Well, for as tired/sleepy as I am, I had a great giggle over all the comments! Please excuse any typos I might make. Made the mistake of cutting grass at noon. Not a good idea! Lou, thank you for the offer. I may take you up on it. Don't know how soon I'll get to them. We have our BIG family campout/antique gas hit an miss engine/steam show in a couple of weeks. I have the honor of getting two motor homes ready, preping any food in advance that I can, and do most of the cooking while there. Mom and Dad are only able to go if we all do all the work. DB & DSIL may not even be able to go this year, due to starting a new business. It's only about 20 minutes away for all of us, but if DB has classes, he can't close the studio. DD will help as much as she can, so will DS IF he doesn't have to work. Last count, with invited guests/famiy/friends, was 22 I think. Dad & I will move in on Wed. Show starts on Fri. Some prep we will do on Thurs, and have a steak fry that night. Breakfast menu so far is home fries by request, eggs, pancakes (the only thing besides a little meat of choice mom will eat for breakfst), bacon sausage, or ham. Lunch ham sandwiches. Fri night is chili, burgers for those who don't want chili. Sat same for breakfast and lunch. Supper is burgers and dogs. Potato salad for whatever meal anyone wants. Dad wants cauliflower with cheese on Thurs. Raw veggies available anytime. Sunday is leftovers! Any of you who want to sneak in, the WILL be plenty of food. I ALWAYS have food to bring home! Ann, no, wrong side of the family, tho my aunt did make them with that dough. Yummy! Lars, the whatever you called it sauce is cause I also asked for a cheese sauce to put over the cauliflower. Dad is remembering how his mom cooked! By the time I can remember her cooking, she was getting too sick for me to learn from her. Your cinnamon rolls sound fantastic, but I don't have the energy to go to that much work. Now, before I fall asleep at the computer, I'm headed for bed! I'm already wore out before the show even gets here! My fault. But I was trying to beat the rain on radar that ended up only being a few sprinkles. I'll get caught up on sleep and be off and running again. Then I'll sleep in a lot the following week! I'm happy to try to spoil him. We don't know how many more times they will be able to go. I said last year, I was going to do this the easy way this year. Well, the meat for the chili will be cooked and seasoned ahead and frozen. The burger patties will be made and frozen ahead. I'm taking the old roaster and dumping every thing in that for the chili and letting it go most of the day. Ham will go in a crock pot on warm with a bit of water for lunches first thing in the morning and they can eat lunch whenever! Will have to keep watch of Mom. She doesn't always know it's her sugar droppign when she doesn't feel good. Dad knows his. And yes, I know the cinnamon rolls aren't a good idea, but he will compensate for the treat. That's why I spoil him that weekend. Thanks all. Tami

That is a great story. I have to say that the few times I've had to send a camera and a lens back to Nikon, the turnaround time has been amazing. A few years back, I was shooting pics at our church's Easter picnic and the camera just stopped working. I shipped it to California (from Texas) on a Monday and it was back in my hands, fixed, the next week, and I had the same experience with one of my digital SLR lenses - it wouldn't auto focus, so I shipped it back and it was repaired and back to me the next week, and since I'd filled out the warranty card when I purchased it, even though the lens was over 3 years old, it was still under warranty - all I paid was the shipping out there - they shipped it back at their cost. A good friend of mine who is in his 70's and has always used Nikons, sent one back last year that he'd had for several years. I don't know what was wrong with it, but they fixed it and sent it back and didn't charge him anything - said it was because he'd always been a loyal Nikon customer.

Val: I know this was a very hard decision for you. Bravo to you for giving it a try despite all the drama involved. :) It took us a long time to find most of our rugs. Some we loved to death and had a hard time talking ourselves out of because of one reason or another. When we did find the right ones, it was like it was meant to be... right color, size, condition, etc..... We were able to bring them home, put them down and just stop thinking about whether they were right or wrong because they were perfect for us in every way. There was never any second guessing. I know there are rugs out there just waiting for you to find them. Don't exhaust yourselves trying to find one w/in a set time frame. Shop when you have the time and the energy. It may take months, or it may just take days... but please take your time and enjoy the journey. One more thing. Some dealers may seam snooty, and some may even BE snooty... but the good ones know their stuff and want you to be happy w/ your rug. Some will want to educate you and some won't want to bother. Never tell a dealer what your budget is as some will never show you any less than your upper range. If pressed, just say that you must keep it under $xxx, which should be less than you really are willing to spend. I look forward to seeing your future finds!

yea! I'm so glad I asked here. It has really pretty Greek key pattern inlaid (which I'm sucker for) and the side rails are attached to headboard/footboard by a turning bolt instead of the hook-on hardware. Here's a close up of the details I have some David Hick fabric (Fiorentina pattern in chocolate print on deep blue back ground) which I am thinking of using for throw pillows. Don't know if that is too much. (fabric on left chair) I know this is very far from Plane Train & Automobile but it's never too early to start a boy off on the right (design) path! :-) Thanks again.