Chickadee2, I live in Birchrunville! The Cafe is a huge foodie restaurant(egullet loves them) and well worth the wait time.(People come from all over, mostly NYC for the Chef's menu...it's very cool to see the gazillions of various wines opened to try with each course. I feel so pedestrian bringing a single bottle of red:) ) The homes here are beautiful, you can still get a rare old beauty for around 300,000 without much land. But saying that, there's far more approaching 1 million to 4million. B'ville is very much a hidden secret, but it's a place where the hunt still goes off several times a week, hot air balloons fly over, carriages with matched horses share the road with walkers and bikes, people making stone sculptures randomly, and the denizens make british people look far less charming and eccentric:) I'm attaching a link to a realtor who has some B'ville property. This realtor was doing cocktail parties in open houses back in the 80's. Here is a link that might be useful: Cochrane realty

SPOILERS AHEAD: I believe Young Griff is who they say he is: The son of Rhaegar, snuck out of the Red Keep just in time, raised by Rhaegar's good friend Jon Connington. Am I right? Only time will tell. I don't know what the duck means. One of Young Griff's attendants is a sellsword nicknamed Duck, and I have been confused as to WHY his foster father -- former hand of the king, experienced warrior extrordinaire -- hired someone else to train Young Griff. I mean, he himself is capable, and the more people who know Young Griff's real identity, the more danger he is in. And Tyrion commented that Duck was "less than he seemed". If Jamie showing us the duck isn't a hint that Duck will be important later in the book, I don't know what it means. What Duck might do, however, is anyone's guess. I agree that her time at the Eyrie has been the happiest time of Sansa's adult life. Her childhood was better, of course, but her eyes were also closed to the real world at that point. I agree that Sansa and Tyrion -- even if Sansa were capable of overlooking his physical shortcomings, no pun intended -- are poorly matched. He's much more intellectual than she is, and she is much more social. Too bad the marriage plans for Sansa and Willis fell through; I think that would've been a good thing for her. I'd say her marriage to Tyrion is invalid because it was never consummated, but none of us have read the Seven Pointed Star -- the holy book of their faith -- so we can't say with confidence whether they consider the marriage valid or not. She certainly doesn't seem to consider herself Lady Lannister. Sansa can't lie to Ramsey about being married to Tyrion. If she did, he'd rape her anyway (remember of whom we're speaking), and when he realized she's a virgin, he'd know the marriage wasn't consummated. In the book Ramsey marries Arya, or at least he thinks he does. The truth is that Little Finger sent Jeyne Poole (Sansa's childhood best friend -- remember Little Finger, who owns a bunch of brothels, offered to "find a place" for Jeyne?) to the North wearing Stark colors, with instructions to say she is Arya. Everyone believes the real Arya is dead, so they'll never be caught in their lie. Theon knows, but he is too terrified to tell the truth, even when he sees Ramsey abusing the girl. Why do the Boltons want this marriage so much? They're ravenous to make their stranglehold on the North official, so marrying Ramsey (heir to the Dreadfort, natural son of Roose Bolton) to the girl they believe to be the last living Stark essentially gives them control of the North. In the books, Sansa is still in the Eyrie with Little Finger, who is making plans to marry her to a never-before-mentioned character called Harry the Heir. Through a round-about train of likely events, he is sickly Robin Arryan's heir, so he is almost certain to inherit the Vale and the Eyrie. He is also described as handsome and good, though he likes to run around with the ladies. He will accept Sansa in a heartbeat; first because she's an ideal wife -- beautiful, well-trained to run his household; second because his position would be considerably strengthened by marrying the former lord's niece. Will this happen? Only time will tell. Oh, yes, the books are good! So much better than the movie series! Intricate backplots, complicated characters, and you never quite know who's telling the truth.

Thanks, Karenseb! Even with a credit, I think we have to do something now anyway - since right now there is no toilet in there, and the old tile was loose where the leak had been. I wonder if that leads me back to just putting in the new (but not overly pricy) tile and a middle-of-the-road white toilet, since they'd probably use white for any future work. But I think to advertise it as a 2.5 bath house, a toilet has to actually be in place? Kind of a circular problem - I'd rather just give them the cost of any repairs in cash, but some repairs may be needed to sell it at all... Thanks!

