Still in the process of scanning all the albums, scrapbooks and loose photos my parents have collected in their 70 plus years, I'll tell ya that fiddling with the photos on the bed so Photoshop Elements 5 could recognize the gaps (and you must leave decent gaps) so it can separate the pictures out of a scan bed full was too much hassle. Not enough contrast on the edges of photos, like those with light skies, made this an impossible job for Elements to handle.

My HP 6210 all-in-one printer/fax/copier/scanner helps me sit and scan as many as two hundred photos in a day (long day though), a scan bed full at a time without restarting the software. It'll stay open for me to continue adding more pictures and when I finish the batch on the glass, I just hit new scan and repeat selecting each photo by double clicking in the center of the photo usually or use the box to narrow down to one photo like using a crop tool and move that box to the next photo when done capturing it. When done with a batch, the software will save them all in a format I choose in a numbered sequence. Even if you run some software that causes a crash while scanning, the files scanned in the middle of a batch are in a temp folder in bmp format to recover manually. Worked great for the over 4,000 photos I've scanned so far. Next come slides and 8mm films... Thank goodness for audio books as they keep me from getting bored while my hands do the loading, unloading and pushing buttons.

Sony Vaio VGNFS660W laptop, which I've had for almost four years.
Intel Pentium M Processor 740 (1.73GHz1 , 2MB L2 Cache)
1GB PC-2700 333MHz DDR (512MB x 2)
NVIDIA GeForce Go 6200 with TurboCache supporting
128MB (NVIDIA TurboCache technology combines the size and
bandwidth of video memory and dynamically available
WinXP Home SP2

That looks pretty cool, but with such a large main screen, why not have a mini screen on both sides I wonder. I have two netbooks and their screens, including the frame, easily fit in the space of my 15.4" screen notebook when turned sideways.

@jorgensen said:

They have fixed the shadow bug

That would be something worth crowing about... such a horrid problem to still have.

@john sayers said:

we call it the Queenslander. Up on stilts to let the air cool underneath. Single skin cladding with only the inside clad and the studs exposed with triangular bracing. High pressed metal ceilings inside.

Thanks John. I had a look at some of the Queenslander homes on the web. Most are a little higher off the ground than the house typical in my area but style is similar. I found an unusual but cool version that was low to the ground and done in brick (photo number 3) at http://dkd.net/maryboro/qhouses.html Gotta love that huge porch.

@not registered yet said:

The early planters' houses in Florida and the pre-Greek Revival creole houses in southern Louisiana had such characteristics (I'm from that part of the world, and used to own such a house), although they tended at least initially to use cedar shingles for roofing.

Posted by Lewis Wadsworth

A very rustic looking style that I've never seen before. I know my hubby would prefer this look over my more plain selections. Thanks!

James, it's kind of a mix of the two actually; the roof is more like the one on the brown house but the porch looks more like the white house - although the houses I recall have about 6 steps or more off the ground which is a lot higher off the ground than the white house.

The roof shape is more like the house at this url
http://www.coastalliving.com/coastal/homes/houseplans/article/0,15027,321223,00.html
This house is still not quite high enough off the ground but closer - and the porch is not fully wrapped but the basic style is really homey, love the handrails not being wood, and it is comfortable looking to me. At last I had a style to search for and am getting better results searching.

http://www.coastalliving.com/coastal/homes/houseplans/article/0,15027,1563630,00.html
This link has a great roof if you leave off the dormer or whatever you call that protrusion. I really don't care for "things" sticking out of the roof, split levels or multi-story houses. I'd take off the railings on this porch but the height looks about right. Porch depth hard to say, looks 3 feet or more shy of being deep enough judging by the look of the porch roof overhang.

Thanks for giving me a particular style to look for as wrap around porch alone didn't give me so many options.

They are simple wood houses with a nice deep porch 360 degrees or very nearly all the way around on some. The kind of porch where you can have a porch swing or sofa and rocker not touching the house and still walk around the perimeter inside or outside the furniture easily, not the narrow things they call a porch on most modern homes. These houses were never on a slab, but sitting on cedar posts or such with a crawl space under the house for plumbing and wiring. Dogs and cats like hanging out under the house in the cool shade. I don't know squat about architecture but I like this type of house and don't know what I should be looking for to find models of such a house. I'm not looking for frilly gingerbread trim houses or fancy Victorian houses with a lot of peaks and dormers - more along the lines of an old farm house with a simple sloping roof. A tin roof is best (rain on a tin roof makes me sleep so soundly), but shingles are OK, but mostly what I am seeking is a nice sturdy built deep porch, with or without railings, all around the house.

