I know as a "summer person" that I am not considered a Maniac but I have to spend the work year here in Illinois with my husband as both our jobs are here. Our future retirement house in Maine has a winter tenant so we can afford to use it for a few weeks of bliss in the summer. I first visited Maine in 1964 and have not missed a summer since then. My heart swells with joy when we cross the Bath bridge, open the car windows and smell the first salty air. I garden with perennials in the beds and annuals in the window boxes and containers on the porch. I lost my Bonica rose and many perennials with that hard winter last year and still had Japanese beetles in my Rugosas. Sigh. We look out at Indiantown Island in West Boothbay Harbor so the bird activity is as much fun as the plant stuff. I dug a little pond a few years ago and that brings a lot of pleasure. The resident frog is big enough to croak so loudly we hear him indoors! Mary

One thing that helps with cutting down on how much space Outlook takes up is to empty the Deleted Items folder -- if it's trash, you need to get rid of it altogether. Also, if your aunt sends out messages and attaches anything (photos, documents, etc.), she should delete that message from her Sent Items folder (or at least delete the attachment from the sent message). She's got the "original" on her hard drive, so she doesn't need another copy of it in Outlook. Then, be sure to empty that Deleted Items folder again! Your aunt can create a new Personal Folders File (also known as an Outlook Data File) in which she can store the messages that she really, really wants to keep. These files have a .pst extension and can only be viewed from within Outlook. Once the .pst file has been created and messages have been moved into it, you can move the .pst file to a jump drive (also known as a thumb drive). You will have saved important messages while at the same time cleaning out the mailbox and reducing the size of Outlook on the hard drive. If you need to get to those messages again you can insert the jump drive again.

How you get SPAM... To begin with the bad guys send SPAM because that's how they make money, it's their job, it's how they make a living... We're talking millions of dollars here... A lot of spammers are very good at what they do and work extremely hard finding viably e-mail addresses. First off they have programs that search the internet, day and night, 24/7, checking every site and web page for anything that resembles an e-mail address... If you've posted your e-mail anywhere on the internet it's on a SPAM list somewhere... When I say anywhere I mean anywhere, on your own web page, in a Guestbook, on a forum post, MySpace, a blog, anywhere it can be seen it can be grabbed by a spammer. They also have programs that generate names for e-mail addresses, anything that can be found in a dictionary, telephone book, lists of baby names, lists of nick names and such... Anyone who has an internet connection can get a list of all the internet providers in the world... So all they have to do is tell the program to use those names with those providers... Instant SPAM list. Years ago my dial up provider gave their customers FREE web sites... To keep track of all the sites the provider used the customers e-mail addresses as the site names and then posted the list of the sites on the home page... Instant SPAM list.... ( Fortunately they've seen the error of their ways... lol ) Ever sign up for anything FREE on the internet or even registered purchased items and they asked if you wanted to be on their mailing list... Yep, instant SPAM list... Well not all the time but if you don't specify what kind of mail you want from them your address can end up on a SPAM list ( especially the FREE stuff ). Ever get a Forwarded e-mail from a friend with a zillion e-mail addresses in it that tells you to add your name to the list and send it to 10 of your friends... Yep, and if you Forward it, you just created another SPAM list. Ever get mail and you weren't quite sure who it was from or the Subject sounded interesting so you Opened it anyway.. Yep!!! You just added your address to an A #1 golden SPAM list because they know it's a good address and they can sell it to other spammers. Those are a just some of the ways they get your address... So what's the answer... Well, get a new address, pick something no one can guess with lots of letters with numbers mixed in, don't give it out to anyone, create a message rule that sends all your mail to the trash and you MAY stop the SPAM for a week or two... lol Seriously though, never, ever reply to SPAM or click on the links to be removed from their list unless you're absolutely positively sure who sent it... Sometimes reporting them to your internet provider works but after you report the first 100 or so your IP may get a little testy (lol)... Your best bet is to just delete them without opening... Sooner or later they'll slow down... Get a free e-mail account to use for registering for stuff, your internet friends and stuff like that... Only use the e-mail account from your internet provider for family and really close computer savvy friends... BTW, Rules to block e-mail addresses or IP's won't work because they use phony addresses... But, you could make a Rule like this.... Where the from line contains people not in my address book, Delete from Server... But the problem with that is if your friends change their e-mail address before telling you their mail won't get through, same goes for replies from any mail you send out to people not in your address book... Rita

