You flushed another cat person out of the woodwork. Now, I love all animals, and most cat people like dogs, but have you noticed not all dog people like cats? Whazzit about a cat, anyhows? I presently cohabitate with four felines. Notice I didn't say I owned them? I won't be cute and cloying and say they own me, either. Cat people understand that living in the same territory with a cat means you have at some time or another come to a mutual agreement of some sort and a meeting of the minds about limits, laps, hiding places, toys, sharing, private time and snuggle time. Since cats tend to me more persistant than humans, humans usually do more pandering, however. My Tom cat HObbes, is officially a mouser. That is a joke. He has the run of the inside, both up and downstairs and the outside. He is the only cat to whom this liberty has been granted. Supposedly because he is my mouser. Did I say that was a joke? He is large, striped, has white boots and mask and will pat you to death. He particularly has a penchant for butter, and at twelve pounds is strong enough to move the heavy glass dome off all but the strongest dishes. He also has a love/hate relationship going with my husband the butcher who has been raised to believe countertops and cats don't mix. I live with a bleach bottle in my hands because of this. He is also obstipated and requires frequent assistance with his toileting duties. Now, if anyone else on earth routinely has to give a megacolonic cat an enema, I haven't met them. But, I deserve some sort of medal. I don't even want to hear about pilling a cat. Try it on the other end. He is my teddy bear, however, and greets me with love pats to my face with his big flams of front paws. He also has never met a person he didn't like, and is best friends with the Schnauzer who indulges him his food dish. Something he'd never do to another creature. Satiko is the queen bee of the downstairs. She used to be my toilet kitty, and lived in an overhead cabinet over the throne and flung herself down on unsuspecting houseguests when they were most vulnerable, if you know what I mean. She doesn't like any of the other cats, nor humans much. She adores me, however since I rescued her from the animal shelter. She is now restricted to the downstairs after trying to lure a new kitten to her death. Long story. Said kitten was in a cast to her shoulders and Satiko made up to her just long enough to entice the kitten out onto a long metal rod running the width of our house to hold the two hundred year old structure intact over expanding clay soil. I caught the kitten just as it was about to tumble twelve feet, cast and all to the floor below. Satiko hisses and screams as only siamese breeds do, and at sixteen is starting to move toward the spirit world and just evaporate. She sleeps mostly behind my computer, over the kitchen cabinets nine feet off the floor, or in a sunny window. When I am home, she sleeps on my shoulders, wrapped around my neck like a fur boa. When you try to remove her, it sounds like velcro. Echo is named after the Greek nymph. She is the daughter of a feral cat who roamed the fields around us. I heard her for three days before I layed eyes upon her. I kept hearing the sound of a catbird and finally realised it was coming from a bed of lilies in a front garden. When I approached, a tiny blue kitten, with one front paw paralyzed, tottered out to me, meowing. The feral mother left her there after she had moved the rest of her litter, evidently knowing this kitten's disability put her littermates at risk.....but would return several times a day to nurse her. Good mother cat. I took pity on the kitten, knowing it would never surive a feral life to adulthood and took it in and nursed the infection in it's paw, from the inward turning paw. The vet casted her up, but eventually the limb, affected by brachial palsy, needed amputated. So, she became a beautiful inside cat and lives in the upper part of the house with her solitary kitten. They are companions. Echo likes to have humans nearby but is as wild as the day she came into the house and also raised her kitten to be the same. Her kitten, Calvinette, is the newest toilet kitty who lives in the cupboard over the loo.

