Thanks. I was not a very happy camper the Saturday evening when it happened, and I do remember sporting a monsterous headache that night -- but I don't think I had the energy to swear or curse. I just felt like cryig and hoped it would be okay. Both appliance experiences have turned out for the beter (the washer is working better than before too!). If we're all going to be inconvenienced from time to time, I'm so happy when it works out for the better! I need to get those cookies going so I can take them to my son before he leaves on a band trip. I was supposed to be going as a chaperone but can't fly -- my ears won't clear. Another mechanical (bio-mechanical) problem! LOL I'm miss them all, but a senior student who couldn't afford to go and had been overlooked somehow is getting to take my seat, and a collection was taken up so I should get my trip money back. That made me feel so good that I went out and got that student a MC gift card so he;d have some pocket money too. My son was told to breing me back an antenae ball and I'll do something fun with my younger son while they are away. And I won't have to get up at 5:00 Friday morning! And I'll get to stay home and play withthe puppy we pulled off the streets and saved from worms, mange and starvation (she had a collar on and I foolishly thought we'd find her owner desparately looking for her). We thought we had a family for her last week, and then they decide not to take her. Three or four weeks of TLC and she has become such a lovely, happy and affectionate pup and she gets alond so well with our lab, doesn't upset or chase our cats -- we decided we just might have to keep her. We're trying to figure out a name for the little vixen. It's been quite a week! Here is a link that might be useful:

Sydney, Any news? Did you get a new camera? September 26 is day to mark. Why? Photokina will start that day. Photokina is a large convention in where all the camera companies show off the new lines, makes, and models. Some companies are already making announcements of what they will be showing. I see your price range and there are a lot of good cameras in that range. It seems that to meet your expectations you might look into getting a camera that allows you have manual controls over the camera. Do you want to stay with Point and Shoot or would you like to move to the DSLR range? Some things to think about: a P&S camera is compact and it easier to part from if you move on to another camera. If you go the DSLR route, you are just not buying a camera, you are buying into a system. Unless you have money to throw around you will most likely keep that camera a lot longer. You will have to buy lenses for the camera body. In most cases the lens can cost as much, or near, as the camera body. Therefore you find yourself dedicated to that company. There are some very nice entry level DSLRs out there. Nikon had the D50, I played with it for a while, but I decided to pass. I had the Canon XT Rebel, but I fell in love with the Olympus E500 so I gave the Canon to my wife. I can expand later if you want on these cameras if you want more info. Check dpreview.com you can find just about any camera there and it has customer ratings as well. Unfortunately, the best advice I can give you right now is when it comes to cameras, most salesman at retail stores donÂt have a clue, honestly, they donÂt. So donÂt listen to them. I get angered at times when I hear them make recommendations based solely on the amount of megapixels a camera has. This is just FYI but my current cameras are: P&S - Canon PowerShot 620, Olympus SP 500 UZ DSLR - Canon 300D XT/ Rebel, Olympus E500, Olympus E1 Zitro