Elmer, neither of my parents lived long enough to be covered by Medicare. My mother was 53 and my father was 56 when they died 33 days apart in 1970. My husbands parents both had died before we met very early in 1981 (his mother in 1969 and his father in 1980). I really had no one to talk to about it who had personal experience with it (I am more than a year older than my husband). I have had plenty of experience being given information by others (people who are paid to know the facts) that I then relied on, only to find out too late that they were wrong and didn't know what they were talking about. Some of these errors in trust ended up costing me financially. Therefore, when it came time to think about signing up for Medicare, I didn't want to trust anyone else for the information. I wanted to read and learn for myself, to have a full understanding of how things really work when it comes to Medicare. I've said plenty of times before, and I'll say it again now, that I know my husband and I are incredibly lucky to be State of California retirees. There are many health insurance plans from which to choose when you are an active employee, and when you retire, you keep the same plan unless you choose to change to a different plan. (And you can change every year during Open Enrollment, if you so desire.) You can retire from State service at the age of 55 (earlier if you are disabled), but when you turn 65 you must sign up for Medicare unless you are covered by your still-employed spouse's health care plan. In my case, my husband was still actively employed when I turned 65, so I was exempted from the Medicare requirement. However, knowing now what I didn't know then, I should have chosen to switch to Medicare immediately because the State's monthly contribution to health insurance more than covers the monthly premium for Medicare and our Medicare Supplement policy, but didn't fully cover the monthly premium for our PERSCare Anthem Blue Cross PPO policy. We were paying $527.74 out of pocket (well, a payroll deduction from my husband's monthly pay), which was over and above the $1,125 the State contributed each month, as well as having a yearly deductible (which is waived for preventative care), and a $20 copay for office visits. Now, we pay NOTHING. (Well, that's not quite correct -- we do have to pay the IRMAA fee for the prescription drug coverage [which is part of our Supplement policy], but that's because our income is over the threshold amount for paying just the regular premium. Although the State reimburses us for the monthly IRMAA for Medicare Part B, the law doesn't allow for reimbursement of the IRMAA for Part D. But the Part D IRMAA is less than $30 for the two of us.) My husband retired a year and a half after I did, but he didn't turn 65 for another year. But, as soon as he retired, I had to sign up for Medicare because I lost the "coverage by a still-employed spouse" exemption. Our PERSCare Anthem Blue Cross PPO policy became our Medicare Supplement policy when we started coverage with Medicare. One thing that is admittedly odd is that the State pays more towards retiree health benefits than it does for active employee health benefits. But, since we're retired, that's ok by me. :-) The State contributes $1,349 each month. Our PERSCare Anthem Blue Cross PPO Medicare Supplement Policy is $779.52 for the two of us, leaving $345.48 extra. Out of that extra, the State reimburses us for our Medicare Part B premiums and the Medicare Part B IRMAA fees. There is still some $ left over, but the State keeps that. Our Supplement policy covers the deductibles for Medicare Part A and Part B, and it pays the 20% of the allowed fees that Medicare doesn't pay. We do not pay a copay for office visits. Since I have been on Medicare, the ONLY thing medically related for which I have had to pay anything at all has been prescription medicine - and that's a minimal amount because of our Supplement plan. (One generic med that I used to pay $5 for now costs me $0.58.) ANYWAY, folks need to know the truth about how Medicare works and what doctors can and can't charge you (over and above what Medicare pays), so they can make an intelligent, informed choice about (1) whether or not to get a Supplement plan and (2), if so, which plan to choose. Dr. Kahan's book has a great full-page chart showing the various supplemental plans and what they do and don't cover. By the way, Medicare Supplement plans (which are also called Medigap plans) all have to meet specific criteria and they are standardized, Different insurance companies may charge different premiums, but all "Plan A" plans have to cover the same stuff at the same rate, all "Plan K" plans have to cover the same stuff at the same rate, etc. "Plan F" plans are considered to be the "Cadillac" (or in my case, the "Lexus") plans because they cover virtually everything. That's what our PERSCare plan is. Oh, that limiting fee that I mentioned in an earlier post -- the fee over and above what Medicare pays to a nonparticipating provider -- is covered by our Supplement policy.