I Should Be Cleaning My House

We got a HD TV for Christmas. We have been customers of DirecTV for 7 years. We have 2 DirecTV receivers with TiVos, that we love, and one DirecTV DVR that we hate.

Now that we have the HD TV we need to switch one of the DVRs for an HD DVR. If we stay with DirecTV, we will have to pay $300 for it, & it will be a DirecTV DVR, not a TiVo. I was also not happy that they would not give us a deal despite being a faithful customer for 7 years.

We are deciding if we should stay w/ DirecTV or switch to Dish or Comcast.

Dish DVRs can't do what TiVos can: they won't allow you to watch 1 show while recording another (even a VCR can do that!), & they can't record 2 shows at once on 1 TV.

Comcast: I have used the HD DVR before at a friend's house and they haven't experienced problems with it. It has the features I like in a DVR. But so many people hate Comcast that I'm nervous to use it.

Anyone have any opinions on this? DVR quality/features is as important at the monthly fee.

The PTO of my kids' school would like to give each staff member a little "welcome back" inspirational gift. The problem is, we have NO budget for this and the gifts need to be given on Monday (5 days from now!). They will be at a staff meeting and there will be lots of food and desserts, so I don't want to give them food.

I'd like to give them something with an inspirational quote attached. Someone suggested giving each teacher a rock, and painting a quote on it that says something like "most people will see this as a stumbling block, but teachers see this as a stepping stone." I like the general idea; the rocks can be found for free, but it would be hard to find 77 rocks of the right size, I'd have to lug 77 rocks to school on Monday, and then, the teachers would probably just throw the rock out.

Can anyone think of a similar idea for a free, simple, meaningful welcome back gift for the staff of our school?

I use my Palm Z22 all the time, and I'd like to keep some of my Excel and Word docs on it. Can anyone tell me where I can find a freeware application to download that would do this?

I would like to go back to XP after being very dissatisfied with Vista. Since installing it, my computer is slow to open programs, slow to turn on and off, I cannot use Word or Excel 2003, & other various problems that are extremely frustrating. How nasty of Microsoft to force people to spend even more $$

on Office 2007 after buying Vista.

So, I have decided that I'd like to go back to XP. When I got Vista I had to make recovery disks. If I use those will it bring me back to XP, or will it just reinstall Vista? If not, how can I do it? I thought I heard of a way to bring your computer back to a certain date. Would it being back my XP if I brought my computer back to the day before I installed Vista? If there is no way to reinstall XP, how can I make my computer open programs more quickly and make my computing less frustrating?

What's so "WOW" about Vista anyway? I haven't seen any improvements over XP. Are lots of others disappointed with Vista as well?

Thanks

My husband and I want to go to Galena, IL this July for a 3-night romantic getaway. Our schedule is flexible- we can go during the week or over a weekend. We are looking for hotel/B&B recommendations. Our main request is that our room has a private hot tub/jacuzzi (a clean room is important too). I don't want to pay over $150 per night, but we'll pay more if the rate includes a package deal, such as golf or spa packages. The location of the hotel/B&B does not matter, (In town or out) as we'll have our car, but other things we want to do in Galena that weekend include golf, couples massage, horse and carriage ride, ghost tour, kayaking in the Mississippi River, bicycling tour, and shopping at the boutiques. Does anyone have any recommendations for a place to stay that would be ideal for our weekend?

We live in the far north suburbs of Chicago, and I'd like to take my family to Chicago about once a week this summer to the Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium, etc. I'd get a Citypass but it expires within a week or so after you buy it. Is there anything similar to Citypass, that gives you discounted admission to each attraction once, but expires a couple months later?

High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is poisoning the population, yet it is almost impossible to find food without it. It is even in many foods people don't suspect, such as ketchup, jelly, peanut butter, applesauce, and breads. Even supposedly "healthy" foods, like Kellogg's Smart Start cereal, have HFCS. Since the dangers of HFCS are well known, yet people seem reluctant to boycott foods with HFCS, how can we get food manufacturers to step up and stop using it?

My six-year-old dripped some jelly from her PB&J on my keyboard. I was able to wipe off the surface but it got under some of the keys. Is there any way to clean it out?

We are driving from Chicago to Detroit (and back to Chicago three days later) at the end of May for a family reunion. Are there any kid-friendly, touristy places where we can stop along the way to make the trip more fun?