skatha

Wow-your friend just made his problem 100 times worse by not showing at his trial.....looks like he is going to do some serious jail time... BTW-since he had permission to access your house, the charge cannot be burglary

Prior to our drive to CO in 2003, I decided to buy some chains for my Expedition. They are an "order only" item for TX Autozones. I ordered them, paid for them and then heard nothing from the store. So I went by...the store clerk, after handing me my box, whispered "You don't need those around here".... I used them within 1 month for the first time. I used them the second time this last March. If La Nina persists with it's hold over SW weather patterns, I may need 'em again next March! SE TX is now 24 inches behind in our rainfall tally. We haven't had any change in the weather pattern. A hopeful storm last night brought only 0.04 of rain. According to a post I looked at on the Skidiva.com, the weather pattern that's going to favor La Nina over El Nino is projected to be in place for the next 20-30 years!

Another way to look for some digs is to contact local realtors. Houses for sale can also be rented in many cases if they are vacant. I've had realtors tell me a vacant house is harder to sell than one with furniture because prospective buyers often cannot picture their furniture in an empty house...

LOL-and what wasteful spending are you referring to? Forget about those $2500 toilets-that was the way the DoD hid black ops budgets. Discretionary spending is only 17% of the budget. I could bring up the billions lost in Iraq and Afghanistan, but defense spending is a protected rail of some political philosophies. Also humorous was our conservative Texas politicians regurgitating that same mindless mantra of how our $28 billion budget shortfall could be corrected with cutting "wasteful spending" as if any was present after 15 years of Republican domination of Texas politics. LOL! A discussion of tax policies is beyond the scope of this site. Let's just say some tax policies are associated statistically with business reinvestment and some with Wall Street expansion. For an industry that currently comprises 16% of the country's GDP, Wall Street sure doesn't make anything. BTW, any discussion of flat tax is invariably accompanied by ending the single largest governmental income subsidy-the mortgage interest deduction for earners making less than $350K. Included too is elimination of the personal exemption for the taxpayer and dependents that also doesn't exist for earners making over $350K. Currently, the average marginal tax rate for Americans, with deductions, is 17%. So, do you really want your taxes to increase by 50% to 25% of every dime you make? The wealthy will continue to pay 15%.....just sayin' Also another little factoid....adding those low income earners (who even Reagan thought were too poor to be subject to federal income tax) to the tax rolls would only bring in $700 million a year..... PS-that 25% of income is Paul Ryan's proposal. So is his deduction elimination proposal. I've had more than a few real estate agents assure me that there is a huge alliance of industries fighting that

Actually, it's worse than that. AWD is not 4WD...AWD is two live transaxels with open differentials. I've seen AWD with all 4 wheels spinning. The manufacturers are counting you won't ever be in that type of conditions. I'm sure someone with AWD, thinking they are bulletproof, are actually worse off than a person with 2WD who understands the limitations of their control. Not mentioned but surely pertinent-the test vehicles were BMWs. I'd like to see a fourth option-summer tires on a Chevy pickup truck with a 17 y/o driver!

While I agree that winter tires are best, I have to represent the tires I picked for my Expedition. I have driven on ice, up and down hills, and up and down mountain passes covered with hard packed snow and ice with them. Granted, I am far more skilled on driving on ice and snow than almost every non-transplant Texan but, if you are like me and have to drive from hell to a cold state, these tires can't be beat-Goodyear Wrangler Silent Armors.... Plus, I pull a 5000 lb boat/trailer up slimy boat ramps with 'em, too....

I would have loved a 3 strap binder! As it was, once I got my first set of hard boots, I truly got introduced to comfort. My daughter switched from skis to a snowboard and I got her a set-up (K2 Luna, K2 bindings and K2 boots). The first thing she noticed-that torque-y feeling your strapped in foot gets on the lift....

I've gotten that "do you want to sell it now" message from bidders. I usually don't reply because I want to see how much I could get for an item. I will keep it in mind though because I want to pay cash for the car I get my daughter. If I let a seller know that, maybe I'd get a little more consideration. I will always remember the guy who flew in from Chicago and drove off with my dad's Ferrari in 1980-after handing my dad a cashier's check for $30K.Of course, the car I'm looking at is nowhere close to $30K:smashfrea

I have used bindings with toe straps and I have used bindings with toe caps. I hated the toe straps because I had to crank the straps down so much my toes went numb. The toe caps, in my opinion, were more comfortable but I had less control.

Good to know.....I'm perusing ebay for a car for my daughter. Since she's only 14, I have some time.

