Suzy, for all we've complained about service (or the lack thereof) in retail establishments, today's customers are the ultimate horror story. A friend recently took a part-time job at Target to help out with the family finances "in these troubled times" and she has been regaling me with customer tales of terror ever since. Clothes left laying about in fitting rooms and carts scattered around parking lots are just minor offenses.There is, of course, the theft (and did you know the #1 category of things stolen at Target is baby formula?), and the potenial thieves who when thinking they're going to be caught just shove the merchandise somewhere behind things on the shelves. There are the parents who tell their little darlings to "go play in the toy department" while mommy shops. There are the people who insist on opening boxes & taking out the hair dryer, lamp or whatever & you know once that's done no one will ever get the stuff back into the box the right way. And finally there are just the plain gross things: the tobacco chewers who spit on the store shelves, the half-drunk drinks left on shelves, the spilled pop corn and the packages of candy that are left ripped open because someone was feeling peckish & wanted a snack. No wonder store employees are a little surly! And Agnes those travel sites! DH loves to go to them & tweak people. Like telling the person who wants advice on how best to travel to China with a 6-month old baby - Take the kid to grandma's & give everyone on the plane a break! Marda, that house is a gingerbread delight, but I've had too many dealings with old houses to have real estate lust over it. Unless I was able to employ a full time staff of painters & cleaners, I know what its maintenance would entail. When it comes to homes, I'm chanting Thoreau's mantra - "Simplify! Simplify!" I'm getting ready to drive all me tax stuff to the accountant. It feels great to have this stuff off my desk and into someone else's hands. Today should be our last (I hope)seriously cold day & we should have temperatures in the seventies by the end of the week. I'm ready for spring & itching to work outside. Winters don't last long down here, but after almost 12 years in the south, they're long enough for me.

I have Polk Audio, B&W, Klipsch and Bose speakers. I also have some rocks in the garden. If I had to rank them I would so as follows: 1) B&W = These were very expensive and bought about 10 years ago. They still sound great and can handle lots of power and cover all the ranges very well including lows. I don't even know if B&W still makes them or not. If they do and you don't mind spending some bucks, these are by far the best I have ever heard. These are in my Tiki hut. 2)Polk - I don't know the model other then its the top one for outdoor. They were not cheap. They sound great. They are good on the lows, but definitely can benefit from a subwoofer. These are in my outdoor kitchen. 3) Klipsch - I used these for the sub woofers outdoors and in the summer kitchen. They have held up well so far and really add to the sound quality out doors. The sub makes all the differnce in the world. 4) Rock - If your speakers are going in the yard, these are the best choice that I know of. Although, the TIC's look like they are very weather proof as well. Mine are 13yrs old now and still sound good. They have been through four hurricanes, sat in water, been peed on by my dog and God knows what else and they keep working. 5) Bose - These are also in my summer kitchen. They are the weakest of all of my speakers and definitely need a sub woofer to sound good. They are the middle of the road model but when I bought them, I don't think they were much worse then the top Bose outdoor speakers. The key I have found to good quality sound outdoors is to have the speakers face the house at an angle. This also seems to prevent a lot of the bleed over to your neighbors house as well. I don't know much about the TIC's to tell you one way or the other. One thing other thing I would recommend is a receiver that has zones or at least an A,B,A+B speaker option. This way you can turn on or off the sets you don't want on.

One if those quilted down parkas, a Vitamix, the new Laura Ingalls Wilder book Pioneer Girl, and--this is a new addition--a new dishwasher. The old one works just fine, but some tines are broken and the racks are rusting and transferring to some dishes; new racks cost almost what a new dishwasher does. Then yesterday one of the door springs gave out; it's repairable, but it's in a corner so we'd have to slide it all the way out to get to that side, which means (probably) disconnecting it completely, and DH wants to do it ourselves, and we are not extraordinary handy, and I don't have time for that rigmarole. With any luck the motherboard will blow out the day AFTER Christmas so I HAVE to get a new one :) DEEEE! MENU PLANNING! Sorry for shouting, wanted you to see this: I subscribed to a menu planning service for 7 years, and have been cycling through them for the last several years. It's fabulous! Every week i have a list of 6 dinner menus, recipe for the entree, suggested sides, and a complete ingredient/shopping list. Changed my life, and my family's :) I subscribed to Saving Dinner's Menu Mailer, but there are others.

Rita, you're too kind as you're always are..thank you so much! the pics are awful the more I look at them lol. well in my defence it's really hard to take good pics unless there's plenty of natural light..and somebody else is taking them:) Who knows better. We just moved in then(the pics taken within first week or two of us in..we had guests coming 9 days after we moved. Guests are my sacred cows.), Obviously more lived in now. We managed to clean the laptop memory some, so i might be able to show you new art, at some point. I'm torn as to where to put it. I'm torn between my initial plan and better balance-and egocentrical needs of me seeing art better from where i usually see it. Lol. The mistakes still stay mistakes though. We didn't get to remedy anything yet. The hardscaping/landscaping of the backyard..still awaits. But we put in one more arch(lol. my DH couldn't live without it) and finally installed back door closet. My friend took pics of the house for her photo business but she was very fascinated with details, I thought she's gonna take these wide lens pics like real estate photographers- but she was so much into books and lights and art and compositions of sorts. Her photos are hundred times better. I think I posted some of hers here and there. They're just a very different approach of showing space. She didn't care about capturing shower niches lol. She has Instagram. And artistic vision. And great camera and knowledge how to use it. While I have you guys:) And strange abilty to write long posts. If I leave a message on somebody's phone it's also painful. (I'm the best when I have someting like flu btw. I get short, clear, and to the point. Going to the job interview when I had a fever practically used to be a guarantee of me getting the job))