Great feet! Both of you!! Bill and I found a concrete place in Bowling Green Ky area that had cheap concrete stuff. I got a lot for $100. 2 oriental lanterns, a large fountain base and top (think LARGE birdbath) a medium birdbath, an elephant, and some other small stuff. When the van ran through the garden, it broke one of my oriental lanterns, so in 2005, we went back to BGreen and got the middle section again. And of course I spent more money! The stuff is rough on the edges, but a file will take care of that--and who looks close anyway in a large garden area... Keep up the 'asking'!!!!

For you U.S. folks, your tax preparers will be less busy now ... maybe a good time for that discussion, if your preparer remembers your situation. But take your return along, if your location is outside of his/her office, in case. Canadians ... most of your preparers aren't interested in any extraneous talk, these days ... they're running around like dogs chasing their tails, preparing returns: as one accountant told me, from 9 a.m. till 11 p.m. But talk to him/her later. And next year, if you take your return in early in the season, the preparer will have some time to talk, when the preparation is still fresh in his/her mind, when you come to pick it up. Good wishes for finding a couple of ways to reduce your tax load, with minimal rearrangement of your financial business. Canadians: earning dividends on Canadian stocks was taxed a lot lower than the major types of income, including interest, up till 2005 ... and the benefit enjoyed a major expansion as of 2006, so the advantage is a lot greater, now. Good wishes for putting your dollars to work ... wisely. ole joyful

If I'd sent something back for being too cold ... ... and when it returned, it was still cold ... ... I'd be calling the server, to say that we'd expected the food to be warm but when it came the first time - it was cold. We sent it back ... and when it came back the second time - it was still cold. If we send it back again - should we expect it to come back on its third trip ... still cold? If it'd come back the third time ... still cold ... ... when it came time to pay, I think that I'd go up to the cashier ... then say that, being unhappy, I didn't figure to pay - yet. Go back to the table ... ask for water ... or something. Sit for a bit. Go back to the cashier ... not pay (for some reason that I'd thought up during my second stay at the table) ... return to the table ... ... sit for a bit ... then go back to the cashier ... ... to ask whether she found it strange that people came up to pay, but didn't, till the third trip. Then - I'd ask to speak to the manager ... ... then, after telling my story (probably with some histrionics and, knowing me, possibly with an embellishment or two) ... ... finally pay. And ask him/her whether, on visiting a restaurant where food that one expected to be warm had arrived at a table twice ... cold ... ... would s/he plan to return to a restaurant which offered such service? ole joyful

Hi calpat, I was crying about getting 40 or so spam a day - until I talked to my neighbour getting over a hundred ... A DAY! She let that box drop and is opening another. I've told some people unwilling to do legitimate surveys to get a different e-mail box - just for them. So if they get connected with a spammer, they just let the box go. Hardly any making these wonderful offers ever have a real address that they send from. By the way - had any offers of a potion to enhance the size of some of your female/male parts? Some of the over a hundred or so that I've got offer guaranteed overnight results. I've replied saying that I'd be afraid that would be painful. If I were a working person - I'd want to take it on the weekend - so I could stay up all night to watch the growth. If I subscribed to all of the hundred or so offers - how would I deal with the monster - backpack? Not big enough, wrong location. Kid's stroller? Can't put it on escalator in stores. Sling? Would be too heavy for my shoulders. Shopping cart? Too deep. Wheelbarrow? Now - that might just be what the doctor ordered! Need a *full-siized* van, of course, for longer trips. But - where could I find a partner who could accomodate my needs? Probably need to seek a mare, elephant, etc. Would need a pad to keep track of when they came in heat - they wouldn't want to talk to me at other times. Do the guys selling potions - also sell stepladders? I sometimes reply trying to sell them my newsletter about money management, as I've become concerned over the years in the personal financial planning business that so few know much about money management, that I'm keeping the letter going after retirement. Single copy free to anyone with e-mail address, they can subscribe if they wish. Should save them hundreds, more likely thousands, in their lifetime - unless they have one foot in the grave, now. Often people who get something at no cost give it little respect, this letter distills many years of experience, expensive training, etc. so it would be a mistake to give it away free, though I could afford to. I don't like to be arbitrary - so price of the newsletter is negotiable. Having been a number of years a clergyperson, I've tried not to be greedy, either - so will likely ask them to contribute most of the fee to charity, especially worldwide ones, as there are huge needs in many countries, these days. They can negotiate to send my newsletter to their friends, relatives, colleagues in community, sport, church, at work, etc. Will build their group of friends, make them famous - and help them raise some money, as they keep some of the (negotiated) fee, send most to charity - and send some to me, of course. This story is real, as a matter of fact - and it's all true. As for all of these guys who have these great money-making ideas ... what kind of business is such that the fellow working there, who wants to encourage you to do the same, is so proud of it that he tells you almost nothing about it in the original message - apart from how much one may possibly make? A company that keeps their door locked, and has an unlisted phone. Most of them don't give me an address to which I can send a message, go to ask a question, etc. - their front door is locked. Few give a phone number to call - and most who do have it lead to an agency. The email address that they use when sending the message is false - unlisted phone. Not only is the phone unlisted - the guy who sent the message is a liar. The only way that I can contact them - is to fill in a form, telling quite a bit about myself ... ... to leave your resume in the mail box, please ... Which quite a few may use to assemble a database - that they then sell - to other spammers. What chance does such a recruiter think that he may have - of getting me interested in his offer? About one chance in 19,999. Have a happy spring/summer weekend, all. joyful guy/Ed