Wow, excellent advice, thank you all. This is a really great community.
WillC, I will follow your advice. I also found the Master Gardener program and will take it to them to have a look.
By the way here is a pic of the soil, a pic of the leaf that died in january (some of the leaves are scorched because I foolishly kept it outside in 2014), and another one of the "banding" sooby mentioned (although that leaf has stabilized and is doing fine). It definitely seems to be there is banding going on. The water in LV has very pH, so I usually give my 4 indoor memory plants (the aspidistra, a spider plant, rubber plant, and a dieffenbachia) distilled or bottled water.
Thank you all from the bottom of my heart for your excellent advice and I will keep you posted on how things go.
