"Stupid people will always manage to break something or hurt themselves or someone else." For every moron out there that rides around with their baby on their lap there are plenty of smart people that occasionally make mistakes. Personally I sometimes let my mind wander and maybe that label or that lever I pull is enough to keep my brain on track. Maybe I should have one of you perfect people that never make a mistake operate my OPE to save me and my family from my imperfect self. Go ahead and take off the switches, levers and labels and let all the stupid people chop themselves up so they don't polute your perfect gene pool.

Agreed, Miele customer service is superb. At the moment I'm not as happy of a camper on my 6 yr old Miele DW, because it's going to be out of service until Tues until the tech has time to come back. Why aren't I pitching a fit? Because their techs are superior to anyone you've ever had in your home. THey could send a "factory authorized tech" sooner, but I wanted the real McCoy. He came yesterday following a long telephone conversation with the tech team, to see if he could adjust the water intake valve because I'm getting increasing errors when I try to use the sink when the machine is filling. they had great online records of my previous calls and suggested a tech come and visit. I'm probably paying for it (it looks like it was our plumbing problem) but competency is so worth it! The tech stopped, told me that we needed to replace this valve, spoke to the plumber on the phone for me to describe exactly what was wrong and said that after a call to dispatch he would be rescheduled. Unfortunately he's a busy guy so w/o a cancellation I'll be waiting until Tues. There's only the 2 of us, so we'll wait. Sigh... OTOH, the extended warranty tech for my KA 42" Fridge just left for the 3rd time over a door hinge. He was late in arriving and has to return for a 4th time with yet another part! There's a big difference in these two companies!!!

I wanted to add my experience with the LR6. I have a 22' x 14' family room where I installed nine 3500-degree LR6s. The layout was a row of four lights down each side of the room, about 4' from the wall and about 4.5' apart, with one additional light in the center widthwise at the far end of the room (over a fireplace), essentially like this: :* *: : : :* *: : : :* *: : : :* * *: --------- The front four lights are controlled by one dimmer, and the back five by another. I used the Cree-recommended Cooper commercial dimmer switch and, while it doesn't dim as low as an incandescent, does go to 20% or so (in my estimation) without any flicker. We are thrilled with both the quality and the amount of light these give off. Before our "re-do" of this space, our family room had dark paneling and beams and was a challenge to keep adequately light, even during the day. We have remodeled the room in a contemporary style and the lighting really complements the new look.

Yesterday I was in Costco and they had the Shark Rotator Powered Lift Away 3 in 1 vacuum on sale with an instant $60. manufacturer's rebate. I paid $239 and it came with the under appliance tool, the upholstery brush, a 2 in1 crevice tool, the weird floor tool where you can attach a cloth and vacuum and dust simultaneously, the canister caddy and the attachment that I really like - the mini motorized brush. The vacuum head LED lights and another light on the handle. I had been using the top model Sears Progressive canister for years but I don't like their newest model - nor the price - so I thought I'd give the Shark a try. Costco has a wonderful return policy too. I used it immediately because my black Lab is a notorious shedder. It seemed to do a good job. One thing I noticed and didn't like is that the wheels are close together and I have one rug that shows vacuum marks - well for some reason the Shark leaves very noticeable wheel lines in the rug. The next time I vacuum I'll do a little comparison test. Vacuum half the family room with the Kenmore and half with the Shark. Empty the containers and then vacuum again switching vacuums and see how much they pick up. I've avoided Shark for the same reason I've avoided all of those "As Seen on TV" things. The informercials are just so enthusiastic and loud that they remind me of Boardwalk shills.