Zero stars if possible. Time and time again this Lowe's in Hillsboro is the worst. I checked out the ad last night and saw 2/$10 2.5 qt plants for sale. Needed to go there to check something else out anyway. It's starts with asking for a shopping cart, and the lady in garden said, "You'll have to go to the front of the store!" What store doesn't have some carts in the garden section! Not flat carts, regular shopping carts. I should have walked out then, but being patient as I am, I went all the way to the front of the store and got a cart. Spent about 45 mins of my precious time to have the older but nice lady ring up the plants. Now none were marked, expect this one table 2/$10. When I went to check out, I tried to explain to her the issue, BUT NO she had to tell me how she WAS going to do it. Okay, make it harder on yourself. She rings up my ten plants and tells me the total, I explained and got on the app and showed her the ad. She proceed to say, after I said, "There's a sign 2/10" over there. She didn't even walk ten feet to check it out. Her comment was SO those signs were put there LAST WED. Okay, and how is this my fault? I tried to explain the AD again, and she said, "I can't give them to you if there aren't ringing up that price!" I was done trying to communicate with her and said, "Fine, I don't want any of them!" As I walked to my car, I decided to go talk with a manager. I was at customer service and asked for a manager. Okay, this whole time I'm calm and not yelling or being rude but boy, this Lowe's can push the right person to become that rude person. The guy behind the counter says, "Oh, he doesn't come in until later!" And then NOTHING! I said, "Are you telling me there is NO one in charge!" He said, "Oh, there's a lower level manager!" Again, Silence! Okay, so call him?? When Scott answers, the guy says, "Hi Scott, are you on break, or busy?" Never told him a customer wanted to speak to him. So the kid hangs up after Scott or Scotty says, "I'm in lumber filling an order!" I turned and walked out again. Before I drove off after being a witness to pure non-trained employees. Sure, times are rough right now-but this happens at this Lowes over and over! Got to blame management for lack of customer training. OR, lack of motivation for employees to find a solution? Scotty gets on the phone, nice guy, but what else can he say but sorry and thank you! Needless to say, this Lowe's loss over $50,000 on a kitchen remodel for these same reasons a couple of months ago. But hey, I was just getting plants this time, that were in an AD-what could go wrong. A waste of my time. Scotty offered no solution but to say he'll go to the Garden Department and find out what's going on. This is after I said, "I'm in the parking!" Then I said, "Well, I'm going to Home Depot. Guess what, I got more of the same plants for less money, in better pots than what I would have gotten or spent at Lowe's. I won! But next time, I'm hopping on the freeway and going to Tigard since I live in Beaverton. Thank goodness Home Depot is there! I have to blame management for lack of knowledge or training to their employees. Don't doubt that Lowe's managers train them NOT to call management. How come no one at Lowe's answers the phone, yet four people were standing around chatting in Customer Service??????? Not surprised about all the negative reviews at this Lowe's!

I also love that bowl - it's great. And the edible goodies are mouthwatering. That's supposed to be The Word on Italian Cooking. I have the book, but have been too daunted to know where to start. Marcia - please do post any recipes you try on the discussions thread. And for the rest of you who have this book, please let me know which recipes you recommend. With over 1200 (and no editorial comments), I don't know where to start. Enjoy it all. Lynn.

It's the morning after, and I am thankful for all you good people who took the time to post and get me through a bad moment. I learned from your posts, and I laughed with your posts. Most importantly, I found out that even on a cooking forum, not everyone makes the perfect, flaky, homemade pie crust. Thank you for telling me that I am not alone. I am through with pies and pie crusts. This year will have been the 20th year of trying, and it was the worst yet. It is time to move on. I am a market gardener, and I grow wonderful organic strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and rhubarb. When I bake with the fruit, I do a crisp, a cobbler, or a tart. DS has a love of pumpkin pie, and I think my efforts are emotionally entwined with being the "good mother", but I am going to find a good bakery next year. You are all right- there is more than one way to skin a cat (that is a horrible saying isn't it?) I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. You all helped make mine a good one. :)

