I never had a car before I was married. But 'our car' was a '55 shrimp and white chevy convertible. #2 was a gray Karman Ghia convertible. Ghia financers would not ok it going overseas. #3 A '55 ford that we took to Spain(paid cash), drove over 3 years there, and brought back to US, on a cruise ship (along with the 3 of us).Drove it for several months after that, before having problems. #4 A brand new 1965 Mustang convertible Which got totaled in Seattle, in 1967. Auriette was only 18 months at the time and she and I were in Fl for a funeral.She, however, wishes that we still had that car---LOL #5 A station wagon new but we got orders to Scotland and didn't have it long. #6 ( 1970-71) a British car with the steering wheel on the 'wrong' side, which I never drove. Just before coming back to the US we bought a British 'made for the US' Austin America. Bought a Motor home about that time, and towed the Austin a lot. #7 A yellow Dodge colt that we kept for 20 years, until we could no longer find parts-sold it for $40 to the junk dealer-after I took off the steering wheel, and all the emblems, and anything else I could 'junk'! This one got towed too. Also Bill had a small for truck and when we were doing craft shows that got towed with out 'setup' in the truck and our back up stock in the Motorhome. Bill later bought a copper colored Ford truck in the mid 90's when we stopped doing shows. Drove my Mothers car for a year or so,while she was bedbound and had alzhiemers. Sold Bill's white Chevy Silverado long bed truck (too much truck for me!) to his brother. I still get him and the truck when I need a truck-LOL #8 the Ford station wagon (that I still have) for 11 years AND NOW the new Toyota Rav-4 my first vehicle to buy, by myself with Auriette's support. More info than you asked for.........LOL

Thinking back on these memories has brought to mind perhaps the funniest prank I was ever involved in. When I was a Sophomore in High School there was a store in my home town called the Fiesta shop that sold all kinds of high end collectibles from around the world. In one corner of the store they had a small area with rare gourmet foodstuffs. One day while browsing through the store we found a can about 5" in diameter and 2" deep that contained a whole canned octopus. Understanding that it was at least 500 miles to the nearest sea shore it then goes without saying that we had never seen an octopus except pictures in a book or on TV. The can was $7.00 and this was at a time when men on top union labor contracts were only making $1.75/hr. At least once a week we went by the store to see if anyone had bought it yet, but it was still there so we got the silly idea to pool our money until we could buy it, just to see what an octopus really looked and felt like. It took us nearly three weeks but we managed to get the money together and we bought the can. There we were walking down main street tossing the can back and forth and trying to figure out how we were going to open the can when my buddy Tom S. got the silly idea, lets go to the Sears store and use one of the can openers on their display rack. Off to Sears where we opened the can, then went out to the alley to pour the liquid out and see what an octopus looks like. We pulled it out of the can and took turns holding it, examining it, then it hit us, what in heavens name do we do with it now? We surely were not going to eat that nasty thing. Suddenly my buddy Norm grabs it and say "Come on guys, I got an idea". Back into Sears we went, this time heading to the appliance department. There it was, right in the middle of the appliance department, a brand new Kenmore wringer washing machine. In those days they used to put water in the demonstrators and drop some poker chips in so the ladies could see the action as the water sloshed around inside. Norm casually walked by and dropped the octopus in the washing machine, then we went and sat on the stairs going up to the second floor and watched the action. About ten minutes later a lady was innocently browsing through the appliance department when she happened to look in that washing machine and saw the octopus swimming around in the water. Instantly she went ballistic, screaming, hollering about monsters and such. The salesmen ran over to see what the problem was and they went nuts too. What the hell is that thing? How do we catch it? Somebody call the cops! The cops arrived and by that time one of the sales clerks had gone to the hardware department and got a pair of huge pliers which he used to grab the octopus, heaving it out on the floor where the cops pounded it with night sticks, then stomped on it until they were sure it was dead. By this time my buddies and I were nearly falling down laughing as we scrammed out the back door of Sears and ran home.

