Good Morning, Everyone! Thank you all for the "welcome back". I missed each and every one of you. Stormy here today on this Good Friday. Dark and a bit chilly out. Good weather for gardens though. Glad for the rain though. We've had high temps and high, dry winds this past week and wildfires every day. Nothing close to here, but close enough that I could smell the smoke. My dogs erupted in chorus with every firetruck that passed by over on the highway.(hehehe). I took pictures of the gardens on the 31st. Glad I did, as the hot, dry winds dried out all the pretty yellow Jonquils later that day. Blasted hot winds ruined them before our Easter Sunday family picnic and egg hunt. They were magnificent in chorus with the yellow forsythias, white Bridle's Wreath, and Redbud trees now in full bloom all over the garden. My beloved Jane Magnolia is breathtakingly beautiful this year and smells so wonderful. I planted out some Orange Perfection Phlox yesterday. Tried them last year, but they didn't make it. This rain may ensure these do. I dug around in the bin at the store until I found one, just one package with moist peat inside. Holding it up to to sunlight, I could just make out something possibly alive in that dark green plastic bag. Makes me mad to pay five bucks for dead rootstock. They are not the best looking root stocks I ever saw, but think they will make it. I only need one to survive to establish a nice clump this year for next year's blooms. I also planted a package of purple Liatris and a package of Freesia bulbs for summer blooms. I love the smell of Freesia. Yummy. All the Peonies are up and beginning to make tiny flower buds. Hopefully the red ones and deep magenta ones will bloom this year too. If they do, it will be their first time. Some deer came into the yard this winter and ate the top branches off the one surviving River birch sapling, but it is recovering nicely now. I caged it with a tomato cage and for now they are leaving it alone. They are "camped" up on the hill, hiding in wait for my juicy, delicious roses to start blooming, no doubt. :[ I've been taking the dogs for walks up there every morning and hopefully their pee and poop will make them think twice about coming any closer to the back yard. My English Shepherd could easily take down a whitetail deer. DH said this weekend he would finish stretching field fence around on the inside of the existing barbed wire fencing to keep out critters. That won't keep deer out, but it will keep our dogs in, so we can let them run loose on the property. That will be great. They need the exercise and I need them to do their job protecting the place. They love it, too. Hopefully the raccoons & coyotes will take the hint. Keep Out! Anyhow, so far so good. Gotta go check on my chicks. They poopy up their water really fast and will be ready for breakfast. :) Talk to you guys later. ~Annie

Assuming 2000/XP now...In Control panel, mail, data files - are you showing a location and a file structure? (Outlook will save to .pst format). That's the file(s) you need to get onto separate media asap. Personally, compressing a disk is something I avoid unless absolutely necessary. If you are able to back up your data to separate media, then the next step I would take is turning off system restore if it is currently enabled. ATF Cleaner is useful for drive cleanup in conjunction with other tools, because it will delete other user temp files if present. atribune.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=25&Itemid=25

I think I wrote in an earlier post to you that you need to be careful about the costs of additions -- they are expensive! That was about the construction cost, not the architect's fee. I cannot say how much it should or might be but I can say that we paid $5,000 for just a structural engineer's work and towards the upper end of the range you set out for the architect -- for a 2-story addition. I'm sure there is more than one way to accomplish all of this but here's one way. First, you shop around for an architect, the same way you would for anybody else: interview, check references, look at portfolios. While I personally would not recommend design/build firms you do want to make sure that the architect you hire really has a firm grasp on construction costs. You seek to have something that could be called "phase I" drawings or "conceptual drawings" or something similar to that. These are just the ideas -- more than one but probably less than four -- and that costs you maybe 1-3 thousand. (I'm sure that if my range is wrong someone will correct me.) Once you have that, then you can obtain an estimate on the cost of construction. This is just an estimate, it's not based on what actual ppliances, flooring, etc. you will have. It is not a firm bid. Nobody is promising that this estimate is accurate. This is where things can also go very wrong. The estimate may be way lower than the actual costs will be. This is where you have to throw away your desire to hear Low Numbers and Demand that your architect give you the really bad news. If you read mightyanvil's comments it appears that he is suggesting that you have a GC involved during this whole process whose job it is to keep an eye on the costs on a consulting basis. (I think this is the idea of hiring an expert on costs to be involved which costs you more up front but keeps you out of trouble later. I have no experience with this.) If your architect doesn't know enough about construction costs he or she will be useless to you at this critical stage because this is where you decide whether you want to plunge in and hire the architect to enter the really expensive part and you need to know what the construction costs are going to be before you make this investment. Now, perhaps your addition isn't at all complicated and you just need drawings, not really anything that's the least bit of design work...I have no experience here either but perhaps someone else can advise you.

How about the manufacturer of the computer? Is it an HP, Acer, something else? I believe I've read that they offer install disks at reasonable rates, I've never ordered one but would imagine you could initiate the process by calling one of the numbers below? Probably someone can better direct you. . . "Sometimes restoring your computer back to manufacturer specifications is inevitable and we know sometimes these discs get lost or misplaced. Luckily, the manufacturer can send you a copy. Most manufacturers will need your model and serial number to send you the correct discs. Dell will need the Service Tag and Express Service Codes. Generally, you can find the needed information on the bottom or back of your computer. Check under the battery as well. Choose your manufacturer from the list below and either visit their support site or call them for instructions on ordering. Acer 1-866-539-3901 Apple 1-800-APL-CARE (275-2273) Asus 1-888-678-3688 or 510-739-3777 Dell 1-800-624-9896 eMachines 1-866-539-3901 Gateway 1-866-539-3901 HP 1-800-474-6836 Lenovo/IBM 1-800-426-7378 Samsung 1-800-726-7864 Sony 1-800-488-7669 Toshiba 1-800-457-7777" (The above quoted info comes from http://www.geeksquad.com/do-it-yourself/tools/computer-restore-disc.aspx) . . The Linux route, if acceptable, is of course even cheaper. (Free except for the price of a CD/DVDR to burn the ISO to)