Actually, I have a digital Cannon S1 IS and the length of the video depends on the size of your flash card. I currently am using a 512 which gives me about 11 minutes of video. I just recently won an ebay bid for a SanDisk 2 GIG flash card so hope to extend that time to about 45 minutes or so. This particular video, I was actually standing in the garden, focused on the feeder and waiting, for about 10 minutes before Mr.Hummer appeared and I was able to push the 'record' button. But, I've also gotten some good footage by putting the camera on a tripod, pressing the 'record' button, and walking away. Of course, that is pretty hit or miss, but if it's an active feeder, you are bound to 'catch' a hummer. I have then edited the film to get rid of the part where nothing is happening with Windows Movie Maker that I think came with Windows XP. Here is an example of that: (I cut off about 9 minutes at the beginning of the film that was nothing but the feeder and the breeze, to get right to the 'good part') Give it a try. What have you got to loose except a little time. It's fun to see what you 'catch'. I think of it as trolling for hummingbirds. LOL Let me know how it works out for you. Here is a link that might be useful: after editing

Once again, thanks so much to all of you who have taken the time to write . . . I so appreciate it !!! Seeking, thanks for your sympathy and idea of searching the make with +problems . . . I did plug that in, and amazingly enough, came up with OTHER problems we've already had with this dang truck !!! On some other sights, I also did find some similar things . . . And, on another entirely different note . . . . I hope your little puppy continues to recover nicely . . .poor little thing .. I was so sorry to hear that . . just an awful thing to have to go through . . . my good thoughts to puppy and you !!! dktrahan, thanks for the Dodge websites . . . I got quite a lot of useful stuff from them . . . I was on the computer last evening . . . late . . so much so, that my poor eyes are tired tired tired today . . . but I am so determined to get to the root of all of this . . . Sue, not to worry . . . but the husband factor in all of this is really trying . . . too much to go into, but basically it's not helping this situation . . .at all !! He's blaming me and DS for even buying a Dodge product to begin with . . . So, wanted to make it clear that my son is being a total champ through all of this . . . Nina, I think that will be the next step . . . to take it back to the original dealer and tell them to just keep it until they get it figured out . . . and IF they can't figure it out, then somehow, I'm going to try to make them responsible for selling us this truck to begin with !! Someone has to take responsibility for this, and to "eat" the loss . . . Don't think it should be us . . . Supposedly the truck was certified, and I'm thinking that's worthless !!! I feel that we're kind of between a rock and a hard place . . . I'm too honest to not disclose problems with the truck if it comes to trading it in . . I certainly don't want anyone else to have to go through this . . . but we just can't afford to have 18K go down the drain, either . . . We don't want another Dodge product, but I'm wondering if we would have more leverage with the selling dealership if we did go with a new Dodge, then get rid of it at another time . . . Oh heck . .. I have such neck strain, headaches and eyes aches through all of this . . . . . Oh, and re: the computer reprogramming . . . I talked with our friend yesterday who originally diagnosed the problem as needing to reprogram the computer . . . He COULD NOT believe that Dodge wouldn't do that . . . could not believe that Dodge said they wouldn't take responsibliy for anything that might go wrong because of the re-programming . . . I asked if he would mind if I had the Dodge guy call him and they could hash it over . . (they are acquaintances, having worked together years ago) He he didn't mind at all . . . called the Dodge guy, he told me WHY he didn't want to re-program it, saying he had to answer to Dodge as to why it was re-programmed when they couldn't get the problem to duplicate . . . said that even if they did re-program it, that that might not be the problem, which I can understand. I told him plain and simple though, that the truck, to us, is not safe to drive. Oh, and another thing . . .in an e-mail from our service adviser yesterday, he said that assuming there is a problem, that it WILL get worse, to the point of engine failure, and THEN we can bring it back and they'll know what to do !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Okay, so digressing a bit . . . back to the main service guy . . . he suggested that they could just keep it and he'd have his techs drive it home at night to try to duplicate the situation . . also saying that his techs were more experienced drivers than my son, and if anything should go wrong on the freeway, that they'd know more how to handle it . . . Now, all of this just does not leave me with warm fuzzy feelings !!!!!!!!!!!! Bill, thanks for the clogged catalytic converter tip. I e-mailed that suggestion, along with a list of other things that I gleaned from some of the Dodge forums. The catalytic problem sounds so much like what's going on with the truck . . . I'm so wondering just exactly what they've done to check into all of this . . . whether it's just driving the truck to try to duplicate the situation, or really getting into it. My friend that has his own shop told me that dealers really don't like working on warranty work . . . at all !! and sometimes do just what they have to to get it out the door. He did highly recommend this dealership, but for the life of me, and maybe I'm just naive . .. but I can't figure out why THEY can't figure out what's going on !!!!! Well, that's the update for today . . . so far anyway . . . Again, I so appreciate all of your posts, suggestions, and sympathy !!!!! Chris

