Thanks Camp, for that fava bean tip ... I'll look for it. My husband bought me a giant bag of Edamame beans for me to lose weight. It's high in protein, but tastes like rubber pellets .... suppose to fill your stomach so you'll have NO room left for other food. I tasted my first blue Peruvian potato this Christmas. Yum! Buttery delicious, addictive. My inner voice was chanting "Blue Peruvian" like a zombie. That type of potato is like rare gold in U.S. ... it can only be grown in acidic soil, and high altitude like Peru. Yes, food does affect mood. I was underweight when I was pregnant, so the doctor ordered me to gain weight. That's music to my ears so I had chocolate cake 3 meals a day, and achieved the 15 lbs. gain for delivery. When my kid was a toddler, she was the happiest kid in the block, gigling non-stop. After that I read a research of how pregnant women who consumed chocolate gave birth to happier babies ... if I had known it, I would had stuffed myself until I explode. Roses are yummy too. My kid came home from school hungry and threatened to eat my Sonia Rykiel blooms if I don't make her a snack. I wonder how water would taste like if one soaks a rose bloom in water .... it's like making flavored water. I ought to try that to see if I'll lose weight. I'm desperate here, considering that I ate "rubber-pellets"=)! Victoria Beckman and Hollywood stars achieve their skeleton-status by sniffing & eating peppermint leaves. It also lessens menopausal mustache (I'm not making this up!). But WinterCat in the thread which we wrote a novel using roses' names, exclaimed that the above didnt' work: â¢Posted by WinterCat z10 (My Page) on Mon, Jul 30, 12 at 6:16 AUNT SALLY was wearing her GRANDMOTHER'S HAT - not that it made her LOOK BETTER... FEEL GOOD, and if that weren't enough, she was suddenly gripped by a BURNING DESIRE for SUGAR COOKIEs and COFFEE TEA, so she ended up having a BURNING GLOW in her stomach, but she just couldn't stop popping 'em into her mouth. She tried sniffing PEPPERMINT because she remembered STRAWBERRY HILL said PEPPERMINT takes away one's appetite, but it didn't work. So she started rooting frantically in her handbag for a couple of ASPIRIN. GOOD GOLLY! She howled. No ASPIRIN! Oh! HELP THE AGED! Call DR HUEY! Not a MOMENT IN TIME had passed and DR HUEY's QUICKSTEP was heard. HELLO GORGEOUS! cried DR HUEY. So it's YOU 'N' ME again! YOU ARE MY SUNSHINE! FEAR NAUGHT my DARLING! You've never been a SHOW STOPPER but I always miss a HEARTBEAT when I behold your FUNNY FACE!

"Ole JL never passes an opportunity to make a condescending remark, don't know why he wastes his time on this obviously Creaton forum.... " First, a mechanical engineer by trade should be able to spell cretin. Second, no one on this or any other forum is a cretin. A cretin is a stupid, vulgar, or insensitive person. It was cretinous of you to make that remark. "Never passes an opportunity... really? If YOU do a search on this and other GardenWeb forums you'll find that I have quite a number of posts offering help and answers to questions only on rare occasion bite and then only when I am attacked. As a mechanical engineer by trade I would expect you to be more accurate in your criticism of me. My post was not condescending. It said EXACTLY what it said for the exact reason I posted it with no ambiguity whatsoever.. This is a self-help forum not a you look it up for me cause I'm too lazy to do it myself forum LawnJohnSilver seems a nice guy and in both this thread and a very lengthy thread he previously started http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/tractor/msg051535173462.html continuously posts questions to which the answers are a few keystrokes away. He's done it again and again and again yet never seems to bother to get the answers himself and it has been pointed out to him before that the answers to his questions are at his fingertips but he continues to ask those questions and anticipates those answers. If you want to be a poster's secretary and do their grunt work then go right ahead. When he's asked a challenging question myself and others on this forum have been quick to give him the answer without reservation. No one will learn anything as long as they get other people do their work for them. Not knowing the answer to a question is one thing, but not getting the answer to that question when they can Google as well as anyone else is another entirely. It is abusing the forum and the people who take the time to help those who ask for help and appreciate that help. There is a difference between being ignorant and lazy.

How did you find which contractors to get estimates from? Since Art didn't have a store, how did you locate him? I find this to be one of the most challenging aspects of a project. Hearing others' process sure helps.

Someone please help....I built my shutters I think using 1x4 wood with the cross bar appro. 12 inches from the top and bottom...I made sure that I primed and painted both sides of all the wood that I used...some of my windows are rather tall and the ones exposed to the weather want to worp and curl some I used pressure treaded wood....the really looked nice, I cut a 30 degree angle the length of all the boards and it gave them a very nice look....until the worping started....Someone HELP...fyi I am a 71 year old female and the house I am living in was built by my Grandparents...I was completed in Dec. of 1911, the year my Father was born Dec. 12, 1911 in this house....so the house will be 100 yrs. old Dec. of this year....I am planning to host an open house to celebrate... Patty