Just MHO, I wouldn't buy that camera for bird photos. Not if you think you might get serious about photography. Depending on your budget, consider Canon S3 IS or S5 IS (the S2 IS takes good photos also). Panasonic FZ20 or FZ50. The S3, S2 and FZ20 are older models that can be bought for around $250. The Canons work well with tele converters (you might want to get into photographing birds at greater distances. The Canons have 12X zoom lens and shutter speeds 1/3200 fast enough to capture the beat of hummer's wings. There is a learning curve with these cameras but study and practice will pay off with really nice photographs. When starting with a new camera, the thing is not to give up. There is no film to buy or processing fees so you can take a thousand practice photos for almost nothing. Visit the bird watching forum and ask this same question mentioning hummingbird photos. Ask the folks which cameras they use and if they will show you a couple hummer photos. There is a thread now about new cameras. Happy hunting. Marnie Here is a link that might be useful: Bird forum

Macro capabilities are important to me. But my experience thus far with digitals verses film SLR has brought forth some interesting peeves. Focussing and jitter control are often automatic and a lot of folks just shoot and let the auto feature handle things like this because they don't want to delve deeper into how to take advantage of all the camera's features. Especially when using the Macro setting, the auto focus can be a huge pain. The autofocus mechanism works by picking a point that IT considers the prime target and focuses on that. However, what it picks to focus on is not always the subject. Admittedly, I haven't had my new digital long enough to get comfortable yet with manual control of shutter speed or focal length settings, something every good photographer should have control over. But for the neophyte or beginner, it's not that big a problem as you aren't wasting film and you can review your shot and go back and try again. Most cameras have features to adjust for camera shake or jitter. It can be tough to control this though, even with those features and a tripod is valuable. However, I have tended to repeat shots hand-held because it is so easy and quick to review a shot and try again. I tend to take reasonably good pics and if you go view the photo tours, 'A Place for a New Garden', 'I Think I'm Going Japanese, #1 and #2' and 'Walk Like an Egyptian', you'll see examples where I did not go back and redo a shot that suffered focus problems or jitter problems. For an example of jitter, look at the Golden Head of the Mummy Sarcophagus in 'Walk Like an Egyptian'. That is not a focus problem. It is jitter. Note that in other shots, there is a pane of glass between the camera and the subject and the shots suffer from light reflection off that glass. But OK. So what I'm saying is that the very good device that cameras have built in to control jitter ... does not always do the job. Be aware and use a tripod or be prepared to make several tries if the shot is important to you or you want to make sure your work is good. I've generally found that the digital cameras are extremely flexible and useful, but the old SLR can still do things that digitals can not. When rating digital cameras, a lot of folks condemned the early ones because their controls were hard to finger and they made 'noise'. The newer cameras are very quiet and the control surfaces and interfaces have been much improved. You can find my latest photo tour of South Bay Gardens in the California Gardening Forum. It is called 'China Grove' and covers San Jose's Overfelt Gardens.

1. washer worked perfectly 2, Handy man turned off all water in the house. 3.Handyman changed gaskets on the outside spigot 4. Turned water back on to the whole house 5. Went to wash clothes and the hot water worked for awhile (5-10 minutes) the just stops. 6. Cold water rarely would fill at all. 7. Tried the washer many times but no luck 8. Handy man got the flood hoses and put on machine 9. Tried more times to wash clothes but water would fill for a few minutes and stop. The hot water would almost always come on for awhile. The only way the cold water would come on is if it was turned on VERY slowly and sometimes not even then. 10. Checked water at spigot - water comes out fine. Checked water from spigot to unattached washing machine end. Water came out perfectly. 11. Today, replaced flood hoses and put on the Eastman hose. Every single thing concerning water remains the same. 12. I have never, in the past, turned water on and off when doing laundry. It think that covers it. We did all of the GE testing ideas from Sammy above, All results are listed above.

..just to say that I really like your kitchen and its colors. The cabintets seem so alive..the color and texture remind me some animal's fur. And the counter is not non-descriptive to me, at all. I look at your kitchen-and I see something I'd like to pet. It's warm and has character. It's like forest in the fall. I didn't want to write all these silly things, but I've been looking at your kitchen all day. And today when I woke up-I started looking at it again. So here goes. It's pleasant to look at.. Of course it's not about me liking your kitchen, but you' liking your kitchen. But you said you liked it, or at least do not dislike it, you just want it to feel newer. So change of hardware is a a good thing then, and of course you can decide to change counters, add backsplash, etc. If so you wish. Appliances, in some foreseaable future.. But the easiest thing would be to change your perception of it, and since it's a kitchen open to other space(living? family?), even if you change something there, your perception of your kitchen will be diffrent. Say you decide you want to put curtains on windows (have no idea whether you want to-just an example). As you'll see them from the kitchen-the overall perception of space will change. And will feel newer, (it can be light fixture, new art added, many things). You can also put some crock you really like, in the kitchen, or any accessory like that that will be both functional but will uplift your mood. I agree you don't need anything on the top of your cabinets. Unless you are, say, an avid collector of teapots, and ran out of space, and ..along these lines:) But no, they look good empty. They don't really need anything, these cabinets. Sorry for the typos..my laptop is misbehaving more than usual today.