Barefoot I still think ya should of grabbed more but hey you won't be as sore as some of us. LOL Then comes the Fall swap!!!! Yea I'm getting excited just thinking about it. This is a great group & I think we should all post pictures as our babies grow this summer. Tell Ruben sorry about the tail end of him, he bent over just as I was taking the picture & then my batteries went dead. Debbie

DH just informed me that he learned while watching the Congressional Hearings on the auto industry that the auto industry's current debt is also heavily leveraged by credit defaut swaps. So if they go under and stop paying off their debt, we can expect another round of financial industry failures. Why not just keep them in business and let them pay off their debts? Why bail out the financial industry again when they produce nothing material? jkom51: I believe that Buick is the luxury car of choice in China, a huge emerging market. I agree that the Big Three need to get rid of their airline fleets. So shoul all the other business bailed out by the government. In doing a search on "Corporate Jets," I came across a story from 2005 that talked about executives being required to use the coporate jet when on personal travel! "Citigroup's proxy says it spent $309,783 for personal "company transportation" for Chairman Sandy Weill, $108,208 for CEO Chuck Prince and $459,153 for executive committee chair Robert Rubin. Citigroup doesn't break out personal expenses for planes or ground transport." And Jack Welsh, the rumored new Auto Czar: "After reports of heavy personal plane use among disgraced CEOs and negative PR heaped upon former General Electric CEO Jack Welch over his post-retirement use of company jets, "Culturally, you don't want to send a message to the market, employees or customers that CEOs are treated preferentially," notes compensation specialist Mike Kesner of Deloitte Consulting." Yikes! He used the coporate jet after retirement, and he is going to be the guy who gets the Big Three to be frugal? But realistically, here is basic info on coporate jet use from Wikipedia: "There are approximately 11,000 business jets in the worldwide fleet with the vast majority of them based in the United States or owned by US companies. The European market is the next largest, with growing activity in Asia and Central America. There is a pre-owned marketplace in which aircraft are bought and sold based on their immediate deliverability because new aircraft orders often take two to three years for delivery."

Some very interesting conversation starters shown! Most people coming to our house for the first time comment on the view. Once inside the architectural style of the house itself often gets a "Wow" as from the outside the house looks like a typical 2 story traditional farmhouse but inside it is multi-level with beams and cathedral ceilings. Here's a fall view - View at sunset. This is facing north so the sunsets are not as vivid this direction. Recent pic just after a snowfall. Should have waited another hour to take this as the sun came out and the sky was blue. These pics were taken from my back deck - in the views from the dining windows the lake shows more.

Until recently, we drove older vehicles. I had a 95 Chrysler Cirrus (bought in 95) and a 02 Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder (bought in 05). The Chrysler had 107,000 miles on it when sold to 16 year old as her first car. I traded the Spyder in for a 14 Chrysler 300C. Hubby drove his 99 van until the frame rusted out and we replaced with a 12 Ram 1500 PU. My family has always driven older cars. My brother has my dad's 96 Chrysler Sebring convertible and recently ventured into the 2000s by picking up a 03 Jeep Liberty. He drives multiple cars every day (utility purposes), switching between a work van, his personal 00 Dodge van and a 73 Plymouth Gran Fury. He's got a bout 7 cars (never less; you'd understand if you knew our family). My all time favorite car to drive is now in a museum. A 27 Dodge Cabriolet that was in the family for 30+ years. I loved driving it. The heavy duty truck transmission requiring double clutching, the "grabber" brakes that required an oh so gentle touch on the pedal. I miss that car.....Here's a picture of the car being loaded up to take to the museum. The guy's head that you see is the guy who's in charge of the car. We've kept in touch and they haven't modified the car at all. Still looks like this and is driven very frequently. I've been fortunate to have driven cars from every decade starting with the 1920s and I've enjoyed the heck out of each one.