Hi Sharon~ I know someone reputable that will deliver your car vehicle privately. Send me an e-mail if you are interested. Hope you like Connetticut. If you know someone who would like to return Megan's grandmother's clay pot, the private driver could coordinate that with with transport of your vehicle, and that would truly be a becautiful thing. Good to hear from you, will miss you at the garden sales and swaps : ) Best of luck, m

We had ice.... Lots of ice. I am not a happy camper, for one my beautiful pine tree looked liked it was being forced into too tight clothing, a jerk ran over one of the middle branches that was frozen to the ground, poor tree! For another we had no electricity in teen degree weather and no way to heat the house (one of my friends heated her house with her propane grill, no way was I doing that!) then I fried my modem by not having a surge protector on my phone line (didn't even know there was such a thing!) spent my birthday in the dark, with 2 kids that were bouncing off the walls, they had the whole week off school, they had to stay inside as trees were losing branches, and whole entire trees were falling over from the weight of the ice. what a mess! we got above freezing today (finally!) but another storm is coming tomorrow, and they are warning of more power outages (alot of people still have no power in my area) hope everyone else is not getting this mess:) michelle

I'd like to second what pebbles said about GIA certificates. At the higher end of the diamond world, stones are traded based strictly on certificates. They are that important. I'm another one who did a good deal of research a few years back. The way the market is structured, there are cities such as Antwerp and NY and sources in Russia and Israel where the market is centered and the best stones are traded and cut. There are wholesalers who buy stones, make up the rings and then sell them -- even to the high end stores like Tiffanys and Cartier though those often have exclusive styles. Harry Winston has their own workshop upstairs above the store where they make some pieces. But if you are going for a stone larger than 2 carats and with good cut and color -- pebbles again is quite right, chances are you are not going to do very well outside a big market. Even some discounters here have trouble getting larger stones of good quality. Many local jewelers are clueless about diamonds no matter what they say. The industry is structured on fixed pricing per carat, clarity and color. There's a publication used in the wholesale market that determines this and changes weekly or monthly (can't recall). Then there is cut, which is an eye thing developed only by extensive looking and relationships with the 'better" dealers who get the better stones. Point is, there are regional diamond centers in big cities such as Chicago and elsewhere, plus the online folks. With every layer of distance from the source there is an upcharge. Pebbles also makes a really good point about resale. The only fallback anyone has is to buy the best color, clarity and largest carat size you can afford from a name jeweler such as Tiffany, Cartier, Winston, Bulgari etc. as these command a premium if you resell them at auction. But you will pay retail and those brands command premium prices. I had a Cartier engagement ring that I resold at auction after many years and got a good price. But it was registered there with a number and I had retained the original invoice that stated the specs. I had worn it a lot and the engraving had worn off so I took to to them and they reengraved their name in the ring It was a pretty ring and I was able to sell it at auction advantageously because it was a prestige brand. But that's the only reason to pay retail (though styles go in and out of fashion and even values of the prestige brands fluctuate accordingly). If you are going for a larger stone than 2 carats then I would recommend a ton of research and asking everyone you know so you can get through the chain and as close as possible to the source. It might also be a good idea to check around on jewelry auctions where engagement rings are sold with certificates as you can sometimes do a bit better. My youngest brother got engaged two years ago. They had shopped extensively and he really knew his onions, plus the style she wanted and what he could afford. By making the right wholesale connection and shopping in NY (i.e. in a source market) rather than in Arizona or California, he was able to buy a ring that was a carat larger with the same color and clarity, and a better cut within his budget. The dealer was happy to deal with him because he knew exactly what he was buying and knew how good the price was and didn't dither over making the decision.

What pops into my mind first off is the Studebaker. It might have been the same as Monica's. That would have been in 1962 or 3 and I have no idea what year it was. The "Green Bullet" was fun to drive when I could manage to shift it correctly. That really doesn't count because that was the car my Dad bought for us 3 kids to drive, so it wasn't actually mine. The first car that was MINE, would be a 1974 Pinto wagon. It was the coolest car I have ever had. It had an automatic floor shift (between the buckets.) It was brand new (Yes, nobody owned it before me!) and I made all the payments. It was bright red with black interior, with black and white plaid in the center of the seats. Even my kids thought it was cool!