Yes, guides with arrows pointing to field marks aren't the ultimate in identification. Guides with notes about other birds with similar characteristics and then explanations about what to look for the tell the two apart are helpful. I have found that in most cases where IDs are difficult it's really beneficial to research more than one resource. We really have some tools now that weren't commonly available even fifteen years ago and that's access to the internet and cheaper digital cameras. I keep a digital right by the regular birding window. I take rapid frames of the birds in question from as many angles as I can. Sometimes you don't have time to focus and be fussy. Getting a less than perfect picture is not always a failure. If it helps you to catch the target sitting next to a known bird, immediately you have a handle on size. I also prefer real photographs I find on this forum, because painted representations just leave too much to artistic license. LOL. I sometimes wonder how many really cool sparrows I missed by logging them as something common? So many folks just causally dismiss them because they look similar. This is where you sometimes find your lifers! Keep a notepad handy to your observation station to mark down anything you notice on field marks. I have a good memory but the image in the brain can play tricks on you quickly. Draw a pic if you must, and try to catch some photos. Document, document and document.

I haven't worn a foundation in at least five years & don't miss it. As I've aged ('m 70) I seem to want less 'heaviness' or 'weight' on my skin. (I also don't miss having to put it on.) However, I have discovered a product this past year that I'm really pleased with: Olay Definity Color Recapture. It's a lightly tinted sheer moisturizer, light in texture & not sparkley. It makes my skin looks lighter & almost dewy. I find it at Target, Rite-Aid, CVS, etc. You could check products at these stores; they carry Maybelline, Olay, Neutrogena, L'Oreal, Max Factor & other lines that don't necessarily cater to the under-50 crowd. I use a powder blush & want to share a hint I read years ago. Instead of using a separate eye shadow (which may no longer look good at upper ages), stroke on powder blush under the brow above the eyelid. Also use it on the tip of the chin to add definition to the face. I'm echoing moonshadow - you are a good daughter. When we get so old, we age in ways we don't expect & it's pretty discouraging & depressing. We think & feel the same inside as we did years ago, but there's this ugly person on the outside.

You are SO lucky to be renting! Imagine that you had saved a bunch of money in a bank, and one day you learned that everybody who had put their money into savings suddenly had a third of it taken away. THAT scenario is what a lot of us homeowners are living through. Imagine my situation. I owe $136,000 on a house that I could sell now for $90,000. I have to earn $46,000 to bring to the bank before I can sell my house. That is after I replaced the furnace, water heater, windows, doors, fence, porch, driveway, bathroom fixtures (except tub), kitchen cabs, floor, ceiling, lighting, electrical panel in the basement, and after repairing the roof, adding vents, adding attic insulation, stripping wallpaper, and re-landscaping. Does owning a house sound like an INVESTMENT? Not to me. You pay $700 a month, and can walk away with one month's notice. That is freedom. I have to earn $46,000 to unload my house, then find a buyer. Right now, I have it rented for $200 less than the monthly cost of owning it. My DH wonders if we will ever buy another house if we ever leave here (we live in and make mortgage payments in a different house than the one I described above.) If you want to invest money, find a different way. Savings bonds would be a better choice with housing prices still teetering. Think of a mobile home the same way you do a car. It is never worth again what it was worth the day it drove off the lot. My sis and mom bought one, and I just pray that the mobile home outlives my sis, because she will never have the $ to buy anything else. Another thing to know about manufactured housing is that it is made with materials that "off-gas." Chipboard and MDF and even plywood are held together by petrochemical glues. I read about 10 years ago that living in a mobile home had the equivalent effect on your lungs as smoking does. I could not spend more than a few hours in my mom's former mobile home without having asthma symptoms. The newer the home, the more chemicals continue to off-gas. We are now more aware of the effects of off-gassing, but I don't believe that the industry has eliminated the risk. Your baby may be healthier in an established building like your apartment than in a mobile home.

Well the room is morphing into something else. Son likes this cheap "O" jazz mirrored mural, its sorta cool and cheesy at the same time. The furniture was looking a little too mature so I think the mural adds some 20yr old youth and it ties in the black and light gray carpet to the room. It will be spaced and placed behind the sofa and take up a big area. He has a long narrow room that's now limited on space due to the big a$$ chair, difficult having any symmetry so thinking of two matching small bench/stool/ottoman type seating across from chair. I did a layout to scale and sm bench/stools are the only way to get extra seating without blocking the TV viewing. Of course I am now hung up on seating again. I found a sight online called m!dnight velvet; don't know anything about them except they have some low cost slightly unusual stuff. Son doesn't have much room for more side tables (see large coffee table in above post) so we are thinking of the sm head or the tufted ceramic stool/tables below to use as a table and possibly doubling as extra seating (but not sure). The rooms accent colors will need to change as well but we are waiting for the mirror mural for inspiration. Right now we are thinking a purple/blue accent but that could change. Also think we need texture but not sure how to add that unless it's just in some pillows or I come up with another idea for stools/tables/bench. We also decided against black curtains in the living area, might be too much black with the black carpet and black in mirror mural so we bought these pale gold ones from sm@rtbargins. The window is across the room from the big a$$ chair so I was thinking it would look better to have a similar color on the window to balance it out a bit. I'm trying to buy all the furniture from craigslist to stay in my $1,200 budget (not including accessories) but still need a 48" round used dining set. I'm so sick sick sick of looking on CL but have too to keep the cost down. If I see one more ad that says "designer" I'm going to flip a lid! Of course it's designer, someone designed it!!! And don't get me started on "custom" ads. P.S, I'm sorry about these pictures but I'm having trouble with my cable or photobucket and also my overloaded brain so please forgive as I will figure it out later. P.S.S, thank you my friend for helping me look for canvas art, I feel really bad I didn't post the cheesy mural earlier ( but I REALLY thank you all for help and kind words!!! http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/af170/jterrilynn/e88f54b5.jpg" target="_blank">http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/af170/jterrilynn/4d8bbec8-1.jpg" target="_blank">http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/af170/jterrilynn/b7267bed-1.jpg" target="_blank">http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/af170/jterrilynn/48ca1471.jpg" target="_blank">http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/af170/jterrilynn/c9fd2ac2.jpg" target="_blank">http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/af170/jterrilynn/c8a527cd.jpg" target="_blank">http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/af170/jterrilynn/c420cee8.jpg" target="_blank">