I agree. I been looking hard for place closer to work then available at this time. As soon as I can get out of here the better. I can very easily head back to Washington State but I took on a good job here as a Strictures Technician on Boeing Aircraft for an MRO (Maintenance Repair & Overhaul) and will be making good money in the next year. Hopefully I can find a place soon enough. Shame of it is this kid has spent on many occasions time with his dad and things around here could not be better between us. We go places, laugh all the time and are pretty lined up with each other. Its what I signed on for until the evolution of her son started going down hill however, he has always been a bit of a manageable problem at times but now he stresses her out so bad shes off the rails at times. Anyway I agree with your advice which is the same advice given to me by my sisters and close friends but most importantly myself. Most recently he threatened to call the Sheriff telling them I threated to shoot him but they know of him because we have had the Sherriff here many times and we were told to file an unruly child report with the county clerk. We went there and they told us they needed to see her divorce papers and also the father would have to be on board. Well John didnt want to do it so that was that. If we were able and he acted out tge Sherriff would take the necessary actions if I had to call. The real problem I have right now and is a major part of why I need to get out of dodge asap is because of my other half and my different shifts, shes on 1st shift and Im on 2nd it leaves me home alone with the kid most if the day and he starts in, last week he got violent once again and got right in my face wanting to fight with nobody here, so I told him Im not getting into it with nobody here so Ill call the Sheriff. Well thats when he started yelling "good ill call and tell them how you just threatened to shoot me etc. Meanwhile that was his exact threat to me when he got in my face saying him and his friends will shoot me. I can wipe the streets with this kid, hes a spoiled brat who lies, steels, drugs etc and I don't want to be here alone because if some false report gets written i can and will lose my job and maybe even freedom. That day he called his mom lying as always and crying to her and she believes him. While this was going on I had his dad in the phone so he heard everything and knows how bad this kid is and so does she, then she posts on facebook " nobody threatens my kids etc" Right then I saisaid its time to move out of here fast. When ththis was happening it all stemmed from the night before when he was on drugs yelling at her and he never went toto sleep tge whole night. Anyway she wasn't answering my call when this was going on only to find out becausebecause he was on the phone with her crying about me. Then she posts thathat on facebook. So it proved that if shes not here Im getting the blame and if he did call the Sheriff she would side with him. Time to go. Two weeks ago he broke into my closet and took my riffle and started firing it off the back deck into the woods where there are houses on the other side. My nieghbor told me about that, he asked me if he was allowed and I said he is forbidden to even touch those riffles. He said yeah we didnt even know where the shots were coming from and even the road workers were ducking for cover. This a 13 year old kid whose mom grants him adult privileges, big mistake and if I get on him she takes his side. I told her about the riffle incident about a week later because I dont tell her anymore because it always gets turned around on me so I just removed all the riffles from the home. Turns she knew about it and never said anything to me. I told her you do relize if he struck anybody on the other side of those woods or anywhere, you go to prison for murder and possibly even John. In not legally responsible for this kid. Anyway this is getting to long winded, its so much longer of a story and all I can say is I dont even like coming home from work and once it gets that bad its time to leave. With all I have explained, its obvious its just not safe for me to be here any longer. God knows I put up with alot but God cant physically bear witness for me so its time to move on. Like you said she is not on my side and in the long run its only going to hurt the kid and maybe even her as time goes on and he contunes to get worse. Hes even pulled stolen credit cards fraud when he was 11 and 12 till we found out. But, never really got in any trouble. His parents are smart people to. Moms a nurse snd dads an engineer so we are not talking about uneducated people. I suggested bording or military school. I been pushing this kid to go into the Coast Guard. Two weeks ago I got special clearance at work and brought him up into the cockpits of the Boeing 767s I work on and a tour threw all the hangers and other airplanes in attempt to try and plant some seeds. Last month I aranged for him to come to NY to my Moms funeral where I have to admit he was on great behavior alone and miles away from Ohio. We stayed with very close friends of mine and he had a great time outside of my moms funeral proceedings. It was night and day. But I also had a man to man talk with him about it and he saisaid dont worry I know how to act, I laughed with him and said thats what Im worried about. Anyway once there I tried like always to show him some responsibility and arranged for him to be next to me and carry my moms coffin. He did wonderfull in NY with me and my family, I had mamany of them write to me telling me how nice he is and handsome etc. Why that all kinda changes at home is beyound me. I think he knows Mom is not around and Joe has support from his family if I get out of hand. His biggest problem is his mom doesnt engage in team work with me to reprimand him when hes out of line, instead she looks for every which way to turn t around and blame me mainly because im here or his teachers before he was kicked out of school or his dad. This is the key factor of why this kid is the way he is.