JessyF you know me too well.. LOL.. I'd take the one on the left but maybe in a red or burnt orange ha. On the mom front we just received a call this afternoon from the long term care home mom was on the waiting list for and she has to move in Monday. That's a big relief because they have a resident doctor and nurses on staff. The place is pretty new and very nice, not hospitally like some older ones around here are and basically everything is covered by her old age pension so nothing out of pocket except for the difference in cost between a semi-private and private room. Whew.

Never mind, I got one. My back had a good stretch.

To repeat some of what I've said earlier in multiple posts, I've taken a multi-faceted approach: sunlight therapy light for 30 minutes each morning during the shorter winter months making sure to eat healthily, esp. lots of legumes exercise (which for me also includes social partner dancing...not only provides exercise but physical interaction and music!) bamboo sheets have greatly helped with night sweats. I sleep much better. join a menopause support group or else start your own such Meetup group (I did, in NYC!) I take Rainbow Light Menopause One make it a point to be social....to get out of the house and be around other people. Go for walks...be around nature. If you are a night owl (like me), try your best to change your schedule little by little. Waking up earlier and going to bed earlier means you will have more waking hours in the natural light, and fewer waking hours in the dark, which in turn helps with serotonin levels and mood. Talk to a shrink if you are depressed and/or try to engage in cognitive therapy on your own. Be aware of how you are able to somewhat impact your own mood. For e.g., I noticed a pattern, whereby I was constantly assessing my mood multiple times per day. 'Am I feeling depressed right now?....Yup, I am. I am indeed feeling down...just like I was earlier today...just like I was yesterday. Ugh.' I realized that in doing that, I was then creating a sub-conscious 'reality' for myself, that if I am feeling down today, and I felt 'down' yesterday, and the day before that, that it stands to reason that tomorrow, and the next day, will also be the same. And how on earth can I expect to be in a good mood, if I believe this to be my reality, for the foreseeable future? Talk about creating a sense of doom for oneself. ;-) So.... I realized that this thought pattern I was exhibiting was not serving me one iota. Of course, we all know the expression of 'living in the moment'. I decided to purposefully try this at every moment of every day. 'Oh, doesn't this cup of coffee taste so good?.... this is so great that I just finished this work spreadsheet on my computer...I can now cross this off my to-do list.... this is great... Oh, this is a great song I'm listening to ...this salad I'm eating tastes so fresh!.... don't my two cats look so cute sleeping together..." And so on. By doing this, at the end of each day I found that I was able to look back and think 'you know...today wasn't that bad actually...'. And if I practiced living in the moment the next day as well, I could say 'this is great...today was pretty good...yesterday was pretty good...'. So that in turn helped to create my own new reality, which then helped me believe that the days ahead would also be pretty good! ;-) (If I assumed the days ahead would not be so good, they usually were not so good. But if I took on a more positive outlook, that my days ahead would be good, or 'pretty good', indeed, they usually were. While we can't control our emotions or mood entirely, much of it IS about perspective, and recognizing the ways we self-sabotage. And on that note....do not believe for one minute that 'older women are regarded with little worth' (as someone else here said). I am so utterly tired of women (and most often, it's American women) making this complaint. If you believe it, so it will be. No one wants to be around an older woman who is down in the dumps about her age. You could take two older women who look the exact same age more or less, and who have a similar appearance. One woman is confident, takes pride in her appearance, dresses attractively, does not feel her age is in and of itself a detriment; she is engaging, curious, outgoing. The other woman goes around believing that now that she's X-years of age, she's washed-up, and that society and men will 'ignore her'. She doesn't bother trying to dress nice, because she figures 'why bother'. Which woman do you think society is going to respond to more favorably. Which woman will more men find attractive? ;-)

I have also bought and sold on CL. We even advertised our house on CL and did get some viewings! Ditto on the pictures - I don't even look at ads without pictures. CL limits you to four photos, and they're pretty small, but if you use a hosting service like Photobucket you can post as many as you want and they can be much larger. Use the "HTML code" text the same way you would here. (Do note, though, that many very large pictures can make for very slow downloads for those on dialup. Approximately 600x400 is good, 800x600 is the biggest you should really go.) And don't forget the measurements, too! I am always shocked at how many people don't put measurements on their ad. IMO rule #1 is make things as easy on your potential buyers as humanly possible. Do not put your telephone number or address in the ad, although it's fine to say "near the public pool in Anytown" to give people an idea of where you are. I also suggest using the anonymous forwarding CL offers instead of disclosing your email address. I have had to relist items a few times before. Once it gets past about the second page it's pretty much "off the radar" and it's time to relist to keep it in front of people's eyes. I just copy my ad to a text file so I can relist easily. If you decide to reduce the price after a few unsuccessful listings, put "price reduced" in the subject line. I am seeing a lot of relists on entertainment centers, so you may just be out of luck on that one... depending on your tax situation you might actually be better off donating it to charity (one that will come pick it up! LOL) and taking the tax deduction. The Goodwill where I live suggests a donation value of 25% of retail, unless it's really beat up in which 10% is more appropriate. Get a receipt! phoggie, there is NO fee and NO commission. (That's why the site is pretty bare-bones basic.) You post an ad by clicking the "post to classifieds" link up in the top left-hand corner and following the instructions.