Anything on Winter Sowing :).

for what she would be using it for it sounds adequate. But be sure you set her up with good antivirus programs and antispyware programs and teach her how to use them and turn on the firewall, I have a friend in her 70's that also uses web tv and does not want a regular pc simply because of all the hassle of dealing with security, instead she just gets the newest units that come out in the web tv or msn tv. You might want to make sure your Mom would want to take on the extra burden a real pc entails. I have seriously considered getting one of the newest units to have to use while sitting in my recliner and use my big screen tv, with my eyesight and arthritis would be easier than a laptop. but to your question the processor is a decent size and is a dual core. good amount of ram with 2 gig, and a decent size HD, having the built in card reader would make it easy for her to load the memory card from a camera directly into the pc and not deal with any camera software,price sounds ok too, they are coming down in price now for the holidays, there may be some cheaper but who knows.

I did fairly well with my short sale purchase. I did have to wait an eternity, lucky for the bank I couldn't find a similar house despite looking non-stop during the waiting period. We harrassed the selling agent at least once a week. Finally getting her to call the bank and harrass them. They had to resend the short sale package (there has to be a reason, in the sellers case they were divorcing) Then the Bank went under, but the loan agents were still employed working for the fed regulators. They issued their demands back, which was my purchase price, and I had 17 days and the seller couldn't have more than 40,000 in escrow fees. The bank loan was more than twice my purchase price and he had a home equity account with 80K more that had to be cleared (luckily again at the same bank). So short sales deals can be come by, but they take a far more active role to get the bank moving and get the selling agent to get contact with an actual loan agent.

Used book sales, dusty ol' book shops, library sales, they are my favorite haunts and past times. I end up sitting cross-legged on the floor all dusty, I look like a bum.. a book bum. However...mini rant to follow... while I love to browse and purchase books, I get so fed up with booksellers and antique dealers who are pushy and grabby and seem to have no manners what-so-ever. They are only interested in the bottom line - profit and condition - and I feel like elbowing them straight into the ol' textbooks section. Ah.. thank you for your patience. Rant over. After years and years of searching for a copy of Workers in the Dawn by George Gissing, I do confess to popping onto an old book site, finding the one I wanted and punching in the golden ticket numbers.. that would be my charge card number. Presto. Twenty-four hours and about $100 later, I owned it. Turns out, it is a very hard to find book and finding it for under $100 is nearly unheard of. And if I find another copy for a quarter someplace? I'll buy it and give it to a fellow Gissing fan. I am all for the thrill of the hunt to find that special title, but after a while, I just want my hands on that book. PAM