As my mother used to say (and it drove me nuts) "Where does an alien go to register??" LOL. I think its my learning disability/ADD, but this stuff seems almost impossible for me to understand. So are you saying I can use a splitter with the DTV converter box and my VCR and DVR? I realize that we are at a point in technology evolution that this change-over is needed, but its sure hard. You have alot of old farts like me who have been taping shows forever. I recently went through all of mine, and am sending about 3 grocery bags of VHS tapes to a recycling place......but I still have about 150 tapes left, with shows on them! Okay.....maybe here's an option for me: Start taping my shows on DVDs? I have a nice Sony DVR and I've never figured out the splitter thing, so I never taped on it. That way, I could get rid of the VCR in the equation.......except for when I wanted to watch some movies I'd taped (which I could do on my combo DVR). Is this thinking correct? I watched an hour-long PBS show last night on this change-over, and was very disappointed that they didn't once mention VCRs. I guess they are dinosaurs that the current electronic world wants to get rid of, right? What concerns me is that the rate of development is speeding up, and maybe we'll need another big change in 10 years. I worry about this country going through too much stuff! Thanks davidandkasie. Its really weird being older and fairly set in my ways. I thought I'd be young forever. It was fun while it lasted.

Elizabeth, yes, I never had the full body sweats either. I have the face, neck, and head sweats. I cannot keep makeup on. I also wake up several times a night with head sweats. Not that I am glad you have them too, but it is comforting to know I am not odd girl out.... Everyone knows when I have a hot flash because my cheeks turn a bright red and my forehead and face become wet and the back of my hair is sopping wet. I get so tired of this, I never feel CLEAN. I take wipes with me all the time now.

1) Bottom drains are not required in residential pools but are very useful to have. If you ever need to dump water below the skimmer, it's a PITA without one. If, for any reason, the water drops below the skimmer, without a drain line that the pump can run off, you can't easily run the pump to circulate. The question I have about company #1 is will they be putting in two drain pots ties together. Unless the existing drain is tied to the skimmer, that type of modification may require two drains, three feet apart. This is as the result of a relatively new law called the Virginia Graham(SP) Baker Act of 2007, or VGB 2007. This is law created some Federal requirements for swimming pool construction. One part states that there may no longer be constructed any submerged suction outlets that have a single source of suction or shall be be large enough that a person cannot block it and become entrapped under water due to suction. Additionally, the covers for these suction outlets shall have passed a testing procedure and proven effective against entanglements, such as could happen with long hair or necklaces to a specified flow rate. The above work can be done without it screwing up the pool's integrity. Is it easy, no. If it was, Grandma would have done it. If the existing drain is fine, leave it and replace it's cover with a new VGB compliant cover. Since the old style is no longer available in the US legally, it does make the existing one safer. There is no requirement that I know of that requires retrofitting the new construction codes to existing residential pools except during certain repairs. Permanently sealing off an existing single main drain suction outlet is permitted. Replacing a single drain with a similarly sized one, assuming we're talking about a standard 9" drain, must be turned into a dual drain unless the single drain is tied at the skimmer so as to prevent a single source of suction underwater. It's a mouth full, I know. Sorry, but the VGB act is a good thing in that it helps make pools and spas much safer. 2) Pebble Tec's standards and controls are much stricter. This makes it a better product. 3) Hydraulic=oil . Leaks happen and can be messy and costly. Clean up can be costly. I prefer the rope and pulley systems that pull the cover along it's tracks and then use a direct drive to turn the spindle that reels the cover back. 4) I would be concerned with how the artificial and dog pee/poop and potential staining and odors. Scott

Hi everyone, A few months back I decided to go with IKEA cabinets (which came out to about $6K. I shopped around with some local cabinet makers but they were all more than twice as much. Then I met with Yorktowne Cabinet dealers and they offered their Silver like for roughly $8-9K. The trick is that IKEA will cost about $4K in installation while Yorktowne is only $1500. Then, someone told me about Costco AllWood cabinets. They are about $8K (already assembled) plus the labor to install them. I've read about other cabinet makers on this site and that seems to widen the choices as opposed to help me figure out what to do. My main concern is to get a budget kitchen that is good quality. If the quality is going to hold up, I don't really care about the brand label or the wood type. I also want good quality hardware that won't break on me in the first 5 years. I am also not too thrilled that Costco does not offer frameless - but is that a big deal? Any advice on how to proceed? THANK YOU!