Please use new list. Thanks

There are plenty of shopping streets/neighborhoods here that going to a mall is not a necessity. Not all malls are all covered here either, particularly Century City Mall, which has a parking structure, but you walk outside to go from store to store. Third Street Promenade is all outdoors, as is Rodeo Drive. Melrose Avenue is one of my favorite shopping streets, but I also like Sunset in the Silver Lake district. Hollywood and Highland also has a large central area that is open to the sky. There's really no need to cover these areas, since we don't have cold weather, and it's usually not too hot. Lowspark, you are not a weather wimp if you can handle living in Houston in the summer! I lived there when I was going to Rice, but I never managed to stay there in the summer. Rice closed for the summer when I was there - they didn't want to subject the students (and professors and staff) to the heat and humidity. DB had been telling me that Circuit City had been late with all their payments to Sony, and so we were not surprised when we found out that they were going into chapter 11. We bought a new TV recently and ended up getting it at Best Buy because they have a brand (Insignia) that got good reviews and was well under the employee discount price that DB could get from Sony for a similar LCD widescreen TV. I gave our old widescreen TV to the neighbors, for helping us move it out of the house. It was a rear projection TV and was huge!! I'm much happier with the flat screen TV, and our old TV, even though it was HD, was not compatible with Blu-ray. DB had bought a Blu-ray player a couple of weeks ago at a company sale (at Sony) along with an AV amplifier, but we could not get a picture on our old TV with it. Finally, I broke down and bought a new 47" Insignia flat screen LCD TV, and we're much happier with that. We only have a few Blu-ray discs, but we're starting to collect them. The old DVDs are supposed to look better on Blu-ray player, but it's difficult to tell. Lars

Fori, I very rarely have boil overs, but they're sure a lot easier to clean up on my induction cooktop. I do the same as you -- just quickly lift up the pot, wipe up the stuff on the cooktop, and wipe off the bottom of the pot -- and then back to cooking. Usually I can get it all done before the burner automatically turns itself off. It's so much easier than dealing with my old electric coils or my old gas burner grates. I also love the easy after-dinner cleanup -- just a spray of Windex on a paper towel and a quick swipe. If I'm particularly ambitious and feeling the need to impress someone, I may polish the top with a microfiber cloth. But usually I don't' bother.

seems as if there is lots here to clink to tonight! of COURSE i've already raised a toast to annie and elery--and i'll look forward to seeing pictures of the happy couple tomorrow--cheers! bubbe has her arthur home and we all know how tough trips to the hospital can be--especially on the spouse. it's great to know that things are as they should be again! but i want to clink again; this time for susie. with extra best wishes that your family continues to gain strength and improve every day. i'm very, very happy to know your little girl with be returning soon as i'm sure that will be an extra special treat for you! and here's hoping that everyone else has something particularly wonderful to enjoy this weekend--clink!