Well, they are not my style but that's ok! I would have gone with something dressier and in different fabrics. You have a FANTASTIC figure and the dresses aren't, imo, as flattering as they could be. A v neck - and you don't have to show cleavage, would be more lengthening and flattering to your upper body. As you really want something swishy, a wrap dress, might be the thing. Not all of them are body hugging either. The prints on these two dresses are very ordinary to me and not at all dressy and actually look mid office secretarial. The prints don't seem current to me either and the blues a bit drab. Money wise, the dresses seem cheap to me. I understand the need to save money, etc. but you are comparing $900 dresses with $65 dresses and that's not a proper comparison. Nobody I know buys those dresses anyway. Their is a huge range of very nice quality dresses in the $150-$250 range. They often go on sale for say, $120. The material, styling, fit, are so much nicer than the Calvin Klein brand. An Adrianna Papell for instance. Calvin Klein is a low end department store brand, I buy CK clothes all the time, and they are fine, but moving up a notch or two the difference becomes evident in overall quality. I feel a little bad saying all this, but I would want someone to tell me ( I used to beg my friends to do so but most were too kind to tell the truth and I had to eventually figure things out myself) and you asked, this, the dresses are ok, you wouldn't be underdressed or overdressed but they are ordinary. The cardigan looks too big and frumpy and the shrug looks cheap. I just think you could do a lot better and look fantastic instead of passable. I like the aqua dress you were thinking of making- IF you can make it well - properly fitted, top notch tailoring and great fabric. Do you look like something from a magazine or catalog, No. And why shouldn't you with all this effort!

wmjdr I always hate to hear stories like this. some questions. when was system last serviced? this is your first heating season in this home? what size home? pls post model number of inside/outside units? what size heat strip? nat gas is not available for your home? a couple of things come to mind. 1.malfunction of condenser-it sounds like you are using/depending on heat strips too much 2.bad thermostat obviously the east has had extreme winter temps over the last month way below the average lows. you can expect more high electric bills if you ignore the situation. heat pumps for an all electric home is certainly a reasonable choice for your area/climate. post back when you find out what the problem is. IMO Good Luck!

SJ, I'm sorry you're sick. It showed up middle of last week as a minor cold but then morphed into a horrible wracking cough. The Kaiser doc on-call told me it lasts about a week, except for some and it lasts for 2-3 weeks. Sounds like they're talking about you, my friend. Friday and Saturday were horrible, but I feel so much better today. I need to lay off the codeine because it was making me feel icky. They also gave me a QVAR inhaler. Anyway, my cough has improved considerably. I hope you're on the mend soon. Either hardwired or good batteries should suffice, right? If you have power and the alarm beeps, is it telling you it's time to replace your batteries? Even if it's hardwired and receiving power? It should be easier, and less scary, to be able to service these things. As it so happens, the alarm that went off is on a 9-ft. ceiling and accessible by ladder. The other two are on walls near the apex of a 13-ft. vaulted ceiling. It's out of my reach, at least on a ladder I'm willing to trust. Of course people shouldn't be disabling them and then forget about them, but they should be easier to maintain.

Whatever system you go with, it's best sized and designed by a third party (usually not HVAC sub) for optimum performance and comfort. Normally it's mechanical engineers or others associated with achieving EnergyStar certification or performance based code modeling services. Manual J is the most used load calculation for sizing systems and it's based entirely on the home's design. Your experiences with uncomfortable forced-air systems are probably based on inefficient homes that did not benefit from this type of service. Most older systems have only one or two fan speeds blowing into poorly designed ductwork. The systems are also usually serving older, building envelopes with crappy windows, pathetic insulation and horrendous air leakage. Newer, code built homes on variable speed systems with appropriate ductwork will have such small airflows, they are barely noticeable to the occupants. Many feel that properly designed and sized forced-air systems are the most comfortable because they have the fastest response to thermostat settings. In addition to the AC considerations, most outdoor air ventilation systems (international code requirement for health) rely on a certain amount of ductwork and blowing air for better distribution. Again, good designs have such low flows, you shouldn't even notice when they are running.