Well, I talked to the rep. She said they don't use as much equipment as they used to but they do still take apart your TV and all that. For us it would be for 2 years, if we do it, and our viewing choices would represent 28,000 households. Hmmm, no reality shows in this house, LOL. We still haven't decided yet. Oh, and they pay 68.00 up front with periodic checks. She didn't say how much the checks are for, but that's better than 12.00 a year. Especially if it turned into one big hassle regarding the TV equipment and all that. Radio! They'd be disappointed with us too, Deanna. We only listen to it in the car. Did they hook up your car radio? Annie, they'd be fine with what you watch. They want all different kinds of watchers, which is good. I asked her if I could turn the thing on and off because I often leave the TV on for the dog. Now I'll have to be careful about what I leave on for her - if we do it.

DH bought a car with OnStar last Fall. This is our first trip away from Southeast Michigan with it. We went down to Ohio and across I90 through the far northwest corner of Pennsylvania to New York. Our first stop was at Binghamton, where an old college friend of mine lives. (Isn't funny how you can not see someone in 15 years and within minutes you are right back there, chatting as friends. What was supposed to be a two-hour brunch turned into an all day stay as we shared our lives! DH missed seeing the Baseball Hall of Fame that was on the agenda for the afternoon, so we have to make it up later.) When leaving our own neighborhood at the start of the trip, DH pulled into a shopping center and asked OnStar to send us to Binghamton, NY. It wanted to send us through Ontario, Canada. That was a fine route, 40 minutes shorter than the route we took - but only if there were no international crossings to negotiate. There are two, one in Detroit/Windsor, and one at Niagara Falls. We were fairly certain that the two crossings would consume far more than 40 minutes on the last weekend of the summer! Well, Onstar could not help us. It insisted on only that route, so we had to wait until we were in Ohio to ask OnStar to give us the correct route to Binghamton! The system was a bit bothersome, sometimes telling you incorrectly the name of a road you were on. "Take 36 West to Summer street and turn left. Continue for 4 miles until Summer St. becomes Union St. Travel for 3 tenths of a mile, then turn right onto North Rd." Well, Union St. would never appear, and like a true dysfunctional family member, OnStar would act like it knew the right name all along, once you got past that section. "Travel 3 tenths of a mile on Summer St, then turn right onto North Rd." It did save us when we were "confused" about what route to take. After Binghamton, we went to an inn on the Hudson River. We took a drive at lunch and visited the town of New Paltz. Our route back to our Inn had a detour and the instructions on the road signs were confusing to the dear H, and he asked for OnStar to come on and direct us back to our route. It worked fine. The road signs had taken us to a semi-deserted downtown area, and dropped us there without a clue about where to turn next. OnStar played the little "I will rename this block in honor of one of my programmer's dear great-uncles, who passed away during my beta testing," trick, but we were onto it by then and ignored the faux-street name change. After that, OnStar's instructions did get us back on route. This is the view off our little semi-private terrace outside of our room: A far soom on the Hudson river down from our room. Pulling back on the zoom on the very same scene. Seating area outside our room. If you'd like to see all of the pictures, click below and click on individual pictures to see them enlarged and read the captions. Here is a link that might be useful: New York Vacation

rhome, that sure is true. We all have our desire to share and help others get the most out of their new kitchens . It doesn't matter at all what the skill level, we can all learn and grow and enjoy. I see tons of talent everywhere I look and I keep looking even though I know I can't begin to make or don't want to make what others are able to do. I still love to look. I hope that everyone realizes that it is out of a sense of community spirit that we all post here long after our kitchens are "done", also I am not sure we are EVER done :) Here is part of what we did this afternoon. DH's fingers were still sore but he wanted cookies ! He has perfected his Italian Seed Cookies and wanted to make them. So here are some of the steps and the finished product. shaping the dough: place in water/toasted sesame seeds /parchment finished : These are almost exactly like the cookies from Brocato's bakery in NOLA. We just had 4 bags of them from SIL's visit and it sure was hard to tell the difference. The Brocato cookies are a tad sweeter but I like DH's best :) It has taken him years to get them perfect. He purchased ammonium carbonate as the rising agent and also twice bakes them. It makes all the difference. I wanted to show you Alto and Sax ! They are my starters. They are now about 2 yrs old. WOW do they love me LOL. Here are pics of them before and after feeding and then of the 2 breads I am in the process of making. It is a couple day thing to make bread with wild yeast starter so stay tuned to tomorrow . before feeding - fresh from fridge: after just 3 hrs: San Joaquin Sourdough auto lyse ( I let it set about 30 min) Polish Country Bread ( a light rye) auto lyse - Polish Dough is beaten in the KA mixer for 4 min on speed 2 and then let to rest 40 min. Then you do 2 stretch and folds. Rest 40 min and again. Then rise 2 hrs or so and bake. in KA: First way to do stretch and fold - pat flat : fold like a letter: Here is another way to do S and F. In the bowl with a spatula. Do 30 turns with the spatula around and around quickly bringing the dough up and over a little each turn. Do this every 30 min X 3 times. You will be amazed at the strength the dough acquires with a small amount of work. Here are pics DH took :) Tomorrow I will show the finishing touches and the final product. Hope everyone has a lovely Summer Friday night. c

This wasn't exactly random but a few months ago I witnessed a car hit a brand new car in the parking lot outside my work, and the guys just parked and walked away. He hit it really hard so he obviously knew he had done it. I walked up to the new car and it had huge scratches on it. So I left a note for the owner with my info saying I had witnessed it, and I took a bunch of pics of her car (and his car) on my cell phone. The woman called me when she got back to her car and I got her email and forwarded her all the pictures and a statement of what I witnessed. Her insurance company called me the next day and I forwarded it all to them also. Anyway, I forgot all about it and a few weeks later the lady showed up at my work with a card and a box of fancy chocolates for me! She had gone into the few businesses around our block to figure out where I worked. She asked all about my work (a non-profit that houses homeless people) and she took my card and said she would also make a donation! She was so sweet and appreciate about the small kindness I had done her! It comes back to you exponentially!