I have found both Hoya lasiantha and praetorii very easy to grow, quite similar to Hoya javanica or multiflora. In the past I have spent up to $35 on a cutting of rare species and although it may not have been difficult to grow the cuttiings were very stressed and ended up rotting soon after arriving. I think that the availabliliy of cuttings along with how difficult they are to ship are the main factors that influence the price of cuttings. New species that are in demand will always cost more but with plants that are as easy to propigate as Hoyas the price falls fairly quickly once plant material is spread through collections. Some species are just plain rare or hard to cultivate so there is always more demand for cuttings than there is supply. Hoya megalantha and Hoya platycaulis are two that are still very rare in cllections. Now I feel like taking a vactaion in Bangkok so that I can track down some of these hard to find Hoyas, anyone want to join me? Mike

Thank you everyone for the helpful responses! First of all, Liriodendron: thank you for letting me know this scary news. I checked my hotmail acct. and couldn't find an email from you but I just wrote you from an account I use much more frequently. Our thoughts and prayers are with your husband and you. Please write back as soon as you can. Nothing new on our end, thank you. I hope everything's okay. Francoise - that's a great link, thank you! I love this site - I just knew I'd great better responses than I probably would doing any extensive google search - haha. Skydog - thanks for the clay bar info as well! The product they used was this strong-smelling red putty which most paint stores sell. They claim it's a better fillers than other re. possible lead paint underneath and having to sand over (or maybe it's particularly re. wet-sanding by hand that it's better for, i'm not sure). At any rate, I can easily get that, and I do have extra spare marble I can test it on. Great idea! Clulessincolorado - oh, you're sweet. :) I do like the old fashioned push button look although I sometimes question whether a polished nickel might not have looked nicer than the ultra bright white. Black might look nice too. At first I thought an aged brass would clash too much with no other brass around in the room, but then I thought maybe the bronze look would do. Glad you liked the white though. It'll do for now - I've obviously got bigger fish to fry in that damned kitchen. Ha - fish to fry in the kitchen. That's not quite a pun, but almost! Lazygardens - well I seem to have the most WONDERFUL luck with contractors...at this point I just assume do the research myself and try to fix it myself cause I no longer trust the guys that caused the damage. As it was, they were back to fix mistakes that were pretty ridiculous. It's amazing, my luck w/ contractors! I wasn't messing around this time so found them from the state lead control website! I was sure anyone they said were certified would be good and they of course seemed good but alas... it wasn't meant to be. Anyway long story short, I don't want them touching the marble again. Fori - I agree and have my fingers crossed. The stain could, I suppose, be worse. Some marble's pink, right? ;) It's so annoying though, that this has happened. I'll be happier even if it only comes out a little more. Autumn-butterfly - thank you! :) I'll let you guys know what i end up figuring out/doing. For now I'm in high gear painting mode as I'm throwing a big baby shower on Saturday and am only painting the kitchen (with a friend's help) TONIGHT! Walls and ceiling tonight, cabinets and all trim tomorrow. VERY little time to dry! FYI (unrelated to the stain issue) - the cabinets and trim will be BM's Fieldstone gray - same color as the lowers for those of you who might remember (not keeping the uppers white - although I'll re-paint them white if I hate them in the gray-green color) and then the walls were a last-minute decision before the store closed (!) so are a hopefully safe BM Linen White. Wish me luck on this, too, please!

If you have a friend who has some surplus room available, whether in house, or, better, garage, shed, etc. maybe suggest that you go together and buy a snake, a flexible cable something like the several strands of wire wound into a cable that runs - well, used to run, speedometers in automobiles. It has a crank on the end and one can push the cable down the toilet and turn the crank, which in a number of cases clears the gunk. Much cheaper than calling Mr. Rooter ... but may well involve a lot of storage time between uses. Sometimes one is advised that it'd be a good idea if one were to get one's shi! together ... but I guess that the kind of "togetherness" that you've been dealing with is not quite the same thing? ole joyfilled ... but not, one hopes, full of it

I did much of my research on BBQ Guys for our grill & & outdoor frig. Their #1 recommended is the 4.2 cu ft. Fire Magic ($700-$800). #2 is over $2000. We bought the Fire Magic. It's not specifically a beverage frig but that's all we use it for. This is only our second summer with it, but no problems & it keeps the drinks cool & is very attractive with a beautiful stainless steel finish.