I agree about western OK. It is heartbreaking to see how dry it is in the western areas of the state, some of which have been in drought with little to no relief since 2010. I don't know how the farmers and ranchers have been able to hang in there and stay afloat in these conditions year after year. They need to have some good years in the mix to make up for the bad years, and nowadays good years are getting pretty scarce. Our ground is hard like that too, and I've put off planting the back garden because of it. My son has a big gasoline-powered auger I could use to drill holes into the soil and then plant into, but I don't really see the point. We have had about 0.78 or 0.80" of rain this week. Tomorrow I'm going to venture into the back garden to see if I can break up the ground back there before it completely dries up again. It was too wet yesterday to consider rototilling. I'm trying to catch the soil when it is moist enough to rototill but not wet enough that I'd get dirt clods. Most of it is sandy-silty soil where plants grew pretty well last year in its first year as a garden plot, although heavy irrigation was required in July and August. The clay areas aren't even worth tilling and I may just put cardboard on top of them and pile on organic matter to see if it all can decompose and then be worked into the soil this winter. The grasshopper situation here is pretty bad. I'm going to have to get serious about implementing some control methods or it won't by our garden this summer---it will belong to the grasshoppers.

I would definitely consider the new ultra books in particular the Asus ultra book that is both a tablet and laptop in one it won't be cheap but for travel the size and weight will be important, I think you should go with 8,it will hard to find new with out it. I would definitely not get 17" for travel. I think anything in the newer released laptops will cover your needs. The ultra book convertible is the best of both worlds, I think being able to use it in tablet mode will come in very handy. I personally own the Asus tf300 transformer tablet which I love but you want something bigger it sound like and your gaming needs would probably dictate a laptop. I don't mind a refurbished as long as it is factory refurbished with some warranty.

Thanks, pesky. I figured it would be the retread-narrative issue...it worked my nerves a fair bit, definitely (although I have to admit I've never seen Fern Gully--now that I read the synopsis I'd say I definitely agree. Wow.) Maybe it's just my wish to rationalize that made me able to see how the retreads were reborn by the particular plot structure, with the interaction of actual hard science (represented by Sigourney Weaver, one of my favorite actors -- gotta give him credit for putting an older woman in a position of rational authority rather than a man--means a lot to me as I enter menopause) rather than fairies, and a multinational/multiplanetary corporation that's above the law. The story that's most cited so far in reviews I've read is Dances with Wolves, and I can really agree on that one as well, with small twists. Despite the retreadness, I found myself thinking that Cameron is simply, undeniably, a brilliant guy and I wanted to thank him for doing what he did. Every aspect of the world is so completely thought out, and the technology so significant that I decided that criticizing the dramaturgy would be meanspirited, ungenerous, would be demanding too much of just one person (that's just me, and I'm realizing my opinions are colored by nearing 50 rather than being an insistent young critic as I was earlier). Of course Cameron is arrogant, etc. but he has *inarguably* moved film ahead drastically by his passionate imagination.

To turn it off: Go to Services>Indexing Services>Properties>Startup Type and select "Disable">Apply>OK To rebuild: Go to Control Panel>Indexing Options>Advanced>Troubleshoot and click on "Rebuild". If you decide to rebuild, Berk...it will warn you that this exercise takes a while. They're no underestimating. It does take a while and can take upwards to 2 hours plus so be prepared to do something else while the system is rebuilding the index. Hope this helps.