I played on such porches as a child - mothers kept kids outside but they could still see and hear them. Railings are for kids to sit on and break - been there, done that, don't care for them myself, prefer sitting on the edge of the porch and swinging my feet. A benefit to these houses is one can keep windows open even when it rains unless the wind is fierce and that's usually only one or two sides of the house at most; one usually has a dry place to sit outside every day.

There's a small Northwestern Oklahoman town grocer that had these once a week but you had to get there before they sold out. They offered them in a couple variations but they fill a dough and fry them so they had a fried pie texture which I'm not so crazy about. (love the filling though) My mother made these for our family in my youth, always cooked in her electric skillet and served on hamburger buns. This is one of my husband's favorites.

Bierox (Serves 4-6)
Serve in split hard rolls, on crackers or hamburger buns, in pita pocket bread or baked inside a bread dough or on tortillas.

1 lb ground beef or any 50/50 beef and ground pork, turkey or sausage
(some have used wild game mixed with with beef or pork)
1 large chopped onion, white or yellow
1 small or 1/2 a large head of red or green cabbage (or mix them), shredded or chopped (a bag of coleslaw mix, even with carrots, will work too for a fast shortcut)
1/2 cup very hot water
1 tsp beef bouillon crystals or one cube dissolved in the hot water
cracked black pepper to taste
salt to taste

Brown meat with onions, drain off excess grease. Stir in cabbage and beef flavored water, about 1/2 tsp salt and pepper. Simmer/steam loosely covered until cabbage is tender, stirring occasionally. Adjust seasoning to taste. I usually go heavier on the pepper but the bouillon is salty so more salt is not usually necessary.

Variations:
Add a cup of picante salsa before simmering cabbage and mix in 1 cup shredded monterey jack or cheddar/jack mix cheese after cabbage is done, blending until cheese is melted for a spicier cheese Bierox. (this is my favorite variation)

Add chopped hot peppers of your choice with the cabbage for spicy Bierox, cheese optional.

Add 1 cup or more monterey jack or cheddar/jack mix cheese when cabbage is done and stir in until melted for plain cheese Bierox.

Bierox Pinwheels: Spread well drained fully cooked mixture on a 12" x 9" rectangle made from thawed frozen or homemade bread loaf dough, roll up pinwheel style on the long side making a 12" long roll, pinch seam. With seam side down, slice in 1" thick rounds, place on a greased baking sheet and bake at bread recipe or package recommended temperature until well browned. Serve hot. You can use any meat mix variation for the filled dough Bierox but a drier mix is best. Monterey jack cheese does help to hold it together. Makes 12 1" rolls, two per person.

Bierox meat pies: Thaw a package of a dozen frozen yeast roll dough or make some fresh dough, flatten and roll out each roll size dough piece into a square or small rectangle, spread a generous amount of well drained fully cooked Bierox mixture on half of each square or rectangle, fold over and pinch edges to seal to make a meat pie. After making one or two, you'll know how much you can fit reasonably well in each pie. Place on a greased baking sheet. Brush each pie with melted butter and bake at temperature recommended on roll package or the recipe until the pies are brown. Remove from pan after a few moments and serve hot. Makes 12 small pies, 2 per person.

Bierox is obviously just beef, cabbage and onion served on any bread or cracker product so you can come up with hundreds of variations. Drained diced tomatoes & peppers (Rotel product as example) go well in it, so does adding a bit of frozen mexicorn, one or two bunches of green onions (cut in thin rings with kitchen shears) instead of white or yellow onions is good, use the green onion tops and bulbs. You can top the cooked meat mixture with biscuit or pie dough and bake it like a casserole if you like. It can be as fatty or as healthy as you want and it can be a one pan meal if you like.

I use Painter X but still purchased ArtRage 2 because sometimes I just want to play instead of futzing with a lot of settings. My first doodle is attached, I hope.