I listen to Bob Tanem In The Garden on Sunday mornings 7AM-10AM. You can find him on KSFO 560 AM, and there are archives/podcast available to download. He is a longtime Marin County nurseryman and lecturer, and has a wonderful infectious laugh and friendly manner. He offers advice that steers people away from using toxic chemicals in their garden, and instead explains how to use low toxicity soap/oil sprays, beneficial insects, etc to get rid of diseases and pests. I like the fact that he takes the approach of using less harmful methods first, then resorts to stronger chemicals when absolutely necessary, and talks about how to use them responsibly. Most of us gardeners want to minimize chemical usage, but when there are times when you need to get serious with a problem, it is nice to have a person well educated in both natural and the "unnatural" products steer you in the right direction.

Love my ipod! I take it with me whenever I travel and like forhtv enjoy being able to withdraw from the crowds. I have also found that I will walk for a longer time if I have it with me. Besides music, I have loaded webinars, seminars and recordings from various radio talk shows. I like the idea that I can listen to a recording at anytime anywhere and rewind if I miss out on something that was said. One thing that has worked very well for me are the upgraded earplugs from Apple. The ones that came with the ipod hurt my ears and did not fit well. The earplugs were pricey ($79) but when I had damaged them on a flight, Apple replaced them with no questions at all. Don't seem to listen to much music at home. Chris

The short answer is yes you can. Look for a stereo a/v receiver. You will want a seperate system so that you have enough connections. Recommend looking at Harmon Kardon for around $500 you can buy a decent one. Harmon Kardon sells an IPOD dock that will integrate with the receiver and in some cases allow viewing of music on a connected video monitor/tv. All laptops can be connected via the line out/headphone jack using a mini to RCA connector. In addition you can also buy a USB device to allow digital connection via optical cable to the receiver. Depending on your XM radio you will likely need to get a dock, most all of the portable radios have a home dock option that will easily allow connection to the receiver. Most XM radio channels are broadcast in 2 -channel meaning you only get left/right sound, that being said all modern receivers will have a built in sound setting to give a simulated surround sound effect coming out of 5 to 7 speakers.

It came with my new car, but it's not user friendly in my car, the way my radio is set up, so I rarely use it. It mainly gets used on road trips. It does come in handy though if we are in the car and there is a sports game on that is important to dh or my boys b/c we can almost always find it broadcast on one of the many sports channels. Jujubean, what a coincidence that you mentioned Serial. My neighbor just told me about it yesterday and I listened to the first installment this morning while weeding through email on my computer. I actually live just south of Baltimore, and was living here at the time of that murder but I don't remember it at all. The journalist does raise interesting questions in first installment about whether people can honestly account for their time on any particular day, especially one that occurred many weeks prior. I really should acquaint myself better with what is broadcast on Sirius as I spend a lot of time in my car and probably would enjoy many of the channels.