There are plenty of shopping streets/neighborhoods here that going to a mall is not a necessity. Not all malls are all covered here either, particularly Century City Mall, which has a parking structure, but you walk outside to go from store to store. Third Street Promenade is all outdoors, as is Rodeo Drive. Melrose Avenue is one of my favorite shopping streets, but I also like Sunset in the Silver Lake district. Hollywood and Highland also has a large central area that is open to the sky. There's really no need to cover these areas, since we don't have cold weather, and it's usually not too hot. Lowspark, you are not a weather wimp if you can handle living in Houston in the summer! I lived there when I was going to Rice, but I never managed to stay there in the summer. Rice closed for the summer when I was there - they didn't want to subject the students (and professors and staff) to the heat and humidity. DB had been telling me that Circuit City had been late with all their payments to Sony, and so we were not surprised when we found out that they were going into chapter 11. We bought a new TV recently and ended up getting it at Best Buy because they have a brand (Insignia) that got good reviews and was well under the employee discount price that DB could get from Sony for a similar LCD widescreen TV. I gave our old widescreen TV to the neighbors, for helping us move it out of the house. It was a rear projection TV and was huge!! I'm much happier with the flat screen TV, and our old TV, even though it was HD, was not compatible with Blu-ray. DB had bought a Blu-ray player a couple of weeks ago at a company sale (at Sony) along with an AV amplifier, but we could not get a picture on our old TV with it. Finally, I broke down and bought a new 47" Insignia flat screen LCD TV, and we're much happier with that. We only have a few Blu-ray discs, but we're starting to collect them. The old DVDs are supposed to look better on Blu-ray player, but it's difficult to tell. Lars

So the main thing is to do some research (ok alot of research!) to make sure you do what is best for you and you get the best deal! One element of that is checking out the company offering the warranty (it's not the dealer and it's not the car manufacturer). Find out if they're on decent financial footing so you can expect that they'll be around for your 100,000 miles. If a third-party warranty company goes under, so does your coverage unless some other company is kind enough to pick up your coverage. Expensive and "racy" cars cost much more to insure than a family car not only because they are more expensive but because more people take risks with them. Some companies charge more for a red car, regardless of the style of car, because red cars get pulled over more often and people who may own a red car take more risks (think red sports car) You might be really surprised at which cars cost a lot more to insure. Nissan's Maxima -- not hugely expensive or racy -- costs a minor fortune to insure because of the special headlights the car has. They cost more than a thousand dollars per pair and thieves know how easy it is to pry them out of the car and use them on their own cars. And the cars stolen most frequently include older models of such relatively inexpensive family-mobiles as the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry because there are so many of them out there that there is a good market for the parts the stolen car yields. Fortunately for owners of most of those cars, the loss experience of the drivers of those cars makes up at least some for the attractiveness of the parts.

Okay, I've been reading this thread and not responding to it b/c I don't want to have it come out wrong. I can't keep quiet any longer. I agree with many statements above. I would like to say these things: If you haven't already filed bankruptcy-DON'T do it. Your husband is like a child and you are not teaching him any good sound financial responsibility by bailing him out all the time. You've bailed him out 2x already and then signed for a loan for someone who has no credibility. Doesn't pay bills and loves to spend....HELLO that was not a smart move but you have to move ahead...can't look back. You guys created these debts you have to pay them. Your biggest expense next to your mortgage is your student loans....in almost all cases they can't be discharged. So you will still end up having to pay that. You've already stated you need your cars, so you'd be keeping those. You have to pay back your 401k loan...So basically you'd be trying to file off your 60k in CC and your SBA loan? Good luck.....you are going to ruin your credit....for a very long time IF you even get your bankruptcy granted with the new laws, you still may have to pay some of that back. What happens if you file and then have poor credit, no credit cards and then your water heater goes, or your furnace? You have no cards to pay it, no savings to pay it and no money to pay it. So you skip car payments to pay it then can't catch up and car gets repo'd and you have no way to work, lose your job, lose your house. Sounds extreme but it could happen. There are lots of people that are ONE crisis away from poverty and homelessness. I would set a budget, stick to it. Kick DH a$$.....if he's a photographer, start going to bridal shows get some clients offer better package pricing. Brides are bargain shoppers, if you have the best price and great photos you are hired. Hit the road and take photos of things when he isn't working. Enter photo contests w/cash prizes. Put your name out there. Free advertising is everywhere!!!! Stop crying over it and FIX IT!!!! Also, if you can sell stuff.....like 10 chairs to buy 4...then be smarter with the money. Sell 6 keep 4 and pay some bills. Take ALL the cards away from DH and give him a weekly allowance and that's it. If he's unhappy with that let him know that he did it to himself and needs to learn the hard way. Money doesn't grow on trees and the credit tree just got cut down. NO MORE MONEY......no more excuses. You made these bills now you have to lay in the "bed of bills" for a while. Once you recover from this you will feel a sense of relief and feel like a better person that you "took the bill by the horns" and paid everything down. You did the right thing and not the easy way out. Anyway, I'm all fired up, I hope this doesn't come across as insensitive. It's time to put your husband in his place and if he's not on board then he's got to find someone else to take advantage of financially b/c it's not gonna be you.

Ashley needs to grow up real fast because Daddy will not be there for her any more. Her real Dad and his new wife were both just arrested and are in jail for setting fire to their home, so charged with arson, fraud, money laundering, the insurance had paid them about half a million dollars and she spent a big chunk on a lot of plastic surgery, a $40,000 ring and Ashley got a nose job. So not much hope Daddy can bail Ashley out now and he sure won't be able to have her come stay with him in prison. R e a l H o u s e w i v e s S t a r A s h l e e H o l m e s � F a t h e r A r r e s t e d F o r A r s o n & F r a u d - - S e e T h e M u g S h o t s Real Housewives Star Ashlee Holmes� Father Arrested For Arson & Fraud -- See The Mug Shots Photos: NJ Housewives� Ashley Holmes Got A Nose Job RHONJ Ashley Holmes� Dad Matt Holmes Arrested For Arson, Insurance Fraud & Money Laundering