technique is a very simple one. With base color, preferably eggshell already painted, you can then *wash* on a top color. It can be lighter, as the one you saw, or it can be darker. You can even just lighten the base color w/white. Mix the glaze (paint + glaze + water) and apply with a brush, just skimming the top surface, keeping most of it out of the grooves. Hold the brush more on an angle, say a putty knife, with a side to side movement, or the letter X. (It's all in the wrist). Or, brush on and wipe off with a rag. Practice right on the wall for technique, and once you've confirmed color/technique, just paint over it. And, I think it's safe to work in short intervals with this technique. Meaning you won't see where you stopped and started. Good luck!!

I had chux--the waterproof-on-one-side and absorbent-on-one-side things placed all over the marble counters in my parents' house. On top of the chux were multiple signs saying not to remove them. They were, nevertheless, removed every single day for various reasons. Sometimes, it was because the painters needed to paint the area of the cabinets adjacent to the counters. The metal parts of the paint rollers (that they placed directly on the marble) ended up making some small scratches. Moral of my story is to agree with Javachik...watch the painters while they paint!! Chicagoans tool belt/metal damaging marble advice is also great. Someone on this forum had a chunk of her marble hacked out by an errant tool belt. A guest at a party had a metal belt on that scratched our white marble all along the 2 edges of the island. My fabricator/cabinetmaker actually has custom belts made with no metal parts, and never wears a tool belt.