I must say the KTers get themselves some pretty impressive bargains! Our Craigslist isn't usually all that tempting. This morning my DS came over to tell me he bought a nice charcoal grill on clearance at Home Depot last night for $35. He thought I might like one too. I took a look at it, and I was impressed: Char-Broil, nice size, large cooking surface, complete with chimney, door in front to manage the charcoal, enamel-coated cast-iron grates, etc. For $35??? So I drove off to HD and snagged the last one they had left. The man who got the box into a cart for me (it's heavy!) couldn't believe it was only $35, and had to find an employee with a scanner to verify the price. He was shaking his head. Then I took it to the cashier, who said, "You've gotta be kidding me!" when she saw the price. So I think I got my Bargain of the Year rather early. :-)

I think that pillowcase apron (link provided by dlm2000)could be easily made. Some of the fancy aprons that jazmynsmom likes could be made by buying a dress pattern that was similar and just modifying it a bit, maybe? Grammy Britt always wore the ones that tied around the middle but had a bib. She didn't like straps on the bib, though, so she'd cut them off in a way that didn't show and pin the top two corners of the bib onto her dress front with little safety pins. She had a set for each apron, and when she took the apron off she'd attach the pins to the apron so they'd be handy the next time she used it. I remember sometimes she'd be working in the kitchen and have something on her hands and Gramps would walk in and give one of the apron strings a yank and leave her standing there with her apron just hanging. He thought it was a funny prank. I'd run up behind her and put my arms around her waist and feel for the ends of the strings so I could tie them back for her. She was such a precious little woman. She died of cancer when I was 15. I have an apron that my grandson made for me in Family Living class. I'm going to start wearing it. I've enjoyed everyone's posts. --Ilene

I read the first book of the trilogy a couple of years ago and loved it. And my interests are so varied - I enjoy romance, mystery, horror, biography, just about anything except the new zombie craze. And I can't really say I don't enjoy it, because I haven't tried it yet. DH does not enjoy reading because of his dyslexia, so we have been listening to audiobooks together in the evenings while working at the computer. Since I enjoyed the book so much, The Hunger Games trilogy was the first thing we listened to. We think the narrator for this series did an excellent job. He absolutely loved the whole series and couldn't wait to go and see the movie. We did enjoy the movie, but as usual, the book was better. And as another poster said, if you didn't read the book first you would have missed a bit. As for the theme, well, you must remember, as another poster said, it's FICTION. Just because I enjoy a romance doesn't mean I expect Prince Charming to show up and whisk me away. People die (often horrible deaths) in mysteries and horror, too. But I have no trouble separating fiction from reality.

Luckygardner--Threadwords was free. Try searching Amazon for free games (I know last Dec, I just found it searching through the free books). Alisande? Have you tried any of the free books? There are a gazillion classics--which I mean to read, but haven't gotten around to yet. But a lot of the free books by unfamiliar authors are actually VERY good. If you like mysteries with lots of twists and turns--try the Paul Pilkington book--it's almost always near the top of the free list, can't recall the title. A lot the other free books I've read (and it's been many dozen by now) are surprisingly well written--and there are every kind of book from mystery to romance to comedy to biography to other non-fiction, cookbooks, sample chapters--I literally have bought only about 5 e-books since getting mine. Yes, there have been a couple of clunkers, but a very very small percentage. I'd highly recommend giving a few of the free books a try. Read the reader reviews--I've found they're a pretty reliable source of info.