Hi All, foodonastump asked: "Which has me wondering just how much is to be saved by skirting around delivery restrictions and waiting for weeks to have something shipped clear across the country by an F-rated shipper. My reply: $500-800 was the difference. Not small change for us. I did give the local B&M's a chance, but they couldnt come close. Plessers had already purchased a bunch of these fridges, so I assume that enabled them to offer the lower price, as they had negotiated a bulk purchase. foodonastump asked: "Also wonder what happens if it's delivered with a ding in he door?" My reply: I wondered this too. That's why I called my credit card company and had my questions answered by a supervisor. I also read here and on the Plessers email to NOT sign the delivery receipt if there was damage of any kind to the appliance or our house without noting this damage on the bill of lading (delivery receipt). If you dont want to accept the merchandise due to damage, you note the damage and write refused (get a copy!). The shipper then takes the merchandise away and you are not held financially responsible. If you have any trouble with a damaged delivery, contact your credit card company and speak with a supervisor (preferrably before the delivery people leave). sjhockeyfan, I hear you on the lack of communication. We wouldn't do this again if we had a tight, must-deliver-by-date. Or if we didnt have a working fridge. weissman, canceling the order would have been the worst thing for us to do, as Plessers has a financial penalty for canceling once the merchandise ships. I imagine most B&M retailers do. Everyone, thanks for the replies! I've been slow to respond as my carpal tunnel is acting up from having to move a whole bunch of stuff around to make room for the new fridge that was delivered yesterday, yeah! However, there is good & bad news from this experience. I'll start with the good news: the KA KFCS22EVWH was delivered on day 16 (12/18/13) at 11:30 am by 2 very nice guys from A&M Home delivery. They showed up within the 11-3 scheduled window and called 10 minutes ahead to let us know they were on their way. They were polite, detail oriented and knew what they were doing. They listened well. The fridge was in pristine condition, powered on, and other than a slight bulge at the back top, which looked like it was caused by how it was assembled at the factory, was in great shape. I couldn't ask for better delivery people! The not so great part was getting a phone call the night before at 8:30pm from A&M letting me know they would be at the house the next day from 11-3. When I said this was too soon for us to get the old fridge, and other stuff moved, the only other option given was an after Christmas date. So I took yesterday's date only because I had a flexible schedule that I could re-arrange. The gal who called (Daniella) was very polite and apologized for the last minute phone call. She explained that their system (including the phones) had gone down and they were doing the best that they could under the circumstances. So, my grade for A&M Home Delivery is an "A" for the delivery guys and Daniella's communication to me on the phone, but an "F" for their technology and communication procedures. Total grade: C My Recommendation: Only order from retailers that use A&M if you have the ability to deal with a last minute delivery date, dont need your item within a guaranteed time frame, and you're saving an amount of money that makes it worth it for you. They may eventually get a robust, reliable, tracking system that will enable them to give a consistantly appropriate heads-up, but from other reviews, and my experience, my opinion is that they cant or wont currently provide this level of service. However, they were polite, well-spoken people, and that means a lot to me. My grade thus far for Plessers is an "A". They responded to my request for help with A&M. Their system provided me with a status email letting me know the fridge was in the hands of A&M, and they had THE best price, (assuming the rebates are honored). BTW, I gave 2 local retailers a shot and they couldn't touch the price offered by Plessers. We will definitely order other, non-rush appliances from them, if they have a better price than our local dealers. Now, onto the bad news. I'd like to read the riot act to the people at Kitchenaid who are responsible for either the incorrect spec sheet, or the incorrectly built fridge. The fridge frame, sans doors/drawer is currently sitting in the entryway of the kitchen, (with just enough room for us to squeeze by) because it's too tall to slide under the cabinet that overhangs the space. I measured VERY carefully. Our cabinet is only 18 deep, so it will only cover the frame midway (hinges sit in front). The spec sheet says the frame (without the hinges) is 70 7/8" tall. This would have worked with our cabinet. Spec sheet calls for 1/2", but since the cabinet isn't covering the entire top and there's plenty of room around the rest of the fridge for heat dissipation, I figured this would be adequate. Buuuuuuuuuuut, our fridge measures 71 1/8" tall. I've adjusted the leveling feet. It wont sit any lower. So until we pay a cabinet guy ($$) to take down the cabinet and cut it down, we cant get the fridge into it's space. So warning to all who consider a new fridge, the mfg. spec sheet dimensions may not be adhered to by the factory! You may end up with a bigger fridge than what the spec sheet states. Thankfully we decided we would leave our old fridge in the kitchen, for a month or two, so we could make sure the KA doesn't have any issues. I will post photos and further review of new fridge once we get it up and running. Thanks for all the positive wishes everyone. I love Gardenweb! ~Savvy

I have to disagree here. Finalizing is what is done on CD-R disks, I don't recall ever finalizing a CD-RW disk since the purpose of CD-RWs are to be reusable. Finalizing will render the disk unwritable in the future. CD-RWs can be tricky. They're not always compatible between cd drives. Also, CD-R disks don't always have to be finalized. It depends on the hardware being used. Once a disk is finalized, you cannot add any more to it. However before that you can and in a sense use it like a CD-RW. Again, it's not a clear issue. Sue, I'm a little unclear on what you're trying to do. Saving it to a disk certainly isn't just because you ran out of ink, at least I HOPE not! Are you trying to have someone else print it for you? If so, you could use a USB "flash" type drive if you or they have one. I think everyone should have a couple of those around anyway. They're the modern day "diskette". Another option is to email the file to get it printed. Also, if you're looking to have another person print it for you, be sure they have WordPerfect or a conversion program. Or you could print it to a .PDF and then they could open that if they have a program that will open .PDFs. Back to saving it onto CD. If you have XP or Vista, you should be able to just drag and drop it onto the icon for your CD writer drive, or click the save and save it to that drive. It should walk you through writing it to the disk. Once written, I'd suggest you rename the file on the drive, for instance rename it from "document.wpd" to "document1.wpd", then try to open the document on the CD. The reason for renaming the original file is if it was just a link, it would open the file on the drive rather than on the disk and this would be a double check. You could then name the original file back to the original name if you desired. HOWEVER, again, this does not guarantee that the disk will be readable on another machine. Things have improved over the years, but right now, CDRW is a relatively "old" technology and not being developed. BTW, jemdandy's comments are good to help make it more likely to be read on different machines. Hope I haven't thoroughly confused you!