If you are going to have it plugged in to AC all the time at home, I would fully charge the battery and take it out and store in a cool, dry place. My original battery stayed in the computer all the time and I used it plugged in most of the time. Didn't take long for the battery to give up the ghost because it was contantly being recharged. A battery is good for only a certain number of charges. So I bought a much larger capacity replacement battery, use it sometimes, and will be using it when we travel. Otherwise, here at home, I take it out of the computer and store it in the box it was shipped in. These instructions were on the website of the vendor where I bought the battery.

I have no desire to carry a computer around with me, and so I'm content with desktop. I also have two desktops - one with XP and one with Vista. I've had the XP one since 2000, and it originally had Windows 98. It does everything I want except video editing, and so the second computer is dedicated to that, but I seldom use it. I have Google Earth and Sketchup on the new computer as well, but I cannot print from it because there is no driver for Vista for my laser printer, and the printer is not that old. I'm using an Okidata color laser printer that is on our home network. I've thought about getting a laptop so that I could put my Astrology software on it and rent myself out for parties, doing astro readings, but now that I'm working full time again, I don't have time for that. I've also thought about getting an iMac, but I really don't need it. For my birthday, I bought myself a new 22" flat screen monitor, which I found at a Circuit City going out of business sale for $200. I had to recycle my old CRT, which worked fine, but was way too bulky. I felt bad about getting rid of it because it worked fine and a 19" screen, which was big enough, I think. Last month DB and I upgraded our bedroom TVs to LCDs (32" Sharp), and so we ended up with two TVs to recycle that also worked fine. I kept my large old TV in the garage, and we took my old CRT and Kevin's old TV to the recycling center, where we learned that we could recycle only two CRTs per year, and we've met our quota for the year now. So I guess the other TV will stay in the garage for a while. I might hook a DVD player up to it. Lars

zep516 - Thank you for that info! I'll try it and see what I come up with. I appreciate your responding to my question. nearandwest - Thank you also for responding. I loved the detailed explanation and will be definitely using this method. ravencajun - Thanks so much for the link and the warning. I'm very cautious when it comes to removing things. If I don't know exactly what it is, I leave it alone. Better to be safe & have a slow computer than to be sorry & without my computer because of something I ignorantly have done. Thanks! mikie - whatever would I have done with all these fingerprints had you not replied?! haha thanks ;)

How about trying another site that offers the New York Times Crossword and see if it will print for you. The Seattle Times also offers the New York Times Crossword by Will Shortz, the same fellow who does them on your Arkansas paper. On the Seattle Times page, click on the printer icon. On the next "page" select "puzzle with blank diagram" (it may already be selected). Click "OK" The puzzle should appear. Click on the printer icon. If the puzzle doesn't appear, then you probably don't have a PDF viewer installed on your computer. It's worth a try, however, especially if it works for you. Let us know. Here is a link that might be useful: New York Times Crossword