Hi SoTX/Terry I'm sorry but the Thornbirds have been spoken for many times over....4 'back-ups' I will be offering up other pretties though in the future, but will be adding that in order to be the first or one of the first to qualify, one must have Paypal and MUST have a Member Page email link. You have no Member Page email link, so you might want to get it set up so you will be ready to be a first responder. Please see link below for instructions on getting it set up, so you can easily be reached. Sue Here is a link that might be useful: addressing newbie and newer member issues

That's so awful. Not just is it horrible to drag a kid around Disney watching you buy stuff that they can't have, it is not fair because you are keeping them from the rides! The worst one I've heard re Disney is my entry in the Worst Mother Ever contest. I had a neighbor a few years ago who had had a rough deal; he had gotten hit by a drunk driver and suffered some brain damage. He could never get back into his old profession (due to the damage), had outrageous medical bills, etc. So his wife decided that that was not what she had signed up for, apparently, and left him and the kids. She seemed to have this incredible and bizarre anger towards him, like it was somehow his fault that her life plans had not worked out, and seemed determined to "make him pay", even at the expense of her children. (According to other neighbors at that time, when he was in the hospital after the accident, they didn't think he'd make it. Some attorney got a hold of her or vice versa and she was telling the neighbors how much money she'd get in the lawsuit for having lost her husband. Well, he did make it - but the accident money all went towards the medical bills. Maybe she was angry that he didn't decently die so she could be a wealthy widow.) For example, their custody agreement said that he was responsible for dropping off the kids for the beginning of their visitation (backwards from most people's.) He didn't have a car and I remember driving back from the grocery one scorching hot summer Sunday and seeing he and the young kids waiting at the bus stop. I stopped because I knew the bus didn't run very frequently on Sundays; in order to drop off the kids he had to take a bus into town, wait almost two hours for a transferring bus back out of town to her place, and then do it all in reverse. In total this trip was going to take almost seven hours, nearly half of it with the kids in 90 plus heat. All this was to get to a woman's house who lived five miles away, (on the other side of a shopping district/highway so unwalkable), and who had a car. Needless to say I drove them there, and on the way back asked him why his X couldn't pick the kids up. She had told him that it was his responsibility per the court order and refused to do it, even though her own kids had to go on this several hour bus trip! Anyway, the guy struggled financially the whole time I knew him due to these circumstances. But every year, without fail, the X would go on a two week trip to Disney with her BF and her BF's niece. (Her own kids, of course, had never been.) And every year, without fail, she'd come over to see her kids upon her return and show them all of her pictures! And these were young kids - I just couldn't believe it! What on earth would be going through someone's mind to think that it would be so nice to show your kids how much fun you had, again, in Disney, with someone else's child?!

Sreed, once again, you come thru with interesting suggestions. When the salesman said Gagg is the only manufacturer with combi ovens, maybe he was referring to "plumbed" combi ovens? I read that people who own Mieles and Wolfs don't use them as much as those who own Gaggs due to the necessary manual insertion of water. I can see where the additional hassle of one extra step might prevent me from using it as frequently, as well. I believe Wolf has the largest box, which is compelling, since ostensibly you could, say, bake cookies in it. For the heck of it, I went onto ebay and found a new Gagg for sale. I believe, with some persistence, it would be possible to find one for half-price eventually. The range hood by Futuro that I thought was interesting? I looked up the price, and wow. It was as expensive as the darn combi! Back to either a range with one of those pop-up vent things, or a Jennair downdraft slide-in. I actually called customer service at Jennair today to inquire about why their stoves are getting such a bad rap online. She said many people install them wrong with either too short or too long of a line, and with more than two elbows -- for whatever that's worth. I personally had a Jennair downdraft for 15 years. Mounted on the wall right above it was an original piece of artwork behind plexiglass. It was fine. So was the surrounding cabinetry. I never had grime build-up. Heck, at my house in Oregon, we didn't even install a hood, and we didn't get grime build-up there either -- and that was with me cooking two meals a day. From personal experience, I just don't get why everyone thinks these hoods are so dang important. I don't mean to be contentious; I just don't understand.

Thank you...your kindness overwhelms. you know, I did go to my beloved Jerusalem there, for just a few days, the only thing I truly did for myself only, don't remember whether I mentioned that..went in August, very spontaneously...and I had this very nice very extravert type of a taxi driver to take me there..and very soon he chatted out of me all the story.. So he says, at some point: -ok I understand what do you want for your Mother..and I understand about your brother..and I understand about the husband and kids. That, I get it -what you worry about regarding them all. But how do you see your life? YOURS? And I sat there and I didn't know what to answer him. And I still don't. I still think "me? what me?" then I think "what life?" then I think "let me have this life first". then I'll try to see what I can see.. Maybe I'll edit that later btw. Doesn't make any sense when I try to read it..Except for the first sentence of course.