Now - about our group. There is a forum very similar to the Garden Web forums; Cruise Critic is a forum for folks who cruise or want to cruise. It has several categories, but the most popular one is the Message Boards. That is where you can find out about or ask questions about ports of call, information about specific cruise lines, reviews, and the most popular one - Roll Calls. A roll call is where folks "gather" to meet each other prior to a specific cruise. Each cruise line and each ship has its spot. When someone wants to meet others, you look for your sailing; or if not there, then create a roll call. There is a lot of chatting about where you are from, whether you have been on that itinerary, what plans there might be in each port, etc. I have been a member there since December, 2003. I don't post a lot, for I have posted less than 2,000 times through the years. However, there are some posters who are posting almost daily and have tens of thousands of posts. For this 42-day cruise, we had a lot of messages. Counting traveling companions, there were more than 100 people involved on our Roll Call. We had never been to Europe and Africa and wanted to take advantage of our time there, Karen got online and lined up at least 10 shore excursions. Then she posted all the important bits of information and asked if anyone on the roll call wanted to join us. On a couple of them, the response was huge and the original plan of one small bus, became one very large bus. After many months of planning, we still needed to put names and faces together. A meet and greet was planned for the first full sea day. We met in The Crow's Nest, and since we were such a large group, beverages and breakfast treats were supplied by Holland America. (Holland America also hosted their own Facebook meeting.) This group was wonderful, since we would be travel companions for a long trip and we would go ashore with several of the group many times, it was the perfect opportunity to make friends. It was great! No one person was in charge, there was one person who had contacted Holland America prior to sailing to ask for a reserved time and place. Not everyone who was on the roll call came to this meeting, but there was a decent size group. We had been on other cruises when fewer than 10 people were on the roll call and the connections were not as good. If you want to look at some of what Cruise Critic is, there is a link. Here is a link that might be useful: Cruise Critic

Thanks Savona. We're sure looking forward to it...hard to believe that we'll likely be there in a little over two months. I've been lurking around on here, but I feel so out of the loop, because I'm not starting seeds or buying plants even though I have spring fever...it seems really strange. Next year! There have been some big developments though. Our house is now officially conditionally sold...We should hopefully know in the next two weeks if the two conditions have been met. And they're going to do all the finishing work, so we don't have to do anything but pack. (Which we've been doing :o) Mom and Dad had to go out there anyway so they took our 5th wheel and boat loaded with stuff this weekend. Verena

Yep David and dlynn, I'm looking forward to the cooler weather!! Since it's in the valley, the winters are generally pretty mild though this year was a record breaker for snow. The good thing about being retired and not having kids at home.... we can just watch the snow fall and not be worried about work, school etc!! In Louisiana today it will be 101... 102 tomorrow... and the humidity!!! We just got back from VA and while they thought it was hot it felt like spring to us!! Here's a picture of our new land and the homesite with DH Joe pretending to be a house. our back porch and deck will facing this view. Seems like we're out in the middle of nowhere, but we're a 5 minute drive from the center of town. We just got home from 5 days in VA where we brought up a load of "stuff" and put it in a storage pod. The estimate of 25K (!!!!) o move us to VA (not including our barn and outdoor things) got us so shocked that we decided to start combining our visits with bringing up a load of things in the horse trailer. We had the 3 horse section of the living quarters trailer full with things that we won't need even in a rental... extra garden tools, workshop things, outdoor decorations (birdfeeders/houses etc). It isn't a drop in the bucket, but it's a start! Grace

If it were me, and I loved the Lacanche and could get appropriate service in my new area I might order the Lacanche and use the existing range until it arrived. Okay, it's a couple of months--but not much different than a remodel and you've been there, done that so you can handle that. There are so many other things involved in a move that those 3 months will probably just fly by. I don't really have any info on the other range, but I'm sure someone on the appliance forum will chime in. Does Eurostoves carry CornuFe? If so, call Trevor and see if he has an opinion. Another option, do a google search (rather than the GW search) for past discussions on Gardenweb--it will bring up topics that have dropped off the board. I'd use something like "CornuFe Gardenweb " and see what comes up--maybe include "Yesdear", "Appliance Forum" or "Kitchen Forum" to see if discussions around that kitchen also come up. I can't imagine there not being some discussion about such a specialty item. Hope this is helpful.