I wonder where the car engine CD is? I know a whole slew of babies who would settle down as soon as they were in a running car. I'm another noise-hater. I have enough noise in my head already thanks to tinnitus and sometimes it makes my hearing hyperacute. I buy earplugs by the case. Seriously! I've always got a pair in my purse for when I go into stores and such, especially the supermarket and big dept. stores like Target, because it seems like there's always little kids doing what DH and I call "testing the acoustics" (which I would have gotten into some seriously deep trouble for when I was that age, but now everyone's expected to put up with it). White noise grates on my nerves, something about that monotonous sound drives me right up the wall. DH can't believe how low I keep the TV volume, I can hear it fine but he can't get more than a mumble at that level. I'm always asking him to turn down the tv, video game, or stereo. The default speaker setting on my computer is "mute", about the only time I turn the sound on is when watching a video clip. I don't mind hearing people talking though if they're doing so relatively quietly - I talk on my cell phone in public sometimes but I keep my voice down as much as possible. I do plug myself into my iPod at physical therapy because they play an annoying radio station most of the time and people I don't much like, such as one creepy old guy who always gawks at my boobs and never looks above my collarbone, always try to talk to me if I don't. The headphones do seem to do a good job of telling people I'm not interested in chitchat, so go away! Plus if I can get something with a good beat going or something funny (like standup comedy) it distracts me when my joints start to complain. We bought an electric lawnmower because they're so quiet (sounds a bit like a small vacuum cleaner) as well as far less polluting than gas mowers, so it's much more polite to the neighbors. I'm thinking about giving the guy next door a key to our shed so he can use our mower, because his is deafening as well as stinky! DH never works on any noisy projects before 9am or after 6pm because it's just rude to the people around us. I can understand the early-morning snowblowers because people have to get to work, but there's no need to mow the lawn that early. We've been here about 1 1/2 years and I'm just getting used to being back in a closely packed neighborhood (there's only about 15 feet between houses - we couldn't afford anything with a bigger lot) after being on a thickly wooded acre where the only noise was the motorcycle riders that loved the road behind us. WHY do those things have to be so d@mn loud??? Theoretically there's a noise ordinance in this city but it's pretty much rock bottom on the police priority list so motorcycles and muscle cars roar, car stereos blare and so on. A kindergarten-aged child who lives near me screams at the top of her lungs whenever she's playing outside. And I mean a piercing screech that penetrates through earplugs like an icepick. She'll get into screeching contests with another girl too, I guess to see who can get the highest pitch and the loudest. She ignores us if we ask her to keep it down and talking to her parents resulted in a snort, a sneer, and the moronic phrase "oh, she's just a kid, lighten up". How about teaching your kid some respect for other people when she's young enough to learn, ya dingbat? At least the family with the half a dozen kids and the basketball hoop moved away, so we don't have to listen to that ball all day and most of the night - we liked the parents fine but we could have done without the basketball hoop! (The parents would send the kids outside pretty much whenever it wasn't pouring or extremely cold because they lived in a house that was way too small for such a big family and everyone drove each other nuts. I can sympathize.)

There is a Five Guys here in town right next to where I usually get my hair cut, that people had been raving about. Twice while trying to kill time until the hair cut, I went into Five Guys, waited in line for about 5 minutes, and got so turned off by the slow line, the peanut shells littering the grease-slickened floor, and the sign atop the menu declaring "All of our burgers are cooked to well-done" that I ended up leaving without ordering anything. A third time I was determined to try the food, and was not at all impressed. The burger made up for the fact that it was overcooked by being very greasy, the bun was soggy and flavorless, the lettuce was wilted from being steamed while the burger was wrapped in foil. The fries were far, far too many, and way too salty, and were mushy and greasy, and they went from too hot to eat, to too cold and greasy, seemingly without ever passing through the "just right" temperature. I went to a local hot-dog restaurant that seemed to be aiming for "like Five Guys, but with hot dogs instead of burgers" and their fries were some of the best I'd ever had. Maybe that's how Five Guys was when it first started out, and its merely that the local franchisee is not doing such a great job, but I'll certainly not be back.

"I can tell you friends of mine Philadelphia Scrapple's fine ... try it once and you'll agree - that it's the food for you and me", used to be on the Detroit radio station (WJR?) that read the funnies on Sundays ... and many of the ones in Canada were the same. That radio program about advertising, "Under the Influence" with Terry O'Reilly is produced by Pirate Toronto and has appeared for years on CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), and was/is part of the reciprocal programming that our national broadcaster carries on with PBS/NPR/PRI (Public Radio International). He had an interesting segment on the history and operation of the "Oscars" this weekend, including how Louis B. Mayer worked toward getting it started ... which happened in 1929, my year of birth, and referred to how Mary Pickford had a substantial hand in that, as well ... and won best actress a year of so later. Terry has a lot of interesting and engaging things to say about advertising, which he's been in for years. Their earlier programs are available at www.cbc.ca/undertheinfluence. ole joyful

Thank you everyone! The red bok choy is from cooking beets and bok choy together. FOAS, Yes many things are in "season" in my NY garden. Working with Mother Nature, you can create your own "Season". I don't check my calendar when it comes to gardening. I start seeds using my dehydrator and sous vide setup. I can cut some seed germinating time from 14 days to as little as 3 days. Using cold frames, I can significantly start planting earlier in ground, and harvest earlier. Let me share with all you gardeners my cold frame system: Two things to consider with cold frames for NY and other home areas where you don't have room for storage, and for cheap skates like me who does not want to let others profit from me. Components - 1) PVC electric pipes $2.60 for 10 feet. 2). Greenhouse plastic from Farmtek's "Steals & Deals". Really cheap. 36' x 60' for $20.00? Design and construction - See photos. All modular and no gluing and mechanical fastening. Everything can be taken apart and installed in minutes. After disassembly, the components take very little room for storage. My design is 2'H x 4' W x 8'L. So far I have 8 of them. dcarch