Rosewitch, England was definitely one of my favorite places I have ever visited. My folks took me there when I was 14, and I remember bits and pieces the Crown jewels, walking amongst the Stonehenge stones (roped off now, vandalism), Stratford upon Avon. Time for me to take my own 14YO. Im trying to think how I can get over there for a whole summer, LOL. Dlynn, I could have worked so much more. I didnt really look at night time stuff and there was loads to do. Greece: cant help you, but shoot Yasou a line, she went a few years ago. LOL Annie! Teresa, well go together. I wanted to explore more cooking and food shops/stores but didnt get to. Terri, here is more a link to Pictures of England, a website pointed out to me by Denise. I started it on Bourton on the Water, where we stayed for a few days. Thanks Sharon, I was actually thinking how can I even come close to posting her quality of travel guides, I dont do the pictures she does LOL. We might have sat at the same table in the Cheshire Cheeses dining room! Sawdust still there, but we didnt make it to the cellar. I missed a lot of the British Museum. It has changed.check out the new atrium. I couldnt keep up with DH and DS16. Afternoons, when I planned museums, I crashed. Next time! Pam, lots of people did more than we did per day! Theater every night, more attractions, I cant imagine. Gina heh heh yeah I need another vacation like a hole in my head. Speaking of whichDH has another week off in August. Nooooooooo! Kathleen, DH says he took an average of 200 pictures a day. Yup. Me, I just buy the post cards or Google the images, same thing (DARFC from the photo bugs here) Cathy, thanks for giving me the War and Peace moniker heh heh. Next time I go with CF friends! LindaC, I know. Im still exhausted. Speaking of the V&A, did you know there was a Dale Chihuly chandelier in the entrance room?

I switched to CLEAR CARE because it is preservative free and have had no reaction to it so far. Very happy about that because most lens solutions do contain preservatives. Unfortunately, the problem reoccured about a week after I first posted my message. I had made an assumption that saline solution is just purified salted water and you can use whichever brand you like. You'd think by now I'd have enough brains to read the ingredients on anything I put in my eyes but I didn't. Lo and Behold the generic (Target) brand of Saline caused another allergic reaction and I was back on the hydrocortisone. In bold letters at the top of the bottle (on the back) it states "No Sorbic Acid and no Thimerosal". Not till you read the contents does it say "preserved with ...". So they're putting preservatives in Saline too! The only saline I found that does not contain preservatives is Unisol 4 by Alcon. Expensive, hard to find, and they only seen to come in 4 oz bottles (maybe because there is no preservative in them). My husband wears contacts too and he's never had a problem with products w/ preservatives. However, after seeing what it did to me he doesn't want them in his eyes anymore either. If you are like me (prone to allergies, excema, sensitive skin, etc) be very careful what you buy to clean your lenses. Hard to believe that such a small amount of liquid left on your lenses could do so much damage but it can. The chemicals will be absorbed into the skin around your eyes.

Me again. Finally, we're back in working order. The local service guy and I both learned a few lessons. He learned not to assume that the valve that failed is the cold one, when the customer can't shut off hot or cold supply independently. I learned not to assume he would assume either or both and so order both parts. We both thought about that whole situation a few times since Saturday and both of us realized we should have thought further about where else we could turn off cold or hot supply separately - just the fitting at the wall by the washer, or could we have tracked back further? I'd forgotten that I'd insisted the plumber put in additional shut-offs earlier in the line, in case we ever needed to shut these lines down, without impacting the rest of the household! I also learned that the people at Bosch (where you end up when you schedule warranty service through the 888-77LOWES number) vary wildly in their knowledge of how to proceed. The first one I spoke to misunderstood me back on the weekend I initially posted. He thought I said I was OUT OF WARRANTY so he sent me direct to the local authorized service guys (Scott's Appliance Installation and Repair). Scott and I muddled through trying to get the part ordered over a couple days, and then trying to get it expedited. Once we got through that, Scott came on Saturday (a week after this all began) only to discover in the meantime, that the bad one was the hot, not the cold. He scoured the New England area this morning, found a source, worked out whatever deal he needed to get it in hand today and replaced hot and cold fill valves this evening. Although I'd have been happier if he'd done a more thorough job of troubleshooting me in the first place, I truly like this independent authorized service provider. He works alone - so I'll never see some clueless idiot with an attitude. I like that he completely owned up to making a mistake in troubleshooting and that he made it right, and did a late appointment today, rather than making me stay home from work tomorrow. (On his first visit, when we realized we couldn't make the Bosch functional that day, he fixed a couple dopey* things wrong with my old machine for free, to make sure I could do a couple loads on Sunday, too.) He also helped me put the Kellett ShakeAway Pads I ordered a while back under the machine, even though his experience with various pads said I'd be unhappy because it might cut the sound but the machine would be jumping around more visibly. When we tested them, he said, "I have to admit, I'm impressed!" I'm happy... and the Bosch is humming away upstairs, and my whole house AIN'T shakin! (*hubby put new hoses on the old machine on Friday and ran a load or two. I found them dripping on the basement floor and he'd hooked them up backwards, hot for cold. Good thing I didn't run a load of undies in "cold" or my unmentionables would have also been my invisibles!)

Surfer, I've lived in Tornado Alley most of my life. The bomb shelter is the first place everyone should go in a tornado. I remember growing up, I went to a very old school that was built in the early 1900's. The basement had been turned into a fall-out shelter in the '50's, and if there was ever threat of tornadoes, the entire school would end up in the basement. Underground is best, and like TS says, away from all glass. The main bathroom in my house wouldn't be a good choice, (even when there was a tub) because there's a window nearby. We do, however, have a very small bathroom in the middle of the house with no windows, and if I didn't have time to make it to the basement, that's where I would go. If you're at home, pick a closet on an interior wall, closest to the middle of your home. You want to be surrounded by walls and no windows, on a ground floor if there's no basement. My mom would always stuff that particular closet with her extra pillows and bedding for some extra cushion around her. She was horribly afraid of tornadoes, yet lived in a house without a basement. It certainly kept that closet clutter to a bare minimum! Can you prepare for a tornado? Not really, regarding supplies. The best thing you can do is prepare a place to go, or know where the basements are around you. If you need to head there, grab a cell phone and hunker down. I think you were extremely lucky to have survived being picked up in your car. F5 tornadoes like the one in Greensburg, KS are rare, but being prepared and going underground is the only thing that kept that town alive.