We're all waiting for the book, because it's supposed to be that way. We wait in anticipation, wondering and talking to friends about what might happen. My husband and I have had wonderful discussions of the possibilities both with our 8 year old nephew and at an after hours work event. Is Snape good or bad? Will Harry live or die? It's as much fun discussing it as reading the book. The release is an event. My nephew is going to a late night release party at a bookstore and staying up until midnight. My husband and I arm wrestled over who gets to read it first. It's like waiting for Christmas. It's way more fun to wonder what is in those beautiful packages under the tree than it is to sneak a peek before the big day. Having somebody tell me what is in the package under the tree would not make me happy. I think we're all afraid of finding out the end before we're ready.

This is an amazing series, and a remarkable social phenomenon. A group of diverse people with something in common - love for a series of books - waiting together for the last time. I, for one, really appreciate that the media seem to be using caution in exposing spoilers. Knowing in advance wouldn't be any fun, because I couldn't tell anybody without spoiling it for them.

I'm amazed that this does not often come up as a criticism of Bush. I remember how I felt when I heard that Bush was not going to require the FERC to enforce the law regarding energy price manipulation. Bush essentially chose to allow Texas energy companies to fleece Californians. Any fury was limited, because the media never reported very well on the story and everything got drowned out by 9/11, but it was a disaster for California. Davis took the fall, but he really never had many good options. How can you enforce the law when the police commissionar is telling his officers not to interfere with the crimes?

I have no trouble believing that Cheney was involved in this up to his neck, and that the people who met with him during the crisis weren't simply discussing future energy policy but were also setting current policy.

It would nice to see somebody getting patted on the back for doing the right thing withoug having a dozen people climb aboard to criticize them for not doing it sooner, or complain that they are doing it for the wrong reason, or say that it isn't right enough. The AMA is going to take heat from the medical "professionals" who don't want to treat transgender people. I respect them for being willing to rise above the biases of some of their members and take a stand. As for the cynics who think this is all about money - transgender surgery may be profitable, but are there really enough transgender people out there to significantly effect the bottom line of a multibillion dollar industry?

Seriously, what kind of businessman would take clients to a glorified strip club in this day and age? It's not 1950 anymore, and playboy bunnies went out of fashion a long time ago. I can't believe that any serious businessman would want to be entertained in this way. This is for lightweights.

Our initial mortgage officer tried to steer us into an adjustable loan. It made no sense, economically, because the interest rates on fixed rate were practically the same as those on ARM's. We stuck to our mantra "Fixed Rate, No Pre-payment penalties". I hadn't heard of "negative amortization" at the time, but I would certainly not have taken a loan that could get bigger. Fortunatly, the loan officer soon left the mortgage brokerage we dealt with and we ended up with someone who never tried any games. They respected our wish to get a loan we could comfortably afford to re-pay, with no pressure to increase the amount borrowed, take out extra cash, or switch to some kind of creative loan. It would have been very easy for us to get a larger loan, but we're pretty conservative financially, and we resisted the urge to "get rich quick" using our home. About a year ago, our brokerage were taken over by another outfit that is now having serious financial problems.

I can't tell you how many offers we've received offering to lower our loan payments. Buy they've tapered off lately. I think this is because we built up some credit card debts re-modeling our old house to sell, and have since re-paid them, upping our credit rating. Since our rating climbed we haven't gotten as many credit card offers or refinance offers. I think this brings up a very relevant issue in the refinancing debate. The "responsible" lenders are actively targeting people with good, but not great, credit. They aren't interested in people who always pay their bills completely and on time, because they don't make a lot of money off these people. I see the entire mortgage lending fiasco as virtual fraud. The corporations used completely legal techniques to trap vulnerable indivudials into taking out loans they couldn't afford to repay. The fact that their methods weren't illegal is a national shame.