I definitely think SS21 needs to be in some sort of 12-step program. Al-Anon is okay, but it tends to be more geared towards spouses of alcoholics. ACOA (Adult Children of Alcoholics) is a GREAT program, but the meetings are harder to find. My mom is an alcholic. She has been sober for 7 years now. She drank from the time I was 8 years old until I was 21. It SUCKED. There is no other word...it really, really SUCKED. I grew up in a very affluent home and community. Dad has a Phd. Mom has two Masters degrees. My brother and I attended private schools from the start, summer camps, country clubs, exepensive SUVS when we turned 16... And it was the most unhappy existence because everything in our lives was a farce....I remember feeling like I was this MASK of a person, like I was an actor playing a role, I couldn't let anyone see that my mom was a drunk. As a girl, it was devastating to have my mother emotionally abandon me over and over. I felt like NO ONE knew the real me, everything was a big secret, and I just put up this huge wall around myself. My mom was a binge drinker--she would NEVER drink in public. She started drinking while cooking dinner when we were little--she was stressed w/two little kids--and my dad would come home from work and expect the house to be perfect, dinner to be ready, etc. So that's how it started. By the time I was 9-10, about 4 or 5 times a year, she would drink herself into a stupor and pass out for DAYS. We would find bottles of vodka hidden all over the house. She started seeing a psychiatrist and he prescribed valium. She almost killed herself mixing the valium and alchol more times than I care to think about... By the time I was 14-16, she had been all over the country to different rehab centers. I had seen her be carted out of our house in an ambulance several times. My brother and my dad and I sat in the hospital with her while she ripped IVs out and spit at the doctors and nurses. She was pulled over for drunk driving a couple times, but becasue she was an attractive white woman in a Mercedes in a nice area, the police would always feel sorry for her, and call my dad to pick her up. The counselor our entire family was seeing sat my brother and I down and said our mom was very likely to die. My dad filed for divorce when I was 17, and it was granted when I was 18. The damage to me was really deep, and I didn't even realize it myself until a few years ago, and got into ACOA. The issues are so far-reaching. Adult Children have so many personality traits and characteristics, and behavioral issues that really cannot be ignored. I would seriously urge your SS to get into some sort of group where he is working a program and actively addressing the issues/pain that haunts him. It probably wouldn't be a bad thing for you and your DH to go to Al-Anon or even some open ACOA meetings so you can understand. THe sense of entitlement doesn't surprise me at all..that is a definite characteristic of an adult child. ..guess at what normal is. ...have difficulty in following a project through from beginning to end. ...lie when it would be just as easy to tell the truth. ...judge themselves without mercy. ...have difficulty having fun. ...take themselves very seriously. ...have difficulty with intimate relationships. ...overreact to changes over which they have no control. ...constantly seek approval and affirmation. ...feel that they are different from other people. ...are either super responsible or super irresponsible. ...are extremely loyal, even in the face of evidence that loyalty is undeserved. My mom finally got sober when I was PG with my DD. I really feel that maybe knowing she was going to be a grandma was what it took for her....who knows...I will say, she is a WONDERFIL grandma, my DD ADORES her. My mom has made ammends to me and to my brother, and even my dad. She has said to me that she cannot change what she did in the past, or her parenting mistakes with us...but she can make up for it by being a wonderful, loving grandmother to my daughter. She definitely does. She wasn't a BAD mom to us..when she was sober, she was GREAT. She read to us every single night, played games, took us on awesome trips, hugged us all the time, and was really involved in schools and everything. But it took me really getting serious about working through my own issues to REMEMBER those good things. I was so focused on the bad for so long.... But all that did was hurt ME. LETTING GO and forgiving my mom was the best thing I ever did. And I am so happy we have a GREAT relationship today, and that she is in recovery. I wish you and your SS the best.

