digdirt With the Fortex beans, I've been removing the stem-end of the bean and leaving the curved point. Maybe I should remove both in the rest of them. Now, note that they don't get mushy without blanching if I make sure there's no air in the package AND if they are put directly into boiling water from the freezer. That's what I normally do when cooking them anyway, so mushiness hasn't been a problem. David & oregonwoodsmoke I hear you about preferring the French cut! Many years ago I used to buy the Green Giant ones with slivered almonds, but then we got to be more set in our ways, I suppose. I like the mouth-feel of Frenched beans less than the whole-cut ones, but it sounds like a good thing to do with beans that may be tougher or older. The Fortex pole beans are truly the best I've ever grown and eaten, either fresh or frozen. They're very long, eight to ten inches at even pencil-size in diameter or smaller, no strings at all, and yes, a true green pole bean. Linda Lou I'd think blanching would be needed for canning beans maybe more than freezing them. Wouldn't freezing beans either slow down or altogether stop the enzyme action until they reach "deterioration" temperature, whatever that is? That's what I concluded after realizing that if I quickly freeze the just-picked beans (without exposing them to air in the package after freezing) and then put them directly into boiling water from the freezer, they are nearly indistinguishable from fresh-picked beans. I've also found something similar with corn. This was by accident. At least thirty years ago, I stopped at a road-side stand at the end of the summer and bought the guy's last bushel of corn for a dollar. I had a car-full of little boys who'd been to the beach, so when I got home, I didn't have time to shuck the corn that we didn't eat at dinner. So I tossed it into plastic garbage bags with the shucks still on and put the whole shebang into the garage freezer and promptly forgot them. Just before Christmas, I remembered those ears of corn. When I checked, they hadn't suffered freezer-burn, so I brought out a few of them to thaw and shuck. They were absolutely delicious! We had the rest for Christmas dinner and New Year's Eve! Truly, they tasted fresh-from-the-garden, too. So I do wonder, sometimes, about traditional wisdom, though in most cases it truly covers the situation. I suppose digdirt's advice is good advice for adventurous sorts like me, to test things out. [Of course, you can do that with freezing vegetables but not with canning them.]

But to keep shopping for cards - I hate to have so many opening and closing credit cards on my credit. When they cross me, I just inform them that I won't be using their card anymore...that it will be stored safely at the back of the file (or whatever) and never carried or used....just to let them know it is unlikely I will ever be using them. I rather think that the average joe customer service really does not care much. Maybe it would get their attention if one was to drop the 'approved amount from 5, 10, 20, or 50 K down to say $500...and then stick it in drawer. It seems they really want to give us some money (debt) yet aren't willing to give folks even with super credit rating, super rates. I just checked and my Discover (the only one I regularly use and always pay off each month) has a rate of 17.49% for purchases, and 22.99% for cash advances. Sheesh...Let's revolt! I think I'll call now and ask that they remove that cash advance option....suggesting for security reasons. That rate is outrageous. When I checked a score (it wasn't FICO but some other name and scale) a year or so ago, it said my score was 98.5...only 1.5 away from being 100 percent perfect. Shouldn't that warrant a pretty decent rate? Sue

I believe it's 7-10 years, but you'd probably have to ask each credit reporting agency. And in the designated amount of time, pull your report and make sure the record has in fact been expunged. But I think you'll probably find that you can get another home loan. You may not get the best rates, and you'll probably have to carry PMI at least at first. You'd lose the house to pay off lenders in bankruptcy anyway since you aren't living in it. You could do CH 13, which is the debt re-arranger, but it would be on your record for 7-10 years also. I don't have any real suggestions for you. I do know that one of my friends got foreclosed on in the house he was living in, and bought a new house literally within days. But that foreclosure is still on his credit report and he pays a much higher credit card interest rate than usual. Luckily he doesn't carry a balance. Anyway, that's what I know...

A food saver sealer is a real investment in keeping meat fresh and freezer burn free in your freezer for years. I recently discovered a steak in the bottom of my deep freeze that was dated Jan 2007. I defrosted it and it was absolutely fine! I wouldn't tend to keep anything that long again, but I swear by my food saver, it's been one of the most used appliances I have ever bought. I'm not a kitchen "gadget" person at all (chop everything by hand!) but this is worth it, we never throw meats away which have been vaccum sealed with the food saver. TIP: I store it under the counter cabinet in a place easily accessible so that I can grab and use it very quickly and easily. I used to keep it in my pantry closet and it collected dust - I just never thought about it. My neighbor has one of the cheap, hand held vaccum things for zip lock bags and isn't happy at all with it, the vaccum seal breaks too often and then the food dries out badly. I can buy meats on sale, divide them into the portion sizes I wish, wash and dry them and seal them up, I. D. them as to type and how much ("rainbow trout, one meal for 2" for example) and date them with an indelible marker and they are fine for YEARS in the freezer. I also make up lasagnas etc this way and meat loafs etc. It's really a wonderful way to take food out of your freezer and have it as fresh tasting as the day you put it in. I realize I'm sounding awfully enthusiastic, I don't sell this product or have a connection to it other than as a customer but when I find something I really like I like to spread the word.