I thought I should inject a word about my own credentials. Over the past 50 years I have trained 7 dogs (4 collies, 2 shelties, and one mixed breed rescue dog) and 4 equines (2 horses and 2 ponies). My first two collies came to me as one year old dogs and the latter two were puppies. Both my shelties were pups and my older mixed breed was a formerly abused biter with serious trust problems when they came to me. Two of my horses and one pony were what I would call "green broke" and the other pony was an untrained 3 yr old that I took on to train & rehome to save her from the meat buyers, but who ended up staying with me until her death at age 36. My first collie was a rescue of sorts, having lived the first year of his life at the end of a chain. I trained him with methods available at that time. He embraced the task of getting out of the road when a car approached, and he would have been sadly disappointed had he learned that the only point of this task was to protect himself from injury. He would scurry over to the side of the road and look at us with self-satisfaction, as if to say "There I found a car for you! Didn't I do good!?" I trained him using old school methods, and I lament not having access to reward based training methods at the time, as it would have made him an even more exceptional dog than he was. That is not to say he wasn't lavished with praise and love, just that old style dominence methods were employed. Still he had a great quality of life and walked hundreds of miles on hikes and horseback rides. But it always eats at me that I did not have the tools available that are at my disposal today. My last collie that I trained with positive reinforcement methods passed his canine good citizen test with flying colors and earned a backpacking title from the American Working Collie Assoc, carrying a pack for a dozen miles, and another 12 miles on his way to winning another title from a different organization. I schooled my horses in basic dressage, simple reining exercises, elementary jumping, barrel racing, as well as training my mare and both ponies to pull a cart. None of them even knew something as basic as how to back up when they came to me. My sister and I conditioned our horses for a number of 25 - 35 mile competitive trail rides and placed well. I placed 3rd (actually first place, except that there was also a champion and reserve champion ahead of her) in a competitve trail drive at Green Mountain Horse Assoc. with my small pony as well. This was quite an accomplishment for a small Shetland pony competing against a field of Arabians and Morgans. My Morgan X mare and I were often in the money/ribbons every week at local rodeos and gymkhanas. As far as horse training mentors, I took my advice from articles and books written by those who wrote about "developing a rapport with one's horse" and under the tutelage of similar minded equestrian instructors, both Western and English. It is not necessary to engage in some sort of macho peeing contest with one's dog to teach him desirable vs undesirable behaviors, nor with horses. As far as horses, my favorite words of advice on the subject comes from a trainer I respected highly, a man with great expertise in training "problem horses," Dave Jones. He wrote this: "When you are starting to lose your temper with your horse, picture this: imagine that your gentle riding horse is the meanest, mankillingest son-of-a-*** under the sun. Would you lose your temper with this horse? Heck no! He'd stomp you to death!" Mr Jones' sense of humor was one of his endearing qualities, but the message behind his words spoke volumes. I developed a lasting rapport with all my horses. The proof of their trust in me was evident when my mare was willing to cross a narrow bridge that no sane horse would cross because I told her it was OK, or when I had to perform a veterinary procedure on one of them, or if I told them it was OK to allow a vet to do the same. I never betrayed their trust in me and I could trust them all implicitly. I cared for them all their lives into old age and they rewarded me with a love that is still with me now that they are gone. (It had nothing to do with the obvious fact that the human with the grain can was in charge, aka alpha.) That is the definition of rapport.

I have two years plus experience with the Fisher & Paykel DD603 model. I am on my second one to replace the first one that had too many problems to list. Mainly it continued to leak and after replacing almost everything, it would still leak. I have a water softener and use 1/2 the soap recommended and it would clean fine, but water continued to collect underneath the machine until it would run over on my wood floors. The second DD machine is SO much louder than the first. It did not even have fiberglass sound proofing in the doors. The installer took the pads out of the original unit to put in this replacement unit. I still think it's refurbished. It was sent from the distributor in California to me in Florida about a month ago. I was so fed up with the noise of the bottom drawer that I called F & P and let them have it about this machine. It was also leaking. They sent out the original installer of this 'newer' machine and he sent his side kick guy. I ran a load before he got there so he could see where it was leaking. Before even diagnosing the leak he declared my dish plates were too large for the machine. He said nothing could be taller than the crook of the 'flamingo neck' of the handle on the container that holds the eating utensils. My plates are 11" diameter. I had him call F & P who declared they have a different holder for larger plates. They are supposed to be sending me completely new wire/vinyl inserts to use instead of the 'plate holders' that came with the machine. They think THIS is why my machine is leaking. I say BS. But they're sending them anyway. The machine is still too loud for me. I never thought I'd say this, but I now hate THIS MODEL since I've had so much trouble. I will say this: the machines MUST be installed correctly. The drain hoses are not hooked up the same as a regular dishwasher. AND F & P will NOT warranty work on a machine that is not hooked up properly. There is a kit you can purchase to hook these dishwashers up correctly. I know that there is a new DD605 I believe that should be out this month, if I remember correctly. I hope they fix any problems with this newer model. As for the operation of the machine. There is NOTHING to fixing a motor/rotor at all. It's ingenius the way these machines operate. I could install the motor is so easy. It's nothing like a regular dishwasher. I just want mine to work right. I have regular American dishes and several different sets. All of the dinner plates are the same size. I will let you know what the 'insert' actually is when it arrives that will allow the DD to hold deeper plates. Hope this helps.