As you already noted, the smoke comes from colder, heavier air pushing the smoke back down the chimney. The fact that you have an external chimney doesn't help either. For its use right now an outside air kit would probably not help much. I would seriously look at an insulated metal liner but only if you dump that older inefficient rather dangerously installed insert for a newer clean-burning insert, like maybe an Avalon Olympic. I have a small freestanding wood stove in a chimney like yours with an insulated liner and it drafts like a charm. I burned two cords of wood in it last year, swept the flue this past weekend and had less than a 1/2 gallon of very fine soot in the liner.

I don't care for it at all. This morning there was a report on Olympic security and our team has been told they should avoid wearing anything that identifies them as American when they leave the games' venues. Then they showed a photo of 8 models wearing the sweaters. I just can't image the image os seeing our entire Olympic team walking together in those sweaters - talk about a kaleidoscope!

Kat, I love that one! Great idea Flamey! My Mom's favourite colours were blue and green together. Our kitchen was decorated that way for years and when we tore the kitchen apart we found remnants of the old blue and green wallpaper. She also had blue and green sheer princess curtains in the kitchen and they were up there for years and years until the sun finally destroyed them. Even then she didn't want to get rid of them and put them away to keep. LOL Anne

With my lousy TV reception, I saw almost nothing With the horrible NBC coverage we all saw almost nothing. Even though I live in the same time zone all the so called "live" events were on time delay. We got more filler and commercial coverage and the least actual sport coverage I've ever seen in a world wide event such as this. I understand Canada and even most of Europe got round the clock coverage. NBC gave the USA "prime time". Poorly done. They should be ashamed. Even some of the smallest, least known countries send their best to the Olympics. We just don't get to see them except maybe if you watch closely at the opening ceremony or have they have a sad "human interest" story that the network managed to dig up. Again the coverage in the states is awful. Every single athlete who makes it to the Olympics is world class. Imagine if someone you knew worked hard to get to the level of these athletes and then when you went to watch him/her only the top 4 competitors are shown? The person you know or are connected to was never even shown because he/she took 5th out of maybe 36. But that didn't count. The broadcasters only show us the winners and the runner-up so their talking heads will have more to yap about. That is how it was done. I'm disgusted with this year's coverage. Can you tell?