Sandy, Hope all goes well with your mother and and that your daughter has an easy flight. Trying times, but it will be nice for all of you to be together to be each others support to get through them. drzoidberg, No idea of what Live Monarch sells for sleeves, but it sounds like they must be really small. I made my own sleeves. The size picked for each situation should be big and roomy enough to enclose several branches with enough plant to see the larva all the way to pupation. Doesn't mean you have to leave them in the sleeve to pupate, just that it gives them enough plant "choices" to feed on until they get there if needed. IE, when I went out to service the sleeves in nature I let the remaining plant enclosed in the sleeve be my guide. If not enough I usually redid the sleeves to enclose new branches and simply moved the larva to the new location. That said it sounds like you will have to move the late instar cats to larger quarters to pupate. Either a bigger sleeve, to some kind of emergence cage or just unsleeve them and let them find pupation sites on their own. The sleeve itself acts like a sun shade up to a point. Works much the same as the spines on cactus for example. Even so I always tried to place my sleeves so a portion of them was in direct sunlight and a portion in shade or filtered light. Gave the cats a choice and they could freely move to what they wanted. If not possible because of where your plants grow, simply mist the sleeve at least a couple of times a day. That has the same effect as a swamp cooler to cool the cats off.

Pasture - refinance your house with a cash out option - Low interest rates on the refinance and then invest it to your comfort level. The cash out becomes your own self financed Home Equity Loan - and only one payment! Then as interest levels rise - you might even make some $$$ We were one (yes count it - one) payment away from paying off our house and after consulting with our financial advisors - we did it! Crunch the numbers - 3-5% interest rate Get back at BO - -You get a deduction on the interest you pay -You can invest it (to your comfort level) and make some money in the long run Maybe BO will send you the induction cooktop in your IRS return! Have fun!!

Isn't it great to see something finally happen like that? Can't wait to see the final result on both sides of the wall! I'm with you on the open concept thing. If I am cooking and have a mess in the kitchen when I am entertaining, I don't want to look at it nor have my guests see it. Geez, a long time ago kitchens weren't even in the house in wealthy residences! Not practical, of course, unless you have servants. :-) I guess for me, too, my kitchen is my 'hang out space'. I watch tv there while I am reading magazines, working on projects like floral arrangements or craft things. The kitchen table is my desk and work table.

remodelfla, gr8day - thanks!! msrose, chiefy76 - Here you go, not final but making progress. I am not happy with the outlets in the pantry, think I will decouppage these so that they are much less apparent. michoumonster - No special finish on the fireclay tiles, this was just the way they came. Hi a2 - thanks! Did you say you were finished? Wahoo! IowaCommute - thanks for the kind compliment, of course I was worried about not being happy with these, it took forever to select our final choices. I think I can accessorize and decorate around these, when I want a change, so no, at this point, I am not worried about growing tired of these. Decouppaged outlet I should have used plugmold - curses!!!! Also, don't like the grouted vertical corner line, stands out too much. Need to lighten...