You guys are too much :-). And I'm shocked at how much a 2 year old's attitude resembles that of a belligerent teen! The refusing to answer when spoken to, the ignoring of direct instructions, the odd eating habits... No wait lists for any of the hotels but I did manage to find a room via Travelocity. The funny thing is that when I specified the town as "Mansfield" the hotel came up as available but changed to unavailable when I tried to book rooms. A call to the hotel itself confirmed that, no available rooms. But when I changed the town to "ashland" (about 20 miles away) the exact same hotel came up as available & allowed me to book rooms. So I did. Printed up my confirmation so I have proof. Now I'm even toying with the idea of flying out & renting a car. What with the cost of gas in my area it wouldn't be all that much more money! But I'm liking the thought of camping more & more & maybe later in the season we can get away for a few days to just camp. bring the little guy & the dog & play wild slumber party in the tent. Both the little guy & the dog would love it. Thankfully we have a big tent! Melanie, I'm beating myself up because I know better. I consciously left this until the last minute. It's a bad, bad habit of mine. I insist that I work better under pressure :-). Yes, Bill, how far west are you heading? And since you're in Maine have you ever done the trip east to Nova Scotia? Now that's a spectacular holiday! Nina

The yuppie couple on 60 minutes were pretty despicable and clearly knew what they were getting themselves into. I would also prefer not bailing out people like that, but I think this is one of those times in our nations history where we will have to look at the greater good. I would love to be able to say that if people and companies were foolish, irresponsible, and unethical, I shouldn't have to pay the price for fixing the problems they created, but standing on principle will result in alot of collateral damage to communities, schools, local governments, our national economy, etc. I've come to the conclusion that perhaps the best we can do to salvage this situation is to force not only individual companies, but all of Wall Street, and the federal and state regulators to implement mandatory changes and tougher oversight and internal controls. This whole situation ticks me off, but I don't think we can afford to stand on principle because it will end up damaging the nation and people who have been financially responsible and are the type of people that quietly do the right thing. I'm going to hold my nose because doing the right thing for the country still stinks.

ETZNAB- Obviously your buyers were p-i-g-s. They really took advantage of the buyers market & tortured you. Don't worry. I say that they will pay for something else. I wouldn't be surprised if something BIG doesn't break & NOW they'll have to fix it. What goes around comes around. Guaranteed. My buyers wanted to back out or get a price reduction for no reason, just because they didn't want to pay that much for the house. I sold for 50k below comps. That still wasn't enough for them... I'm hearing that they are finding the house expensive to live in (big house with high utitlity bills & difficult to maintain yard). Hey, they wanted a taste of living in a big house, but were very cheap. They are DIYs because they don't want to pay for any services. The curb appeal took a nosedive. Not my problem anymore. Yeah!!! One of the problems you had was that you didn't have a realtor to fight your battle. I had the same problem. Buyers are not happy unless THEY save the entire commission, and then some. I would say move on & be glad you got rid of your house. I am grateful that I'm out of that high maitenance house (the house was only 13 yo., pretty, but a lot of upkeep) We downsized & I'm loving it. Pfewwwww. Yup, just to remind myself how glad I am that the nightmare is over, I will have a glass of wine with my dinner tonight, again-lol

Well, the only problem with Priceline is that if something unexpected happens, you are STUCK with the bill, and that is that. My friend booked via priceline in NYC for this past weekend--just the 2 of us were going. She ended up in the hospital but there was no way I could reach Priceline to explain my problem unless I had her credit card, ID,etc. I tried both phone and email. I was so frustrated!!! I called the hotel but they said only she could check in with her credit card and picture ID. Right before she went into surgery, she called the hotel directly and begged the manager to switch the reservation to me. He finally relented. I could not change my airline ticket either without a huge penalty, so my husband used miles (plus $80) and went with me at the last minute. The hotel was very convenient for our purposes--a Radisson with 3 stars for $95, which for midtown Manhattan seemed good. I don't think I will use Priceline again unless it is at the last second and I am positive I will use the reservations.