Thanks to bpgreen and Raven, I am now sitting here with my beautiful laptop dream machine! Yep! I am up and running fine now. My server must have been working on their end or the weather caused me to get knocked off so much when I first tried being on the net with that external modem. I thought it was the modem but it is working fine! "LUV" ya all for help making my dream come true. Seeing I am not getting knocked off, I DL'd some programs which only got half done before when getting knocked off. Audacity for one. Got my spyware and virus programs from my flashdrive. Now for the goodies, huh? Bless you all. I have to get to bed now. This is the latest being up on the puter for me! Can't blame me for basking in no disconnects. "LOL" Good night. Hugs, Urlee PS: Sorry you all can't see this beautiful laptop. LOVE the fact I can ZOOM to make the fonts larger for reading and typing just by using the % drop down on the bottom right on Windows 7 here.

LL - what a fun 70's plan! Love that utility room... yours was better with the sunroom off of it though. I have to weigh all the great ideas with square footage limitations, although I have "plan fatigue" at this point... and its only been 2 weeks! I will discuss the bathroom issues with my hubby... there are only so many things I can accommodate for handicap access before he goes crazy, if you know what I mean. But that bathroom needs those bars and a decent turnaround at the very least, because having her around is just such a wonderful treat for us. Mrs Pete: I know, I know... I do have a basic lesson plan saved online, but most of the nitty gritty stuff will change from week to week, and the extra stuff that we do I want to add in as we go... and its just easier to keep the paper copy out and make notes. My situation is a little different, since we are at home ( and under more scrutiny), so I want to be ready at a moments notice to show the work and the plans. Every state and college seems to have their own requirements and I want to try and meet as many of those as I can. And the student work, which is more important, is not readily "computerized." Although I do want to invest in those paper scanners and slowly start doing that. In case of fire: those files are the first "things" I would grab, even before photos! I have 17 binders of student work so far (that's just the stuff I keep), and 14 for lesson plans (broken down by subject)... so that's alot of scanning! I'm also thinking that real schools invest in decent white boards... all mine were terrible. Next time I won't chintz out on that. ;)

Interesting thoughts -- we could all improve on paperwork storage in our homes. Two things I think I'm doing well that differ from the above mentioned Script, and someone else might find some ideas in my methods: Taxes. Yes, like Script, I am scrupulous about maintaining records for my taxes. About a dozen years ago I went to the office supply and bought two big boxes of BRIGHT GREEN folders (green like money). I labeled them Taxes 2000 ... Taxes 2001 ... Taxes 2002 ... Taxes 2003 ... and so on. Given my family's typical lifespan, I made enough green folders to take me to age 110 -- probably more than I'll need, but I'm ready! They're all stored in my file cabinet, taking up very little space. Now when I receive anything tax-related -- a charitable receipt, an end-of-the-year bank statement, whatever -- I have a place to file it. In April, I have a place to file a copy of my taxes, and I can go back and see previous tax years. For the rest of my life, this system is in place. Death folder. Ours is a notebook. Two identical notebooks, actually, since we have two children. Our girls are young adults now, but they've never dealt with an estate -- even if they don't open it 'til they're old, it'll be useful to them. It contains a lot of stuff: - A personal letter to the two of them - A list of our wishes about funeral and items we'd like donated to various family members or charities - A list of things they must do immediately; it starts with going to our house and taking possession of the dog, but it also includes small details like canceling our voting registration and destroying any medicines in the house. At every turn this list includes addresses and phone numbers, including the lawyer we suggest for probate, the funeral home our family's always used, and family members who should be contacted. - A copy our will; they know what's in it -- everything split between the two of them - A list of our financial assets -- bank accounts, investments, insurance, deeds/maps of real estate ... when our youngest became a legal adult, we made the two girls co-beneficiaries of every account; note that this was done before either was married, so our two kids -- not future son-in-laws -- will own these items. - A list of the bills we pay each month -- electricity, phone, even the guy who cuts our grass. - Official copies of our birth certificates, our marriage certificates, and the girls' birth certificates -- they might not be needed, but the girls won't have to scramble to find them - A flashdrive with all of the above in digital format plus photographs that might be useful in putting together the funeral Our rule: We keep two years of tax returns in the notebooks ... the reason being that someday an accountant will file our final estate tax return, and he or she will want our last two years of returns -- so every April we pull out the notebook, discard one old return and insert the newest ... so our rule is that every April we look over the notebook and update anything that's changed. For example, last year we changed bank accounts, and someday we hope to add items concerning grandchildren to the book. Our girls know that the notebooks are stored in the safe, and they know where the key to the safe is hidden, and they know it's labeled with a misleading name so that a thief wouldn't look at it twice. Last thought on this notebook: Though this project took us the better part of a year --- we kept remembering one more thing, one more thing that really should be included -- we didn't find it difficult emotionally. I suspect that if we were older and/or one of us were in poor health, it might've been different.

You want spoiled....read this. Our department provides laptops for our students to borrow for a week at a time. They come with a wireless mouse and a flashdrive. I have a student who borrowed the laptop and left the flashdrive in the library. The library called to let me know and I retrieved it. She came in and didn't apologize for losing it. Well, I let her borrow the laptop for another week and she again left the flashdrive in our computer lab. But this time some one walked off with it. She called and told me the day before the laptop was due back. I told her she would have to pay for the flashdrive and replace it. After being quite snotty (again with no apologies) she replaced the flashdrive. I then told her that her privilages were suspended for a month and she again got snotty. My boss finally told her that borrowing a laptop was a PRIVILAGE and not a RIGHT! My point is that she didn't care that she lost the flashdrive twice and she feels she is entitled to borrow the laptop. SamKaren your resident DJ