So cute! She looks very wintery and festive and quite proud of her new outfit! The little snowman adds just the right touch of color. I took down the outside decor today and am feeling a bit sad as I am going to have to start on the inside tomorrow. I just hate to see it go away as everything seems so blah afterwards, : ( I am going to keep up some snowmen and greenery just to help with the transition. Now I need to find Rosemary a cute winter outfit, LOL! TFS, Candy

Pant Rant Part Two: Ok, so yesterday I wear my NEW, snazzy, bought at Macy's "Charter Club" black jeans. They have some spandex in them and look pretty good--I got some compliments on how "stylish" I looked, (which I'm sure for some of my friends and colleagues was a shocker). BUTT, the first thing I notice is the waist dips down in the back. Just low enough for someone to catch a glimpse of the tops of my underwear, or, as one of my colleagues said when I mentioned my annoyance in the faculty lounge, "That's to display your tattoo." Ya know I would like to regulate for myself who gets to see my underwear, and if I'm going to show someone my underwear they at least have to buy me dinner first! Then, all throughout the day when I washed my hands I was noticing how dirty the rinse water looked. "Boy my office must be might dusty" I thought. Well, this morning when I'm taking a shower I notice that my thighs are also kinda grey looking. Seems my 36 dollar pants musta had their dye spray painted on or some such thing, because it is rubbing off on everything. Even today when I spilled some water on my pants and went to dry it off with a paper towel, it turned grey. And I haven't even washed them yet! Who knows how they will turn out in the wash. If they fade out I am taking them back! G-d knows what substance they used to dye them with back in China too!! I can't win for loosing.

French - I happen to disagree with you on the Karbon. Faulty install is not the manufacturer's fault. I think the finish looks very industrial in the home environment and not cheap at all. This is not the carbon fibre "look" that is slaped on many of today's cars and sporting goods. The one we used had a bit of a matt finish and once you feel it you can tell it's not cheap. The stiffness will wear off after a bit of use, it is a bit anoying out of the box. The drawbacks I see are: the spray pattern is very narrow. To turn off the sprayer requires one to turn off the faucet to re-set. There is no option switch from flow to spray then back again on the spout itself. I concur with erik - the KWC is a good alternative. It's flash and doesn't scream I'm a gorilla, look at me.

One thing that makes me shake my head is when people mistakenly believe the title "meterorologist" is a highly-skilled and highly-educated position. Nope, not so. Because stations want to flaunt the "m" term, weather wannabes often just get their degree from the mail-order outfits. Hardly anything impressive. Someone who knows weather doesn't need a fancy title. And yes, there's one in this market who has been pregnant for about the last 5 years. Drop the frog and back into maternity clothes. Local TV news used to be some big bucks for broadcasters but since the internet, satellite and cable channels blew up, local news has taken the nosedive. There's very few who truly get big contracts compared to years ago. And the staffing is cut to the bone in most places too. The top stations around here used to staff 12-15 true meteorologists (not just someone with what's known in the business as a "MS Degree".) Today those stations staff about 4 weather folk with varying credentials. I remember when stations were crying to get a weather person who could talk so they could throw them on the air. Now, if you land a job you're well-advised to keep it. There's not 20 stations vying for your "talents". Same thing with news and sports, all have been cut dramatically since local news ad revenues nosedived they simply can't afford to employ more. Time was many stations would have their own expensive radar units and deride the National Weather Service's units. Now, you don't see them very often. You'd see remote trucks all over, now it's at best a handful of "photojournalists" at best. And with the decline of news, more and more stations have been bought up by the networks so the days of independent reporting are pretty much gone.