oh yep my bad I was talking about my desktop have never done one on a laptop sorry. do you by any chance have McAfee on your pc? I found many many of my problems I had been having on my pc some to do with connection issues were all remedied when I completely removed McAfee. OH WAIT hold the phone you said about a week ago would that happen to be right after you got the latest MS updates??? Because that was one of the problems some were having after getting the updates! If it was right after patch Tuesday then I would bet it is one of those updates. Here is the link to the thread about that over on BBR forums. Loss Of Connection After Installing Windows Updates Oct MS Updates this latest batch of updates also had a problem with some versions of zonealarm firewall. If it did start at that time I think I would do a system restore to a date prior to that and see if that works, then you could go to the windows update page and try getting only the critical updates one at a time to see which one is the culprit and not get that one, once you know the KB number you can just remove that particular one from add remove. If you need system restore directions just ask it is super simple and reversible.

Golddust, you don't have to agree or experience it personally, but it's not uncommon for people who are traumatized by a death to not know or remember what's going on around them, or to forget the details of the funeral afterwards. Some are even sedated. My family experienced the sudden and brutal death of my brother when he was only a teenager, and my mother became a grief counselor to bereaved parents for many, many years afterwards to help others make their way through it. I didn't say that out of ignorance. What I was trying to say, among the discussion on why or why not to, is that all that matters is to do what you feel in your heart and forget the rest. It doesn't matter. Even if it's someone you barely knew but admired or enjoyed for some reason. If someone wants to go, just go, because it will mean a lot to the family, whoever you are, and its a kind honor to the person who has passed. They will see how much their loved one touched others and that they meant something in this world. That's especially meaningful when it's a young life, that they did not live or go unnoticed. If you can't or don't want to go for some reason, the card or note that's in your heart will mean a lot too. And, yes, do sign the guestbook. It's there to be poured over and cherished later. Like Mona described so well, those who came to the funeral that we didn't expect to see or didn't know, but just people that knew my brother and shared hugs, tears, their sorrow, or stories and memories about him in cards or letters, meant so much to our family. Beyond anything words could describe, that it still makes me cry forty years later. I feel their loss also. I'm thankful to them for caring about my brother and for being there in some way, and am thankful to them for the gift they gave to my parents. They are all a part of his memory to this day.

Thank you for considering Signature. I work for the company and we'd be thrilled to have you visit us and see how we build our cabinetry and show you all the ways our products are green. We'd be happy to show you through our facility where you can see how we build our cabinetry and we can also spend time in the display area and answer any questions you might have... and yes our shelves are plywood! Just give us a call and we'd be happy to accomodate you anyway we can! 717-738-4884 You can also check out a special 'invitation only' website www.signaturecab.com/considersignature

I don't really have a suggestion for a cash rebate card, but I think my experience with Chase is important here. 4 years ago I lost my job. I had quite a balance on my Chase card. It had just been transferred using one of those promotional offers for 0% interest. I don't even think I had gotten the first statement when I lost my job. The day after I got canned I called all of my creditors and asked if they could help, lower the minimum payment, lower the interest rate, grant a diferral, something, anything! The person I talked to at Chase told me that as long as I was making the minimum monthly payment they would have to assume that I COULD make the monthly payment, and there wasn't anything they could do for me. However, if I missed a payment, I could call them when I got my next statement and at that point they could work out a payment plan that would be easier for me. So, I did exactly what he told me to do. Except that I made half of the payment, instead of not paying anything, when my statement came. I figured that would look better when I asked for help, I could say "Look, I can make half the payment, just not the whole thing." When my next statment came, showing that I hadn't payed my entire minimum payment, I called and told them what I had been told and asked for help. This is where it got really fun. They couldn't come up with a better payment plan for me because to do that they would have to base my payment on my income...and since I was unemployed I didn't have any income to base a payment plan on. They wouldn't use my unemployment check as a basis for a payment plan. So there was still nothing they could do for me. The kicker: Missing a minimum payment meant my 0% interest rate was gone. Now I was being charged something over 18%. Then there was more fun, about a year later. I had gotten a new job, moved back to the state I was from, and transferred my husband's car loan to a credit card because the interest rate was lower. Adding that to the amount that had been on the cards when I lost my job and the amount I had to charge while I was unemployed (including tuition for my husband to go to truck driving school) and my credit card debt was pretty damn substantial. Suddenly I noticed on my Chase bill that the interest being charged was only 36 cents less than my minimum payment, and I knew it hadn't been like that before. So I looked at the interest rate.....they were charging me 24%!!!! I called them, all kinds of pissed off, to find out why. Well, apparently they pull your credit report every once in a while. When they pulled mine they saw how much debt I had, and decided to change my status to a higher risk catergory. Because I was now a higher risk borrower, they raised my interest rate. Makes sense, right? Raise my interest rate so that this high risk borrower has an even harder time paying you back!!! As soon as I had an introductory rate offer from another credit card I transferred every penny off of that Chase card and I haven't used it since. We don't deal with Chase anymore. The only reason I currently have a Chase card is because Chase bought BankOne, and I had a really good interest rate with BankOne. So I'm keeping it until the introductory rate runs out and then I'm getting rid of it. As for rewards for cards, I've got a card that gives me points. It's from MyPoints. You sign up with them, they send you e-mails that you get 5 point for just clicking on the link. Some of them offer you hundreds of points for buying something at the link. For instance, they have a deal with (a webstore that the filter won't let me mention because they've been spammed about them before) where you get 10 points per dollar you spend there. Other's are like 50 points for filling out a survey, 20 points for signing up for a newsletter, 500 points for signing up for Columbia house, etc. I rarely take the offers, just click and get my 5 points. I can rack up like 30 points a day this way. And they have an associated Visa card through Providian where I get 1 point for every dollar I spend. Once you accumulate enough points you can trade them in for gift cards, either to stores or they have one called Webcertificates where you get basically a mastercard account number that you can use anywhere online. Or you can pay a small fee to Webcertificates and get a real card that you can use in stores. For instance, I just redeemed 3250 points for a $25 gift card to Linens N Things. That sounds like a lot of points, but if you are using the card and paying it off all the time you'll rack up points quick. Plus the e-mails take me all of 2 minutes a day to click and delete, giving me up to like 900 points a month. I don't use the card itself often, but if you were going to use it a lot it would definitely pay off. It doesn't come out to as good a rebate as like Discover (which I think is 2%) but if you also do the e-mails and use some of their deals (like the deal at that unmentionable web store, as well as other great deals just like it) you'll rack up points quick!