Hello bookert, last month I was shopping around for a new dryer and I ordered GE profile dryer directly from their outlet website. When the dryer got delivered to me and the tech plugged it in, it was terible noise and was found defective. I refused the delivery and decided to opt for money back. Few days later my washer broke and I decided to start over and look for a new washer/dryer set. I did some internet research, read some reviews and then went to best buy where I purchased Samsung combo, WF431 with foam, steam and VRT technology. They had a great promotion and the machines looked amazing. I got them delivered shortly after, about two weeks ago. I was very excited about them but got disappointed shortly after. First and foremost, although the laundry appeared to be clean and smelled fresh, much better than from my old TL, but stains did not come off completely. That was a huge turnoff for me because my main priority is to get stains out. And then after 6 days the dryer broke. All of a sudden while I was drying my children's car seats covers, the dryer popped and it does not work ever since. The power does not even come on. Since I was still within my 30 days exchange/ return period I decided to do more research and after days spent online and reading posts and reviews, I decided to order Electrolux Wave washer/dryer. Although I went over my budget, I got a good deal from Lowes and their pricing on extended warranty is unbeatable, extra four years for both machines only $180! I am supposed to have them delivered next week and I hope my quest for washer/dryer will be finally satisfied!

Buehl, please do! I was just trying to save something of use. I'd been checking the GW all night, turned my back for 15 minutes to watch the Health Care vote, and whammo! all the posts were gone. I kept refreshing, thinking, "This can't be!"

More of a garage story but we were fostering a pretty crazy dog. We had just built our house about a year or two before. He had already done just about everything to the inside of the house so I thought I will just put him in the garage for one hour while I go to church. What could he hurt in the garage? It's heated and I don't think he can get out. He was an escape artist. If I put him in the yard he could climb the fence and would run down the street chasing me, if I left him in the house he would go insane and tear up any barrier he could to get out. He had severe separation anxiety. After I pulled out I shut the door and let him in the garage. It was winter and one of the coldest days of the year for us here in the south. I had a five gallon bucket of paint and glaze I had been glazing the kitchen with, put it out there and forgot about it some time before. It was just under the windows. I didn't have a fixed lid on it for some reason just covered with foil. He thought it was a stool and was jumping up and down and in that bucket of paint trying to escape through the windows that face out to the front of the house. He managed to tear down both window blinds from the two windows and cover them in the paint. They were hanging off their headers all askew. He then jumped up and down on the garage door which is white as far up as the windows in it, a double garage door covering them in paint. The garage was nice with dry wall and pretty paint and flooring and even base molding he had paint all over the floor and walls and to make it a true heart attack we had just gotten a new SUV that was parked in there and he jumped up and down trying to get into the truck. It was also covered in green paint. When I came home and hit the door opener he ran out covered in green paint I was in shock at the scene!! My next door neighbor who always has his garage door open and had his pride and joy white BMW convertible parked in it. I scream at him CLOSE YOUR GARAGE DOOR!!! My dog was heading to his garage covered in paint. I started running after him in my high heels and dress I caught him and got myself all covered in paint but I was able to hose him off and get him cleaned before realizing in disbelief the carnage in the garage. I felt so mean hosing him down outside in the winter and was terrified the paint would not come off of him but it did. Then when I looked at the garage it was one of those times when you truly did not know how to react, it was an out of body experience. It was a horrific scene and since my husband was out of town I had to figure out where to start on the clean up. It was really a job for Service Master or a hazmat cleanup, lol. I started with the SUV and to my surprise since the paint was still wet it came off, thank God it was latex. It did not come off of the black rubber or plastic bumper areas though, it just absorbed it. Then I tackled the garage door and windows and the people door that leads outside. Pretty good, got that up but it never did come off of the flooring or the drywall which I had to repaint. Then I went to Home Depot and got new blinds for the windows and it was pretty much as good as it was going to get. To this day there is still green paint on the floor out there a little reminder of our crazy rescue boy. My new house was definitely not new anymore!!

One thing that makes me shake my head is when people mistakenly believe the title "meterorologist" is a highly-skilled and highly-educated position. Nope, not so. Because stations want to flaunt the "m" term, weather wannabes often just get their degree from the mail-order outfits. Hardly anything impressive. Someone who knows weather doesn't need a fancy title. And yes, there's one in this market who has been pregnant for about the last 5 years. Drop the frog and back into maternity clothes. Local TV news used to be some big bucks for broadcasters but since the internet, satellite and cable channels blew up, local news has taken the nosedive. There's very few who truly get big contracts compared to years ago. And the staffing is cut to the bone in most places too. The top stations around here used to staff 12-15 true meteorologists (not just someone with what's known in the business as a "MS Degree".) Today those stations staff about 4 weather folk with varying credentials. I remember when stations were crying to get a weather person who could talk so they could throw them on the air. Now, if you land a job you're well-advised to keep it. There's not 20 stations vying for your "talents". Same thing with news and sports, all have been cut dramatically since local news ad revenues nosedived they simply can't afford to employ more. Time was many stations would have their own expensive radar units and deride the National Weather Service's units. Now, you don't see them very often. You'd see remote trucks all over, now it's at best a handful of "photojournalists" at best. And with the decline of news, more and more stations have been bought up by the networks so the days of independent reporting are pretty much gone.