It was 100 degrees again today. We get to see 4 more days of 100 degree temps after a short 8 day break. We had high temps of over 100 almost everyday since May. We haven't had really any rain since last October and, right now, we here in Houston are 30 inches behind in our annual average rainfall tally. There's a huge wildfire just about 20 miles north of Houston and a huge wildfire about 50 miles east of Austin. Yes, it's just September...I cannot tell you how much I'm hoping for cool weather. About 1/3-2/3 of the trees in SE Texas have died-and the drought is expected to last another year. Our trees are big oaks, hackberries, sycamores, loblolly pines, cypress...all dying. The stand of "lost pines" in Bastrop Co. are gone now.

Sorry for the delay... First off, I'm sorry for those here that have suffered a loss. Second, as a simple statement, you will find yourselves increasingly experiencing weather than, at one time, was seen in the South. The NE is turning into a tropic paradise of sorts. From one coastal resident to another, let me give you some advice. 1. Flood insurance-rising water damage is never covered by homeowners' insurance 2. Check your policy for Windstorm insurance and make such you purchase it if that coverage is not mandated by your state 3. Get camping supplies for those times when you have no power 4. If you are going to be without power for a while, get a generator. Figure out the "start up" wattage and the typical running requirements requirements for the appliances you want to have and get an generator sized for the load. Generators have both typical runtime and "surge" wattage output ratings.My generator handles all our refrigerators and a small window AC to make a cool room in the house. Typically, a tropical system can cause you to lose power for 1-2 weeks 5. Get 5 20 gallon containers for your generator's fuel and fill them before the tropical system strikes. If you wait until after, you might find yourself in a gas station line for hours. Use that fuel in your vehicles if you don't need it-the fuel will not "keep" over the winter 6. Water-I usually fill up the tubs but, in our area, the water is stored in above ground tanks that use gravity as a pump. We haven't had the water go out in a storm, so far... Good luck for the next storm. Remember, it doesn't have to be a hurricane to kill-TS Allison killed a bunch of people in Houston

Doesn't work that way. There's a podcast on BBC Worldservice that goes into how Mass Customization works. I suggest checking it out and, yes, BMW is looking into the technology

Also, regarding anyone who says he's an "oceanographer at sea". BS-real oceanographers work with larger foundations/agencies that maintain infrastructure to allow easy contact with the mainland. Heck, my ex- works for a company that operates rigs for Shell. His caller ID when he calls is always a local phone number, even when he worked off the coast of Malaysia. It was the same when he was in Iraq working for Halliburton. He's off the coast of Brazil and I could fax him a document right now if I needed to contact him or call him

That's a shamisen

She is in no way worthy of being mentioned with any of them. I listen to a program on the radio hosted by a long term music producer who was as heartless as my sentiment seems to be. Like I mentioned to someone else, yes, I have heard her sing. I grew up listening to really talented singers, tho....she was a train wreck and we were fascinated by the train wreck. If she hadn't had a drug problem, we wouldn't have heard of her

Really? He was dressed as a cop....

I peruse eBay motors frequently-usually looking at old Rolls, Porsches, etc. The issue I see is, gathered from the relistings I see, is payment from the bidders. Be sure to list a reserve price to -hopefully- scare off people bidding who are not serious. You could probably get an idea about the reserve from checking out Edmund's. I see people also mentioning that they will not take bids from people who have no eBay history of buying or selling. If you take payment via Paypal, you will pay a service charge. Be sure to figure that into your reserve. Definitely look at Craigslist. And, don't forget the classifieds in the paper!:D

Hmmmm.....I've been going to this area since 1971 and have yet to find "a local store" that employs anything but minimum wage seasonal workers.

What the elevation of the snow level now in north central CO?

It's not just the southern hemisphere...TX is in the worst rainless period from last October that's been recorded. My husband called the ranger station at Rocky Mountain NP and found out that there's still 30 foot snow drifts on Trail Ridge Rd. We are, at least, 20 inches behind on rain-multiple that by the 10:1 ratio of CO snow-and that equals to 200 inches of snow that should have been TX rain. That being said, I'm thinking of bringing the skis for our trip up to our cabin the last week in June

I don't know much about VM but Verizon's service areas are a big reason I stay with them. We travel a lot and I need a phone that works in rural NM and west Texas. If you hang out in NJ most of the time, that may not be something you're considering

Get used to tornadoes in MA. The same conditions that made them occur in Tornado Alley in the past exist in MA....

The condition you just described is mineral deposits forming in the vitreous associated with diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and ciliary body tumors. It is NOT the simple vitreous floaters that most nearsighted people have. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid_hyalosis

Barry Bonds never tested positive either. Lance has always associated with questionable characters-from Astana to the doc he endorses.....