I've seen it on stage and it puts chills up and down my arms. It is definitely my all time favorite musical. They recently released the 25th Anniversary Concert. I enjoy this one more than the 10th Anniversary Dream Cast because they do the ENTIRE musical - all three hours and there is enough interaction that you know what's going on. The only down part is that Nick Jonas is Marius. No one can come close to Michael Ball as Marius, but Nick Jonas is just the pits. Alphie Boe is Jean Valjean and he is AMAZING! I bought the concert through iTunes and have probably seen it about 8 times at this point. At the end of the 25th Anniversary Concert, they have the Valjean quartet (Colm Wilkinson [original Valjean], John Owen Jones, Simon Bowman and Alfie Boe) sing "Bring Him Home". You can watch it below: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcbe4gSoef8 I don't think I've seen another musical that stirs the emotions the way that Les Mis does. It is beyond amazing. Enjoy! Val

We have three floors, central air and still have some issues on the really hot days (it's about 99 today and hot). What has helped us is to definitely keep the drapes closed. My boys' rooms get full afternoon sun and roast. I bought a few thermal curtains from Target for $12 each for their rooms and it has been a HUGE improvement for them. It is still warmer in their rooms, but not like before. We are slowly replacing the other drapes with thermal drapes. We also don't run the dryer during the day. Best of luck.

We will definitely be upgrading. $29.99 to upgrade our 5 macs? Awesome. The features look great and the keynote address is available to watch from the apple site or through iTunes for free now. It was a long one this time, but covered Lion, iOS 5 and iCloud. If you have updated to the latest iOS versions for iPhone and iPad, you can experience one of the features now. I purchased an app yesterday through iTunes on my computer and it was automatically sent to my iPad without having to sync. Love this! You have to turn it on under settings.. App store. I'm looking forward to the upgrades.. Lion, iOS 5 and iCloud. My only concern with the keynote was how frail Steve looked. Fortunately, he does seem to have a power team behind him designing all these slick, easy-to-use and useful products. Val

Young: Richard Scary books Winnie the Pooh A Child's Garden of Verses Then: The Blue Fairy Book The Yellow Fairy Book The Red Fairy Book The Green Fairy Book The Little House Books Wrinkle in Time Series Narnia Books Phantom Tollbooth - LOVE THIS BOOK! Little Women The Hobbit Lord of the Rings Jane Eyre Clan of the Cave Bear - read when I was 14 or so I also gobbled up mythology books. My first were the D'aulaires mythology books- I had the Norse book and the Greek book. My mother gave me a gorgeous copy of Bulfinch's Mythology that I loved. I also had Edith Hamilton's Mythology, a book on Celtic myths and legends and one on Chinese fairtales/myths & legends. Great topic! Val

Would you consider getting an iPod touch instead of an iPhone? The touch would allow you to download apps, take pictures, access internet in a free wi-fi area, play music, watch movies, etc. without the data plan. Of course, it wouldn't be a phone, but sounds like you're pretty satisfied with your phone. Your only expense with this would be the actual iPod touch and then whatever apps,music or movies you download from iTunes. Val

My oldest did something similar when he was 8. His turned out to be a bone infection. The area that hurt (his ankle) was much warmer than his other ankle. They did a couple tests to determine whether or not it was a skin infection or bone infection. He had to do iv antibiotics for 6 weeks and has been fine ever since. Best of luck!

Have they checked you for hemochromatosis? My father died from complication of this because it was caught waaay too late. His iron levels were around 6000. You can find more information about this at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001368/ They would need to do a couple of blood tests to check. It is extremely treatable. This may be way off-base, but wanted to throw it out there because you mentioned that your iron levels were high. Will be thinking of you. Vl

Paprika gets good reviews for adding and maintaining recipes.

I have an amazing dentist that goes out of her way to make me comfortable. It still doesn't help. I am very nervous.... every.... single.... time. UGH! Even if it's not me. Last Tuesday my boys were practicing lacrosse. My 15 yr old caught a stick in the face and broke off over half of one of the teeth just next to the middle teeth. The dentist was able to fit him in on Saturday afternoon (last week was spring break around here - they were fully booked). When I went back with my son, I started to sweat, get shaky, tear up and breathe funny... and it wasn't even me. After they looked at everything and determined treatment (he needed a root canal and crown because the nerve was less than a millimeter from the surface and the tooth sheered in the back), I went to wait in the waiting area. My kid didn't even flinch. The doctor remarked about how calm my son was. As much as I appreciate how the dental office goes out of their way to make me comfortable, it still doesn't calm me. I don't know if I'll ever be able to relax. I've just learned to live with it. Best of luck! Valerie

I have an iPad and LOVE it. I read all the time on the iPad. I actually think that I've read a lot more because of it - it's so easy to get another book. I love being able to change the font size. The apps available are wonderful and most are very reasonably priced. I use it to create documents, create illustrations, edit photos, surf the internet, email, etc. My husband uses his to read PDF's for work (he can mark them up if necessary), take notes, draft docs, watch movies (the Netflix app rocks!). Kindle, Nook, and various other ebook companies have free apps available for the iPad. You can also download an app called OverDrive which will let you connect with your local library and "check-out" ebooks from your library.My husband has a work laptop and a personal laptop. When he goes on business trips, he usually has to take both. Last trip, he just took the business laptop and the iPad and had no issues. It was great for him. Kindles are wonderful as e-readers, but limited in other aspects. It does really depend on what you want to use it for. Best of luck with your decision.

