I actually think it is very regional. I live in NY and attended many very elaborate weddings where I had to shell out a $300 gift ($600 for close family) for a gift. I think the idea is that you have to cover your plate and then some. My DH's friend is a wedding photographer and he charges a minimum of $12K for a wedding and he is booked solid. Around here, giving money is a norm. The registry is for the bridal shower and I have seen many registeries that include plasma's and $400 place settings. I have several girls at my job getting married and they are spending between $25-$40K. It's outrageous if you ask me and quite stressful because you want to attend these events but they become very unaffordable! In addition, for the amount of money you spend on a wedding, you can put a down payment on a house! When I got married 7 years ago, my parents offered m $20K to pay for the wedding. We looked at several places that cost $150/person and it just didn't feel right sending all that money on one day. We opted to have our wedding a restaurant instead of a reception hall and invited 75 people (much to the chagrin of my parents who wanted me to invite 200 people). My bouquet and cake were from Costco. I had one maid of honor and advertised at a local college to get cheap photographer/videographer. My dress was off the rack of a bridal store and I drove myself to the church. I ended up spending about $7K and the other 13K was part of the down payment for our home. I will admit that my friends and family were generous despite the simple nature of our wedding which I was extremely grateful for.

Well, you point the remote at the device you wish to control, however, human nature always makes you want to point it at the television. If the cable box and television are roughly in the same area, the cable box will hopefully "see" the remote control's IR (infrared) signal. If they are too far away, or if the A/V components are in a cabinet, you can purchase an "IR repeater". The repeater consists of a IR receiver which you discreetly place near the television. It then sends the IR signal to small IR emitters that you place near your A/V components. They come in both wired and wireless versions between the receiver and emitters. You may need some help from somebody that can look at the outputs available on your A/V components: Cable Box, DVD player, etc, and the input options of the television to determine what types of connection/cables you will need between the two. You may also want to add some additional cables for "future components." Additionally, Ethernet wiring (for an internet connection) should be run to the television and also another to where your A/V components are located. If you're installing a home theater sound system, the wiring for that needs to be figured out as well. The single HDMI cable reference I made earlier refers to connecting all you A/V components to the receiver for the sound system, and using it to control which source is displayed on the television. Many people end up preferring to send the signals to both the receiver and the television. That way, if you are "just watching TV" you can use just the TV. If you are watching a movie on DVD and want the full surround sound, then you turn on the receiver as well. By the way, the cables/wiring used in-wall to the television (and speakers wiring if done in-wall) need to be in-wall rated. That refers to the type of insulation used in the cable for safety purposes.

This is the 2nd time we've been there - last month we used a $25 coupon, but we found this place has $25 entrees. Since it was DH's bday, this time we bought $50 coupon, I ordered a romaine salad (came grilled - yuck!), he ordered calamari appetizer, we figured we'd share. Well, his $11 appetizer turned out to be one 4" squid, 1 clam, and 2 baby octopi so he ate it all himself. He ordered a $24 entree (risotto with sausage and brussel sprouts - sounded good except for the brussel sprouts), I ordered a special lobster tail in kind of a tomato-based (turned out to be almost Fra Diavlo!) chowder that ended up being $29. Add a couple of glasses of wine, coffee, 1 dessert sampler and we had no trouble going over the $100 before tip. On the bright side, we got to open the envelope they gave us in December - DH was hoping for the $500 gift certificate or even a free meal (would be around $100), but it ended up being a cooking class for 4 people. Date TBD. I don't know if this will be a private class or if we're going to be with other winners, since they gave away 12 of these. I'm sure they won't have 48 people at a time in the kitchen LOL but maybe 12? I was thinking of asking my cousin K and her sister - will have to see if K is up to it. Dh suggested my mom but no way would she be interested in Italian (esp. fancy-pants Italian) cooking class. We did see on Restaurant.com that they've added more family-style places in our area (incl. my parents' favorite Italian place) so we're going to have to buy some certificates for those while they're half off (and with a $10 free certificate to restaurant of your choice with every order, the coupon we used Sat night ended up being free so we still had a nice meal for $88 after tip). DH wanted more kid-friendly places, DS is no problem but DD is so picky and antsy, I told him "Friendly's (local ice cream parlor chain, burgers, hot dogs and such) doesn't participate, sorry!" But a nearby pizza place (not our favorite but OK) does, we'll have to see if it's good for dine-in only or takeout OK. Hey, I came back to show you this CL ad (went a little farther from home, Fairfield Cty where the formerly rich Wall st types live). Do you think this "china table" might work for b/t my windows, to put DVD player on, if dimensions are right? It's got plenty of storage, and even glass doors if I want to put components inside instead of on top and still use remote. Here is a link that might be useful: china

Hi, M. Thanks for the suggestion. I discovered that the Sony plays DVDs, but the VHS side doesn't work. That's okay, as I'd already decided to get a new DVD player. As for my VHS tapes, I converted most of them to DVD myself, using a Panasonic DVD recorder (DMR-EZ37V). I did this some years ago, and have no idea if the unit still works. But I'll try it. If not, I guess I'll take the remaining tapes to Sam's Club. But I'm back with more questions. Once concerns space around the TV. I just discovered that the manual recommends at least 4 inches of space on all sides. My 32" set is set in a corner armoire. It has about 4" of space on top and about the same on the bottom, but very little space on the sides--less than 1/4". The good part is that most of the back of the armoire is cut away, and because it's in a corner, not flush with a wall, there's a lot of air circulation that way. Do you think this is okay? I'll post a picture. The other thing is the new DVD player. I was interested in a couple of Samsungs, but I know I'd find it irritating that they have no light to indicate the power is on. Then I looked at some other models from other manufacturers, but most, including the Samsungs, have streaming capability. This seems like overkill to me because, as you can see, I've installed a Fire Stick on the TV. I also don't need 3D. I could get one of these models anyway, but I'd rather not pay for features I don't need. I can pay a lot less for a non-Blu-Ray DVD player. I seriously doubt any of my DVDs are Blu-Ray. Other than being able to play Blu-Ray discs, is there any advantage to getting a Blu-Ray player? Thank you for taking the time to read!