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Our family home in Palatka, Florida was a grand Victorian dream that we salvaged from spiders and neglect. Our Victorian Lady featured a fabulous dining room, complete with twelve-foot high ceilings, ornate carved fireplace, and a ten-by-eight foot antique mirror. Furnishings included a pump organ, an English side table, a huge triple-tiered wrought iron chandelier, and an antique banquet table with twelve chairs.

We wallpapered the dining room ceiling with a faux-tin pattern, and then painted it a glossy forest green to reflect shimmers of candlelight. An Anaglypta border (thick, embossed wall covering), painted rouge red, framed frescoed plaster walls that were layered in transparent ambers, creams, and a hint of pink.

The dining chairs and antique overstuffed reading chairs matched the fabric window dressings that framed the huge water-color-effect leaded windows. The undulating fabric pattern tied together all the colors we'd chosen to enhance our dining delight. The gentle swags, imitating nature's motifs, had been selected to make us feel relaxed and connected to Mother Earth.

Embellishments to the chandelier included huge red and amber crystals that we'd uncovered in an antique-junk shop and mini shades. I had spray-painted the shades black with gold-gilded interiors. The elegant room, dressed in its finery on a budget, was the setting for our nightly family dining, because it offered the only place to sit and eat together in the house.

One evening, as I prepared for guests, I got out my string, to make sure that the table, now beautifully set with turkey and all the trimmings, was aligned perfectly with the center of the chandelier. My children laughed at my obsession, but helped hold the string while I measured to make sure the table was correctly centered.

We met our friends on the front porch as they arrived, and then migrated to our perfectly-arranged dining room, where our magnificently-staged table was waiting. But as we walked into the dining room, we found our beloved golden retriever, standing at attention in the middle of the table, after having devoured our feast.

No one noticed that the table was sitting in the exact center of the room.

Creating a fabulous dining room for your family and guests deserves careful planning. Design your eating space using colors that enhance taste, small patterns mimicking nature, and soft textures to counter hard surfaces. Remember, the most important ingredient, the people, deserve a fine backdrop. And, feed your pets first!

Did you know that the motor companies are trying to make their products exciting again, the same way that they did in the 1960s, they are releasing updated versions of their famous muscle cars form that time era, and its working for me, I love the muscle cars.

Im a freak of sorts, when it comes to muscle cars, I think that there one of the greatest things that ever happened in the automotive industry and from the crazy prices that they are selling for, and I must not be the only muscle car crazy freak on the planet.

I loved the old ones, and I love the new ones, if it says made in the USA on it, then its for me, the re-release of the Challenger for 2007 is a great idea, and I thought that it was the be all and end all, BUT THEN Chevrolet went and done it, first when they released the 2006 ZO6 Corvette, I just knew that I had to have one.

Then they re-released my favorite car of all times, the Camaro, and I thought that I was seeing things, you know, like when people claim to see Elvis, but my eyes didnt fail me, the Camaro is going to return in 2009, and it will be nothing short of awesome.

With its pulled forward A Pillar and its swept back B Pillar, the car seems to have a very low slung and sporty looking stance, while at the same time, it retains its muscle car feel with the wide and short rear deck, and the interior is befit a king, it retains just enough of the 1969 Camaro body lines to be retro enough for the biggest, old Camaro freak, while using just enough of the new technology to keep things interesting.

The 2009 Camaro borrows its drive train from the Corvette, a 400 HP LS2 small block Chevy, thats 400 HP at the rear wheels, not at the flywheel, its nothing to laugh at, the car will be enough for a serious performance freak, while being manageable enough to drive every day, and getting up to 30 MPG on the freeway, by use of GMs cylinder dropping technology, which will turn off the cylinders that you dont need while your just cruising down the freeway.

When I heard that Chevrolet was re-releasing the Camaro, I cried tears of joy, I could not believe that it was actually going to happen, but its such a good thing, the whole idea, the whole way that Chevrolet conceived and built the concept for it, was pure genius and nothing short of modern art.