What are CNBC's worriers now? The 700 billion will be hoarded by the banks and no 'quality' loans can be made so the consumer can't keep on keeping on. Sure liar loans can be made. They can keep on with the derivative crap shoots. But when it comes to quality investments...well it is painfully clear that AAA ratings are not the same as there were back in granddads day. Back then they had a modicum of ethics and honor. Accountants actually meant what they said. But whenever honor is brought up we must remember ...'Honor dies where interest lies.' Let the rich pay for their mess Loan Wall Street the money, but do not give them money. Charge them interest and take back hi grade collateral. Don't put in on the backs of the working class. When we were in the darkest hours of the bailout meltdown, a commentator on CNBC complained how the 'poor taxpayer' will be stuck with all these bailouts. Then they backed off of their pity switching some of the blame to the taxpayer, for living beyond their means and consuming too much as a cause for Americas financial problems. We complain when the consumer stops spending, so the stock market doesn't tank. Then we blame the consumer for doing what we push them to do with ultra low interest rates, 24 hour advertising and loans that require no proof of ability that the loans can even be paid back aka "Liar Loans." http://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/liar_loan.asp America has been built on debt and spending. 70% of our 'economic heath,' better termed as 'economic sickness' is based on consumer spending. When the consumer can't compulsively spend any longer our economy collapses...we are not a healthy country. Without compulsive spending and conspicuous consumption we would fail as a country. In a TV commercial, Discover card was promoting endless consumption 'as a good thing' and they wished to do us a favor by helping us spend money better as we create more debt that we can't afford to pay. Do you see the insanity of all this? Add the rapidly approaching depletion of all fossil fuels and global warming to this pro consumption picture and we can see we have created a time bomb. Our whole system is based on an unsustainable model that will eventually collapse no matter how much money that is printed up by the fed. Well, the fed can do what it likes. After all, it creates money out of thin air. Used to be the fed at least printed money. Now all that needs to be done to create billions is to magnetize a silicon chip. This is what fuels the hard commodity people that want something tangible for real wealth. Wall street has degenerated into a greed fueled, legalized 24 hour crap shoot with the blessing and full faith and credit on the US of A behind it. It is like an alcoholic that has inherited a whiskey factory. More of their drug wont fix them - it only increases the sickness. Same with greed. Greed is never satisfied by attainment - it is only satisfied by contentment. In simpler times, we had stock and bonds to invest in. Most accountants did their jobs and earning did not have to be restated year after year and earnings were real. EBITDA had not been invented and our US dollar was backed by gold and later by silver. In 1973 stock options were added to the mix. Then the late 90's brought us internet day trading as a new way for the masses to gamble in the privacy of our own homes. Fast forward to 2008 and things have become much more complex when it comes to financial gambling. We've got interest rate swaps, total return swaps, equity swaps, forex swaps, currency swaps, constant maturity swaps, basis swaps, volatility swaps, credit default swaps, variance swaps and many more 'derivatives' to place our bets on. We talk of living in a sustainable world, yet our actions betray our true feelings. All we have to do is to look at the stock market to see what happens when growth declines even a little. Even if a company yields stable earning, but does not grow its earnings it is looked down upon. Stability and balance is part of a sustainable footprint, yet we shun such balance. With one breath we talk about cutting global warming and how we have to cut our dependence of fossil fuel. Then with the next breath we demand no cut backs in our standard of living, we must spend and consume above all else...build more, build faster, build bigger. The GDP must only go up, up and away...all the while this consumption just increases global warming and keeps depleting the fossil fuels faster and faster. Sick...sick..sick mentality, buy more cars, build more houses and monstrosities of architecture, spend more but 'cut back' to save our dear fossil fuels. For all practical purpose we will be out of crude oil in 2 or 3 decades and possibly much sooner. Consumption is ingrained in us and we know no other way. And even if we wished to amend our ways, how could all our retirement funds take the hit? Our world population has grown to levels where it has passed the point of no return for supporting a sustainable human population as we know it today when it comes to their energy demands. And what does all that consumerism lead to? It leads to the mess we are in now and the bigger mess the world will be in once India and China pick up momentum to copycat the envious lifestyle that they have held in high esteem as the 'American Dream' Fueling the problem of consumption is the games the Federal and World banks play with interest rates. They manage the economies in ways to fuel consumption and mask the real trend. Witness the recent cries for Federal bankers to lower interest rates...so the stock market can go up...fueled by spending of the consumer. It is drug habit that Greenspan got us hooked on and we just can't get away from. Our economy is not based on sustainable health - it is based low interest credit to encourage compulsive spending, debt and living a life of constant consumption with a 'disposable mentality' when it comes to durable goods. All this consumption to artificially fuel our economy to make our retirement funds only go up contributes to more and more global warming and the depletion of our natural resources. Then the governments juggle the numbers to make the inflation figures seem artificially low, so everyone's retirement portfolio will make them happy so they will continue to buy and consume more...and on it goes....IT IS ALL WE KNOW and the bill is coming due soon! We must accept we have built a defective model for long term population support. We can only keep on keeping on as long as the crude is free flowing and affordable by the masses. Once we officially come clean with peak oil and accept responsibility as a country, we can at least be at a semblance peace with the outcome of our actions and recover a modicum of honor in the process as we restructure our country for a post carbon world. Until that time, we are living in a dream world that is rapidly becoming a nightmare. We have the tiger by the tail and cannot let go...but our grip is getting tired and all hell is going to break loose soon. Thoreau didn't think much of those that lived beyond their means and he said so in Walden. "Some of you, we all know, are poor, find it hard to live, are - sometimes, as it were, gasping for breath. I have no doubt that some of you who read this book are unable to pay for all the dinners which you have actually eaten, or for the coats and shoes which are fast wearing or are already worn out, and have come to this page to spend borrowed or stolen time, robbing your creditors of an hour. It is very evident what mean and sneaking lives many of you live, for my sight has been whetted by the experience of others; always living on the limits, trying to get into business and trying to get out of debt, a very ancient slough, called by the Latin - 'Res Alienum' or 'another's brass' for some of their coins were made of brass. Living, seeking to curry favors, lying, dying, and buried by 'other's brass'; always promising to pay, promising to pay, tomorrow, and dying today insolvent." (Quote shortened)