Oh my gosh, what a surprise to see my old thread pop up! It was, all in all, a great trip for them all. What worked? Just about everything . . . and thanks to everyone for the wonderful advice! ~ Sleeping arrangements: DD and 2 of the girls fit nicely in DD's room (bed, window seat bed and single mattress on floor). The two other girls slept out on our living room sofas. That room closes off with 3 sets of French doors, so they had a bit of privacy, at least. The 2 guys slept in our guest room. Bathrooms: I decided before anyone arrived that, with seven 18 & 19 year olds in one house, there would be no long baths; only quick showers. So, I put 2 wood tv tables in the bathtub with a laundry basket on each. One held big stacks of folded bath towels and washcloths. The other was for the used ones. I told them not to hang the damp ones. The nightmare of many wet towels hanging everywhere inspired that decision. Great one on my part!!! I just washed and replaced the towels every afternoon while they were out sightseeing. I also had stocked both guest bathrooms with a box of essentials: from travel-size tubes of toothpaste, deodorants, Kleenex; small combs, Tylenol, Tums, Chapstick, toothbrushes, girl essentials, sunscreen. Thank goodness, as they were pretty much all used! ~ I put a supply of local postcards, stamps and pens in each bedroom for them to send postcards quickly and easily. Also a supply of local travel books to inspire their daily outings. ~Food/Meals: as I expected, they ate like they were all starving. They loved my meals . . . even the vegetarian. I'd stocked up on enough snacks to keep them all happy. Thank goodness! ~Sightseeing: LOL LOL LOL!!! None of them had been to New Mexico before and their expectations were funny, to say the least. We have small herds of wild horses, but they're wild, not kept in pens. Our visitors wanted DD to drive them , wherever they were so that they could "pet them" and take pics! That didn't happen (LOL), but they did see some occasionally here and there. Same with coyotes. DD had to warn them not to make a big deal about any Native Americans they saw. They tried to speak Spanish to people here, which was met with patience and kindness (thank goodness!). Our chile was "too hot", but they loved exploring Santa Fe and Albuquerque. And Madrid, NM, where the movie "Wild Hogs" was filmed. What didn't work? Well, getting 7 college freshmen to agree on anything, such as where to go exploring next or what movie to watch, was a PIA for DD. One gal turned out to be a hypochondriac, which frustrated the rest. And, DS & his girlfriend decided at the last minute to cancel their hotel reservations and sleep on a queen-size air mattress in our foyer (the only place left!), as they stopped by for a few days on their way to his new job in Tucson, AZ. So, we ended up with a real houseful . . . but it was a lot of fun. Would we do it again? Yes, if DD asked. Would DD do it again? Absolutely not. She said it was fun but exhausting. This Spring Break she's bringing (just) two of her close friends/sorority sisters here to celebrate her 21st birthday. They'll dance at some of the higher end (read: safe) clubs. Shop Santa Fe and ABQ Uptown. Visit Madrid and The Tram. Eat out at some favorite spots and generally spend all the money their parents promised them for this year's Spring Break on themselves instead of an expensive hotel room. Their first choice, Austin, TX, was pretty much already booked up, as South by Southwest will be there at the same time. They were looking at $500/night for modest hotel rooms and super-inflated SbSW ticket prices! So, we'll be entertaining again, but on a much more sane level! Lynn

The tub also hits something in the bottom when it bounces up and down while it's tumbling. That is what's making the thumping sound. This whole process of bouncing and swinging is pulling and stretching the boot. Who knows when that's going to give. The only time my Epic runs well is when there's nothing in it. It's a thing of beauty, then. But as soon as I try to wash anything in it, the tub bounces and swings all over the place. I have another service appointment for tomorrow morning, 8-12. I spoke to Maytag after the last service tech said that the new suspension parts he installed was not going to fix the problem and I would have to call Maytag for information on how to proceed. He was right. Maytag wants tomorrow's service tech (it's never the same tech) to call Maytag's engineering department directly while he's with the machine to see if they can fix it. The problem I'm having with my Epic is exactly the same problem that Matt experienced with a Duet. Here is a link that might be useful: Whirlpool Duet Issues...

Angela, it's NIVER been one of us. It's always GW and their Internal Errors. If they would fix this, no one would worry that their carefully worded and pithy saga was GONE! When this first started a long while back, I got in the habit of Ctrl+A on my post, waiting for the error, then going back into the thread to see if I posted or not. Always did. Ironically I haven't had this issue in quite some time. I'm on my laptop. They have to post on Facebook? What happened to those of us who use their [ahem] service to communicate with each other regarding areas of mutual interest? Are they giving up on their own, advertisement-saturated method of communication? Will GW/iVillage become a Facebook clone? Or just another Blog? Someone in our restaurant's corporate office decided the most important dictum of the week was that our ties were now full Windsor, rather than 1/2 Windsor. It was wildly important that we comply immediately. And to think someone got paid for that, when we have crappy bread, kitchens too small to accommodate a $50,000.00 Saturday night, and a dishwasher that can't keep up so everything has to run through at least twice. My point... iVillage might want to consider working on and with their own systems, vs. worrying about Facebook. And, probably Twitter. Well, they seem to be twits.