Here's a CNN link discussing the fee increases. Specifically noted in the story: "The greatest fee increase will come for goods selling for less than $25. EBay's fee for those transactions will rise 67 percent, to 8.75 percent of the final sale price." Eesh - that would DEFINATELY hit plants. "Incoming CEO John Donahoe, president of eBay Marketplaces, which encompasses its shopping sites and classifieds, has said he will aggressively change eBay's product, customer approach and business model." Eesh - if he did this - he needs to go take a macro economics class. Econ 101 - if you want to increase an activity - you try to cut fees - cut some costs on admin side - increase the activity. Not hike your fees in the face of stagnating usage. Jeeez, duh! We're hurting - people are complaining! Increase the fees to make up for them not using the site! Wow, some people don't get it. Here is a link that might be useful: Cnn link to ebay story

Another Oklahoman here. Familiar with Porter peaches, though I grow my own. In Bartlesville there's a little restaurant where people love to eat. It's nothing fancy. Last time I was there, the surfaces of the tables were worn looking and mine even had a hole in it. But people wait in line at noon to eat. What do they order? The Hot Hamburger. It's a hamburger, what can I say? The difference in the dish is that it comes with a huge plate of french-fries covered in brown gravy. Now, I never saw the charm of this dish because I don't like gravy on my fries. In Tulsa, there's a little cafe-style restaurant called "Claud's" that was written up several times in the local newspaper as making the "best burger in Tulsa". Claud is now deceased and his wife Wilma is in a nursing home with Alzheimer's. But some of the kids run the place, and use the same methods and recipes. The favorite dish from there is an onion hamburger. They grind their own beef, pat it out thin, smear one patty with chopped onion and top with another patty. Throw it on the grill and fry it up. The grill is where you can watch, if you want. The NE section of Oklahoma is known for beef, peaches, pecans, all what David said (lakeguy). We have a lot of lakes and boy do I love that crappie! Biscuits and what "northerners" call "cream gravy" is standard breakfast fare in every restaurant. You also cannot have a meal that includes any kind of fried meat unless you also have gravy and mashed potatoes. Chicken fried steak is big here, though I don't really care for it. We like sour cream on lots of things. And we put cheese in and on almost everything. Yes, I too remember getting Frito chili pie at the concession stands during ballgames. Ever since, whenever I make chili I always want Fritos in mine instead of crackers. Does anybody remember the potato bars that were so popular in the '80's? We had a restaurant downtown that catered to the office workers there. Huge baked potato with your choice of all sorts of toppings. My favorite was bacon, sour cream, lettuce, shredded cheddar. Now we have a Starbuck's. I notice lots of cars in the parking lot.

What a good mommy you are! The new bedroom sounds dreamy enough for any little princess. How to stay motivated? It helps me to have some excitement about the final outcome. Do you have any inspiration pics to put up on the fridge to keep your spirits up and your motor running? There are a number of them in the Gallery in the post on kids rooms. There are also some in the bedrooms post, and even more in the Cottage Decor post. Close this thread and you'll find a link to the Gallery at the bottom of the page that lists all the threads. Also another link at the top right just above the list of posts. I second Dian's brilliant suggestion about audio books. I get audio book CDs from the library and listen to them in the kitchen, or wherever I have mindless work to do. I love them. I'll bet if you snoop the web you can order a ready-made slipcover for that chair for not too much money. You might start with eBay and amazon.com. On the sewing, all you're talking about is sewing straight lines. That isn't difficult. Seems to me you must have a gf who would be happy to come over and supervise you until your "rust" is off. That would be a lot less daunting than a class, to me at least. Your mom or mom-in-law might like to help. When our kids are grown and gone, we suddenly feel unwanted, useless. We are thrilled if we're asked to help. We feel valued, and if we're retired we have the time. Well, most of us, anyway. If yours don't live close they could at least sew a pillow or something. Just a thought that could improve family relations and lighten your load. Make a family party out of it. You supply the steaks, hot dogs, the barbee, and the paint, and invite them all. They can bring salad, dessert, etc, and extra paint brushes or whatever. I'm looking forward to helping with my granddaughter's bedroom makeover somewhere in the next few months. I'm really excited about it and I'm collecting ideas. One idea I ran across is these giant tissue paper flowers. They would be so darling hung from a little girl's ceiling. Do you like those? This URL shows you how to make them -- very easily and cheaply. It would be a good project to do with kids, depending on the age of the child. Here is a link that might be useful: How Make Tissue Paper Pom-Poms (scroll down)

I didn't make it to my personal goal of 200 books, but I did manage to read/listen to 189 books (even if many of them were re-reads). For my top 10 list, I am only including books that were new reads during 2007. In no particular order: Fiction Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear Deephaven & Other Stories by Sarah Orne Jewett Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen Invisible Lives by Anjali Banerjee Nonfiction (only had 4 that actually counted) Murder in the Adirondacks by Craig Grandon Sarah Orne Jewett (a biography) by Paula Blanchard The Medicine Wheel Garden by E. Barrie Kavasch The Creative Home Herbal by Susan Bellsinger & Tina Marie Wilcox Okay, I said I wasn't going to list any re-reads, but here are my top 5 favorite re-reads from 2007 The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner Beauty by Robin McKinley Persuasion by Jane Austen Farewell I'm Bound to Leave You by Fred Chappell