Barbarossa

It's not 'fitted' carpet, it's a proper 'runner', with visible stair rods and brackets.

I have plenty of space on the new computer, which runs Windows 7.

I have the physical hard drives from two older computers, neither of which will start up at all [ believe me I have tried ].

I'd like to rescue a few documents - mainly in Word.

One of the old ones ran Windows Me, one Vista.

They are junk, but I would like to get a few, comparatively small, files out if I possibly can.

I was a friend's 'Best Man' 24-and-a-bit years ago. They are still happily (as far as anyone can know) married, with two teenage children.

Meet me in St. Louis! But seriously, what was the engineering involved in reversing the flow?

[The captain of the ship I sailed on from Holland, across the Atlantic into the St. Lawrence river, seaway, and Great Lakes did - with the connivance of the Chief Engineer - convince the youngest apprentice that the Niagara falls were switched off at night. The old half-truths are the best.]

I'm trying to avoid a one-way car hire, and wouldn't have found out about various US commuter rail lines without asking. The South Shore Line was a godsend in IN / IL.

I'm not entirely a novice, but I'd like to sit among friendly home (Cubs) fans who will tell me what's going on if I get confused (or should I just take a radio and listen to the commentary)? I know more about cricket than I do about baseball. I'd do the same for any American visiting a cricket match!

Visiting Chicago in late May / early June. I need accommodation. I smoke ( tobacco ) like a chimney. I need a room I can smoke in, or at the very least a balcony.

I occasionally need to phone people on the other side of the Atlantic, and the time zones are confusing enough as it is. The UK changes from GMT to BST at 2am Sunday morning ( so 2am becomes 3am ).

I've got to get from Antwerp docks ( and I do mean dock yard - traveling by freighter, not cruise ship ) to possibly an hotel and definitely the railway station - I'm not sure what time of day the ship is going to dock. My French is so-so, my German almost fluent. As I'll be arriving in Antwerp from Quebec on a Polish ship ... I'm sad to say I'm not even sure of the Flemish for 'Flemish'.

I have a laptop, running ( ha, ha,) Vista Home Premium. I have an external hard drive ( 500 Gb ).

I can do the update, but have been ( expletive withheld ) 'd off with MS for years.

I have made sauerkraut, which was interesting but left me with a glut of preserved cabbage.

I can buy very good corned beef locally from a deli, quite possibly cheaper than 'corning' my own.

Is it worth the effort and the time, particularly as I'm a household of one, and don't really wish to be on a diet of solely corned beef for months.

I'm in the US ( Chicago, NYC, and Scranton ) in May / June.

I have no particular team allegiance, but would love to go to a baseball game. I think I understand most of the rules - at least the basics ( I've watched a lot of live games on TV ).

England are doing well in the Test Match ;-)

Sorry "Theater". As you may have guessed I'm English, but I am in Chicago in May. I'm a sucker for big production musicals, but also like serious new writing. I'm up for anything that takes my fancy that night: what's the most comprehensive way of finding out what's on, where, and when?

My parents grave is a mess - my father was buried in early January when the earth was frozen solid. My mother was buried 3 years ago in the same grave. There was then a thaw and torrential rain. The re-laid 'turf' sank about 16" at the foot and 8" at the top. It looked awful. With slightly better weather, the sexton has re-lifted the sods, filled it in, and re-laid them; to be honest it's just random clumps of dying grass, although it does look better than it did.

It's an exposed hillside churchyard in Cumbria.

Neither of my parents deaths was unexpected - they were both elderly - but I would like to respect their final resting place.

I just have the standard sound card for an Acer Aspire, running Vista home premium. Every time MS forces updates down my throat in the middle of the night ( I know, but they tend to sneak in with the security updates: there's irony for you ) I end up having either to system restore or download and re-install the sound card driver. It's a pain in the ****.

The jacket is 52% polyester, 45% wool, 3% elastane.

There is quite a lot of wax on it: an after - show party, an over-enthusiastic tango and a Gothic candelabra. No one dead or injured.

I'm arriving in Chicago by ship, and will have two large suitcases, plus hand baggage. I need to take a side trip by domestic flight to northern PA for a couple of days, where I will only need an "overnight" bag - hand luggage. Can I leave baggage in storage at O'Hare?

I could hire a car, but then I'd have nowhere to park. Is there any public transport?

I'm looking at between 38th and 47th, roughly 6th and 7th Avenue - 5 mins walk from Times Square,really.

I'm not fluent in Creole, but it seems odd for a former French colony.

(And yes I have donated, before I get a load of abuse.)