Sharon, you better post some of your hooker photos for those whose heads are reeling right about now! LOL Great cookbooks, and I want to see that pendant, too, sounds lovely. Tim is half Swedish and half Norwegian, so I definitely know what lefse is! It is a flat "tortilla like" bread made of potatoes. Tim likes it rolled up with buttter and sugar. Me? Not really crazy about it. Great swap box Adele! Linda

Welcome to the "Icebox"!!!!!! ;-) THIS winter is nothing!!! Last year....you may have moved back to Texas....! I'm a lifelong ND-dude! Born and raised here. Grew up farming near a small, Eastern-ND town. Been living in Fargo since college in the 80's!! Again...Welcome! Faron (I saw KISS in Bismarck in '82!! It was their last tour with the makeup on!)

Your entire wardrobe is going to change, not just coats, longjohns and gloves. In my 9+ yrs in St Paul, I found that I never wore shorts in the evening from Labor Day until midMay. Sleeveless - not so much except for a couple of weeks in August. I steered away from poly/rayon clothing and instead went with the highest cotton or wool content I could find. Natural fibers are better IMO for staying warm or cooling down during mosquito season. My wardrobe of slacks increased in number pretty quickly. I initially bought Sorel boots but found them to be too clunky and heavy to wear so I switched over to LL Bean duck shoes and I bought separate Dr Scholl's liners. Not at the top of the style-o-meter but when the snow is high and you are cold, who gives a hoot about style. Breathing bitterly cold air hurts the nose and lungs. I used scarves and wrapped them around my nose/mouth when outside, waiting for the bus etc. In MN, most winter days were really sunny. The lack of cloud cover allows all the warm air generated at ground level to dissipate. result, the beautiful sunny days are the colder days. I've lived in NY, MI, IL and MN. Of those 4 states, MN is the one where people are outdoors year round. If you let the weather dictate your lifestyle in MN and ND, you will be indoors 1/2 the year. Just layer up. If you move into a house with a yard/garden near sidewalks, do NOT use salt on the sidewalks. It kills vegetation. as Faron said, sand, sand, sand is your friend. My mother in law, who lives near Dallas, made one trip to visit when we lived in MN and she would not come back from Nov to Mar. You may find the same with potential visitors...

Each employee also received a digital video camera with which to record their project. In addition to the "Pay It Forward" gift, employees also receive year-end cash bonuses totaling 5 percent of the bank's earnings for themselves. From article; "The bank's act of kindness has had unexpected consequences. Reif said that at his branch alone, about 50 people have called wanting to open an account because they were so taken by the gesture." Yeah, 'unexpected'. Riiiiiight. That's why they hired an Oprah look-a-like with a duplicate set, to host the announcement. The whole thing is a marketing ploy and I would love to revisit this thread July 1, 2008 to see what great deeds have been performed. Is the list going to be made public? The employees get free money to give to whomever they want, and the whole thing is a huge tax write-off for the bank garnering tons of publicity to attract investors to the bank. I'd be more impressed if each one of them donated a kidney or something. Or banded together to forgo their hefty end of the year bonus and donated that. Call me a cynic and a realist. Here is a link that might be useful: Oprah Look-a-Like and Bank Officer