Joepye, I think your philosophy is outdated. Such a theory no longer has anything to do with aversion to chemicals or submitting to mind control. I can understand there was a time of no other alternatives, but these days there are just too many options. Information is easy to find and frankly, friendly products sit on the shelves next to the woefully-loathed ones. This guy should not have to be bothered with his neighbor. There is simply no excuse except one's own "philosophy," which this guy clearly does not have. If he did, then his lawn would like your picture preferences. The man is lazy or just doesn't give a darn. There is no philosophy or particular preferences associated with the complaint of this thread. If there were, the neighbor would not mow once or twice a month. He would never mow and his yard would look exactly like yours. Your arguments (not meant literally, only in terms of debate) would work swell for someone seeking advice or absolution for his own way of thinking that is contrary to the normal desire to keep up with the Jones'. This guy isn't. He's looking for suggestions to deal with his lazy neighbor. I grew up across the street from a lady with your same philosophy. I loved her lawn that was not a lawn at all. It was lots of different low growing-to-knee length-to-hip high vegetation piped with hostas all around. She was out in her yard 3 or 4 times a week pulling weeds and doing whatever. No manicured lawn I've seen is any more beautiful than her meticulously kempt hodge podge, and I never saw a bottle of anything her hands. I loved her yard mainly because it was well kept and intriquing to say the least. The little girl in me and then the teenager was constantly drawn to it, and I didn't think it an eyesore at all. My point is to wonder how it can be that "philosophy" lacks standard? It's a contradiction in terms.

Growing up in Germany, learning a minumum of two foreign languages was and still is mandatory if you want to enter university. Most students preparing for university will actually learn three. So I took English, French and Latin. While I liked English and French classes, even though I wasn't really good at them, I always hated, hated and hated Latin. And at the same time I knew all along that Latin was crucial for a better understanding of my mothertongue as well as the foreign languages I was learning. Don't regret a single day of it. And it is certainly one reason that my English spelling is better than that of most native speakers (I proof read often enough in my job to know). As an adult it was easy for me to pick up some Suahili while travelling. Or take a few weeks of Spanish before a vacation and then at least be able to use some polite phrases - opening up another world of opportunities to discover another country and culture. In the province I live now language learning is not mandatory anymore. They are trying to re-instate mandatory Second-Language-Education at least for Grades 4 through 9 but after decades of not doing it, schools struggle to find qualified teachers (who would want to become a language teacher in a time when no student HAS to learn one???) and build resources. My 6th grader so far has had some French in gr. 4, even got a grade in her report card for being taught 30 minutes once every 2 weeks (reading the report card was the first time I found out that she "learned" French, there was never any homework, exam or such). How the heck can anybody learn a language that way??? It got "better" in gr. 5 where she had 25 minutes of French twice a week. Still, no way to get kids to learn a language. And since it's not even offered at all now in gr. 6 she's all but forgotten everything she's done before. And has come to hate learning another language because of this awful way of language instruction :-( I really want my children to take up French again in Jr. High where it will be available as an option. But I am at a loss about how to convince them when there is absolutely nothing in the school system indicating the importance of such a choice.

there are a lot of little ones who don't/won't start talking until they are older. My nephew was one! Nothing wrong with him, just two lots older sisters who said everything for him, (and with those two, getting in a word of your own can be a challeng!), and he wasn't ready yet. When the child is ready, he'll start talking and you won't get him to shut up! The reasoning behind teaching an infant to sign, is that the "terrible two's" aren't as bad, because they don't get frustrated because they can't communicate since they can usually get their point across by sign. Dilly_dally, LOL! At least you must not have told them you were pleased to meet them improperly, then! The direction you are holding your fingers can make all the difference! That was explained with the above example, very emphatically by my instructor at the time. As the friend of a deaf person, you have my thanks for your efforts in making it easier for your customers. I'm sure it was appreciated. My DD is a photographer who has several deaf customers. She doesn't remember much of the signs themselves that I had taught her, but she finger spells a lot! If she couldn't remember, or didn't know, a sign, she finger spelled everything for them that she needed to. They were repeat customers for that very reason. Firemanswife, You are great! And what an accomplishment for your. You had great doctors. My friend, Gale, has/had an implant. She still did more lip reading than hearing, last I talked to her. Unfortunately for her, she had severe back problems and had to have surgery. Every time they had to do an MRI, they had to remove the implant and she would get an infection. And when she had surgery, of course the implant wasn't in because of the infection, and the nurses ignored her when she needed help, because they couldn't just answer the bell over the intercom. I don't know if she still has the implant or not. The only contact I have with her right now is thru email. Please ignore any typos. I am typing on a rubber keyboard and think I have typed a letter or made an upper case, or space and it didn't type! Tami

We have signed a contract - with a different remodeler and it's in budget! We're so excited. The GC we were so frustrated with did lower his proposal, but was still $14K over budget. In the end, we feel that we are not his target customer and that's okay. We have found a GC that fits us and we are moving forward. We have a rough estimate of when work will start and will have a more exact date once he has a chance to plug us into their system. He expects they'll start work the end of October or the beginning of November. Monday we meet with our cabinets guy to go over things one last time before placing the order. We called and secured our granite today and then I had to swing by to ogle it and touch it. LOL I also started looking for alternative backsplash tile options, because the glass tile we picked out before is ridiculously expensive it turns out. I've found a good alternative that is $8.99 sq. ft compared to what The Tile Shop estimates the other one ran at $35.00/sq ft. We love that the GC we are going with will tell us that Option A costs $x more than Option B. That's the information we need so we can do our part to keep things in budget.