I have the slicer/grater and love it. Use it a lot for homemade mac-n-cheese, parmesan crisps, potatoes,etc.

Use my iPad ALL THE TIME. Found a great purse to carry it in and now that I have the iPad 2, it's even lighter. I create documents on it, read books on it (don't think I've purchased a regular book since purchasing the iPad, but I've read much more than normal), edit photos, design graphics, etc. I use the Grocery IQ app that you can have on iPhone/iPod touch and iPad and sync. I also have an iPhone and just find it easier to us the iPad for more things. My husband is now using my original iPad. He uses it to read and mark-up pdf files for work and school. He just left on a business trip and was able to leave his personal laptop behind because of taking the iPad. I would highly recommend one.

She's not my favorite actress, but I'll try to withhold judgement on the age thing until it comes out. I was very against the idea of the new Sherlock series that BBC did because of the young age of the actors. I ended up LOVING it. Hopefully, the treatment for the new Miss Marple movie is similar.

Ordering online Friday at 12:01 am or whenever it's available online. Ordering online so that I can get the free engraving. I don't think there will be an iPad3 this year... mainly due to the fact that the keynote speech was titled something to the effect of... "2011, the Year of the iPad2." I would imagine that they will be on the same sort of yearly cycle that the iPhone is. I'll use the new one - I use the current one ALL THE TIME. Love it. The new one is a great step in the product. Cameras, speed, gyro, mirroring, etc. Cannot wait.

There are a couple of print apps out there that will give you print ability. Printcentral seems to be popular. I would imagine that if you can figure out how to get your videos from the DVD to iTunes, then you could get them to your iPad. I'm sure there's some sort of converter application out there. All of Project Gutenberg's books are available for free from iBooks. There are several good PDF viewers (including iBooks). Many let you read and mark-up PDF files. My husband has started copying his work/grad school pdfs to my iPad so when we are at an all day wrestling tournament for one of our boys, he can just take the iPad. Wordprocessing is available. Pages or some apps that all you to create Word compatible docs. The more I've worked with it, the more I like and prefer creating docs on my iPad. I am an app-a-holic. I read about new apps daily. I have found some interesting, interactive apps for about all subject areas. :-) Val

My husband and I married with I was 19 and he was 21 (over 20 years ago). He was in the Air Force and getting ready to be sent to Japan for three years. Living in Japan for three years, away from family was WONDERFUL for us. It forced us to work things out without running home to Mom and Dad. It also made us become a great TEAM. We moved closer to family about 10 years ago. His parents moved about 1.5 hours away to their retirement home shortly after we moved back here. I wish they hadn't. Being close to family has been great as the kids are in the active (sports & school programs) years. We get together with my husband's family about once-a-month and it's great. My mom sees the kids every week for a little bit. Visits on both sides are great without having the stress of having company for a week. So.. my answer is both... live away in the beginning and closer as you have kids, :-) Val

Margaret George wrote Helen of Troy. Very good... very long. :-)

If you have an iPad, I would go with the iMac...you can use the iPad for portability. I have a 24" iMac and love it. Figure that next spring/fall, I'll be upgrading to the 27". They are beautiful. My bil and sil have one. :-) Val

I'm a little late to this discussion, but wanted to add my bit... LOVE my iPad. My wonderful dh stood in line for me the day that the 3G version came out. I wanted a 32 GB, but those were sold out, so he bought me a 64 GB (poor me). I love it. I have about 3,000 pics on the iPad, a few movies & tv shows, a bunch of books and lots of apps. I create docs, edit photos, watch movies, read books, surf the net, play games, cook and relax with the iPad. It has been a wonderful purchase. I don't regret it one bit. I was fortunate enough to be able to sign up for the unlimited 3G service before AT&T did away with it. Enjoy! Val

That was GREAT!!! Had not seen that before.

1. Blink - amazing episode. Bought my son a Don't Blink tee for Christmas that year. Also enjoyed the two episodes with Matt Smith and the angels 2. The Next Doctor - mainly because it reunites David Tennant with his Blackpool costar, David Morrissey 3. Tooth and Claw - this was the first "new" episode I caught on the Sci-Fi Channel. I was hooked. LOVED Queen Victoria. 4. The Christmas Invasion 5. The Girl in the Fireplace 6. Human Nature & Family of Blood 7. The End of Time.... LOVED David Tennant and thought this was a great send off. 8. Vincent and the Doctor... awesome! I'm really looking forward to A Christmas Carol. Should be fun. :-) sorry... went over the limit...

Ok.... not an actual Doctor Who episode, but a great clip of David Tennant and Catherine Tate (Donna) performing a skit for Comic Relief:

10 11 - almost tied with 10 9 4 don't care after this.. I downloaded Hamlet from iTunes about a month ago. Wonderful.

Loving 4.2! My 11+ pages of apps are now down to 2. So excited. AirPrint is in its infancy now. Only works with select printers. More will be added as time goes on. There are several print utility apps in the store. One that has worked for us is HP iprint Photo. I've been able to use it to print Pages docs. I'm looking forward to AirPrint working for all at some point. I was definitely disappointed it didn't. Also disappointed when I looked at HP's site that they didn't have any color laser printers with the eprint functionality. Val

Thanks!