Voice Mail through their phone carrier. I have MCI's. I want my messages, I tap "O" twice. The voice prompt asks if I want to listen to my new messages and tells me to press "1" if I do. At the end of every message, the voice prompt asks if I want to listen to the message again, save the message, delete the message or move on to the next message. At the end of new messages, the voice prompt asks if I want to listen to my saved messages. One can hang up at any time and not loose the message, unless it has been saved already pass two weeks, in which one might have to re-save it (and of course the voice prompt will tell you how long every message will be saved, and ask if you wwant to save it again). All in all, the only thing I have to remember is to tap zero twice. The service might take longer to listen to than an ansewering machine, but it is easy and fairly goof-proof. I get all my messages. marf

I wasn't gonna suggest getting a new answering machine, I was going to suggest this technology called "voice mail." I have an internet phone and a cell phone (no land line) and both come with voice mail for free. I'd wager you can get a similar deal from your service provider. Then it occurred to me that maybe you like to "screen" the calls (I use Caller ID for that), which is why you use the answering machine. If that's not the case, go with voice mail. To get it fixed, you are most likely going to have to contact Panasonic.

Here is the orginal message to keep it with the photograph. I have a problem... actually two. The first, the fact that I collect sewing machines, you can't help with. The second, how to redo the room housing most of the machines, I hope you can help with. The 20x21 foot room was, we think, at one time a garage. Our kitchen window looks into this room. The first problem I need help with is the color of the room. The walls have dark, 1970s paneling with a brick foundation going around the bottom. The floors (which we can't change) are broken tile. The windows look into the forest... or the would if our parking pad weren't on the other side of them. I want the room to be airy, not dark and am looking for a color that complements the floor and trees outside the window. Because we also have a woodstove that we sometimes use in the winter and because the room is also used for sewing machine repair and crafts (as well as a "staging place" for things that would go in our shed, had we room, I prefer to stay away from white as it would get dirty to easily and because I think white turns grey in the heavy shade. ) I would be most grateful for ideas about walls, ceiling and trim and cabinetry (the wall that isn't showing will probably be wall-to-floor shelving and a desk). Also, I am interested in how to deal with the brick and mantle around the woodstove. I don't like the "country" look, but am afraid to paint the brick and can't figure out how to decountrify the woodstove area Thank you Amy I have a zillion more questions about the room, but figure color might be the first challenge to get a grip on

I have a Janome 350E which I use almost daily mainly to make cat toys for local animal rescues. I have a really long list of my favourite embroidery web sites but my recommendation of one of the best and very active helpful sites would be www.sewforum.com. There are two boards here that you should look at. One has patterns (free) that many digitizers generously put up and the other is a help board for those of us have difficulty with. One of the most common frustrations that a beginner has is not making sure the presser foot is in the up position when threading. Sometimes you get "nesting" issues (collection of thread) that require you to clean out the bobbin area and re-thread. (I ended up taking my machine back to have it "repaired" before the shop owner showed me shaking his head laughing!) I don't know how many times I've given this advice to on the sew forum. One of my favourite computer programs to go along with my machine is SewIconz which displays the icon on my computer embroidery folder so that it just isn't a name - a picture which tells me the size of the image and type of file. Janome uses .JEF files. PES are the most common but there are a number of programs (some free) that allow you to convert PES to JEF for the Janome. I've also learned to sit by my machine while stitching. Tempting to multi-task but I follow Murphy's Law - Walk away and something will happen! Hope you have as much fun as I have had with mine. If I can help - leave a message and I'll e-mail you.