...and don't forget the Belgian Waffes! :) Thanks for sharing with us. You made me think of the American humourous author David Sedaris - he's currently living in France and is/was taking French lessons with a group of Int'l students and he writes about cultural issues that have come up in class. While he's been in France: He learned that in the Netherlands children open their presents on Dec 5, in celebration of St Nicholas Day. Saint Nicholas is painfully thin and dresses somewhat like the pope, and the outfit was a carryover from his former career, when he served as bishop of Turkey. St Nicholas doesn't live at the North Pole - but in Spain! In the Dutch version he arrives in a boat, transfers to a white horse and he has six to eight black helpers. David could never pin down the exact count. It was always six to eight! In the early days if a child was naughty, Saint Nicholas and the helpers would beat him with a small branch and kick him, and if was really bad....he would be kidnapped and taken back to Spain. I thought just being on a naughty or nice list was bad enough. LOL Now Saint Nicholas just pretends to kick you!... Progess! Oh how dull is our American version after reading that - has all the makings of a Tim Burton movie. His French teacher couldn't believe when he said in US the Easter rabbit/bunny comes w/a basket and chocolates. A rabbit? In France the chocolate in brought in on a big bell that flies in from Rome. A bell? Ahh - the American big, while I was browsing some French and Danish blogs I noticed how "restrained" the Christmas decorating was to ours, I'll be thinking of that when I'm taking mine down, packing up and hauling it all to the attic over many hours...sometimes less is more, well easier anyway. Jim

Fun2BeHere, the difference might be that somewhere between you and most of the people shipping to you, something's changed. In some major postal centers, they've switched from hand sorting to automated sorted for everything. Or vice versa. Or they've put in a new automated machine that is rougher with the packages than the old one. I have a friend who works for the Post Office. He started out behind the counter and now is management. He says that yes, at some points Priority Mail is hand sorted, but it is also run through the machines at various places. Most mail these days goes to a central hub. I can send a letter to someone in my town, but unless I go to the Post Office and put it in the mail slot specifically for my in my Zip code, it will travel 75 miles to the central hub Post Office for the southern half of my state. Pretty much every single piece of mail that comes to me goes through that hub, no matter where it originates. When my sister lived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, all her mail was funneled through Chicago. So my best guess is that at some place along the line, your mail is going through a hub where something is causing the damage, if so many things from different places are getting broken. What that is, I have no idea. I'd make a formal complaint to the Post Office, and encourage your shippers to do the same. They are struggling for business these days and they should know why people aren't using them anymore.

One day I was looking for a place to tie my 70 pound mix up outside the Office Depot. The cashier motioned to me to bring him inside. So for about 18 months we both went in the store instead of just me. He never let out a peep, just slowly wagged his tail, usually got petted by the dog friendly customers and employees. One time as we waited in line to check out, the person ahead let out a shriek that everyone in the store heard. The dog did not react at all. The next time we went in the store manager said dogs were not allowed unless they were special needs dogs. I did not get upset with the store, maybe they changed their animal policy (and maybe they didn't have one). But I noticed with some amusement that while the dog was calm outside the store before; after his inside visits he barked at most people who went into the store while he had to wait outside. Seems like most folks who want to pet dogs don't know how to safely pet one (IMHO). I try to get the neighborhood kids to learn properly how to pet older dogs, but the folks at the nearby Petco just bend over and pet dogs like the average person does.

My brother has an induction cooktop that I really hate. It's a 5+ year old Siemens/Bosch model. The touch interface is super annoying when cooking food that needs precise temperature control. I recently had the chance to try it extensively, and I always find myself furiously stabbing at the controls trying to make adjustments that inevitably take way too long. And while it has 17 or 18 power levels, that still doesn't feel sufficiently fine grained. Nonetheless, for his upcoming kitchen remodel, I am recommending he get another induction range. Overall, induction has a lot going for it and the lack of a good user interface isn't an intrinsic problem with the heating technology as such. There certainly are manufacturers that make ranges with knobs. In my brother's case, it's likely going to be a LaCanche, as that range overall is a great fit for him. There is one remaining issue though, that would keep me (but not my brother) from buying induction. I have now had the chance to use a wok on his current induction top. And despite trying to give it the benefit of the doubt, I have come to the conclusion that flat-bottom woks simply don't work. The heat distribution is all wrong, and the wok spetula can't follow the shape of the wok. While it certainly is nice that the induction top has plenty of power, I either burn food in the wok or sauté instead of stir fry; often I do both at the same time. A round-bottom wok handles very differently and has a much saner heat distribution with the hot spot in the center. As a result, I much prefer my Bluestar gas range for wok cooking. It's effortless with a good burner and a good wok. Supposedly, there now are special induction burners compatible with round-bottom woks. But I don't have any first-hand experience, yet. So, maybe, that would change my opinion. I am also a little concerned that some of these burners are only compatible with one manufacturer-provided wok. That could be rather limiting. Until these things have been sorted out, if you need wok cooking, stick with gas. For everything else, induction is a serious contender.