Okay. You guys are great. Clearly the collective wisdom is not to throw money at the problem - but figure the problem out. Owbist - in my thread on not connecting my husband's vista laptop to our network, I tried quietly, methodically to troubleshoot the issues - to no avail. I found lots of similar frustrations on google - but no solutions that worked - and I think I tried them all - at least to the best of my ability. thanks for those great, easy-to-follow instructions to transfer to an external hard drive. He'll want to do that anyway - even if he keeps this computer. This computer guy is pricey - but where I am in DC they seem to fall in the $125-140/hour range - and they can usually fix a problem. Others that charge $40-75 - that the uninformed think are good - but their know-how is less than what I find here. I tried a few of those locally recommended guys - and they accomplished the simple tasks but also made mistakes I had to hire the more expensive guy to fix. My main complaint with him is that he's wedded to his biases - he hates Vista - so his recommendation is usually to avoid or ditch it. Our struggles with Vista seem to often be how often we're blocked from things or performing simple tasks have all sort of obstacles - for "safety's" sake. Thanks to everyone for pointing out that Windows 7 is just a revamped Vista. I got my first issue of Smart Computing and they were tauting it and described some features I thought I'd love. DA - if W8 is in process, is there any indication of what it will be like? Probably worth waiting for - or at least waiting to hear more about how Windows 7 is panning out. So I'll keep plugging away on my other thread to get him connected. If I don't succeed by Tuesday, the computer guy will come and fix it. I guess we'll stop there. Thanks. Lynn.

AnnPann - I did a little digging for you, and although I didn't find any specific sites referring to that situation, I found some books that might address it: Australia-focused home front books: S.J. Butlin and C.B. Schedvin, War Economy 1942Â1945, Australian War Memorial, Canberra, 1997 Darian-Smith, Kate. On the Home Front: Melbourne in Wartime, 1939-1945. Australia: Oxford UP, 1990. Saunders, Kay. War on the Homefront: State Intervention in Queensland, 1938-1948 (1993) The Home Front Volume I by Nancy M. Taylor NZ official history (1986) The Home Front Volume II by Nancy M. Taylor NZ official history (1986) Political and External Affairs by Frederick Lloyd Whitfeld (1958) NZ official history Britain: Calder, Angus . The People's War: Britain 1939-45 (1969) Harris, Carol (2000). Women at War 1939-1945: The Home Front. Thrupp: Sutton Publishing Limited. ISBN 0-7509-2536-1. Marwick, Arthur (1976). The Home Front: The British and the Second World War. Rose, Sonya O. (2003) Which People's War?: National Identity and Citizenship in Wartime Britain 1939-1945 Misc: Costello, John. Love, Sex, and War: Changing Values, 1939-1945 1985. US title: Virtue under Fire: How World War II Changed Our Social and Sexual Attitudes Noakes, Jeremy ed., The Civilian in War: The Home Front in Europe, Japan and the U.S.A. in World War II Exeter, UK: University of Exeter, 1992. Then below is a link to an interesting site about a community in London with oral histories etc (won't hurt your eyes).... Might be relevant... Here is a link that might be useful: Hidden Histories: East Community Heritage (London)

Thank you for the kind thoughts-Christmas was bittersweet at times, and there were some group tears moments-but over all it was fun-DD and DS-in-L were in from the West Coast and we enjoyed our half of their visit. After an autumn of comfort rereading, I am moving on-first I read Sister Queens by Julia Fox-a tandem biography of Catherine of Aragon (1st wife of Henry VIII) and Juana of Castile, queen of Aragon and Castile in her own right and mother of a Holy Roman Emperor. Interesting parallels even though they met only once after Catherine left for England at age 16. Now I am treating myself with Miss Buncle's Book by D.E. Stevenson. Charming, light, a bonbon. Work has started up again-deadline on the 3rd-so reading time will become slim and precious. For BookClub in January we will be reading Killing Lincoln

Thank you all so much for your replies! It's wonderful to see so many of you slogging through the Houzz changes in order to remain in touch, sharing your words and your photos. I hope others continue to chime in as they check in with the forum in between scheduled summer activities and in spite of current technological difficulties. Titian, thank you for the information about Florence's last posting. I may have missed it since it was located on a thread which began with another topic. I wish there were some way to reach her just to say how much it meant to share the exchanges that we did. We even shared family history and photos and artwork. Mary, I have no idea if Houzz ambushed the Furniture Forum with my post after the fact or whether I neglected to deselect the FF as a suggested cross posting site. I THOUGHT I deselected everything but Antique Roses. Since we will never know, and I prefer to maintain the fantasy that I can manage my own affairs, I'm going to cry "Houzz ambush" in order to save face. :-) Carol