I was reading this forum today and wanted to offer my prayers for your dad. I am sorry you have had some negative comments from some on here. I haven't read a lot of forums, but have read some that were so nasty that you just sat and thought well I am not going to comment on this because they may turn on me. Last weekend I was reading a forum that started out about cake and turned into a very nasty religion put down from non believers and I was just totally shocked. I love decorating cakes, cookies and candy. Seeing all the different pictures of them just gives me inspiration to do better at all of them. The comments on the forums should be positive or if you need to make a critisim let it be constructive as in the form of "you might consider doing this......". No one should question a person's ability. I have seen some great pictures on here from someone that was a beginner and I have seen some that you could tell they were beginners. No matter where anyone is in there decorating experience, they all need encouragement. It's ok to offer an opinion about decorating even if someone else thinks differently. Have you ever read the heated discussion about hot cake out of the oven put in the freezer vs. letting the cake cool before freezing? It really gets out of hand. As the saying goes, opinions are like *ss*oles, everyone has one.

I second this. My mom always said "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all!" That doesn't mean to sugarcoat or lie, just don't be a critical butthead. This comment is not in reference to any person or any particular discussion so no evil pm's please.