Hey ChickaDDD, I know what you mean about Chicklet's story. He sounds super natural or something. Sleeping on roof, resetting his own arm, Typhoon or something and his birthday. WOW. But like you said if it is true your are surely helping them and thats all that matters. I must have missed it when the unwelcoming committee killed a catbird chick. That is awful!!! And it is not FUN to get rid of HOSP. I dont know why they would say that and it makes me sick. I cant believe they said it was fun, that is disgusting and shows how stupid they are. I hope you dont dislike ME for it but I have seen them with my own eyes terrorize my other birds and not just the cavity nesters, but i dont enjoy it. I just want to save my other birds. They were after Braveheart today when he and Scardycat would try to feed their babies AND they are building two nests in two of my boxes right now :-( When papa tries to bring food they jump him and fall to the ground. It is just pure harassment and today i noticed his right eye was closed up. I dont think it was the HOSP because he was fighting two mockers today too and they probably got fed up with him getting in the middle and decided to kick him around awhile. My blue is insane they are twice his size. But now he will be at risk of hawk attack because he cant see from that side. Ahhhhhhh SIGH. I am having such stress this year with the bluebirds. I love them and all the birds except the HOSP and it is hard on me because I worry so about the birds. My other little sparrows are building in my holly bush that the robins used three times this year ( they were busy ), you know the little ones that i keep blowing there little babies out of the bush. So at least i know where they are this time and wont blow them out. Birds are so funny. She fusses at me every time i go out there but then builds her nest right in my back steps. Go figure :-) Why would they kill a catbird? I dont understand that, it must have been before i joined because i dont remember seeing it. Do you know what month and maybe i can go back and find that post. That is very disturbing, maybe they are just animal killers? Maybe they do enjoy it. They almost had me convinced that the house wrens were evil till Bet got on there. Maybe they kill all birds except bluebirds. That's sick :-( Well im glad you didn't have any little jets get confused and end up in your house today :-) Maybe they realized that outside is where they belong. Hopefully for you and your families sake. All summer without air conditioning is a horrible thought for me. You are a very strong and sweet person to sacrifice your comfort for the little jets. I bet Daisy was hot too with all that hair. My Mary is very hairy like that ( 4 layers of fur ) and she doesn't even like to be outside in the summer. We are very spoiled. Im glad your kitties got bored with the swifts, i know you were blaming yourself for the deaths but you didn't know they were coming so im glad all is good now :-) I better go because this is long but i know i could talk a lot more!!! LOL. She who is to long winded~~~~~~~Bonnie

Actually, you're probably better off that they didn't install the new drive. I think that when they do, they just pull the old drive and replace it with a blank one. This way, at least you've got the opportunity to transfer stuff. If I were you, I'd get an external drive enclosure so that you can transfer things from the old drive to the new one. If you have to return the old one to Dell, get something that will completely erase the old drive. Just deleting the files or reformatting leaves it in a state where data can be restored. I've bought refurbished drives before that had sensitive data on them. If you don't have to return it, either buy spinrite to recover the drive as much as possible or drill some holes through it and throw it out.

Amazing how quickly things in life can turn - that contest is the least of my concerns now. My DS1 is coming home tomorrow for what was to be a 4 day visit but I may not let him go back or may go back with him. He called earlier depressed and fearful that he may need hospitalization. I'm scrambling, making sure he's not alone tonight before he has a friend take him to the airport in the morning. He says it's not out of the blue but he didn't want to want to make me worry - !!! - so he's been minimizing his unhappiness for months and now feels like it;s out of control. He's far from home, which is not new, but moved from WA to CA last July, left his close friends, wonderful co-workers and girlfriend behind for a job that he thought held a lot of promise. He's miserable at work, lonely and his GF of 2.5 years just broke up with him but this is way beyond heartbreak. I'm numb.

terriks- your solution post made me laugh. My nephew flew from Seatle to LA area and back. He went through normal metal detectors and that was it. I guess it depends on where you go. I think the idea about what to wear is a smart one and I agree that it would be more comfortable too. I wonder if the pins in my toes from my bunionectomy 20yrs ago would cause a second look if I went through the scanner?? I guess they could see the old scars on my toes and see that they have been there a while. I too wonder about the pilots and crew having to go through security all of the time. Of course if I were a bad person and knew they did not have to be screened I would look at using them to carry out my evil doings. I did ask my 13yr old about being patted down and she was not as freaked as I thought she would be. She said she was not thrilled at the thought but did at least understand why they have to do it. She did think that frisking a baby was weird but again, understood the need. I still feel bad for the people who have to do the frisking. I am sure when they first started their careers they did not think this would become such a common part of their jobs. But it also gives them lots of stuff to talk about at the dinner table.