QOD: You have reached (number), please leave a message, thanks. Raeanne, my lecture last night was interesting but a little different than I expected. I thought it would be old folk lore and legends (some of it was) but some of it was late 19th and early 20th century stuff right up to present day. Apparently the Pine Barrens is quite a place to disappear in if you are inclined that way..also, I did learn that the Pine Barrens is as large as the Grand Canyon. He did talk about the Jersey Devil (great link Dee) but I didn't learn anything new on that front. Where I live now was total woods when I was a kid, we used to drive here when we were teenagers and scare each other to death with JD. I have all woods right behind my house and sometimes JD does cross my mind since this was his stomping ground! The Leeds family is still very much in the area - the little town just south of us is called Leeds Point. ((Besh)) that is a tough one -- lots of hugs. Dee, I hate it when people don't pull their weight. 2 years ago when my boss and I knew we were being phased out we did our jobs, to our best ability, right up to the final day. You can b---h any time you want! Stay well and don't get sick! Suzanne, my sister goes to bed with your hens. I swear that woman is nuts - she is truly in her winter mode now. You and Besh are daring with color - I am not at all. I love color but am afraid of it on my walls, I painted everything neutral, certainly not exciting. I would like to paint my smaller bathroom before the holidays - I might experiment with color there. I am getting very brazen in my old age :-) Have a wonderful night...catch ya tomorrow!!!! Donna

--It is the mortgage scenarios with no future prospect, goal or even intent of ownership that I have trouble getting my head around. Like credit card debt becoming so "normal". Basically, one can have pretty much anything without really ever owning it.-- I definitely see your point. I have a friend who thinks Donald Trump is the bomb. I once pointed out that he's had a bankruptcy or two... her response was something along the lines of that being not such a bad thing in a business situation, actually sort of a kind of business plan. Mind you, this is someone who's very responsible with her own finances and wouldn't dream of cheating someone she owes money to. Somehow she didn't make the connection that when businesses go bankrupt, there are people who are not getting paid. Mr Trump uses other people's money to finance his deals, then doesn't pay them back. ugh. Ok, maybe he didn't plan it, but how can he be a good business man if his investors lose money (and why do people keep investing with him)? On the other hand, I think there's a big difference between that kind of thing and on the personal scale credit card or other unsecured debt, vs. mortgage or other secured debt. I did have a couple thousand in credit card debt at one point in my life (ironically because I was trying to avoid debt; I underestimated what I would need to survive my last year in college and didn't take out enough on my student loan. ha.) but at this point in my life, it would take a very dire emergency to take that on again. I suppose it was a fairly dire emergency at the time (I needed to eat), but if it hadn't been temporary, I would have found other solutions (cheaper living situation, fewer classes to pay for, etc). Meanwhile, I do have a mortgage and I do pay the minimum while investing about $1000/month in mutual funds. I have about half my outstanding principle saved (not counting retirement accounts). Will I pay it off when I have the full amount? I actually don't know. Partly that will depend on mortgage rates at the time (right now I have an ARM that makes its first adjustment in a couple years). Partly, it will depend on what I'm doing in my life. It would be wonderful to have a paid-off house, on the other hand, it would also be wonderful to have enough money in savings that I could quit my job, go to grad school, travel for a year, etc, if I got the urge. However, regardless of whether or not I keep the mortgage, having debt against an asset, you at least still have a positive (or neutral at worst) net worth. Using a credit card to buy consumables, you end up with just the debt. I don't know. Maybe the average person doesn't make the distinction and the idea that debt (including mortgage) is normal feeds the inclination to run up credit cards, etc.

Tricia, I'm glad that worked, I sure didn't know what the heck I was doing. Tami, here at work I have the same procedure. Go to "view", then "encoding", then find "unicode" or "Western European Windows). At home it's Unicode, here at work it's the Western European Windows that fixes the problem. Go figure, it's from the people who bring you the "start" button to shut down the computer. (grin) Annie

We did it!!! After reading all of your suggestions about security, coding and plug-ins, etc., I realized that I was in way over my head technically! I emailed Nephew and offered to pay him to fix and finish this for me. He was so sweet and told me that he'd be more than happy to do it, and no way was he wanting any payment for it. He's such a busy guy, with his job, new house and a great wife. As I mentioned earlier, he was so sweet to help me start this back in December, and I've been trying to finish it up on my own ever since then. But WordPress had me so confused! Anyhoo, I told him what you all suggested and he fixed everything for me! And when he went back in yesterday to make the changes, he said that he was really impressed with what I'd done with the blog and that it looked fantastic. I am so relieved and happy that he likes it, as he does this for a living, working for some tech company in Denver. He told me that he's had to go in and fix or help companies and individuals start up their own websites and blogs and mine is the nicest he's ever seen. And so, many thanks for helping me with this. I am very, very grateful. Our clinic's blog website is now ready for our patients and I can breathe again! Lynn