Owbist - you articulated the decision factors beautifully. And that is what makes it difficult. Presently, all I do is load it on the camera and crop. I know I would like to be able to do some color/contrast/tone/brightening adjustments, be able to edit out troublesome aspects. Eventually, I would like to be able to clean older photos and change colors (I know I would have loved to have been able to change the colors of the walls in my house to assist with paint color choices). Whether I'd ever get to something like swapping heads or filters, I don't know (I don't even know what filters are). Another aspect that is important to me is good photo organizing tool. I've been reading reviews of software editing programs (many free), and the reviews don't even mention organizing photos. I'm not sure if that's bc. they all do it, so it's not the feature worth reviewing, or bc. they don't do it. By the way, this review site is very useful - for all kinds of digital photograph questions. I'll post the link here in case others are interested: http://www.brighthub.com/multimedia/photography/articles/4488.aspx. Now if I knew how to make a tiny url of this, I would have done that. I think I even have that firefox addon, but don't know how to use it yet. I think I'm going to try Photofiltre first. Paintnet also looked good, as did photoscape. All are free. Does anyone here know photoscape? A couple of more questions, if that's okay. 1) why would someone want to resize a picture? 2) what's the advantage to having a card reader get the photos on the computer, rather than just connecting the camera to the computer via USB? Thanks everyone. Lynn.

>>the contribution from a stay at home spouse>> This is OT, but my post deserves a bit more explanation: Ah, but you see, in my example, it isn't so clear-cut. He has TURNED DOWN lucrative job offers even as two of the three daughters are now out of the house. He holds twelve high-tech patents that are extremely valuable, but only if one is willing to sue some big companies. And he refuses to do that, because (of course) it would drain their current finances severely. His stated reason is "I'm going to leave them to the kids." He was formerly an extremely successful sales rep for a large medical equipment firm, making six figures. His wife, in contrast, has struggled with a killer commute - two hours each way - and only in the last two years has made it to the six-figure mark as an administrator. Her job prospects were never as good as his. He originally left his job to start a new company which failed, and he spent years and $$$ trying to get his original three patents back. That effort didn't succeed, but he did retain the rights to any future patents, which he's taken advantage of.

Steamer, Congratulations on having a house that your GF likes! That makes it a lot easier. However, you have only been dating for a year. Unless you were friends for a few years before that, you don't know for sure whether you will get married. (Maybe she will get tired of seeing your clothes on the floor or you will get tired of the toothpaste she leaves in the sink - or an old flame will show up. Who knows?) I suggest that you pay the property taxes, share the joint expenses like food, and she pay for all the "extras" that you want as a couple - vacations, etc. This will not affect what you are already paying (mortgage, utilities, replacing appliances, etc.) If and when you get married, then you can reconsider who pays what. Meantime, encourage her to pay off her student loans quickly and build a "life happens" fund. The others are right that a spender and saver are a difficult combination, but it does not sound like you will have that issue. In a good relationship between savers, it does not matter so much who pays what because there is always $$ left over for savings. You two (or at least she) has some work to do re savings if you will have a comfortable retirement. That is a long term issue which will benefit from attention in the early stages. My husband (of 18+ years) and I are both savers, so who pays what has never been an issue. We each have our own checking accounts but charge nearly everything and pay that bill on line. About 15 years ago, we realized that we needed to increase retirement savings, so we have been transferring the excess funds to our investment accounts. We just paid off our mortgage, so we feel very comfortable. Best wishes to you and your relationship. In the long term, who pays what this year should not matter too much. Keep it low key and focus on whether your life styles, attitudes, etc. are a good match. Don't marry her in a year because you feel obligated after she paid half of your property taxes!

Yes-- it was adobe connect! As I remember the issue wasn't only with the software-- it was the process we had to go through to reserve a time slot (internally). Just too much work overall -- especially when some of other products are SO SIMPLE to use (for participants AND organizers). I had a goto meeting account on my own credit card and though I expensed it, I was the gate keeper so I knew it was always available. Skype for business is what I currently use but I've never used the audio portion-- I have used the video portion (rarely) and the screen sharing (almost always). I use our normal corp. conf line for audio.. and skype for the visual. It works fine for that purpose but if I were to recommend a single product for both conf line and screen sharing/presentations, it would be Goto Meeting. Both Skype for business and Goto Meeting integrate with MS Office so that you can generate invites with all the connection info baked right in. I also used an apple video conferencing tool that integrated with apple tv. It was VERY useful and easy to use also but it is 100% dependent on an internet connection. We used it more for video conferencing and screen sharing/presentations. It was especially useful for our purposes because we could "throw" an image right from an ipad or iPhone to the big tv screen. We used it when demoing mobile software, when surveying competitors and even when interviewing design and technical candidates as they could show their portfolios. I don't think this will work for you because of your remote folks.. but I share because it could be useful for others. Definitely check with your IT dept..