Texasredhead: I approached the city inspectors today. They shed some light on the project as well, unfortunately they either weren't allowed, or just did not care to inform us earlier...but they were less than impressed with my contractor from day one. They caught something we were totally unaware of in the first week that the foundation was too high by 3" to meet my existing floor. They made them reconfigure the floor joists and add ledger boards. They suggested better ways to do my HVAC duct work and new returns as well. All ignored. They were also concerned as to why it was taking so long, (months) to complete simple tasks and request inspections. They conveyed to me that the contractor claimed WE as the homeowners requested all the changes such as the roof be changed. WTF? They thought that was odd....well it was / is as it is down right lie. As a telecom technician and a sales rep....WTF do we know about structural engineering? NOTHING! The inspector actually brought MANY concerns with deviations to the contractors attention and ALL were blown off and we were never informed. (He is also holding our copy of the blueprints hostage for some reason). I got a copy of his Bond insurance, and liability insurance with the city today since he was unwilling to provide them to us. The bond is for 25,000. The city is willing to go after him, but for one, that bond is not going to cover all the rework, and two, we will NOT allow him back on our property. His liabilty insurance is good for 200,000 - 1,000,000 depending on what some of protections mean. Our lawyer will have to explain that. We retained a lawyer in good confidence through a working relationship and he is going to work with us in his words; "without us having to pay his children's college tuition" LOLZ. Fortunately, as often as we have to hear that we dropped the ball on this one, we have good people trying to help us at minimal or no cost. There are good people out there...one need only look apparently. This forum is good for us as well. We NEED to hear where we wrong. As dear President Bush once said...."fool me once, shame on��"shame on you. Fool me��"you can't get fooled again". Got it ;)

I'm with you, Wanda! Tomorrow morning. I plan to do the 8 minutes in the morning and then do the WATP after work. I love to walk outdoors, just wish I had someone to walk with. I will probably alternate the WATP with walks at the track. (There is sure to be someone there to walk with) Our track goes around the football field and there is an exercise I do on the bleachers for my abs. It works those muscles like no other exercise I've ever done! I used to walk one mile around the track, then do my ab exercises and some steps (18"ers) on the bleachers, then do 4 or 5 more miles on the track. I felt wonderful!!! I had to stop doing the steps because my legs were getting too muscular. I had so much energy that I couldn't hold still. I sure wish I could get back in that condition again. I hope this coming week is a great week for everyone!

Hi everyone my name is Kim and I am a 36 year old mother of 2 very active boys 11 & 7. I work for an elementary school doing tech support for their 130 or so computers and printers. I walk alot somedays and other days not so much. I have been overweight most of my life and still battle it each day. I am 5' 7" and weigh 183 now and at one time weighed 240. I have hopped from one diet to another never really finding anything that worked miracles. Only through healthy eating and regular exercise was I able to achieve weightloss of any kind. I stumbled across this forum on accident by search for Leslie's tapes and really really liked it sooo. I joined. I just received her tapes from Half.com for $19 (which didn't come with any extras just the set of tapes). I did the 2 mi this morning with just plain hand weights and really enjoyed it. There are so many wonderful and encouraging stories on this page I couldn't stop reading it. I really look forward to reading more of them. It really is good to know that I am not the only one who struggles with water intake, food temptations and exercising struggles. Please keep writing. I am really excited to start this program and I hope I can be as determined as you all.

Oh for god's sake let's not start dragging the aclu into this. I can't find it now, but just a couple hours ago I read where prime forclosures are starting to creep upward. One of the people profiled in the story was in Vegas--true, a declining mkt, but she had a good job as technology head of a casino and a fairly reasonably priced house. Nevertheless, in '06 or '07 she was bait-and-switched into an interest-only loan w/ a $40,000 prepay penalty that doesn't go away until 2009. (Countrywide) That $40k is more than 10% the amount of the mortgage. I thought to myself 'how the heck did she get into such a loan??' Then I noticed the picture. She's black. And yes, that does make a difference. Conservative pundits may protest till they're blue in the face that it's not color, it's poverty, or lack of education, or whathaveyou. But that's bull. It's color. Minorities are many times more likely than whites to get overcharged or offered only inappropriate products. It happens over and over again. Just a year or two ago, most of the big life insurers settled a class action case where they essentially were forced to admit that they'd charged blacks more for life insurance products over decades. They'd also churned these accounts and done all sorts of other fraudulent things. I used to date a guy who worked in a mortgage office located in a black neighborhood in Bklyn. This place was scam-central. I read years later that the company had been shut down by the atty general. It's a disgrace that it took so long. Even as a college kid I could tell they were in the business of ripping people off. So, bottom line, the fact that the aclu and others have fought to force lenders and other financial companies to a) do business with minorities at all, and b) do so fairly without adding a 'color surcharge,' has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that we're now in a mortgage meltdown caused by lax lending and fraud. What does have to do with it? Well, whoever invented the idea that people should convert unsecured loans to secured loans by taking out home-equity loans to pay off the CCs, for one. They're still running those ads in my area. What gets me is not only that shady 'credit counseling' companies would push it (why not, there's a buck to be made) but that it actually makes it into 'financial advice' given by so-called experts on tv and in magazines. Also, the Fed, by keeping the money supply so cheap and plentiful for so many years. Check out Jim Jubak on msnmoney.com for multiple well-thought-out discussions of why and how the Fed caused the last several asset bubbles, and why the current rate-lowering is setting us up for the next one. And of course the loan machines--I mean banks--that keep inventing ways of lending money to people under terms that are meant to look like they're good for consumers, but are actually just a way of dragging out the repayment and therefore increasing their profit (I/O, 40-year, exploding ARMs, etc). Finally: I was watching 'My First Place' on HGTV last night. A young couple was looking for a house somewhere in the mountains out west. They were completely unreaslistic about what they were going to get for ~$200k, I thought, but then lo and behold they found a place. Paid $225k. At the end, when they're showing the closing, I almost jumped out of bed--they took out a 100% interest-only ARM mortgage! They were shown signing the 'adjustable rate disclosure' without even reading it! I almost shouted--they still do those?!? I don't know when this was filmed, but it's a pretty new show. I wonder if they're foreclosed yet.