MauveGirl8 -- I plan to stay here for a few years. I haven't even yet applied to school, and the program I'm intending to complete is 5-6 years. My next move will be way south -- Florida. As such, there are a lot of things I have that won't work there, so I wouldn't take them with me. And in any case, I'm not going to dig anything out. If I want to "bring any with me" it will be via rooted cuttings. And before I go, I intend to share some other rooted cuttings with friends -- and my landlord. He and his wife will be building a new home on empty land in the near future, and I said I'd be happy to share anything he'd like for his new yard. Certainly I'll be bringing along my "pot pet collection", and cuttings of anything appropriate for Florida that I got from Vintage Gardens that isn't available elsewhere. And by that time, I'll also make an announcement here for anyone interested in "hard to find" things I nabbed for this garden. For example, the Hybrid China 'Nouveau Monde' from VG doesn't seem to be available anywhere else. I'm using it as a climber against a raised back deck railing. The few flowers it had when it arrived were very fragrant. I posted two pics of it on HelpMeFind from when I first repotted it. Since then, it has grown quite vigorously -- one cane trained horizontally against the railing is easily 10' long from the ground. :-) ~Christopher

Finally got around to fixing the fridge. Found the main burner rusty, slots almost filled up. got it out, and cleaned it out good. Can't understand why, since the mfgrs charge $1000 for the fridge, they can't make the main burner from stainless steel, instead of chrome plated tin! Haven't worked on the other stuff--still fixing lawn mowers, getting them ready for leaf work. Any way, the fridge works good again. Next will be the RV anti-freeze gig. Best way to do it! I used to blow out the lines, but after several broken pipes, i switched to AF. I put a by-pass kit on the hot water tank, and made up a short hose from car heater hose. I disconnect the water pump hose from the tank, screw on the short heater hose, stuff it into the gallon jug, turn on the pump, and then go around turning on the various faucets, until they run pink. This also protects the sink traps. Uses less than a gallon of pink! In Spring, i hook up the garden hose, turn it on and let the inside taps run until they run clear. Then i turn the handles on the by-pass kit, to let water go into the hot water tank again. If you don't install that kit, you'll have to use enough pink stuff to fill the hot water tank, and then the pipes, which will use up almost 5 gallons of pink stuff! HTH: Rusty Jones

A selection of extracurricular activities was provided for the children while the adults attended the seminar. Motorcycle

Frankly I'm no fan of a U shaped kitchen because two corners are one extra useless corner. Working off of Mama's excellent plan, I turned it into an L shape. 1. I moved the fridge to the opposite side. The reason I did so is your mudroom and your pantry are on that side. Coming in with groceries would mean lots of steps back and forth to put foodstuff away if your fridge is so far from the pantry. The same holds true when grabbing food to make a meal. Great exercise but really do you want to walk across your kitchen to get stuff from the pantry and then back again across the kitchen to get stuff from your fridge? 2. I moved the microwave shelf to that side too. I did it since it's closer to the fridge and it's out of the cooking zone. 3. I widened your island. 4. I added a 42" dish drawer facing your dishwasher so it's easy unloading to your dish drawer. 5. I moved the trash drawers to next to the prep sink. You didn't mention if you plan on having a disposal unit in your sink? I have a prep sink and a cleanup sink and put a disposal unit in both. They're not too expensive and I felt it was well worth it. I'm also planning on putting a small trash can UNDER my clean up sink. Most trash is generated by the prep area, so the trash under the clean up sink is only for the occasional food stuff that can't go down the disposal. 6. Next to your air return, I added narrow shelving. This can be open or closed and is good for storing stuff one can deep, so would be good for stuff you use more frequently like cereals, etc. One other thing I noticed not related to your kitchen but your pantry/powder room. You don't want the door to your powder room opening into the powder room because think of how you will need to be a contortionist to try and get around the door to use the toilet. Get a pocket door or have the door swing out. Additionally I would not angle the corner where the sink is in there as it will feel quite congested as it's a small room already. The space out of the pantry is minimal but will make the powder room feel larger.