My original message regarding my SD (wet hair & other issues) was prompted by cawfe's comment "And don't give me that line ... well how do I know what your saying is truth... some of the stuff that has happend to me is unbelievable but it happend ... like not feeding her children because she didn't have any clean dishes!!! And I know she had food because I was sending them with care packages so they could eat because she whined so much to them about paying support she couldn't feed them." and I was just stating what happened THIS weekend with my SD's mom. (in agreement with cawfe's statement that it happens) and I believe that there ARE bio mom's that "don't seem to care". It is my OPINION that my SD's mom doesn't put her children first. It is backed up by her actions. (ie. abandoning her children for some guy she just met) I agree with you Kathline, that we can't control what the other parent does. But when the results directly affect me, then I am entitled to MY feelings. My heart aches when I am the one holding and comforting HER child because SHE left. I am the one taking time off from work because SHE didn't take precautions DH suggested and that was my point. She can feed her what she likes (and the ice cream for breakfast was only brought up because she came home that day sick and throwing up from it and missed two days from school), she can let her sleep how she likes (ie. on the floor or where ever she finds room) but when she puts her in a bed with two boys that are 9 & 11, DH had a problem with that. As for the wet hair, I don't know if it made SD get sick, but DH told BM that he was concerned about it and she dismissed it. Then SD comes home sick and missed another day at school. (and I really don't need to hear that missing school is not a big deal, she is struggling with it this year and I miss a day at work when I have to stay home to take care of her, so it does matter to me) I once again got sucked into a feud with TOS because she can't let anyone have an opinion or make a comment without chiming in and I should have just ignored her. I think she likes to stir things up because it's a game to her. and cawfe, I agree with that. But it isn't a contest. We are supposed to be here to share our opinions and points of view. If my opinion doesn't make sense or isn't what someone else would do, it can be disregarded without telling me how horrible a person I am for feeling that way. I listen to other's opinions and sometimes, I see things differently and if my opinion changes, I have been told "well which is it?" as if we can't change our thoughts. I didn't come here out of frustration, but to occasionally vent and share my opinion on being a step parent. I took a cooperative parenting class that helped me tremendously in learning how to deal with my SD's mom. There isn't anything we can do about the things she does that are upsetting to her daughter. We deal with those things on a weekly basis. So, for venting, I used to write blogs but SD's mom would read my blog and blow up at DH because I wrote about how I felt. And I came here because this is supposed to be a forum for step families and then I find it is not a safe place to share either. Since coming here, yes my SD's mom has done things that are frustrating, but nothing compares to the frustration of feeling like I have to defend or explain myself to a old, set in her ways, divorced person that has no idea what if feels like to be a step parent. I agree with plasticgarden, that the negativity rubs off and I was a very happy person that enjoys life to the fullest before coming here, and now I have stooped to bickering with someone, who's opinion means nothing to me. I'm ashamed and apologize to everyone here. Like I said, I came here to meet other step parents that are going through the process of blending two families. I even hoped this place would be a fun place but it isn't. So, I wish everyone here well and hope that your families succeed. My favorite quote "You've gotta love your children, more than you hate each other."