PB - Um - okay, since I haven't ever wore one and have absolutely no experience (excepting the coconut bra I wore in my HS production of South Pacific), why don't you just buy a bra without the underwires? Since you brought it up, why do most bras hook in the back? That seems rather counter-intuitive to me. And yes, I believe this is a packaging question and on topic. :)

I was going to put my blood type on the helmet too, but an EMT told me he would never pay attention to what someone claims their blood type to be, he uses universal plasma and at the hospital they use a quick blood typing test. The risks of infusing an incompatible blood type are too high. Medical insurance information sounds like a good idea. Although [rant] have you checked what your "insurance" actually covers, lately? Our family of four pays about $16K/year in employee contribution. And our total family deductible is around $12K/year. We have not consumed over $12K/yr of medical care in at least ten years, probably not since the last child was delivered. Basically we pay $16K/year - and my company pays at least as much - for catastrophic coverage. On a day-to-day basis, every doctor visit and every prescription is coming out of my pocket. I'd rather we had the system they have in France. Everyone, rich or poor, has basic, no-frills medical coverage. Those who want nicer, fancier, more sophisticated treatment - private rooms, cutting-edge technology, $100K/yr drugs - have the option of buying commercial insurance policies, if they can afford it and want to. But everyone, rich and poor, has a basic and decent level of care. We may get a version of that in the US, starting in 2014. Maybe. "There's many a slip, 'twixt the cup and the lip." Who knows if it will actually happen. [/rant] After reading this http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/21/technology/bicyclists-using-cameras-to-capture-accidents.html I got interested in wearing a video camera, so you see on the helmet my initial experiment. It is not the $300 GoPro that a serious biker-recorder wears, but a $38 micro-cam from a Hong Kong mail order hobby shop. Meant for use in radio control aircraft, helos, etc. After experimenting with this cheap camera, I'm putting a nicer videocam on my Santa list. Aside from the "evidence" aspect, it is instructive to view a recorded ride and think about what dangers I did and didn't perceive at the time. I've been riding in traffic since I was a 7 y/o boy riding in downtown Vancouver B.C. on my Peugeot ten-speed, but I still make mistakes every day. Just like we all make mistakes driving, even though we've been doing it all our lives. I'll post a link to some video later. Here is a link that might be useful: NYT Story

I love telling this story. It almost, but not quite, makes me beleive in fate. I was going to college during the day and working at night at one of those bars with a rock band 7 nights a weeks. A rather wild place, I admit. Funnest job I ever had. We had a house band that played every Sunday and Monday, the days most bands take off. They also played a full week here and there. He was newly divorced and took a part time job selling water beds to make ends meet. His shift overlapped Gene's shift and they became freinds. Gene played keyboard for our house band. He became a regular and we knew each other for about a year and were fairly good friends before he asked me out. I found out that we had gone to the same high school but we never met as he is a couple years younger than I am. Hey, I thought he was older. How many 22 year old guys own a house, a nice truck and a boat...plus are already divorced? He certianly ACTS older than I do. By the end of the first month I was head over heals. We were engaged by month 3. When I brought him with me to meet my parents my mom recognised his name and asked if his mom was "C". She is. Turns out we had met before. For 2 years, my mom and his led a girl scout troop together. They often brought their babies with them and we played in the play pen together while they had their scout meetings. My mom had to quit when she got pregnent again, but evidently he and I remembered each other on some level, eh? I had thought I was in love a couple of other times before, but with DH, it was completely different. There was absolutely no doubts or hesitation. I was absolutely sure. Kay.

Anele - I would look for a fabric that has the same background color as your wall color-- but could be a darker or lighter shade, and then a blue patten, either just blue or or blue with the red/rust of your sofa. I like that idea and will continue my search. Beige certainly isn’t a hot color right now. :) May – I agree throws look forced a lot of times. Truth be told, we never use the red one because it feels really weighty. Don't dare fold them and lay them over your sofa back any more--too dated! Ha! As I tiptoe to the LR to move my fur throw from the loveseat. I’ll probably keep it there for now, but where do blankets go these days? I did have a large woven type basket that I kept beside the couch near the e.stand end and kept throws in there. We have a few toys along the couch now and the basket just seems in the way for the time being so I pulled it from the room. I’m trying to think what we did with blankets growing up. Remember how you suggested a sofa table for the wall where the wing chair is? I’ve been coming back to that idea on and off. For a visual I moved the plant and pulled the chair forward and up the other night. Measuring out, I think I would need something roughly 50”W and only about 12”D, which so far seems not very common! 18"D seems to be more standard. I was thinking something painted might be nice. I found one that I think the style worked very well with the entertainment stand, but it was 18”D and not quite long enough. Boo. Right now I also think I prefer the toy box to the left when you walk in the main entrance, but I’m still keeping an eye out for a sofa table because now the table and chair actually do seem kind of odd on that wall. Planning on the tv going there eventually. Anele - I think we really all have such varied taste, that frankly-- it's almost amazing when we agree Yeah, in general sometimes I’ll find myself agreeing about something and then someone else will say something completely different and I can see their point too. I think sometimes there can be many correct answers and it depends. I know my posts usually end up all over the place and I get all wordy, but I’m always able to pull myself away to reflect and sort it out. My original goal was to add blue so I’m going to focus on getting some pillows in here. I think I’d like to go more minimal with the amount. I also think I’m going to go ahead and change the art on the wall behind the sofa a while since I have it. It will help me feel like I'm making some progress! Since the sofa and table aren’t centered on that wall I think I’m going to attempt to float the art up from left to right toward the entrance. I may have questions. Oh, and regarding the curtains looking bad at night - looking at that more, I think it has a lot to do with the lighting. The color of the bulbs plus the dim light I think makes things look dingy. If DS is up and it's dark I'll have the overhead and the lamps on for him on which I think looks the worst. In general I don't have enough lights in the room, but I prefer the amount of light from only using two lamps when I can. Honestly that looks better than using the overhead. I pulled the panels back to the sides. Too much curtain material stacked. Going to adjust that and add the back tabs on hang from rings in the meantime. I do hate the light gap along the top and should have thought about that before installing those inside mount blinds. Somehow I didn't know that was going to happen! Added the blackout fabric along the top. I'm not sure if anyone else would actually notice or not. The gap here is larger than the one in the kitchen which makes it more noticeable, IMO. Ramble. Ramble. I'll keep everyone posted. Thanks again!